Matt Elam jogged off the field, head down and jaw set firmly as he brushed past other players and coaches into the tunnel and the safety of the Florida locker room.
Angry and frustrated after an embarrassing loss to Florida State, Elam would make an impassioned speech about a week and a half later, after the Gators learned they would take on the Ohio State Buckeyes, soon to be coached by their former shot-caller, Urban Meyer.
On Monday, the rest of the Gator Nation got to see just how ready Elam was to play against Ohio State.
He flew all over the field like a pinball, putting a vicious hit on quarterback Braxton Miller’s right hip on a sack that left the Buckeyes’ signal caller on the ground for a few seconds in pain.
“A lot of anger. A lot of anger,” Elam said of his mental state going into the Gator Bowl. “It was a great feeling just to be on the field after a month and losing to Florida State, so a lot of things going on through the break. It was great to release the anger and play.”
Elam wasn’t the only player who was extra jacked up to play against Ohio State with Meyer watching.
“I had a lot of frustration,” senior defensive tackle Jaye Howard said. “[Urban Meyer] brought it out of me.”
For a Florida team with a 15-11 record over the past two seasons, Monday’s game against Ohio State was about much more than just avoiding a losing record for the first time since 1979.
It was about pride.
More importantly, it was make-or-break moment for the program only a year into Will Muschamp’s tenure as head coach.
The disarray Meyer left when he resigned for a second time following the 2010 season was palpable. Players felt betrayed as a father figure who had promised them he would be there to coach them called it quits citing family and health reasons, only to return to the sidelines less than a year later.
Upperclassmen and underclassmen battled in Meyer’s final season, with a huge rift growing in the team as Meyer’s highly touted 2010 recruiting class butted heads with a veteran corps who had won two national championships.
A sense of entitlement creeped into the program and began to tear down the foundation Meyer had built when he arrived in 2005.
For all intents and purposes, Meyer left Florida with a broken program. Muschamp did his best to patch the holes and seal the leaks when he arrived, but after a shockingly bad collapse beginning in October, that patchwork had begun to look like stitches about to come apart in a rainstorm.
As Florida players hugged each other and grinned ear to ear, celebrating on the field following a much-needed win against Ohio State, a sense of relief flooded the air.
The 25,000 or so Gators fans in attendance watched as Muschamp gave a fiery speech, promising to build a program and not just a team. Gator Bowl MVP Andre Debose took the stage and gave a very short “Go Gators!”
It was only two words, but they were the words Florida fans desperately needed to hear.
Debose’s gigantic smile and his sheer joy on the stage told the rest of the story. For once, everyone on the team seemed genuinely happy for him.
Players speaking to reporters after the game all deflected the praise to others. Jaye Howard credited the defensive line’s great performance to the secondary’s coverage. Matt Elam credited the secondary’s strong play to the defensive line. Both credited the win to the speed of Chris Rainey and Debose on special teams.
After two years of discord, Florida players stood in front of their fans and the media and provided a united front. And this time, there was nothing insincere about it. Not just empty words spoken to look good in an online article or newspaper.
Muschamp is right when he says this Florida program has a long way to go. There’s no covering up the fact that these Gators narrowly avoided a mark that would have forever cemented them as one of the worst teams in more than three decades.
“I mean this sincerely, we’re not building a team, we’re building a program,” he said. “That takes a foundation to start. It really does. You stay the course of what you’re trying to do, and what you believe in and the hardcore values of what you want.”
While Muschamp has had his vision for the program since Day 1, there has been little for fans or players to grab onto as a sign it will work.
Monday’s win was exactly what he needed to get the players rally behind him in support. There is no questioning they’re all in after the win, given the emotional backdrop behind the game.
Urban Meyer is now firmly in the past. The future is now.
After a season full of close losses and heartbreaking failure, finally something went right for Muschamp and the Gators. The win against the Buckeyes provides solid ground for Muschamp to stand on and begin to build on his vision.
His team didn’t quit on him when he needed it the most. Even if it took Meyer’s meltdown as motivation to get it, the win was proof positive this Florida program is ready to heal.
“I think that [win] is a sign of our team fighting through it,” Muschamp said. “I told them in the locker room, I don’t want anybody to forget this season. I don’t want anybody to forget the frustration. Tough times. The guys that weren’t committed to our program wanting to do it the right way. To do it our way.”
For the first time in a while, Muschamp’s “Florida Way” looks like the right way. Fire in his eyes, the first-year coach was already looking ahead to Year 2 after the game.
He knows it’ll take a grueling offseason and a great recruiting class to take the next step. But this time around, he’ll have the full support of the players already on the roster.
There’s no doubting that now.
“Great feeling to beat Ohio State,” Elam said. “It’s great momentum for next year, and we’re young. We’ve got a lot of momentum and a stepping stone for the new year. Expecting big things next year.”