It’s Groundhog Day all over again.
The Florida Gators are once looking at a date with Alabama after a blowout loss to instate rival Florida State. Once again the Crimson Tide will come in undefeated. Lane Kiffin has Alabama’s offense chugging along, scoring more than any other team in the Southeastern Conference. Florida, well, they’re coming off a game where they didn’t score an offensive touchdown, like they didn’t a year ago at home to Florida State.
The end of this season is playing out like a rerun of 2015.
“It is at times, but, you know, the older guys just gotta step up,” senior defensive lineman Joey Ivie said. “You know, really start to take control. And from experience, from what I’ve seen when those guys don’t step up, you know, like you said, it starts to unravel. Fall apart a little bit. So I think, you know, a lot of the guys gotta step it up and, you know, learn from this game and move onto the next one.”
It was sophomore CeCe Jefferson that did just that when the Gators fell at Arkansas. Jefferson reminded the Gators that they could still win the SEC East — they did. He reminded them that they could still sneak into the College Football Playoff. Those hopes, as well as Sugar Bowl chances were all but dashed on Saturday.
Was there another CeCe Jefferson moment this week? Did anybody standup in the locker room to give the rally cry, pick up teammates whose heads were hanging, remind them that there was still a championship game to play next week?
“No,” Ivie said. “Not today.”
The defense isn’t the problem. They didn’t play their best game on Saturday without two starting linebacker, two starting safeties, Bryan Cox Jr., and then Duke Dawson and Jordan Sherit to the injury list throughout the night. Dalvin Cook rushed for 160 yards — his fourth highest total of the season — but the offense never really gave the defense a chance. Three times Florida State started a drive on Florida’s side of the field and two Austin Appleby fumbles led to FSU touchdowns.
“The offense gave it to them. The defense did enough for us to win the game,” Jim McElwain said after the game. “(Dalvin Cook) was a good player. You watched the game didn’t you? That guys pretty good and our guys did a pretty good job on him.”
It’s hard to imagine that there isn’t a divide in the locker room. Players like Jalen Tabor, Quincy Wilson, Joey Ivie, Marcus Maye and a slew of other defensive players have made Florida’s defense one of the best in the country for the past several years. In return the offense has provided ineptitude. The Gators were 0-12 on third down against Florida State. That can’t sit well with the offense. What won’t sit well with fans is the lack of answers Jim McElwain — the coach who was brought to Florida to fix the previous ineptitude on offense left by the previous coaching staff — has.
The offensive line, which played well in the second half against LSU, allowed Austin Appleby to be sacked six times, four of those on third down. The Gators began the game running all over the Noles with Jordan Scarlett and Lamical Perine. Scarlett carried the ball just four times in the second half after toting the rock 10 times for 46 yards in the first 30 minutes.
“I thought we came out and started fast like we set out to do,” Appleby said after the game. “We had an opportunities. We moved the ball really well. We just didn’t punch them in.”
“We had a pretty good plan on that first eight and we became stagnant,” McElwain offered.
There lies the issue. This isn’t a new problem with the offense rather a menacing plague that seems to strike the offense weekly, leaving the defense left with a mess and a lot of time spent on the field.
Florida lost its fourth straight game to Florida State on Saturday. They’ve lost six of seven to the Noles, the most victories by FSU in a seven-year span in the rivalry (FSU also won from 1987-93). An entire senior class will graduate from Florida without being able to say they beat Florida State.
“Heartbroken,” senior Joey Ivie said after the game. “You know, obviously we all really wanted this win. You know, the right things didn’t fall in place. We didn’t do enough on both sides of the ball. You know, we just need to rally around each other and, you know, learn from this game.”
There’s no time to dwell on the heartbreak. Alabama doesn’t care how Florida feels. The Tide is rolling, undefeated towards another College Football Playoff berth and those same “glass eaters and fire breathers” Jim McElwain warned about a year ago are as hungry as ever to win another SEC Championship.