Florida State vs. Florida: Which Program Gets Back to BCS Game First?

When the Florida State Seminoles play the Florida Gators today, there won’t be a lot of implications on the line, but in the future there will be.

Knowing both of these schools, it’s not a question of if these teams can get back to the BCS but when.
The Seminoles were thought to be a Top 10 football team before the season begun, and after losing to Oklahoma, Clemson and Wake Forest in a row, they fell out of the Top 25 polls.

After recently losing to Virginia last week, fans can’t help but be disappointed with the lackluster season. Their defense has been shaky at times, and they haven’t been able to rush the ball as effectively as they wanted to.

As for the Gators, well, we expected them to struggle this year. Florida will always have talent, but going into the season, they experienced coaching changes and injuries that ultimately caught up with them.
So, this game against one another isn’t the prime-time matchup that we’re used to seeing from both of these teams.

But let’s not focus on today’s game, let’s focus on the future and, more importantly, which school becomes dominant first. You could look at Florida State and all the youth they have at the skill positions, and that would definitely make a strong case for them to make it back to the BCS before the Gators.

Freshman Clint Trickett was fortunate enough to get some valuable playing time in some big games, and he didn’t do all that bad. For being a freshman and being forced into the kind of situations he was forced into, like the Oklahoma game, I thought he did very well.

So far this season, he’s thrown for 675 yards, seven touchdowns and only four interceptions. So, the Seminoles might have a great quarterback for the future in Trickett. As for the skill positions, they’ll have guys like Rashad Greene, Devonta Freeman and Rodney Smith should he choose to return.
All three of those players have shown this season that they’re more than capable of making plays for this team.

For the Gators, they’ll be having to replace guys like Jeff Demps, Deonte Thompson and Chris Rainey, and they’ll have to find a quarterback to replace John Brantley. I’m not saying they don’t have playmakers, because they still have guys returning like Andre Debose. But then again, talent has never really been an issue for the Gators.

So, then, I look at the coaching staffs that both teams have, and the answer has become clear.

Without a doubt, the team that will reach a BCS game first between these two teams is the Florida Gators. I believe Will Muschamp is a great defensive-minded coach, and he can evolve into a great head coach for the Gators. With Muschamp running the defense and Charlie Weis running the offense, I don’t see how this team can’t be successful in the future.

Add those brilliant coaching minds to the talent influx that this team brings in each and every year, and this one should be a no-brainer.