The Florida Gators locker room in Fayetteville was silent. The Gators had been talking about winning a championship all season long and a 31-10 loss at the hands of the Razorbacks had all but dashed that in their minds.
Sophomore defensive end CeCe Jefferson stepped up amidst the silence and reminded the team that there was still a lot of season left. Jefferson commanded the attention and respect of the locker room and they listened.
“He just basically told us we still gotta keep working. We can’t fall apart. We gotta stick together,” senior safety Marcus Maye said after the Arkansas game. “He said we’ve got a bunch of ball left and he wouldn’t go out on a Saturday with anybody else. So it was definitely a good message.”
Florida went into that game ranked No. 11 in the first College Football Playoff Rankings. The loss caused a free-fall more than 14 spots and out of the ranking completely. Arkansas, previously unranked, jumped into the ranking despite having three losses to Florida’s two. In fact, four teams with three losses were ranked in the second CFP ranking and 12-of-25 teams ranked ahead of Florida had two losses as well, including nine of the top 15 teams.
A win over unranked South Carolina brought the Gators back into the top-25, coming in at 23 but they were behind eight other teams that had two losses and five teams that already had three losses.
“We’ve got a bunch of young guys, all that stuff, guys are hurt, but you know what, I like these guys and they play hard,” Jim McElwain said. “You know what, we’re a pretty darn good football team.”
Nobody gave the Gators a chance to leave Baton Rouge with a win. Florida was a double-digit underdog to one of the hottest teams in the country. LSU had won four-of-five with the only loss coming to No. 1 ranked Alabama, 10-0. No way Florida, who has struggled moving the football against, well, everybody, would be able to score enough to keep up with LSU in Death Valley.
“We learned that you’ve got to come to play,” McElwain said of what the Gators took away from the loss to Arkansas. “We aren’t that good to be able to just show up, and I think we’ve done that the last couple weeks.”
Florida played inspired football, fueled by being called scared for more than a month and then a pregame scuffle, the found a way to scratch and claw and goal line stand their way to a win on the road.
The win catapulted the Gators from 21 to 13 in the AP poll, ahead of undefeated No. 14 Western Michigan and their opponent this week No. 15 Florida State. It may sound funny, or look weird printed here, but if the Gators win their next two games, they’ll probably be one of the four teams that have a chance to play for it all.
This week brings a post-Thanksgiving matchup with Florida State. The Noles are winners of the last three and five of the last six matchups with Florida. It’s a tall task to go into Doak Campbell Stadium and take down Florida State according to the guys out in the desert that made Florida a six-point underdog this week.
Regardless of the outcome Saturday, the Gators have a matchup with Alabama set for December 3. If the Gators can go into the SEC Championship game at 9-2 they will likely be a top-8 team in the CFP Rankings. If they somehow beat Alabama, a team that has outscored opponents by 318 points this season. How big is that scoring gap? You could add the 252 points Florida has scored this season to it and Alabama would still have a nine-touchdown advantage.
The dominance that Alabama has exerted week in and week out has made them an unchallenged No. 1. It also would be just the kind of résumé win that would propel a two-loss Gators into the College Football Playoff, the first ever two-loss team to make it.
There are a lot of pieces that will still play out. Clemson will play South Carolina this week and then again in the ACC Championship against Virginia Tech or North Carolina. Ohio State and Michigan play “The Rivalry” this week, the loser likely eliminated from playoff contention.
Earlier this month it didn’t look like the Gators would make it to Atlanta. A January first bowl game in Tampa or Jacksonville would have to suffice. Two short weeks later and Florida is back on track to have a chance at achieving their ultimate goal.
“If we keep winning I don’t think you can keep us out,” starting quarterback Austin Appleby said. “We’ve got a challenge this week, which is first and foremost before we can look at anything else.”