The Gators Sucked Less, Turning Arch Madness Into Arch Sadness

The warm and fuzzies of turning Arch Madness into a smoldering heap of Arch Sadness probably won’t go away this week since the Florida Gators (5-2, 3-2 SEC) can’t possibly lose. Bye weeks are a wonderful thing, particularly when you have just wrecked the College Football Playoff hopes of the Texas Longhorns, who just two weeks ago were cruising along unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the nation. Jon Sumrall will use the week to get his banged up wide receivers back in good health and even though the practices will be shorter and not so intense, he will do his best to get everybody’s feet back down to earth and planted on solid ground.

“We'll still practice,” Sumrall said after the Gators stunned 7th-ranked Texas, 27-24, Saturday in Austin. “Monday we'll do meetings, lifting, kind of get your bodies back a little bit. Tuesday we'll go for about an hour. Tuesday and Wednesday with pads and we'll bang a little bit. We've got to practice, we've got to stay sharp, we've got to get better. Thursday we'll do kind of a run through.

“We have to right now after seven games kind of stop, catch our breath, still get some work, but get some bodies back to healthy and fresher and then take a deep dive. I love the bye-week because you get to take a deep dive into where are we playing well, where are we not, who deserves more opportunities, who may deserve less. We evaluate everything that's going right and wrong. And I expect everybody to take ownership of it so we can move forward for the rest of the year.”

The rest of the year looks a lot more promising after the Texas win than it did a week ago when South Carolina tattooed the Gators 38-19 in The Swamp of all places. We’ve seen what the Gators are capable of in wins over then No. 4 Ole Miss and soon to drop out of the top ten Texas. The same can be said about the curbstomp losses to South Carolina and Missouri. We really don’t know what kind of team will show up the last five games but at least we know that if all things are clicking there isn’t a single game on the schedule the Gators aren’t capable of winning.

The mother of all questions moving forward, the one that actually tops can the defense continue to play at the level they showed against Texas, is who’s going to be the QB moving forward? Indeedy. What happens when Aaron Philo has full range of motion and the soreness has departed from his wounded shoulder? Do Sumrall and offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner give in to that unwritten football rule that you can’t lose your starting job because of an injury or do they go with Tramell Jones Jr., who did the unthinkable by playing with such poise and focus to lead the Gators past Texas on the road, no less?

Sumrall wasn’t about to tip his hand Saturday afternoon.

“Looking back the last two games, Philo didn't cost us the last two games,” Sumrall said. “I'm not going to point fingers at everybody, but just like individually, Trammel didn't win the game by himself. I'm glad we got two guys that I believe that we can go win football games with. We will get through the tape. I'll watch the tape on the plane today and then I'll watch it again tomorrow. And then we'll figure out how we move forward. Some of it, too, is there's, you know, Philo’s got an injury so when's he ready after the injury? That matters. But so ... that's a word salad basically to tell you there's going to be no decision like tonight of like, hey, this is what I'm doing moving forward. Philo's been our guy and has won us some big games too, just like Trammel helped us win a big game today as well. So I like both guys. I love both guys. I believe in both guys. I've said that about Trammel for several months now, like since I saw the shift in the summer. I really felt like we could win with both guys, and that proves that we did it today.”

What has to weigh heavily on the minds of Sumrall and Faulkner is the way Jones handled a 14-point deficit. When the Gators fell behind to both Missouri and South Carolina, Aaron Philo didn’t bring the Gators back from the dead to make the games at least competitive. When the Gators fell behind Texas 17-3 we got to see Tramell Jones at his best. He led. The Gators followed. Florida won the game.

That’s the bottom line.

The defense finally showed it is capable of making big plays in big moments. The secondary is still young and inexperienced, but when the pass rush turns ferocious like it did against Texas it cuts into the time they have to stay glued to receivers. Against Texas, LJ McCray played like the 5-star off the edge that we thought he would be when he arrived from Daytona Beach Mainland. Ty Jackson has to play. He plays like he’s on a mission to decleat whoever has the bad sense to come his way football in hand. Myles Graham delivered the hit on Arch Manning that separated the football, essentially winning the game with a little more than two minutes to go.

Can they do it again and again and again? If what we saw Saturday is a preview of things to come the Florida defense should call themselves Team Lazarus, because they will have been raised from the dead.

In the first quarter against Texas and a portion of the second, the offensive line looked like the same guys who were no shows against Missouri and South Carolina. Starting with the midway point of the second quarter and extending through the second half, they were dominating. The Gators ate 8:03 off the third quarter clock on a 15-play drive for the game-tying touchdown. They went 14 plays taking 6:31 off the clock for the field goal that gave the Gators the lead for good at 20-17. Now, the Texas defense is too good to give up a ton of explosive plays, but it says something about the Florida O-line that they were able to keep the chains moving, give enough creases that Jadan Baugh could run for 91 yards and give Jones time to see the field and make proper decisions.

The Ole Miss and Texas games showed what happens when a plan really does come together for the Florida Gators. The South Carolina and Missouri games showed us what happens when the cat peed on the homework. The current version of the Gators is Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates because we really don’t know which one we’re going to get. Sumrall put it in perspective after the win over Texas when he said, “We still suck. We just suck less so we have to figure out how we suck less each week.”

Sucking less on Saturday against Texas doesn’t mean the Gators have arrived, but it is a start and a valuable lesson if taken to heart and applied on the field by this team.

“It doesn't matter who you play, where you play, when you play, you have to fight,” Sumrall said. “If you do not fight, you will get embarrassed. This league, man, there's nowhere to hide. Week in, week out, it's the closest thing you got to the NFL, and you got to bring it every freaking Saturday.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE SEC

Auburn (4-2, 2-2 SEC) 27, No. 1 Georgia (6-1, 4-1 SEC) 24: Gunner Stockton may have kissed good-bye any Heisman hopes he was harboring as the Bulldogs bit the bullet against Auburn. Stockton, the quarterback who rarely made a mistake in the first half of the season, threw two interceptions and then fumbled with 58 seconds remaining. Auburn recovered and with the benefit of a roughing the passer penalty drove for the game-winning field goal as time expired. The loss ended Georgia’s streak of 53 straight wins over non-ranked opponents. Auburn QB Byrum Brown threw for 150 yards and a TD plus ran for 115 and another score. Auburn overcame 11 penalties.

No. 14 Tennessee (6-1, 3-1 SEC) 26, No. 6 Alabama (5-2, 3-2 SEC) 10: The story of the game was the Tennessee defense, which sacked Keelon Russell five times while forcing four turnovers. Desean Bishop ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns as part of a conservative game plan that allowed the Vols to control the football while keeping the Bama offense off the field. Josh Heupel is now 3-3 against Alabama, 3-0 at home, 0-3 on the road. The loss was the second straight for Alabama, marking the first time since 2012 that the Crimson Tide has lost back-to-back games. Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer has lost 10 games in three years and there are still five games to go in the regular season. Bama fans are not happy.

No. 9 Ole Miss (5-1, 3-1 SEC) 31, No. 13 Missouri (5-2, 2-2 SEC) 3: Trinidad Chambliss threw for 241 yards and three touchdowns while running for a fourth as the Rebels dominated both sides of the football. Ole Miss benefitted from a healthy Kewan Lacey, who ran for 122 yards, and backup Makhi Frazier, who chipped in with 101. Ole Miss threw for 241 yards and ran for 257. Mizzou’s offense couldn’t get untracked against the Rebels, who suddenly discovered it is legal to tackle opposing running backs before they are five or more yards past the line of scrimmage. Mizzou’s Jamal Roberts, who was leading the SEC in rushing, was held to 39 yards on 20 carries.

No. 15 Kentucky (6-1, 4-1 SEC) 21, Oklahoma (3-3, 1-2 SEC) 13: This was a College Football Playoff elimination game for Oklahoma and the Sooners are out after another dismal performance by John Mateer, who completed three passes to the Kentucky defensive backs. As brilliant as he was in the second half against Texas the week before Mateer was miserable against Kentucky. It is midseason and Brent Venables has already lost as many games as he did all of last year, plus he has a rotten offense. Mateer is a senior so he’s a goner after this year. Expect the same for offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. As for Kentucky, they are no longer the Mildcats. Yes, the offense struggled against Oklahoma’s defense but every offense struggles against the Sooners. What Kentucky did was match Oklahoma’s defensive intensity. First year head coach Will Stein has a bowl eligible team and there are still five regular season games to go. Not only that, Kentucky is firmly in contention for the College Football Playoff. Whodathunk that?

No. 22 LSU (5-2, 2-2 SEC) 31, No. 16 Mississippi State (4-2, 2-2 SEC) 0: Kamario Taylor and Fluff Bothwell didn’t play for Mississippi State due to injuries. That explains the zero, but the way the MSU defense played the Bulldogs would have still lost to LSU. This was Sam Leavitt’s best game as a Tiger, completing 31-38 passes including four for touchdowns without throwing an interception. If Lane Kiffin can get Leavitt to play at that level consistently then the Tigers have a real shot at making the College Football Playoff even with two losses. Jeff Lebby needs two more wins for bowl eligibility, three more to guarantee a winning season. A seven win season gets you fired in some places. In Starkville they start talking about erecting a statue of you outside the stadium.

Arkansas (3-4, 1-3 SEC) 31, Vanderbilt (3-4, 0-4 SEC) 21: KJ Jackson had his best game as a Razorback, throwing for 251 yards without an interception while running for 58 more and a TD as Arkansas assured itself that it won’t go winless in SEC play. Arkansas outscored Vandy 17-7 in the second half. The Razorbacks intercepted Jared Curtis twice and while giving up 274 passing yards, avoided giving up the chunk plays. Getting bowl eligible is still a longshot for Arkansas, but if Ryan Silverstein can eke out five wins it will go down as an outstanding coaching job. As for Vanderbilt, it’s going to be a very long season. The next three games are against ranked opponents and two of them are on the road. Then comes a roadie to Florida and the Vols to end the season. Looks like a 3-9 season any way you slice it, a major letdown after winning 10 a year ago.

Texas A&M (4-3, 1-3 SEC) 41, The Citadel (2-5) 0: Maybe this win made the Aggies feel good about themselves again, but it was Citadel, a D1AA bottom feeder so the euphoria of winning will depart sometime Sunday and the reality of five straight SEC games will set in. Of the five remaining games, only Oklahoma looks winnable. Marcel Reed isn’t the only one at fault for the Aggies slide back to mediocrity, but he’s a good place to begin. He’s had a miserable senior season and it is likely to get worse.

Photo by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media.