While competing with Alabama is certainly an enormous task, the game after Alabama often proves to be just as challenging for many teams.
The Tide’s victims tend to come out flat the following week and either lose to a team that they shouldn’t lose to or look extremely unimpressive in a win.
The best explanation for this phenomenon is that playing Alabama sucks a huge amount of physical and emotional energy out of a team. In the Gators’ case, they had been anticipating the Alabama game since the end of last season, even though they wouldn’t publicly admit that. Then they had to handle some additional media responsibilities with SEC Nation in town, which further ramped up their excitement.
On game day, they exited the bus with as much fanfare as the “The Beatles.” They ran out of the tunnel to nearly 91,000 people screaming their lungs out and trying to will their team to victory. They endured the emotional rollercoaster of falling behind 21-3, mounting a comeback and falling just short.
From a physical standpoint, Alabama is usually one of the most physical teams in the country at the line of scrimmage, though the Gators handled them pretty well.
And now, somehow, the Gators must find a way to put the loss behind them and refuel themselves with energy and focus just two days later to prepare for Tennessee, a team that they should beat with no issues.
After the game, Mullen challenged his team to build off of what they did against Alabama, take another step forward this week and avoid a post-’Bama letdown. He reiterated that point on Monday.
“When you go into a big game like that, you come out with the physical wear and tear and the mental wear and tear of a big game,” Mullen said. “But we’ve got to turn that around quickly for even a bigger game this week.
“This team has high expectations for themselves. I think with our players, obviously, you wanted to win that game, and it would put you in an even better position than we’re in now. But losing that game doesn’t really – I don’t have a vote on the College Football Playoff committee, but I imagine we still have a lot of control over how this season’s going to be played out. And so, we have to regather our focus, our mindset, got to get physically and mentally prepared to go play a really good football team here on Saturday.”
As usual, social media could be a landmine this week. The fans have been praising the Gators’ grit, effort and dominance over the final three quarters ever since the game ended on Saturday night. The mood among the fan base is actually more positive now than it was after the wins over Florida Atlantic and South Florida to open the year.
Some people are already talking about a potential rematch in the SEC Championship Game, including the players.
While that’s their goal, cornerback Kaiir Elam knows that they have a ton of work to do to make that a reality. He tweeted out a message to everybody in Gator Nation on Monday morning.
Losing NOT acceptable, especially in the Swamp! I have to step it up as a leader but I still love this team over Anybody Every Saturday. #Win
— Kaiir Elam (@Easymoney_Kai) September 20, 2021
Elam said he was tired of people complimenting them for only losing by two points to the defending national champions. They failed to accomplish their goal on Saturday, and there are no moral victories.
“I feel like we shouldn’t have any sympathy just because we lost by fewer points [than in the 2020 SEC Championship Game], even though we were projected to get mopped or whatever,” Elam said. “I’m just telling the guys, like, ‘Listen, what we did last week is over with. We have to play a lot better.’ I feel like our biggest game is our next game, and I feel like Tennessee’s coming in here, and it’s always a big rivalry game against Tennessee, and I feel like our main focus should be improving and dominating, honestly.
“I just really wanted to make a statement to not only Gator Nation but my team that a loss is unacceptable. I feel like I just didn’t feel good about us just being proud of that. I just felt like we just need to focus on winning. That’s all I want to do. I just want to win and help my team win, so, whatever we have to do to do that, that’s all I want to do.”
Mullen said that while social media might be overflowing with optimism and happy thoughts, the team meeting they had on Monday morning definitely wasn’t. He wants his players to take the emotional aspect of losing out of the way and objectively study the game film.
There were some things that they did well and some things that they did poorly. The players need to recognize those things and make the necessary corrections in practice this week. That’s the same process that they should follow after every game, win or lose.
“There wasn’t much praise or happiness or smiles this morning in the team meeting, I can tell you that much,” Mullen said “We didn’t win the game. So, as I said, there’s some positive things that we can take out of it, and there’s some things that we have to get corrected, and it’s making sure we embrace that ‘Let’s not lose what we did really well. Let’s actually build off of what we did well and do it even better, and let’s find a way to eliminate some of the errors and mistakes.’
“I don’t care if you’re a coach, a scout-team player, a student trainer … let’s embrace what we did well in our preparation, our performance and find a way to build off of that and find a way to eliminate the negative things that happened during the course of the game.”
So far, the Gators seem to have the right attitude and focus as they prepare to play Tennessee, but everybody will find out for sure on Saturday night at 7.
Mullen is confident that his team won’t let Alabama beat them twice.
“We had a meeting this morning,” Mullen said. “I thought it was pretty positive. To me, it’s going to translate more onto the field. I think this morning’s meeting is understanding ‘Here’s what we did well, and here’s what we did poorly. Here’s the mistakes we made; here’s the way that we need to correct it moving forward.’
“When you get in these situations, you want all the guys sitting there and saying, ‘Hey, our attention to detail, the exactness that we have, are we making sure we’re holding each other accountable?’ but doing that in a positive, lifting-guys-up manner to get the results that we need and the improvement we need in our production and performance on Saturdays.”