Gator Country

Florida sophomore Jeff Demps gets congratulated by Marcus Gilbert and David Nelson after scoring on 25-yard touchdown during the second quarter of the Gators' 27-3 against Vanderbilt on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. / Gator Country photo by Tim Casey

They just keep on winning like a winning machine, sometimes not so impressively, and often not very stylishly, but glamour is not the desired result here. Their coach usually likes to compliment this as being a bunch of professionals, although technically they are amateurs, but we get the point: The Florida Gators know how to take care of their business.

They took care of it again Saturday night at The Swamp, beating Vanderbilt, 27-3, for their ninth win of the season, but apparently impressing nobody except themselves. It’s old news when the Florida Gators anymore. In fact, it’s not news at all. And if you’re not a Gator or a Gator fan, it might even be downright boring to you.

Sorry, Urban.

Around the water cooler on Monday, the skeptics will be doubting their pedigree and looking for a new story line in college football. Because America is rooting for the Florida Gators to lose. They are tired of the same old stories.

You know: Stock market tops 10,000, stock market falls below 10,000. Obama defends his health care plan, Republicans condemn Obama’s health care plan.  Recession is over, but more Americans out of work than ever.

Gators win again. Turn the page please.

Apparently most non-Gator people feel it is not cool to pull for somebody who wins all the time. That’s why all the talking and blogging heads seem to look for any bits of negativity they can scrounge up on Urban Meyer’s team. It sort of brings the Gators back to the pack.

They cheer when Florida’s All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes gets suspended and they applaud the SEC for fining their coach 30 grand.

And all Urban Meyer’s Gators do is use that to fuel their fires, to keep on winning, which never gets old to them. I asked him if he used the “stuff” during the week and whether it helped motivate the Gators.

“We’re in an area at the University of Florida that has never happened before,” Meyer pointed out after his 53rd win. “I think that’s nineteen straight. You got a lot of ‘stuff.’ This was the week of ‘stuff.’ And the year of ‘stuff.’ And what does ‘stuff’ do to bad families? It rips them apart. Bad families? It rips them apart. Solid teams and solid families? It gets them a little closer. I think this is a very solid, very solid team. In my opinion to go out there and play like we did, it was a perfect outcome. We’re nine and oh.”

I suggested that some people were almost bored by the Gators’ success and the 19-0 – not Gators, or Gator fans, of course – but other people perhaps. Coach Meyer took a little umbrage at my suggestion, parrying with:

“I don’t care about other people. Have you ever gone 19 and oh? I can answer that for you. You have never been 19-0! I can assure you of that. If it’s ho-hum for somebody, you’ve got to really reflect, ‘where am I headed in this life right now?’ Because at 19-0 in the Southeastern Conference at the University of Florida, you’ve got one exciting life. You’ve got a lot of stuff going for you. Because at 19-0 … I don’t want to ever take anything away from what those cats have done. Two out of three times (actually three times out of four) they’re going to go play in Atlanta for the SEC Championship, the best conference in college football. There’s absolutely nothing ‘ho-hum’ about what this team is doing.”

So as Urban suggests, it doesn’t matter what other people say, because his Gators stand alone as the dominant team in college football. It does seem, sometimes, that everybody else outside the orange and blue world roots for the Florida Gators to fail.

I asked Tim Tebow if he felt that way.

“Absolutely,” said Tebow. “I think that’s just America. Everybody always wants whoever No. 1 is to lose. They root for the underdog. We have a lot of distractions. I think we are handling them very well. But sometimes we put our backs against the wall just to feel like that (an underdog) so we can feel that way, too.”

For 19 games in a row now, going back to that fateful day last season, Sept. 27, when Tim Tebow made The Promise, the University of Florida Fighting Gators have not tasted the bitter herb of defeat.

Hey, how long before the warranty on The Promise expires, anyway?

The fact that the Gators still have the longest winning streak in college football, they have already clinched the SEC East and will play in Atlanta for the chance to be in yet another BCS title game, that their quarterback still can’t be eliminated from Heisman Trophy competition, that they draw more than 90,000 just for Vanderbilt, that their coach is 53-9 – that doesn’t seem to hold much water with the critics.

So the Florida Gators play on, not for the critics, but for themselves, their school and their fans, eyes on the prize.

Sometimes their offense is erratic, as it was Saturday night, and they have to rely on mistakes by their opponent or good defense, special teams and the kicking game to win. There may not be much of a highlight film and one of their two best offensive plays of the night was a fluke – Tim Tebow’s pass was deflected by Riley Cooper to David Nelson for a TD – but they take what is offered. And they cash it, cha-ching.

This was not a thing of beauty by the Gators. So they struggled with Vanderbilt for a while before finally scuttling the Commodores. Unlike No. 4 Iowa and No. 8 Oregon and No. 22 Notre Dame, they struggled and still won.

They just keep winning and just keep taking care of business. And despite the American economy, business is pretty good these days for the Florida Gators.

About the author

Buddy Martin

Buddy Martin is Executive Editor/CEO of GatorCountry.com, Gator Country Magazine and Gator Country TV. He has won more than 165 state and national awards for writing and editing, is the author of seven books and was a recipient of an Emmy while working for CBS Sports on "The NFL Today." The native son of Ocala and Florida-educated journalist is the former sports editor of the New York Daily News, Denver Post, St. Petersburg Times and Florida Today. His authorized biography of "Urban's Way" (St. Martin's Press) was scheduled for its paperback release in October 2009. It can be purchased at he Gator Country Store and all major book stores. Buddy can be contacted at buddy@gatorcountry.com.

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