After a week of cleanup, power outages and evacuations, the state of Florida is trying to restore normalcy after Category 4 Hurricane Matthew rumbled up the coast. The Gator football team, after having to cancel its game against SEC West rival LSU, has to now turn their focus to a homecoming game with the Missouri Tigers. The Gators have to turn the page and leave all the lingering notions of who’s dodging who and focus their entire attention on Mizzou because only one thing matters right now: winning. Not just any kind of win, Jim McElwain and his staff need the players to come out and execute their game plan to send a message to the rest of the country for three reasons.
Reason 1. The season is not even close to over.
The loss to Tennessee stung and left a wound that the Gators had not had in 11 years, but that doesn’t mean the season ends completely. After losing to Texas A&M last week the Volunteers are in a must-win situation against the college football giant Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama is coming off of an impressive road thrashing of No. 16 Arkansas and look to continue their nine-game winning streak over the beat up Vols. Tennessee, with only one SEC loss, could fall back to second place in the standings after a loss to Alabama and a Gator win over Missouri. Some heads would probably explode if that is the case, but the scenario is very likely.
Let’s talk for a second about something that no one else is mentioning. Let’s say Tennessee does somehow end their losing streak against Alabama this weekend. While this is highly unlikely, and I don’t think anyone that calls themselves a Gator would ever want to see it, there is still no reason to mail in the season just yet. Tennessee, if they escape with a win against Alabama, will shoot back into the top 10 faster than Texas did for beating an overrated Notre Dame team. The Vols will once retain control over their own destiny but they do have a few SEC games yet to play. Yes, those games are against some lower tier SEC East opponents but have the Vols not shown that they are capable of slipping up against bad teams? The top 10 ranked Vols rode one of the biggest preseason hype trains ever into the season and were almost derailed in week one after going into overtime with the Appalachian State Mountaineers. The very next week,Tennessee had to come from 17 points behind Virginia Tech to win. The Vols also barely squeaked by the Ohio Bobcats at home to avoid yet another disaster. Is Tennessee a different team now? Maybe, but one has to think that they must take every game seriously because they have the trait of playing down to their competition.
Reason 2. The LSU narrative ends and the season continues.
The national media got a whiff of the Gator and LSU dealings last week and ran with the narrative that Jim McElwain and the Florida Gators were scared to play the LSU Tigers. Which, if you know McElwain and his football team, you’d laugh at the idea of them being scared of anything. The Gators spend the entire offseason talking trash about opponents and preparing to beat everyone on their schedule, and I can promise you that the Gators wanted the game to be played just as baldy as LSU did. With much consideration and with the help of Jeremy Foley and Greg Sankey, the game was finally rescheduled to be played in Baton Rouge after a week long contest in who could blame who more. The notion that the Gators were in some way dodging the LSU game was finally put to rest, and the Gators can now focus their whole attention on the Missouri Tigers. While it seemed as if the two parties had reached a point of no agreement, the Gators went out of there way to play an away game on a day that was scheduled to be senior day, a very kind and humble gesture from the Gators and one that should go a long way in conference play for a long time.
3. Revenge for 2014
For those that have tried to wash their mind of the 2014 Homecoming beat down against Missouri, you might want to shield your eyes. The Florida vs. Missouri Homecoming game two years ago was one of the most lopsided blowout losses in a long time in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The crowd was shocked by what it was seeing and the final nail in the Will Muschamp coffin was all but hammered in that evening. One of the lowest point scoring games for Florida in the last five years came at the hands of Missouri. There are a lot of new faces in the program now since Jim McElwain has taken over, but the players that were here in 2014 still remember the loss and look forward to righting their wrongs on Saturday.
“That was embarrassing how we came out,” said junior defensive back Jalen Tabor. “Man, homecoming and they returned the opening kickoff.” That was just the beginning of the onslaught. The kickoff return was one of four non-offensive touchdowns for Missouri that day. There is obviously a lot at stake this Saturday in the Swamp. The question remains, is McElwain and company ready to start the process of taking back October?