Sugar Bowl was the best thing to happen for 2013

[Danielmaddie]

Listening to early predictions and preseason rankings for 2013, losing the Sugar Bowl might have been the best thing to happen to this team. Obviously they play better as underdogs than favorites( which needs to be fixed) and 2013 is going to be no different now then 2012. Florida is going to be expected to finish 3rd again in the SEC East and finish 9-3. The Gators are going to be hungry and prime to surprise again in 2013.

[RealDeal]

winning at south carolina and LSU and GA in jax---3 difficult games. Driskel, the Oline and WRs need huge improvement.

[Tipmoose]

That sugar bowl loss will help Florida more than we'll ever know.

[Danielmaddie]

winning at south carolina and LSU and GA in jax---3 difficult games. Driskel, the Oline and WRs need huge improvement.

South Carolina will be by far our toughest game, LSU will be in Death Valley but they will be totally rebuilding their defense so I don't think it will be as daunting as recent years and Georgia is loosing alot on defense as well and as we all know defense wins championships and their defense was the only thing that had an edge against us in 2012 besides our mistakes. Are we going to go undefeated? Most likely not but I actually think our schedule sets up nicely.

[gatorkarl]

I've read a couple of post saying something similar and I just haven't been able to see anything that could be considered positive about that beat down, we got soundly beaten by an inferior team.

[adgator]

Sorry I am not from the Ron Zook school of coaching where he believes that losing is a good learning experience!! No reason in the world to have lost The Sugar Bowl---Gators are far superior team and even with a less then average O-Line and pass rush (that day) we win 9 out of 10 against these guys! And we didn't learn a damed thing. That game cost us being ranked # 2 team in the final polls with a good argument for # 1 since we beat the TA&M team that beat Alabama on their home field!!!!!

[Danielmaddie]

I've read a couple of post saying something similar and I just haven't been able to see anything that could be considered positive about that beat down, we got soundly beaten by an inferior team.

Inferior team, probably but we have to admit a lot can happen when a team has a month to prepare vs. one week. I realize we had the same amount of time as well but things change bowl season, I also have the opinion that some players checked out early

[ces1948]

I wouldn't feel nearly as bad about the loss if we hadn't looked so unprepared, undisciplined and umm poorly coached. Other than that everything was hunky dory.

[mfpardnor2]

The loss gives the Strength and Conditioning Coaches fuel to get the boys pissed off and primed to give it their all instead of reading how good they're gonna be.

It sucks to have lost that way in the Sugar Bowl, but we were in a no win situation and I see only positive things coming for 2013 from this beat down.

[GatorBen]

The loss gives the Strength and Conditioning Coaches fuel to get the boys pissed off and primed to give it their all instead of reading how good they're gonna be.

It sucks to have lost that way in the Sugar Bowl, but we were in a no win situation and I see only positive things coming for 2013 from this beat down.

Yup, instead of hearing how good we will be, they are going to get their faces rubbed in that embarrassment all summer long. I expect we will see a very angry, very hungry Gator team when fall rolls around.

[sierragator]

A better way of putting this is for the team and coaches to channel the frustration from that gag job into motivation to make a better showing for the entire season next year (including the bowl game).

[drramer]

Sorry I am not from the Ron Zook school of coaching where he believes that losing is a good learning experience!! No reason in the world to have lost The Sugar Bowl---Gators are far superior team and even with a less then average O-Line and pass rush (that day) we win 9 out of 10 against these guys! And we didn't learn a damed thing. That game cost us being ranked # 2 team in the final polls with a good argument for # 1 since we beat the TA&M team that beat Alabama on their home field!!!!!

Well said, especially about arguing for #1

[Spurffelbow833]

I like the idea of getting another year to fly under the radar.

[pinecrestgator]

I agree with the OP. This is how think bowl games affect the following offseason. Wining a bowl game helps propel a team that is brining back an experienced team. In other words, it is returning leadership. When the team is losing several starters, I think a big bowl win can be fool's gold. It can create a false sense of security especially with the unwarranted media hype. The bottom line is that several players will have to mature and take on a bigger role for our team. We need these players to have a mean/angry offseason. They need a chip on their shoulder. That's why I think the loss to Lousiville helps our team this particular off-season.

[GatorAvatar]

Maybe Bama should have lost to ND...now they are gonna suck next year.

[malscott]

I believe the bowls are just as important as any other game we play. It ends the season on either a loss or a win. Losing is losing. It blows. Then there's the rationalization. Now that we have lost we obviously need to turn it into a motivation for next year. Humiliation can easily be turned into humility. I don't see why we shouldn't do as well next year as we did this year. Maybe better. Good players, good coaching, decent recruits coming in. We know what's at stake. IMHO we'll need to bring our offensive prowess in at least 50th to 75th to have a chance. Being ranked over 100 will just not cut it. If you flounder with turnovers you just can't dig out of it with a pedestrian offensive effort. Here's to massive continued improvement ...Go Gators.

[UGator]

The coaches apparently felt the team had practiced and prepared well enough to win against UL but Bridgewater played better than any QB we've faced so far.

Players leaving early for the NFL don't have the same emotional drive and focus to win in bowl games, since the risk of injury could jeopardize their draft status. We obviously did not match the emotion of UL and got behind early, and our offense was not able to match a hot team and Bridgewater's talent.

Let's hope that the coaches realize that every game can be lost if we don't develop a balanced team, yes...even an offense, if we expect to challenge for the SEC title.

[gatorich]

Sorry I am not from the Ron Zook school of coaching where he believes that losing is a good learning experience!! No reason in the world to have lost The Sugar Bowl---Gators are far superior team and even with a less then average O-Line and pass rush (that day) we win 9 out of 10 against these guys! And we didn't learn a damed thing. That game cost us being ranked # 2 team in the final polls with a good argument for # 1 since we beat the TA&M team that beat Alabama on their home field!!!!!
Do you really think we had any argument for #1 with a win over Louisville? I am talking about how the media would look at it....wasn't going to come close to happening. I'm not even sure we keep Oregon from #2, no matter how badly we had won that game, everyone would have just said it was Louisville.

[mikehev]

Agree with OP. 2007's UGA game served as motivation for 2008. The 07 team also laid an egg and lost to an inferior Michigan team that was playing their hearts out for their coach in the bowl game.

1996 got waxed by Nebraska, and came back to win it all the next year.

Hopefully, these Gators learned something about preparation and are better because of it.

In Christ forever,
Mike
John 3:16

[mikehev]

Sorry I am not from the Ron Zook school of coaching where he believes that losing is a good learning experience!! No reason in the world to have lost The Sugar Bowl---Gators are far superior team and even with a less then average O-Line and pass rush (that day) we win 9 out of 10 against these guys! And we didn't learn a damed thing. That game cost us being ranked # 2 team in the final polls with a good argument for # 1 since we beat the TA&M team that beat Alabama on their home field!!!!!

No disrespect intended, but Ron Zook never came close to appearing in, much less losing a BCS bowl. Not sure that is a valid comparison.

In Christ forever,
Mike
John 3:16

[PSGator66]

We should win all those games and the SEC East.

[grant1]

Sorry I am not from the Ron Zook school of coaching where he believes that losing is a good learning experience!! No reason in the world to have lost The Sugar Bowl---Gators are far superior team and even with a less then average O-Line and pass rush (that day) we win 9 out of 10 against these guys! And we didn't learn a damed thing. That game cost us being ranked # 2 team in the final polls with a good argument for # 1 since we beat the TA&M team that beat Alabama on their home field!!!!!

At least 2 falacies with that post.

1. We learned that we must play hard the entire game.
2. With a Sugar Bowl win, we still had no arguement to be ranked higher than #2.

[Spurffelbow833]

No disrespect intended, but Ron Zook never came close to appearing in, much less losing a BCS bowl. Not sure that is a valid comparison.

In Christ forever,
Mike
John 3:16

Zooker got Illinois to the Rose Bowl one year.

[ofmgator]

Avatar remember that a few years ago Bama lost to Utah...badly. THis Sugar Bowl loss was predicatble because when I saw who we were going to play I told my wife this is a bad match. We had nothing to gain and it was the biggest game in Lvilles history. They wanted it more and they got it!

[1gatorbear]

Until Muschamp win a sec title he will always be compared to zook, a good recruiter.

[Dreamliner]

The loss was "Not A Big Deal At All."

[Tipmoose]

The loss was "Not A Big Deal At All."

Yep. Was 'just another game.'

[socalg8r]

Speaking personally, I have learned a lot more from failure than from success.

[OaktownGator]

It's easier to motivate the players when it's clear they're not on the mountain top. And this experience should make it clear to the coaches that they need to adjust their approach to managing the team when we're favorites.

Those are positives. And definitely analogous to Bama/Utah a few years back.

Getting embarrassed in the Sugar Bowl and dropping from likely #2, to 9 or 10.... not so much.

[Lawdog88]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCCyvAwbbso

[socraticsilence]

The loss gives the Strength and Conditioning Coaches fuel to get the boys pissed off and primed to give it their all instead of reading how good they're gonna be.

It sucks to have lost that way in the Sugar Bowl, but we were in a no win situation and I see only positive things coming for 2013 from this beat down.

If we look at this way shouldn't we hope to lose every non-national title bowl Champ makes? I mean think of the off-season motivation if we just get destroyed every January.

[socraticsilence]

No disrespect intended, but Ron Zook never came close to appearing in, much less losing a BCS bowl. Not sure that is a valid comparison.

In Christ forever,
Mike
John 3:16

Actually he took a much worse team than the 2012 Gators to the Rose Bowl, and he was a great recruiter- not saying this makes him as good as Champ (better vs. Georgia though) just saying making one BCS bowl and getting killed isn't exactly proof that you're a great coach.

[BigSlick]

I love the smell of loses in New Orleans.....smells like VICTORY!!!

[slayerxing]

Spin it however you want, it was a complete failure of coaching to have the team that poorly prepared, with such a crappy game plan.

The only positive we can take from this is hopefully young Muschamp learned a lesson and doesn't let that happen again.

But given UF's penchant for playing down to inferior teams the last two years, you have to wonder if Muschamp will ever do a good job motivating his teams to play a middling opponent.

[jln31222]

Check out P D's Postulations about the Sugar Bowl. He says the Sugar Bowl this year was and is completely meaningless unless the game is for a national championship. I don't agree with this for several big reasons. This gives me a possible answer to why the Gators played four quarters of "I don't give a damn about anyone but me football". The game meant nothing to them for sure. Said Coach WM didn't pick up on this attitude until the game began because he is young and inexperienced. I don't know.

[Gulfsailinggator]

Bring on the playoff. 8 teams. College football bowl season is meaningless save for the crystal ball.

[GatorLaw]

Listening to early predictions and preseason rankings for 2013, losing the Sugar Bowl might have been the best thing to happen to this team. Obviously they play better as underdogs than favorites( which needs to be fixed) and 2013 is going to be no different now then 2012. Florida is going to be expected to finish 3rd again in the SEC East and finish 9-3. The Gators are going to be hungry and prime to surprise again in 2013.

The only preseason poll I've seen so far, which I think was an ESPN poll, had us 10th. Much better than we were in any 2012 preseason poll, where we usually were either not ranked at all or were somewhere in the bottom 5 of the top 25.

[giantgator09]

Sorry I am not from the Ron Zook school of coaching where he believes that losing is a good learning experience!! No reason in the world to have lost The Sugar Bowl---Gators are far superior team and even with a less then average O-Line and pass rush (that day) we win 9 out of 10 against these guys! And we didn't learn a damed thing. That game cost us being ranked # 2 team in the final polls with a good argument for # 1 since we beat the TA&M team that beat Alabama on their home field!!!!!


This. If you asked me before that game I'd say as long as we didnt play like we did against georgia we'd have beaten bama on a neutral field.

I still believe it but holy crap did we not want to play against louisville and our coaching destroyed us that game.

[Jonas]

This is loser talk. Winning continues motivation and confidence. Winning last year's bowl against OSU was critical for our success last year.

[geauxgator1]

Until Muschamp win a sec title he will always be compared to zook, a good recruiter.
I don't think so.. just listen to the two of them talk..not even close. Did Zooker ever go 11-1 in the regular season, and get to the Sugar Bowl?

[Swampmaster]

why didn't the coaches get the players better prepared for the sugar bowl??? that beatdown was embarrassing---it could have been a lot worse without those two missed FGs when lvill had the ball on the 2 yard line.

[Skittlebrau]

Maybe it'll get the fans out too:

Worst fans: Somebody must have forgotten to tell the Florida fans what day the Sugar Bowl was. Then again, maybe they all stayed out on Bourbon Street. That’s OK, because the team didn’t show up, either, in the 33-23 loss to Louisville.

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/tag/_/name/2012-bowl-best-worst-011013

[GATOR_4Life]

Great Teams learn from loses (Remember Tebow in 2008).
Good Teams put loses behind them.
Bad Teams don't recover from them.

We'll see what kind of team we have.

[regurgigator]

why didn't the coaches get the players better prepared for the sugar bowl??? that beatdown was embarrassing---it could have been a lot worse without those two missed FGs when lvill had the ball on the 2 yard line.


It's very surprising to see so many posters unaware of what I thought was common knowledge: that is, that teams often play flat in bowl games when they get poor match-ups against lower-rated, no-name opponents.


I don't believe there's ever been a coaching staff that was immune to this phenomenon. And, a lot of great Hall of Fame coaches have been caught unawares that the team they thought they had prepared was not prepared at all. Yes, the flat team we saw in the Sugar Bowl was Muschamp's responsibility, but don't pretend that it's easy to prevent under those circumstances. That's why many of us moaned in dismay when the match-up with Louisville was announced. We've seen this movie before.

You can whine all you want that it should not happen (and I agree wholeheartedly), but I've seen it happen so many times, I just chalk it up to human nature now.



I wish we had taken that game seriously and gotten the potential final No. 2 ranking, but I think the OP is correct in thinking this loss (and the lack of respect it created after a great season) could help in pushing our players in the off-season.

[4everaGator]

It's very surprising to see so many posters unaware of what I thought was common knowledge: that is, that teams often play flat in bowl games when they get poor match-ups against lower-rated, no-name opponents.


I don't believe there's ever been a coaching staff that was immune to this phenomenon. And, a lot of great Hall of Fame coaches have been caught unawares that the team they thought they had prepared was not prepared at all. Yes, the flat team we saw in the Sugar Bowl was Muschamp's responsibility, but don't pretend that it's easy to prevent under those circumstances. That's why many of us moaned in dismay when the match-up with Louisville was announced. We've seen this movie before.

You can whine all you want that it should not happen (and I agree wholeheartedly), but I've seen it happen so many times, I just chalk it up to human nature now.



I wish we had taken that game seriously and gotten the potential final No. 2 ranking, but I think the OP is correct in thinking this loss (and the lack of respect it created after a great season) could help in pushing our players in the off-season.
^^^^^
Absolutely correct! The match up with Louisville was a "no win" situation. If we had won, even decisively. the pundits would not have cared - it's just Louisville! They had everything to gain and nothing to lose, the Gators could only lose and not really win anything. This was brought up many times before the game, even before it was finally for certain that we would play them. Everybody was hoping for a more attractive matchup like Oklahoma.