Gators fight their way back into BCS picture
When the Gators last walked off their Swamp, their spirit had been swatted away by a blocked extra point.
They watched with disgust through tearful eyes as Ole Miss players mocked their trademark chomp.
Their forlorn leader, Tim Tebow, made bold promises after, arguably, his most disappointing loss as a college quarterback. And their coach was being questioned for a suddenly mediocre conference record (6-4) since the start of last season, when he was no longer working with many of Ron Zook's recruits.
Saturday -- just two weeks later -- the Gators strutted off their reclaimed territory as proud as they have in nearly a decade. The last time they'd beaten a team ranked as high as No. 4 LSU in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was 1999.
This time, as they walked off the field, thoughts of devastation were replaced by contemplation of a national championship.
Wait.
National championship? Really?
A team that got nipped at home by an unranked and underwhelming Ole Miss team can honestly speak of national championship consideration without being mocked?
Sure it can.
College football has a way of resuscitating even the most lifeless of teams these days.
The Gators, unresponsive for the past two weeks, have suddenly sprinted back to the lead pack.
It was actually a fairly easy trip.
LSU offered barely any resistance, looking uncomfortable in a hostile environment and entirely misplaced at the top of the rankings. The Tigers' best win to date is against a suspect Auburn team that just lost to Arkansas on Saturday and will be out of the rankings. But the margin of victory will still impress enough for Florida to be showered with praise once again.
And the Gators were the beneficiaries of a helpful schedule this week, with previously top-ranked Oklahoma falling to Texas and No. 3 Missouri losing to Oklahoma State.
Who's left? There's a fraudulent Texas Tech team that barely escaped with an overtime win against Nebraska on Saturday. There's Alabama, which the Gators would face in the Southeastern Conference championship game if both teams stay atop their divisions.
There's BYU (come on, now). And then there are Penn State, Texas and Southern Cal. Let's face it, the college football season still has plenty of damage to do, and it's unlikely any of those teams will escape the season without suffering another loss.
So that leaves the Gators with a clear path in front of them. The salvageable season essentially comes down to one game. It's three weeks from now, it'll be played in Jacksonville, and it already had plenty at stake even before the Gators revived themselves Saturday.
The Georgia Bulldogs not only beat Florida the last time they met, but they famously rubbed it in with a team meeting in the end zone after their first touchdown of the game.
If that wasn't incentive enough for the Gators to come out of this year's matchup with a win, the possibility of a conference championship game and a national championship run only intensify matters.
The rest of the schedule? Eh, it's there, but it's hardly daunting. There's a Vanderbilt team that had its short-lived dreams dashed Saturday at the hands of Mississippi State. And there's Bobby Bowden and Steve Spurrier to overcome, but Florida State and South Carolina are a display of disarray this season, inconsistent and lost in the pack.
Of course the Gators are capable of falling victim to another underdog. But based on Saturday, this Florida team appears to be the figuring it out at the right time.
Tebow has held true to his promise to recover from the Ole Miss loss, looking very much like the quarterback who won the unheard of Heisman as a sophomore. And he's not even the best player on his team at the moment, with Percy Harvin racking up ridiculous receiving numbers despite seemingly fighting ankle injuries every week.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Florida coach Urban Meyer has finally discovered he has a running back. Several, actually.
In the last two wins, the Gators have totaled 543 rushing yards with Tebow and Harvin barely factoring into those totals. Instead, it's actual running backs doing the damage.
If that continues, so can the thoughts of a national championship.
It's amazing what two weeks has done.
