There was a time when a win over Florida State would have set off a party that lasted well past last call at all the student watering holes up and down University Avenue. That was back in the day when the Seminoles actually put up a fight, which maybe they do now but nobody really notices because the Gators have turned this once-bitter rivalry game into what seems like another monotonous day at the office. Only because it was Senior Day and the last time Tim Tebow will ever play a football game at The Swamp did the bulk of a stadium-record crowd of 90,907 hang around to see the final seconds tick off the clock.
Florida’s 37-10 dismantling of the Seminoles was pretty much expected. Superior coaching and even better recruiting by Florida has turned this once steel cage match rivalry into the kind of game that Florida fans usually exit en masse right after they sing “We Are the Boys” but they hung around Saturday night to hang on to all things Tebow and that marvelous senior class. And Tebow and the seniors reciprocated with victory laps around the stadium, dances at midfield and one photo op after another.
Anything to make this moment last forever.
The celebrations weren’t so much because it was a win over Florida State; the Seminoles just happened to be the team that showed up to play the Gators. They could have been the University of Mars although there is a fairly good chance the Martians would have given the Gators more competition. This was about accomplishment — four years of it — and the relentless pursuit of an ongoing dream to do something no Florida team has ever done before.
In four years at Florida, which included a perfect 4-0 record against the Seminoles, these Gator seniors are 47-6, which is the best record of any senior class in the history of the Southeastern Conference. They have won their last 22 games and during this season of one distraction after another, they’ve gone 12-0, which keeps alive the dream of an undefeated national championship season, which is the reason why Tim Tebow and Brandon Spikes came back for their senior seasons rather than go into the NFL Draft after last season’s national championship.
Since making the decision to return for a shot at the record books, Tebow and Spikes have set the standard for leadership on a team that has no shortage of leaders. It is because of those seniors that Urban Meyer didn’t have to worry that the Saturday hoopla would keep the team from its mission. Even though he battled with his own emotions all week and during the pre-game ceremonies, Meyer had a pretty good idea that his team would play with focus and intensity from the opening whistle.
“I kind of expected that,” Meyer said. “I saw them all week in practice and you can gauge around here. We had one of the best Wednesdays we’ve ever had. That tells you their focus. It’s a little bit like last year. This time of year last year, it just got real serious around here.”
After last year’s loss to Ole Miss, the Gators narrowed their focus week by week on a 10-game mission that ended with a national championship game victory over Oklahoma. Once the Gators got through the month of October this season, Meyer began seeing fewer distractions and more intensity in his practices.
“What I’ve found out the older I get, the toughest games are those 6-7-8 because you still don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Meyer said.
Game eight was Georgia, a game the Gators actually played quite well, but in the four weeks since then, they’ve begun picking up momentum. A week ago the Gators started hitting big plays again. This week they hit even more, leading offensive coordinator Steve Addazio to say it is the natural progression of a team that is just beginning to hit its stride at the right time.
“What you’re seeing is the maturing of a football team,” Addazio said. “We play in the toughest defensive conference in the country. We play really great defenses. It’s hard in there. What you’re seeing is we’re playing our best football at the end of the year, which is the way it should be.”
The Gators lit up the Seminoles for 545 yards Saturday, 311 on the ground and 234 through the air. Tebow completed 17-21 of his passes for 221 yards and touchdown passes of 18, 37 and 39 yards while running for 90 yards on 15 carries and touchdowns of one and 18 yards. The 18 and 37-yard touchdown passes were to tight end Aaron Hernandez, who nearly reached the upper deck when he threw the football into the stands after his serpentine route to the end zone after taking about a four-yard pass.
Much of the yardage came in chunks, something that had been missing from the offense all season. In addition to the big pass plays for touchdowns, the Gators got runs of 62 yards from Jeff Demps, 47 yards from Tebow, 45 yards from Chris Rainey and 27 yards from Mike Gillislee.
Over on the defensive side, the Gators held the Seminoles scoreless and to only 55 yards in the first half. Following FSU’s second possession of the second half, Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong pulled his seniors and most of his starters. Even against the second and third unit guys, the Seminoles still only finished with 10 points and 269 total yards for the game.
Probably the best way to describe it was businesslike, which is the way it was all week leading up to Saturday’s game and the way it has been leading up to every game since last year’s Promise. That was the last time the Gators lost and they lost that game to Ole Miss because they admitted they weren’t serious enough in their preparations.
No more of that. Since then every day is a workday.
“Now there aren’t many rah-rah speeches and everything else,” Meyer said. “They just come in and get to work.”
Rah-rah speeches aren’t needed so much, but since it was Senior Day and the first group he has ever coached from the beginning to end of their careers no matter where he was coaching, Meyer selected eight of his seniors to say something to the team before the game.
One was Jermaine Cunningham, whose very nature is quiet. His speech pretty much reflected his constant demeanor.
“He held both arms up and said, ‘I’m living a dream,’” Meyer said in his post-game remarks.
Another choice was Riley Cooper, who gave a similar speech. That Cooper would be selected to speak on Senior Day was no surprise although if you had asked Meyer if such a day would ever come about three years ago he would have looked at you as if you were crazy.
“If you had told me four years ago Riley Cooper … yeah, okay,” Meyer said. “Coop?”
He got his point across.
Cooper’s production in Saturday’s game — three catches for 61 yards and a 39-yard touchdown from Tebow — and the season (41 catches, 703 yards, eight touchdowns) are a direct reflection of a player who has grown and matured. Coming into the season he had caught only 30 passes in his entire Florida career.
Cooper has become a poster child for Urban Meyer and what he’s accomplished at Florida. In his post-game remarks, Meyer said what he’s accomplished at Florida — 56-9 with two SEC and two national championships since arriving in 2005 — is about “recruiting and development.” Cooper was a five-star recruit when he arrived at Florida. As a senior, he is playing like a five-star and he’s become a five-star off the field as well.
“To see how far he’s come as a football player and as a person is really a credit to him and to the guys surrounding him in the locker room,” Meyer said.
Those guys in the locker room finished their regular season 12-0 and their Florida careers without ever losing to Florida State. They have the SEC Championship to play in Atlanta next week and if they beat Alabama in that game, it will be off to Pasadena to play in their second straight national championship game, this time with the hope of finishing it off with an unbeaten season.
Alabama is also undefeated and the Crimson Tide will come into this game ranked either second or third in the polls, which means someone will probably bill this as the game of the century, decade or year or maybe all three. For all its hype, you can know the Gators will approach it.
“These guys are starting to get used to playing in big games,” Meyer said. “Why is it a big game? Because they’re pretty good at what they do. How are they good at what they do? Because fundamentally and talent-wise, we’re one of the best teams in the country so let’s not confuse that with nonsense. Let’s keep working on our fundamentals. We do that on Tuesdays and Wednesdays around here.”
There was a time when there was no game bigger than Florida State. There was a time when beating the Seminoles would have had the whole town celebrating, not just the seniors but that was then and this is now. Now it’s just another notch in the belt before the biggest game of the season, which is why Florida’s seniors danced a little and took a few photos Saturday night before capping the celebration early. They left the field happy they had finished their Florida careers at home in style, but aware they still had bigger fish to fry than the Florida State Seminoles.