A&M was too good, but it's time to raise expectations for Gators

By Carlton Reese

GatorBait Media

Despite falling at Texas A&M, with a healthy D.J. Lagway there should be high expectations the rest of the way for Florida.

Hopes were much higher than expectations heading into Saturday night’s game in College Station, so there were very few surprises for Gator fans.  The Texas A&M Aggies, ranked No.5 and likely the most complete football team in the country, took control of a tight game with about five minutes to play and unmercifully put an end to Florida’s recent Murderer’s Row of a schedule.

The end of four straight games against top 10 opponents, three on the road, is some of the good news for Florida. Winning one of the four games is sure to disappoint, but not altogether embarrassing and this season has a very real chance of being salvaged based on the improvements made the last two weeks. The Aggies won by a score of 34-17, but that did not properly explain the competitive battle that took place between what looked like two very good football teams.

Florida’s opening drive that went 75 yards likely stunned A&M with its efficiency – the Aggies haven’t witnessed too many sustained drives such as this against their defense this season. Florida QB D.J. Lagway found open receivers and had time to throw, but the rest of the way he would be a helpless harp seal amid hungry orcas. He was sacked four times, was chased or harassed on nearly every other throw, yet still completed 20-for-36 for 229 yards and two touchdowns.

The bottom line is that Texas A&M wasn’t going to be beaten by anybody, not even Florida had it brought its best, which it did not. But, Florida did bring something that looked much different from what it took to Baton Rouge and Miami in September. This Florida team belonged on the field with that Texas A&M team, which is saying a mouthful. There are no moral victories at the University of Florida, but on Saturday night the Gators looked the part of a team that is not finished beating high-ranked opponents.

Texas A&M has no weak spots to exploit, and Florida discovered that first-hand. Even so, the Gators trailed just 24-17 when Jordan Castell intercepted Marcel Reed in the end zone to start the fourth quarter. That set Florida up with a potential game-tying drive which seemed promising when the Gators moved to the Aggie 49. On fourth-and-six, however, coach Billy Napier made the decision to eschew the punt and go for the first down, which ended up in an incompletion. Fifty yards, 13 plays and over eight minutes later, Texas A&M was in the end zone and any chance of a Florida upset was snuffed.

That Florida was within such close reach in this one late in the game and with A&M’s offense seemingly unstoppable at one point, one has to wonder just what this Florida team is capable of accomplishing. It’s no fun to dwell on a loss, but this was likely the toughest one on the schedule, and now we can simply look to what’s ahead.

At 2-4, the Gators are not where they want to be, but if anyone thinks Florida will be a prohibitive underdog in any game from here on out, they haven’t been watching. Lagway is not the blind man that threw five picks at LSU – he is the leader of an offense that possesses weapons necessary to score a lot of points no matter who is calling the plays. Why only 17 against A&M? That may be the toughest team in the country to block right now.

So, there’s no more hoping the rest of the way; it’s all expectations from now on. Expectations that Florida will send out a scary team for each of the remaining games is imminent. In two of the next three games, the Gators will be favored: at home against a good Mississippi State team and on the road against a Kentucky team decidedly at its weakest under Mark Stoops.

What stands in between those two games is Florida’s season. That would be the Georgia Bulldogs, not the juggernaut their record or ranking seem to portray. Dare I say, Florida is better and had damn well better prove it at the annual cocktail party.

At Ole Miss could be fun if Florida decides to show up – lowly Washington State went to Oxford and nearly embarrassed the Rebels and Lane Kiffin, who escaped by the skin of their teeth Saturday. Florida could very well be on a roll when it faces Ole Miss and there are light years between the Cougars and the Gators.

Tennessee and Florida State at home – by this point, Florida may very well be darlings of Vegas and be giving the Vols points. The Noles may be playing with a lame duck coach when they come to Gainesville.

So why all this optimism and armchair prognostication following yet another loss? Makes no sense, I’ll admit, but Florida has come to the crossroads of the season and despite falling at Texas A&M there is still some momentum left over from the Texas victory a week ago. The crossroads represent the movement from carrying hopes into games to carrying expectations into games. Facing a team as good as Texas A&M on the road was an exercise in hope. There is no more hope, only expectations, and I for one am expecting good things to happen.

The season did not turn around with the victory over Texas, and the season was not flushed with the loss at A&M. What those two games did was set the table for what kind of team the Florida Gators are moving forward, and I think looking back at those two games in total, this is still a team moving in the right direction. Now, it’s time to live up to those expectations.