Alabama Football: Should Bama Be Worried About Gator Revenge This Year?

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer)

Last year, Florida wasn't just beaten by the Crimson Tide, they were embarrassed. That thumping set in motion the Gators fall from perennial SEC East champions to the status of "Also Ran."

When Alabama started their national championship run in 2009, Alabama did not have that as the main objective—the main objective was to make it back to the SEC championship game and pay Florida back for ruining their shot at a BCS championship and another SEC crown.

They had constant reminders all season of that loss in the locker rooms and lots of other places.

Boy, did all that revenge factor pay off in the rematch. The famous picture of Tebow on the sideline in tears said it all. It was a game of two titans. Many expected a close game.

It was a Bama butt kicking.

That game is one that can easily be pointed at as the last time the Gators were relevant. The following season, they stunk it up—at least as far as Gator standards go—and when they met the Tide again, they were thoroughly embarrassed yet again.

One loss cost them an SEC title and a shot at another title, the other cost them their self-respect. If you don't see this Alabama matchup as a perfect game for Florida to focus all their revenge on, then you don't know the mindset of college football players.

Urban Meyer was a great coach, but Will Muschamp and Nick Saban have been friends for a while, and Muschamp knows how to attach a Saban team perhaps a little better than Meyer did.

Simply put, Meyer did it his way and tried to force teams to adjust to his way of doing things. Muschamp knows that to beat Saban, he'll have to attack Saban on his own terms, and by knowing that defense so well, he is more apt to have opportunities to exploit any cracks he finds in it.

Meyer tried to run the Tebow offense, and Bama simply killed that run-first offense. Charlie Weis is about as good as it gets as an offensive coordinator, and you can bet that as much time as he'll have to work on that game, it will be very entertaining.

And how much can the Tide team get up for the game after dominating them as they have in the last two meetings? Nick Saban talked last year about the team simply expecting to win and not putting forth the effort to do so.

Could that happen in this game?