Can Florida rebound

Can Florida rebound?  Sure, if they can establish a leader of defense and offense.  I don't think we miss Tebow's Quarterback Play as much as we miss his motivation.  Tebow and Spikes were the leaders of the team.  We have no one now.  Urban goes for the TD on the first drive, which I think was a good idea, but was unable to get the touchdown so lets say we would have made the field goal, FL 3-Bama 3.  Bama scores three more TD's in the first half and Florida only gets a Field Goal at the end of the 2nd Qtr., FL 6-Bama 24. 

We start the second half with a good drive but only get a field goal at the end.  FL 9-Bama 24.  We turn the ball over twice inside the 5 yard line that could have been touch downs FL 23-Bama 24.  We gave Bama their only score of the second half with a pick 6. 

So you see, this game could have been alot closer if the Gators could have executed.  Yes, Bama did cause us alot of trouble on offense but Florida was able to move the ball and they also stopped Bama in the second half.  No leadership does this for a team.  A good leader helps the team get the mistakes behind them and move on.  Will this person emerge and who will it be?

Florida loss to Bama brings down to 14

AP Top 25
RK	Team	W-L	Points	Prev	Next	Last
1	Alabama (58)	5-0	1497	1	South Carolina	W31-6 Florida
2	Ohio State (1)	5-0	1401	2	Indiana	W24-13 at Illinois
3	Oregon	5-0	1379	4	Washington State	W52-31 Stanford
4	Boise State (1)	4-0	1341	3	Toledo	W59-0 at New Mexico State
5	TCU	5-0	1250	5	Wyoming	W27-0 at Colorado State
6	Oklahoma	5-0	1183	8	Iowa State	W28-20 Texas
7	Nebraska	4-0	1172	6	Kansas State	W17-3 South Dakota State
8	Auburn	5-0	1045	10	Kentucky	W52-3 Louisiana-Monroe
9	Arizona	4-0	898	14	Oregon State	W10-9 California
10	Utah	4-0	860	13	Iowa State	W56-3 San Jose State
11	Arkansas	3-1	825	15	Texas A&M	L20-24 Alabama
12	LSU	5-0	819	12	Florida	W16-14 Tennessee
13	Miami (FL)	3-1	769	16	Florida State	W30-21 at Clemson
14	Florida	4-1	681	7	LSU	L6-31 at Alabama
15	Iowa	4-1	670	17	Michigan	W24-3 Penn State
16	Stanford	4-1	663	9	USC	L31-52 at Oregon
17	Michigan State	5-0	607	24	Michigan	W34-24 Wisconsin
18	Michigan	5-0	555	19	Michigan State	W42-35 at Indiana
19	South Carolina	3-1	450	20	Alabama	L27-35 at Auburn
20	Wisconsin	4-1	316	11	Minnesota	L24-34 at Michigan State
21	Nevada	5-0	286	25	San Jose State	W44-26 at UNLV
22	Oklahoma State	4-0	173	31	Louisiana-Lafayette	W38-35 Texas A&M
23	Florida State	4-1	162	27	Miami (FL)	W34-14 at Virginia
24	Missouri	4-0	99	27	Colorado	W51-13 Miami (OH)
25	Air Force	4-1	94	29	Colorado State	W14-6 Navy

Florida vs Alabama

I wish I could lay claim to all of this wonderful information but I can't.  I copied this from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Gators_football

While Alabama and Florida were charter members of the SEC, they have never been annual opponents. Nevertheless, they have had many noteworthy meetings over the years, especially since the SEC Championship Game game was instituted in 1992.
The Gators and Tide have met 7 times for the SEC championship, including the first three games and the last two. These meetings have consistently had significant national title implications: on four occasions, the winner of a Florida-Alabama SEC title game has gone on to win a national championship. Stakes were never higher than in 2008 and 2009, when the teams were ranked #1 and #2 coming into the game. The #2-ranked team won in both instances (Florida in 2008, Alabama in 2009) and went on to win the two most recent BCS National Championship Games. Florida holds a 4-3 edge in conference title games against the Tide.
The teams have had several memorable regular season meetings as well, highlighted by notable upsets. In 1963, an unranked Gator squad handed legendary Alabama head coach Bear Bryant the first of only two losses his teams would suffer in Tuscaloosa, winning 10-6 over the #3 Tide.^[49] In 1987, freshman running back Emmitt Smith led the unranked Gators to a 23-14 upset in Birmingham, rushing for a then school-record 224 yards in his first collegiate start. The Tide enjoyed their own upset in the series in 1999, breaking Florida's school record 30-game home winning streak in a 40-39 overtime thriller.
Historically, the Gators have not fared well against Alabama in Gainesville. The Tide won the first seven meetings on the Gator's home field, including Florida's worst-ever home loss: a 40-0 blowout in 1979 that featured an Alabama squad which would go undefeated and win the national championship against a Gator squad which would not win a game all season. The Gators finally beat Alabama on Florida Field in 1991, 35-0, but their 2–8 all-time home record against the Crimson Tide is still their worst against any opponent. They have fared better on the road in the series, posting a 8–9 record on Alabama's home turf.^[48]
There is a disagreement about when the schools' first gridiron meeting took place. Alabama counts a 1904 victory, while Florida does not, as the school did not officially begin its football program until 1906.^[48][50] According to UF, Alabama leads the all-time series 21–14.

Week 4 AP Poll

Here it is, week four AP poll.  The Gators move up to #7 and the Longhorns drop to #21 after the home loss to UCLA.  The SEC has Alabama at #1, Florida at #7, Auburn at #10, LSU at #12, Arkansas at #15 and South Carolina at #19.  The Gators travel to Tuscaloosa to take on Bama Saturday.  If Florida can control or harness Ingram and Richardson they have a chance.    You have to give Bama credit.  They played Penn State at home and won, traveled to Arkansas and came back to win, get Florida at home and the next week go to South Carolina.  Then November comes and they play LSU and Auburn.  That is six ranked teams.  Florida has Alabama and LSU left on schedule that are currently ranked.  If the Tide makes it to Atlanta with no losses, watch out cause they probably can't be beat. Don't get me wrong, I want them to lose, especially Saturday against Florida.  Bama showed some weakness against Arkansas, but Arkansas is a good football team and Bama did find a way back to win.  You can't coach kids how to battle back to win, that comes naturally. Well, this is a big game week for the Gators.  They will have to continue to improve on offense and I think they have.  We should probably say that Florida doesn't need to improve on offense but find their offense.  If you remember the 06 season with Tebow as a freshman and Leak a senior, Tebow became the X factor for the Gators that got them to the National Championship.  If you watched the game against Kentucky or read a paper today you will see that Freshman Trey Burton has appeared to step into that role.  Without looking back at 06 stats, I know there were alot of close wins, but they were wins.  Remember South Carolina with the three blocked kicks.  All Florida has to do is continue to win and the BCS and SEC Championship games will work themselves out. 1 Bit, 2 Bits, 3 Bits a dollar, all for the Gators stand up and holler.  Go GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     AP Top 25
RK	Team	W-L	Points	Prev	Next	Last
1	Alabama (57)	4-0	1496	1	Florida	W24-20 at Arkansas
2	Ohio State (2)	4-0	1431	2	Illinois	W73-20 Eastern Michigan
3	Boise State (1)	3-0	1356	3	New Mexico State	W37-24 Oregon State
4	Oregon	4-0	1276	5	Stanford	W42-31 at Arizona State
5	TCU	4-0	1269	4	Colorado State	W41-24 at Southern Methodist
6	Nebraska	4-0	1158	6	Kansas State	W17-3 South Dakota State
7	Florida	4-0	1132	9	Alabama	W48-14 Kentucky
8	Oklahoma	4-0	1095	8	Texas	W31-29 at Cincinnati
9	Stanford	4-0	891	16	Oregon	W37-14 at Notre Dame
10	Auburn	4-0	858	17	Louisiana-Monroe	W35-27 South Carolina
11	Wisconsin	4-0	852	11	Michigan State	W70-3 Austin Peay
12	LSU	4-0	804	15	Tennessee	W20-14 West Virginia
13	Utah	4-0	790	13	Iowa State	W56-3 San Jose State
14	Arizona	4-0	722	14	Oregon State	W10-9 California
15	Arkansas	3-1	721	10	Texas A&M	L20-24 Alabama
16	Miami (FL)	2-1	597	19	Clemson	W31-3 at Pittsburgh
17	Iowa	3-1	503	18	Penn State	W45-0 Ball State
18	USC	4-0	466	20	Washington	W50-16 at Washington State
19	South Carolina	3-1	406	12	Alabama	L27-35 at Auburn
20	Michigan	4-0	396	21	Indiana	W65-21 Bowling Green
21	Texas	3-1	374	7	Oklahoma	L12-34 UCLA
22	Penn State	3-1	199	23	Iowa	W22-13 Temple
23	North Carolina State	4-0	163	33	Virginia Tech	W45-28 at Georgia Tech
24	Michigan State	4-0	146	25	Wisconsin	W45-7 Northern Colorado
25	Nevada	4-0	120	27	UNLV	W27-13 at Brigham Young

Bama Wins and So Do The Gators

Ingram and Richardson stayed somewhat in check but the Bama Defense did stop Arkansas on their last two drives with turnovers.  It was a close one in Auburn but the Tigers hold on with a big win over the Gamecocks.   Florida finally found a little production on offense.  Way to go Trey Burton with six touchdowns in a single game.  That is a new record for the Gators and was previously held by Tebow with five.  What has happened to the Georgia Bulldawgs.  With a loss today against Mississippi State they are 0-3 in SEC play and 1-3 overall.  Things don't look like they are turning around for Georgia with a trip coming this week to Colorado. 

We will see if the new production the Gators found on offense will help keep the game respectable against Bama next Saturday night.  Check on Sunday evening for the latest polls.

Paul "Bear" Bryant

The coach of the Kentucky Wildcats in 1950 was Bear Bryant, the legend of Alabama.  I don't think this is the year that Kentucky can beat the Gators.  Of course as a Gator fan, I don't think they ever will.  The advantage that Florida has is better and alot more talent.  Kentucky does have good players but across the board Florida has them beat.  Joker Phillips, the new head coach at Kentucky, may be able in the future to get the talent they need to be more competitive in the SEC. 

Enough on Kentucky and Florida.  Lets move on to the real games of the weekend.  Alabama travels to Arkansas and South Carolina to Auburn.  The Gator in me wants Arkansas to win and South Carolina to dominate Auburn with their defense and Freshman running back Lattimore.  But the realist in me says that Bama wins in defensive style and South Carolina and Auburn take it to the wire.  Don't count Auburn out of the SEC West.  They do have a good QB in Newton.  I know this because he was on the Florida roster and Florida generally don't get second rate players.

My pick on Alabama and Arkansas is Bama 37 with Ingram and Richardson splitting 260 yards on the ground and Arkansas 13 with Mallet struggling against the Alabama D-line not the secondary.  South Carolina needs to jump on Auburn early and often.  If this goes to overtime Auburn has a slight edge on South Carolina but the Gamecocks win with 27 and Auburn 24.

No, I am not perfect and all of my thoughts may totally be wrong, but thats why they play next week to give me a chance to get it right.  Don't forget about the Miami and Pitt game on Thursday night.  Go Gators.

Kentucky vs. Florida

Florida has played Kentucky on and off since 1917.  The Gators lead the series 43-17 and have won the past 23 in a row dating back to 1986.  There have been some memorable moments in the series with some close calls for the Gators.  Kentucky, although known for it's Basketball program has been playing football since 1881. 

Kentucky claims one National Title and two SEC Titles with one of the SEC Title's in 1976.  What year did Kentucky win their first SEC and one and only National Title and who was the coach?