IT'S MONDAY, TIME TO FOCUS ON LSU Dan Mullen was borderline giddy Saturday night. He had high-fived hundreds of fans Florida fans on his way to the locker room after Florida's 24-13 kneecapping of then 7th-ranked Auburn. It was almost as if the electricity that consumed the 90,584 fans in The Swamp was recycling through his body and had assumed command of his brain. The Gators had used a relentless, pursuing defense and just enough big plays on offense to offset four turnovers while turning The Swamp into The Swamp of old. The place was intimidating, so loud that it was next to impossible to escape without a temporary case of tinnitus. When the music blared through the loudspeaker system, the joint was rocking. It was great to be a Florida Gator and Saturday night nobody felt greater than Dan Mullen. Leading up to Saturday's win over the visiting Tigers and again afterward, he made it perfectly clear that he fully expects The Swamp to once again be a visiting team's nightmare. Not just for the big games against the ranked teams, but for any team that makes the trip to Gainesville to face the Gators. Mullen's emotions were on full display in front of the media in the South End Zone meeting room. The 20 or so minutes he spent answering questions were a necessity before his own celebration began. He was wired and ready to enjoy this one. Even though this is his 11th year as a head coach – second at Florida – you never grow weary of winning big games in front of a jam-packed stadium and with millions watching on television. With the wins come the celebrations but there is a time and a place to celebrate. For Mullen Saturday night would do. Sunday he and his coaches were breaking down the film of the Auburn win and going through LSU's latest win. Monday morning, Auburn is the past and LSU is the future, the next step on Mullen's plan to not only restore The Swamp to its intimidating past, but the entire Florida football program. Mullen said, "We're going to turn on that film on Monday and go watch LSU and know we've got to head to Death Valley and say, 'If we want to be there, go do it.' It's up to the guys in this room. When we get in here on Monday morning, the guys in this room will make that decision if we want to be there or not. If this year's team is going to be the team that's ready for us to be there." GATORS MOVE UP TO #7 IN BOTH POLLS With their win over then #7 Auburn Saturday, the Gators moved up three spots to #7 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and one spot to #7 in the Coaches poll. Alabama and Clemson remain 1-2 in both polls but there was a change at #3 in the AP poll where Ohio State moved into a tie with Georgia. The Associated Press Top 25 Poll Alabama 5-0; (2) Clemson 5-0; (3, TIE) Ohio State 5-0 and Georgia 5-0; (5) LSU 5-0; (6) Oklahoma 5-0; (7) FLORIDA 6-0; (8) Wisconsin 5-0; (9) Notre Dame 4-1; (10) Penn State 5-0; (11) Texas 4-1; (12) Auburn 5-1; (13) Oregon 4-1; (14) Boise State 5-0; (15) Utah 4-1; (16) Michigan 4-1; (17) Iowa 4-1; (18) Arizona State 4-1: 19) Wake Forest 5-0; (20) Virginia 4-1; (21) SMU 6-0; (22) Baylor 5-0; (23) Memphis 5-0; (24) Texas A&M 3-2; (25) Cincinnati 4-1 The Coaches Top 25 Poll Alabama 5-0; (2) Clemson 5-0; (3) Georgia 5-0; (4) Ohio State 6-0; (5) Oklahoma 5-0; (6) LSU 5-0; (7) FLORIDA 6-0; (8) Wisconsin 5-0; (9) Penn State 5-0; (10) Notre Dame 4-1; (11) Texas 4-1; (12) Auburn 5-1; (14) Boise State 5-0; (15) Utah 4-1; (16) Michigan 4-1; (17) Wake Forest 5-0; (18) Iowa 4-1; (19) Virginia 4-1; (20) Memphis 5-0; (21) Texas A&M 3-2; (22) SMU 6-0; (23) Baylor 5-0; (24) Arizona State 4-1; (25) Missouri 4-1 RANKING THE SEC TOP TO BOTTOM (1) Alabama (5-0, 2-0 SEC): Alabama is on pace to eclipse last year's record setting offensive pace. Through five games the Crimson Tide is averaging 8.3 yards per offensive play (5.3 per rush attempt, 11.2 per pass attempt). Tua Tagovailoa has 23 touchdown passes through five games. He had 43 in 15 games last year. Next Saturday: at #24 Texas A&M (3-2, 1-1 SEC) (2) LSU (5-0, 1-0 SEC): Joe Burrow threw for 344 yards and five touchdowns in the win over Utah State. For the season, Burrow has thrown for 1,864 yards and 22 touchdowns … In holding Utah State to just six points, the Tigers allowed only 159 total yards and picked off three passes. Next Saturday: vs. #7 FLORIDA (6-0, 3-0 SEC) (3) Georgia (5-0, 2-0 SEC): Georgia's offense (42.8 points per game) is one of the most balanced in the country. The Bulldogs are passing for 262.2 yards and rushing for 250 per game. Jake Fromm is 86-111 passing for 1,076 yards (9.7 per attempt) with eight TDPs and no interceptions. Next Saturday: vs. South Carolina (2-3, 1-2 SEC) (4) FLORIDA (6-0, 3-0 SEC): The Gators rank #5 nationally in scoring defense (9.5 points per game), #15 in rushing defense (93 yards), #18 in pass defense (183.3), #10 in total defense (276.3), #3 in sacks (26 for -164 yards) and #1 in interceptions (12). Next Saturday: at #5 LSU (5-0, 1-0 SEC) (5) Auburn (5-1, 2-1 SEC): Against Florida, quarterback Bo Nix played like the true freshman he is. He completed 11-27 passes for 145 yards (5.4 per attempt). Take away the two big pass plays (32-yard touchdown, 46-yard gainer) and he averaged 2.68 yards per pass attempt. Next Saturday: Open (6) Missouri (4-1, 1-0 SEC): The big concern at Missouri is the health of quarterback Kelly Bryant, who left the Troy game after taking a cheap shot to the knee. HBC Barry Odom said post game that the Bryant injury doesn't appear to have long term implications … Missouri's defense, ranked second nationally, is led by Cale Garrett, who has 42 tackles, three interceptions and three touchdowns. Next Saturday: vs. Ole Miss (3-3, 2-1 SEC) (7) Texas A&M (3-2, 1-1 SEC): The Aggies are allowing only 299.8 yards per game, which ranks #23 nationally in total defense. This week they'll be trying to slow down an Alabama offense that averages 51.8 points and 554.6 yards per game. Next Saturday: vs. #1 Alabama (5-0, 2-0 SEC) (8) Ole Miss (3-3, 2-1 SEC): Ole Miss ran for 443 yards in its win over Vanderbilt with freshman QB John Rhys Plumlee going for 165. True freshman running backs Snoop Conner and Jerion Ealy got into the act with Conner breaking off an 88-yard TD run and Ealy torching Vandy for a 78-yard TD. Next Saturday: at Missouri (4-1, 1-0 SEC) (9) Mississippi State (3-2, 1-1 SEC): Grad transfer QB Tommy Stevens, who has been hobbled with injuries the last couple of weeks, was back in Happy Valley for Penn State's homecoming game over the weekend. Next Saturday: at Tennessee (1-4, 0-2 SEC) (10) South Carolina (2-3, 1-2 SEC): Running back Rico Dowdle (ankle) is expected back for Saturday's game with Georgia. Backup QB Dakereon Joyner (hamstring) is day-to-day. Offensive lineman DJ Wonnum will be out another 2-3 weeks. Next Saturday: at #3 Georgia (5-0, 2-0 SEC) (11) Kentucky (2-3, 0-3 SEC): The Wildcats might not know until midweek who's going to play QB against Arkansas. They're hoping to get Sawyer Smith back but if he can't go, then it will be either backup Walker Wood or wide receiver Lynn Bowden Jr., who was a gifted high school QB. Next Saturday: vs. Arkansas (2-3, 0-2 SEC) (12) Arkansas (2-3, 0-2 SEC): Arkansas could see the return of three injured wide receivers at Kentucky this week – Trey Knox (hip), De'Vion Warren (concussion) and Mike Woods (hip). Next Saturday: at Kentucky (2-3, 0-3 SEC) (13) Vanderbilt (1-4, 0-3 SEC): Vandy has one of the most talented running backs in the country in Ke'Shawn Vaughn but has all sorts of troubles running the ball. Vaughn had 69 yards against Ole Miss but his teammates combined for -7 yards. Next Saturday: vs. UNLV (1-4) (14) Tennessee (1-4, 0-2 SEC): The Vols are the only team from a Power Five program that doesn't have a win over a Division I team. Next Saturday: vs. Mississippi State (3-2, 1-1 SEC) ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL Oregon (4-1) is the Pac-12's last and only hope to make the College Football Playoff after Washington (4-2) got taken down by the same Stanford (3-3) team that got the scorched earth treatment by UCF. For all the well-deserved talk about Ohio State's explosive offense (49.3 points, 534.5 yards per game), the Buckeyes rank third nationally in total defense (234 yards and 8.8 points per game). That same Michigan (4-1) defense that gave up 359 yards to Wisconsin (5-0) a couple of weeks ago, held Iowa (4-1) to one rushing yard Saturday. So has Michigan improved dramatically or is Iowa just that challenged in the run game? All the Heisman talk centers around the quarterbacks, but Jonathan Taylor of Wisconsin (5-0) is making his own Heisman statement. In the 48-0 win over Kent State, Taylor ran for 189 yards and four touchdowns while catching passes for 29 yards and another TD. For the season, Taylor has run for 745 yards and 12 touchdowns while catching 12 passes for 114 yards and four more. UCLA (1-4) has officially hit rock bottom after losing to Oregon State (2-3), 48-31. Prior to the win over UCLA, Oregon State's only win was over D1AA Cal Poly. Les Koenning, who served as Dan Mullen's offensive coordinator at Mississippi State from 2009-13, was fired as offensive coordinator at Kansas by Les Miles. Through six games, Kansas is averaging 22.8 points and 354.5 yards per game. GOOD QUOTES FOR MONDAY From Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports, Dan Mullen wasn't Florida's first choice to replace Jim McElwain but he has proven he was certainly the best choice: “Florida wanted Chip Kelly. Then Florida wanted Scott Frost. It got neither, “settling” on the guy who had the best run in Mississippi State history. After beating previousy undefeated Auburn 24-13 Saturday in The Swamp, Mr. Third Choice is now 6-0 this season and 16-3 since taking the job … Kelly at UCLA, after a brutal home loss to Oregon State: 4-14. Bruins’ final 18 games before Kelly: 7-11 ... Frost at Nebraska, after a 13-10 victory over Northwestern over Saturday: 8-10. Cornhuskers’ final 18 games before Frost: 6-12.” From Dan Kane of the News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) on how North Carolina escaped sanctions from the NCAA for its academic fraud case a couple of years ago: “UNC escaped NCAA sanctions by claiming the classes did not violate university rules at the time they were offered, and the classes were made available to all students. But the prosecutor’s investigation found academic counselors to the athletes, particularly in the money-making sports of men’s basketball and football, knew that the secretary was creating the classes and grading them. Those counselors steered athletes to the classes, helping to explain why athletes accounted for nearly half of the enrollments while making up less than 5 percent of the student body.” From Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports on how Ohio State has become scary good under first year HBC Ryan Day, who was a grad assistant at Florida for Urban Meyer in 2005-06: “And that’s where the credit needs to be shifted to Day, as there are plenty of teams where the sum doesn’t become greater than their parts. He’s fast-forwarded the development of quarterback Justin Fields and overseen the resuscitation of a defense from historically bad to top five under new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. Perhaps more importantly, he’s kept a program that spent 2018 ensconced in drama without a single tense moment on or off the field. The highest compliment to Day is that this Ohio State team has taken on his personality – focused, understated and highly competitive.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank expressed his confidence in HBC Dan Quinn after the Falcons were clobbered 53-32 by the Houston Texans Sunday. Bet the farm Quinn's on a short leash now … St. Louis Cardinals' relief pitcher Ryan Helsley, a member of the Cherokee Nation, says he is offended by the Atlanta Braves use of the tomahawk chop, which he says depicts Native Americans as “caveman-people way who aren't intellectual” … Kyler Murray had the best game of his still young NFL career Sunday when he threw for 253 yards and ran for 93 yards and a touchdown to lead the Arizona Cardinals to a 26-23 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

As Kyle Trask sat in the training room at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium waiting for the medical diagnosis for his injured knee, he was more concerned with what was going on with Emory Jones, who had replaced him at quarterback in the second quarter. When told that Jones had taken the Gators down the field for a field goal to extend the lead over Auburn to 17-13, Trask said, “I was so happy, and I'm so proud of him. You know, he works really hard, I just couldn't be more proud.” Then came the trainers with news about his injury. For that, Trask had no idea what to expect. He was hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst. He had felt a pop in his knee when he went down and he was in pain, but still had no clue the extent of the injury. “I didn't know what I was about to hear, and I was kind of ready to hear the worst I guess,” Trask said. Rather than bad news, Trask was told he had a sprained MCL, a painful injury but not debilitating like a torn ACL. There was a huge sigh of relief when told he could go back into the game. He knew that “knees are nothing to play around with” but he had confidence in the training staff that he would be fine if he could handle the discomfort. When he ran out the tunnel to return to the game, the crowd of 90,584 roared its approval. When he went back in the ball game the next time the Gators had the football, it not only sent a message to the overflow crowd at The Swamp, but a clear message to his teammates that he was tough enough to take whatever Auburn was dishing out. With less than four minutes to go in the game and the Gators needing a first down to keep the clock moving, Trask further demonstrated his toughness when he caught a throwback pass from Lucas Krull for a first down. It was just a four-yard pass that turned a third-and-one into a first down, but it was yet another clear signal that Kyle Trask was a tough guy playing in the kind of game where only the toughest walk away with a victory. * * * In the fourth quarter with the Gators still leading 17-13, defensive coordinator Todd Grantham dialed up a jailbreak blitz that caught Auburn freshman quarterback Bo Nix by complete surprise. When his first escape move didn't work and more Gators broke through his firewall of protection, Nix should have hit the turf. That's what a veteran quarterback would have done. But Nix isn't a veteran and on this day he showed the world he's still a rookie going through on-the-job training. Nix doubled back and found himself surrounded by three Gators. He might have tried to reverse his field again, but his feet went out from under him. Third-and-eight was now fourth-and-30. Auburn had to punt. It was a good punt, high and unreturnable. Florida was pinned back at its own 12 which meant Auburn was still in good shape to get the ball back and put together a winning touchdown drive if only the Tigers could get another three-and-out. That was Auburn's plan but it only took one play to stick a nine-inch stiletto deep in the Tigers heart and the guy who did it was the kid they never offered a scholarship back when he was lighting up defenses at Mobile (AL) Theodore. Lamical Perine broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage, saw daylight to his right and accelerated to the sideline. At the 35, he legged it past a diving Tiger and then only had to outrun the rest of the Auburn defense the final 65 yards. As he turned on the jets to complete this dramatic 88-yard touchdown run that put the Tigers out of their misery, it wasn't just business. This was personal. “I wanted them [Auburn] to know,” he said as he stood at the podium speaking to the media in the South End Zone meeting room post game. “I wanted them to understand that it meant a lot to me to get out there and to even make that big-time play.” You see, there was a reason Auburn never offered Perine a scholarship. They thought – wrongly as it turned out – that he was too slow. At the game's biggest moment Saturday, the fastest guys on an Auburn defense renowned for its team speed couldn't even think about catching the guy who was too slow. All they could do is chase him all the way to the South End Zone. For a guy who was too slow, he looked pretty darn fast. * * * There is something quite similar in the stories of Trask and Perine. Trask is the quarterback no big schools wanted because he never started in high school. The only reason he's at Florida was he came to camp here and threw the ball so well the previous [pre-Dan Mullen] coaching staff thought they had found the ultimate diamond in the rough. Perine is here because the two schools every kid in the state of Alabama grows up wanting to play for – Alabama and Auburn – didn't want him. We really shouldn't be all that surprised that Mullen's offensive schemes are working at Florida nor should we be surprised that he's taken guys that other people didn't want (like Trask and Perine) and turned them into players who can rise to the occasion on big stages like the one Saturday. When he was at Mississippi State, Mullen's offenses put points on the scoreboard and did it with players the Alabamas and Auburns of the world – and yes, the Floridas, too – wouldn't have given a second look. At some point in the near future, Mullen's track record for winning and developing talent is going to resonate with recruiting classes that create the kind of depth that hasn't been seen at Florida since the days when Mullen was Urban Meyer's offensive coordinator and some of the big names on offense were Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin among others. Oh, you can count on Mullen still looking for that next Dak Prescott, who Alabama and others thought might make a fine college linebacker, but winning and scoring points is going to attract some truly elite talent in the future. "When I was here before we had elite offensive players at every position and on the bench,” Mullen said Saturday evening. “I don't know that we're at that point yet, but we're working to get there. We'll work to get there, but we have guys that believe in [what we're doing as a team] and expect to win. When I left I think we were rolling people like 59-7 in SEC games and stuff like that. Or something ridiculous. But we'll get there." SOME GOOD THINGS ABOUT THE AUBURN WIN Freddie Swain had a career day with six catches for 164 yards and a touchdown. We know that Auburn didn't recruit Lamical Perine because they thought he was too slow. They must have thought the same thing about Swain because they kept matching him up with a linebacker. Check out that touchdown catch when Swain not only left Auburn linebacker KJ Britt in his tracks but turned on the jets and outran everybody else in the Auburn secondary. Three times when Auburn was facing third-and-short, David Reese was in on the tackle to stop Boobie Whitlow short of a first down. Big time players show up big in the biggest games and Reese made his presence known with 13 tackles. Jonathan Greenard didn't get a sack but he harassed Bo Nix and helped make the Auburn QB look like a lost ball in the tall weeds a good portion of the game. He was credited with three quarterback hurries. It seemed like he had at least twice that many. He also nailed Whitlow for no gain on a third-and-one on Auburn's first possession. Florida's secondary came up with three interceptions. There were two blown coverages on a 32-yard touchdown pass and a 46-yard completion but two blown coverages are tolerable when you also pick off three passes in critical situations. The one-handed pick by Shawn Davis and his twisting, turning 41-yard return were spectacular. With CJ Henderson and Marco Wilson at the corners, Auburn had trouble getting people open on vertical routes on the outside. Emory Jones went into the game cold in the second quarter when Trask went down and led the Gators to a field goal. He completed 5-7 passes for 28 yards and ran three times for 13 more. Tight end Lucas Krull didn't get a pass thrown his way, but he contributed in a big way when he took a handoff from Trask and sold tight end around to the Auburn defense before making the nice throwback to Trask for the first down in the fourth quarter. Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham used the blitz judiciously and that confused Bo Nix. Nix kept waiting for the Gators to bring the house but for the most part, they got pressure with only a three- or four-man rush. In the second half, Grantham unleashed a jailbreak blitz that turned a third-and-eight into a fourth-and-30 then later got another sack when James Houston came up the gut on a delayed blitz. In both situations, Nix never knew what was coming. The Gators outrushed Auburn 132-124. Auburn came into the game averaging 251 yards per game but managed only 3.6 yards per carry. Alabama native Evan McPherson kicked a 41-yard field goal, made all three of his extra points and four of his five kickoffs were touchbacks. Despite a fake punt that didn't go so well, Tommy Townsend spent the day flipping the field (averaged 47.1 per punt). SOME NOT SO GOOD THINGS ABOUT THE AUBURN WIN Four fumbles. Three of them were by Trask, but only one was caused by the Auburn defensive line. The other two were on blitzes that nobody picked up. The curious no call on KJ Britt who knocked Dameon Pierce out of the game with a helmet-to-helmet hit. Not only was a zebra standing right there, close enough to see it without an impeded view, but the replay booth in Birmingham must have overdosed on Alleve PM. Too many times Nix had a clear field ahead of him so he ran for positive yards. The fake punt in the second quarter was the wrong call. Auburn had it well defended and it cost the Gators a touchdown. Jean Delance had real problems handling speed off the edge and the three interior guys – Nick Buchanan, Chris Bleich and Brett Heggie – had days they would like to forget trying to neutralize Derrick Brown.

No you weren’t dreaming. Yes that really happened. The No. 7 Florida Gators defeated the No. 12 Auburn Tigers (No. 10 and 7 respectively at game time) 24-13 in front of a packed, absolutely insane Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. It’s not going to get any easier for the Gators as they now head to Baton Rouge for a date with No. 5 LSU on Saturday night. But still, the Top 10 win against Auburn was special and deserves our attention for at least another day. So taking a note from Dan Mullen’s speech to the team shown in the HBO special, we’re going to let ourselves enjoy this win. As you head back to work on Monday, here’s everything you need to know for your watercooler topics from Florida-Auburn. Go watch the HBO special If you haven’t watched the HBO special on the Florida Gators yet, go, right now. Well finish this article first, but then go watch it because it’s so, so, so good. For someone who gets paid to write words, those aren’t eloquent enough to do justice for the documentary but I don’t want to try to match the hour long program. The Gators are the first of four teams that the specialty channel followed to document a week of preparation. It was an incredible inside look into a week of practice, how this staff runs the program and the easy going yet intense personality of this team. It’s worth signing up for the free 7-day trial just to see the documentary. The Gator's defense Is legit Credit where credit is due, that was a heck of a game plan by Todd Grantham. The defensive coordinator game in with the perfect call sheet to stifle Auburn’s offense and he never lost faith in its success. Granted, he never had a reason to lose faith as the defense was smothering all day. In all, Grantham’s crew held Auburn to 269 total yards. The Tigers had been averaging 454.4 per game. All game, the defensive line dominated Auburn’s offensive line and kept pressure on freshman quarterback Bo Nix. There were three quarterback hurries and two sacks along with four takeaways. Grantham actually scaled back his aggressive pressure nature and asked his defense to play deeper, allowing them to stop the run more and take away passing options from the Tigers threatening receivers. It’s a sign of a good coach to come up with a successful game plan and stick with it; it’s a sign of a great coach to change his mindset and nature, knowing what’s needed in a particular game, while not loosing their personality. So is Auburn's Don’t let anyone tell you Auburn was overrated and their defense isn’t legit after this loss and giving up 398 offensive yards to the Gators. The Kevin Steele squad was scary and stayed tough up front all day. Where they were soft was the secondary and that’s what the Gators were able to take advantage of with slants—like the touchdown to Freddie Swain—or getting a runner to the outside and only having to deal with one deep safety—like the touchdown run by Lamical Perine. But in the front seven, Auburn was stout and as advertised. They held the Gators to 132 yards rushing, with 88 of those coming on the aforementioned Perine play. Derrick Brown was an absolute freak off the line as well. He had a sack on Kyle Trask, leading to a fumble and it was all Brown. As he came off the right edge of the offensive line, Brown chopped down on Trask’s arm as he threw. It caused the fumble and Brown returned for 11 yards before tackled by Trask. Earlier in the day, a sack by K.J. Britt caused a fumble that Brown returned for 42 yards and would’ve been a score had the big man not run out of energy. The front seven as a whole forced two QB hurries and had seven tackles for loss (four sacks). Both teams had very few miscues It would be easy to look at this game and say both offenses floundered. That’d also be a little lazy. So much of the offenses miscues were forced by the elite defenses, of which we’ve already discussed. Each team had one really bad miscue. For the Gators, it was a defensive breakdown when CJ Henderson and Donovan Stiner played two different coverages, a rare occurrence for the two cerebral players. And for Auburn, Nix dancing his way backwards into a self inflicted 22-yard sack and out of field goal range was a freshman mistake. We could say that each offense had four turnovers, but it’s more like each defense had four takeaways. Yes the Gators offensive line needs to continue to grow and doing so will eliminate some of that pressure that has led to fumbles. The Tigers have to work with their young passer on when to take sacks, when to throw it away, etc. Overall though, this was more of a defensive win than the offenses losing. Emory Jones is going to be fine There was a scary moment when Kyle Trask had to jog to the locker room with an unknown injury. For a team and fan base that’d already seen their starting quarterback—Feleipe Franks—knocked out for the season three weeks earlier, everyone collectively held their breath. Trask ended up returning to the game to ample cheers and was able to play again. Mullen described the injury as a mild MCL sprain and both he and Trask said the QB is fine to go moving forward. During his absence, redshirt freshman Emory Jones stepped in and did just fine. Quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson told Gator Bait two weeks ago that he trust Jones to run the entire offensive playbook just as if Franks or Trask would. During his snaps against Auburn, Jones threw the ball seven times (completing five for 28 yards) and ran three times for 13 yards. Most of the throws were quick screens or slants. He did however hit Freddie Swain back-to-back with 14-yard and 20-yard completions. The variety of plays confirmed what Johnson was saying. That if Jones has to go back in—and when it’s his time to take over—nothing much will change offensive wise. Let’s talk takeaways The Gators lead the country in interceptions (15) and total takeaways (17). They had 26 all of last season. Seven different guys have nabbed an interception and three have forced fumbles. Three came down with interceptions on Saturday—Shawn Davis, Donovan Stiner and Marco Wilson. Stiner's explanation of the play echo's others who've explained this is not luck. It's preparation. "It was a zone coverage so I was just reading the quarterbacks eye’s," explained Stiner. "He definitely didn’t see me...I think he was trying to throw it to the guy our corner was on, who was kinda behind me. I think he just missed me so he didn’t see me right there.” It’s a ball hawk defense surpassing even that of 2015. Florida doesn’t have chains or medals or trash cans or backpacks. But they do have Shawn Davis, the safety tied for 4th in the country with three interceptions and who leads the country in interception returns with 11 yards. Physicality wins out In a game that featured two modern offensively minded coaches, this was an old school, physical, trenches, defensive game. Thanks to the rigid regiment Nick Savage requires of the Florida players, they were ready for such a game. Said Mullen, “I thought we did a really good job being physical at the line of scrimmage. I mean everyone coming in the game said Auburn’s going to dominate both lines of scrimmage and their great players made some dominating plays but it’s hard to look at the stat line and say that Auburn dominated the line of scrimmage tonight.: Home field advantage wins out The home field advantage also won out The Swamp packed in 90,584 screaming fans and it was beyond loud the entire 60 minutes. It forced the Tigers into three false start penalties and admittedly rattled Bo Nix who said, “It was really loud & we had trouble hearing the clap for the cadence. Sometimes we had slow communication. Stuff like that happens. Every team that walks into The Swamp has communication issues, but we just didn't do anything to make up for those.” The Gators will now travel to Baton Rouge for another Top 10 matchup against No. 5 LSU. Florida opened as a 13 point underdog and the line was sitting at 14.5 at the time of publication, according to Circa Sports and Bet Online. The game will kickoff at 8pm ET on ESPN.

Dan Mullen cracked a can of Pepsi, cracked a smile and let out an audible sigh of relief. “Just a regular day in The Swamp.” No matter the jest or sarcasm inserted into the statement, it rings true. This is a regular day in The Swamp; or at least it has been of late. The No. 10 Florida Gators knocked off the No. 7 Auburn Tigers 24-13 in the first Top 10 matchup in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium since 2012. It means Mullen’s squad is undefeated, sitting at 6-0, 3-0 in the SEC. It’s the Tigers first loss of the season. In so many ways, it mirrored the Gators 27-19 win over the LSU Tigers last season in The Swamp. It echoed the sheer refusal mindset that helped Florida defeat the Miami Hurricanes to kick off the season. It harkened to the unbreakable spirit that helped the Gators reel off a 19-point comeback to beat the Kentucky Wildcats after quarterback Feleipe Franks was lost to a season ending injury. This game, at the mid-way point of the season, has become the culmination of the message Dan Mullen and his staff have been preaching since arriving in Gainesville December 2018. Live up to the Gator standard and don’t let go of the rope; never flinch, and to paraphrase Tom Petty, don’t back down. It's a message Mullen has asked for buy-in for from the team, the staff, the fans and the entire program as as whole. And on a day when the Gators wore throwback 1960's uniforms, on Homecoming weekend and with a slew of former players on the sideline, the helped remind us all what the Gator Standard is in this classic SEC rivalry. The win wasn’t always pretty and it was downright wild in the beginning. Florida won the toss and elected to defer. With the sun beaming directly onto Steve Spurrier Florida Field, the 90,584 in attendance came of one throat and created a wall of sound that could probably be heard in Lake City. From there the defense set the tone. BUCK Jon Greenard (6 tackles, 3 QB hurries) took down Auburn freshman quarterback Bo Nix (11-27, 145 yards 1 TD, 3 INT; 10 rushes, 18 yards) as the ball was released, credited as a QB hurry, and two plays later the Tigers were forced to punt. Overall Florida’s defense forced Auburn to go 2-14 on 3rd downs for the day. On the Gators ensuing drive, Kyle Trask (19-31, 234, 2 TD) found Freddie Swain (6-146 yards, 1 TD) on a slant. Swain cut to midfield and saw receiver Van Jefferson blocking an Auburn defender for him. From there, it was gravy. "I just had a one-on-one route where it was me versus the linebacker,” says Swain of the 66-yard touchdown. “I went inside, I got a great block from Van that allowed me to turn up and kind of score with it, so I give credit to Van…as soon as I caught it and turned up I kind of looked at that this safety and seen Van turn up here, that's why I kind of ran ahead of Van and he made a block. “That touchdown right there was good, it gave us a confidence booster.” On the Tigers ensuing drive, AU head coach Gus Malzahn was forced to call a timeout after Nix took the play clock down to zero. It was a result of an unrelenting barrage of sound from the crowd. By the end of the day, Auburn had been lured into three false starts. Nix explained the miscommunication saying, "It was really loud & we had trouble hearing the clap for the cadence. Sometimes we had slow communication. Stuff like that happens. Every team that walks into The Swamp has communication issues, but we just didn't do anything to make up for those.” “I think we got the best fans in college football,” countered safety Shawn Davis (5 tackles, 1 interception). “I felt like when the game started, we got to [Nix], like, Greenard was getting to the backfield so fast, so he was just grounding the ball. So, I feel like we started out pretty fast on defense.” For Mullen, that response by the Gator fans are what he’s been asking for, building and hoping to achieve on a consistent basis. The Swamp, I guess this is how is how the Swamp used to be. This is what the Swamp is, this is what we expect it to be, is that home-field advantage,” bragged the head coach. "The most electric environment in college football, the loudest stadium in college football. We need the Gator Nation to be able to give that effort just like the team give, all the time, like they did today. It’s hard for any team to get in here and come for a win if that’s how the crowd is going to be. They did an unbelievable job today.” The crowd and the defense had to do an unbelievable job on the next five drives that threw this entire game into a college football kaleidoscope and said ‘let’s get funky.’ The drives went like this: Gators quarterback Kyle Trask was sacked, causing a fumble that Auburn recovered. The defense held them to a field goal to make it 7-3. Next drive, running back Dameon Pierce was hit helmet to helmet and was knocked out the game. Mullen said after the game they’d find out if anything is wrong, injury wise. On the hit, Pierce fumbled. Auburn recovered and was again held to a field goal, but now in a 1-point game. Then a 62-yard Tommy Townsend punt was fumbled by Auburn fumbled and Bama native Jeremiah Moon (2 tackles, fumble recovery) recovered at the Tigers 2-yard line. An unsportsmanlike call on Kyree Campbell backed up the Gators to the 17-yard line which meant when Derrick Brown had his first of two sacks on Kyle Trask, and popped the ball loose, he didn’t have as far to go 42-yard return to the UF 35-yard line. However two plays later, Nix went deep down the sideline and Davis was there. The safety, returning from injury that held him out last week, jumped and tipped the ball down one handed into his waiting arms. He returned the interception 41 yards. “I’d seen that the receiver was going vertical, he didn’t really sell it much, but I knew he was going for a route. He wasn’t going to block. So I just like stayed home and the quarterback just threw it anyway,” explained Davis. Florida scored on a 13-yard crossing route to Josh Hammond (2-23, 1TD) off the turnover. Then two drives later, the Gators went for a fake punt on 4th and 3 that came up short. Auburn scored their only touchdown of the day, a 32-yard pass to Seth Williams, off the turnover. By that point we were only mid-way through the second quarter. But the Gators, having listened to the message Mullen has been preaching for the past two years, didn’t flinch. This staff has been working to recreate a program, build more than just a team but an identity, and doing so requires “living up to the Gator standard” and “not dropping the rope,” the latter being a Nick Savage favorite during strength and conditioning drills. In the second half, the Gators outscored Auburn 7-0, building on a second half dominance this season. Florida has outscored opponents 112-17 in the second half through six games, including a 64-7 advantage in the fourth quarter alone. “The things that we go through in practice, how hard we work all offseason, like, we’ve got to meet the Gator Standard. Everybody expects us to work to the Gator Standard. So that’s what we’re trying to becoming and we’re punching in our head that we’re the Gators,” explained Davis. Kyle Trask agrees, “That Auburn defense is super tough. They're a tough team from top to bottom, and nothing was given to us in this game. It was all earned. That just comes from being resilient. This is one of the most resilient teams I've ever been a part of. That's just a result of us being dialed in throughout the week in preparation and that shows on Saturdays.” The Gators offense put up nearly 400 yards of offense on the Tigers defense that came in to the game giving up 320. The 398 total offensive yards included 266 passing, making this six consecutive games now the Gators have passed for 250+. It helped that the Florida defense held Malzahn’s offense to 269 total yards. In fact, Freddie Swain had more receiving yards, 146, then the Tigers did total passing (145). Todd Grantham's crew garnered two sacks and ended the day with three interceptions (Donovan Stiner and Marco Wilson in addition to Davis) and the Moon fumble recovery. It’s a mindset that Mullen has been preaching. “When you look at what we're trying to build and the type of program that we want to be: The guys believe in it. Offense, defense and special teams—it seems that all year when we could really use an offensive play, [today] an 88-yard touchdown run and we put the game away. We could use a first down and we get a first down We turned it over three straight times and put us in some bad positions. We could use a stop and a stop and a stop and we create a turnover. They get the ball in the red zone and we create a turnover in the red zone. We could use a big special teams play here and we get a big punt. “That's the guys buying into what we do. Nick Savage and the strength staff do an amazing job to get our guys in shape. We roll a lot of guys through and we tell them to get ready to play and they go in. That's great. You get these type of wins and they are team wins. They are awesome team wins. There are a lot of things we can clean up and get better at. The great thing about this team is they're going to enjoy this win. They're fired up. They're also going to pay attention to detail to the things they can improve on and get ready to go next week. "The other thing I thought we did a really good job being physical at the line of scrimmage. I mean everyone coming in the game said Auburn’s going to dominate both lines of scrimmage and their great players made some dominating plays but it’s hard to look at the stat line and say that Auburn dominated the line of scrimmage tonight." The 88-yard touchdown Mullen mentioned came off a Lamical Perine run that’s been brewing for six weeks. The senior running back has had to patiently wait while the offensive line put together some semblance of a run blocking scheme. But on Saturday, he broke off the run he’s been chipping away at all season. “Almost brought tears to my eyes. Just a big-time atmosphere and big-time crowd. I’m glad I was able to make that big-time play,” said Perine. “Honestly, I came out Monday morning, 8 o’clock team meeting, my mindset was totally different. I knew I had to make some big-time plays for my team. A lot of people doubted me, but I just continued to keep working and go out there and just try to help my teammates to this victory.” It was the longest touchdown run for a Florida player since Emmitt Smith’s 96-yard score against Mississippi State in 1988. The Gators legend was on the sidelines for the game and congratulated the Bama kid who was told he was too slow for Auburn during the recruiting process. “He came up to me after the game and was just like, ‘You did a great job man running the ball, fighting through adversity.’ That was big coming from a great guy like him.” Perine’s mindset while waiting for the line to gel has admittedly tested his patience. He’s seen the tweets and stories calling for him to be benched for Pierce, he’s seen the skewed stats provided without context. But as he’s done his entire time in Gainesville, he was patient. “Just control what I can control. I know I’m a big-time player and a lot of people, they doubt me sometimes, but I come in every day and give my all for my teammates. It was just an honor to be able to make a big play for this team, how much I go out and just go hard. I’m a humble guy, but everybody know when it’s time to play big games, I’m a guy they can look to.” That in itself echos the message Mullen has worked to make the foundation. “Just goes back to our preparation,” continued Perine. “A lot of things Coach Savage teaches us, Coach Mullen teaches us, they instilled that in our head and we just came out today and got the W. We knew it was going to be a hard-fought battle, we came out with that mindset, so we were ready for the dogfight today.” The dogfight continues next week against No. 4 LSU in Baton Rouge. The team gets one night to celebrate this big win, another part of the Gator Standard, Mullen wanting them to enjoy the game and the fun. But then it's back to work. The Gators will most likely be underdogs yet again, as they were this Saturday. That’s fine with them. They’re not living up to anyone else’s standard. They’re living up the Gator Standard.

On the final play of the first quarter Saturday afternoon at The Swamp, Auburn linebacker KJ Britt stripped Kyle Trask of the football at the Auburn 23-yard line. The scramble for the loose football was won by Auburn's 320-pound All-Planetary defensive tackle Derrick Brown, who needed only three or four steps to reach full speed once he secured possession. Brown instinctively swerved to his left and headed for the West sideline where he picked up a convoy of blockers. It was full steam ahead for the touchdown that was going to give the Tigers their first lead of the game. But a funny thing happened on the way to the end zone. Somewhere around the Florida 38 the grass gremlins did their thing and Brown went sprawling to the turf a full 35 yards away from glory land. Two plays later, freshman quarterback Bo Nix threw the first of his three interceptions on the afternoon, this one to Shawn Davis, who made a spectacular leaping one-handed grab at the Florida 26. By the time he was brought down 41 yards later and deep in Auburn territory, Auburn's Jack Driscoll had committed a personal foul that tacked another 15 yards onto the runback. A couple plays later, Trask found Josh Hammond on a crossing pattern that was good for 13 yards and a touchdown that gave the Gators a 14-6 lead. Late in the third quarter with Auburn trailing the Gators, 17-13, Florida busted a coverage on a vertical route run by the Tigers' Seth Williams. Williams was all alone around the Florida 18 without a single Gator defender in the same area code. Nix's pass was a little high but not so high that Williams couldn't reach up and snag it then waltz his way into the end zone. But another funny thing happened on the way to the end zone. Another set of grass gremlins got into the act. As Williams came down with the ball, his feet caught in the turf and he went sprawling forward to the 13. It was a 46-yard gain and the biggest offensive play Auburn would make all day, but instead of a go-ahead TD, the Tigers still had work to do. Two plays and a false start later, Nix didn't see Donovan Stiner in the end zone when he cut loose with pass that hit Stiner on the numbers for an easy interception. For all the critical stops the Florida defense made on this day, two of the bigger plays were made by the grass gremlins. Sometimes the margins that separate victory and defeat are as simple as a cleat catching in the turf. Most people would call those two plays lucky breaks and they would be right, but that would also diminish all the critical stops the 10th-ranked Gators (6-0, 3-0 SEC) made to put away the 7th-ranked Tigers (5-1, 2-1 SEC), 24-13. In the first quarter, for example, Auburn couldn't convert the first two of the three Florida fumbles into touchdowns, settling instead for field goals. After the second fumble, Florida's Jeawon Taylor and David Reese stopped Auburn tailback Boobie Whitlow in his tracks on a third-and-three at the UF 21.That was the second time in the quarter (the first was on Auburn's initial possession) when Whitlow was nailed for no gain (Reese and Adam Shuler In the second quarter with the Gators leading Auburn 14-6, Luke Ancrum and Mohamoud Diabate combined to hold Whitlow to one yard on a third-and-two, forcing a punt. Reese and Jeremiah Moon tackled Whitlow for no gain in the third quarter when the Tigers faced a third-and-one. Later in the third quarter, Jonathan Greenard harassed Nix into a bad throw that CJ Henderson broke up on a third-and-nine. Early in the fourth quarter, Trask was sacked and stripped of the football by Brown, who returned it to the Auburn 40. Four plays later, the Tigers faced third-and-eight at the Florida 38. For the most part, Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham had been content to rush three or four and drop everybody else in coverage, but on this play he brought the house. Nix was startled by the Florida jailbreak rush so he retreated and tried to double back twice. Surrounded by Gators, he slipped and fell 22 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Following the Auburn punt, Lamical Perine broke a couple of tackles and then sprinted to an 88-yard touchdown that gave the Gators the 24-13 lead. On Auburn's next possession, James Houston got a third down sack of Nix, forcing the Tigers to go for it on fourth down. This time, the Gators dropped everyone in coverage. Nix tried to run for it but was stopped six yards shy of the first down. Marco Wilson got Florida's third and final interception on the next Auburn possession. Florida needed every one of these big plays from the defense because it was a rather strange day for the offense. While Trask threw for 234 yards and two touchdowns; while Freddie Swain had a career day (six catches for 146 yards and a TD); and while Lamical Perine ran for more yards (130) than the entire Auburn team (124), the Gators did force the defense to play like its hair was on fire. Normally, you lose big when you turn the ball over four times and then botch a fake punt deep in your own territory that leads to a touchdown by the bad guys. But for all the near disasters, the Gators had enough defensive answers to dominate the game. Auburn was not going to pound the Gators. Not on this day. Not against this defense. Florida held Auburn to 2-14 on third down conversions. The Tigers' vaunted running game (averaging 251 yards per game prior to Saturday) managed only 3.6 yards per attempt. Nix went 11-27 passing for 145 yards. Put into better perspective, if you take away the 46-yard pass to Williams and a 32-yarder that went for a TD on a blown coverage and he managed just 67 yards on his other 25 attempts. That Auburn offense came into the game averaging 38 points and 454.4 yards per game but the Tigers scored only one touchdown and struggled for 269 yards against the Gators. This was an elite performance by an elite defense and yet, for all their defensive heroics, the difference between victory and defeat was two plays that had absolutely nothing to do with Florida's tackling, pursuit or scheme. Perhaps on any other Saturday, Brown never stumbles and falls when he has an escort of blockers and only green grass and the end zone waiting for him. Perhaps on any other Saturday, Seth Williams makes the leaping grab and gets his feet under him when he comes down, after which he walks into the end zone. Perhaps, but not on this day. Those two plays brought back a flood of memories to 2006 when South Carolina came to The Swamp and the Gators blocked an extra point and two field goals in the fourth quarter. On the second blocked field goal, it took a 6-7 Jarvis Moss leaping as high as he could and getting a few fingers on the football to save a 17-16 Florida win in a season in which the Gators went on to win the national championship. The Gators are a long way away from playing for a national championship, but they've already had three great escapes – Miami, Kentucky and now Auburn. Either this team is living on borrowed time or perhaps it's one of those years when even the grass gremlins make plays when they have to.

The ESPN College Gameday set is framing the University of Florida library, a universal symbol that the biggest college football game of the weekend is here in town. They're here to broadcast ahead of the No. 7 Auburn vs. No. 10 Florida game. It’s been seven years since the Gameday crew was here in Gainesville, spanning a stretch when the Florida program has been through twists and turns, highs and lows struggling through turbulence. But now, for the first time since that last Gameday trip, the Gators have a Top 10 matchup in the Swamp. “It’s a different animal man, SEC,” remarks Gameday analysts Desmond Howard. "They’re so adamant and they’re so passionate about their football. It’s just great to come down here, especially when they get rolling. It’s not always like this. When we were here, obviously you had the Chris Leak's, the Tim Tebow’s, the Percy Harvin’s and those guys and it was rolling. It was probably not a better atmosphere in college football. So I think that Dan Mullen and his staff is trying to get it back to those good days.” Dan Mullen was here in Gainesville from 2005-2009 as the Gators offensive coordinator and for a Gameday visit in 2006 when Florida defeated LSU 23-10 with Chris Leak and Tim Tebow under center. For Florida to pull of a monumental win this weekend against Auburn, the Gameday crew see some clear keys to the game. “Both teams have strong defenses,” remarks Howard. “Florida can capitalize on [Auburn quarterback] Bo Nix, putting pressure on him. He’s not a quarterback that has high completion numbers when he’s pressured so that may be a matchup, see how they gonna try to put pressure on a freshman quarterback in the Swamp. I mean he’s been battle tested on the road before in the SEC, but I mean, this is the Swamp and I think that they have athletes that can really cause some problems defensively for Auburn so that’s probably the matchup.” The Gators defensive line has been one of the country’s best in applying pressure, with 24 sacks (second in the nation) and leads the country in redzone defense. "I don't expect this to be a high-scoring game because of that,” admits David Pollack. “I think Florida's defense is really good. We talk a lot about grad transfers all across college football. [Jon] Greenard should be one of the guys that comes to the top of the list, I mean he's been unbelievable. And I think [Jabari] Zuniga is back now, right? So Florida's defense is also going to get healthier. It's also one of the best in the country getting to the quarterback, sacking the quarterback. I think what's a good matchup for Florida is Florida has speed. Auburn likes to do the zone read game, Auburn likes to do the quarterback run around the quarterback. They make the defensive ends play slow and play run, play the running back first and then react to the quarterback. Well those guys are athletic enough where they can play the run and then still chase Bo Nix down possibly and make plays. “I think it's good on good. It's going to be two great defenses working against two offenses that haven't found their way yet, but if you watch Auburn against Mississippi State last week and you're a Florida fan, you're going, 'Crap, like don't find your offense now.' True freshman looks like he's continued to grow up, but it wasn't against this kind of defense and this kind of atmosphere. So the crowd's going to have to play a factor in being loud and annoying Bo Nix.” On the offensive side, Kyle Trask will be making his third start against one of the best defensive lines in the country, facing the Tigers. The Gameday crew are in agreement that it will take short passes and working the edges, much like the way Florida did against Mississippi State last year, in order to win that battle. They can do that thanks to Dan Mullen, who host Rece Davis has a very strong opinion about. “I think he’s one of the most underrated coaches in the country, one of the bright offensive minds in the game. “He’s his own guy and he’s got a great personality but he’s very comfortable in his own skin. I think sometimes people take for granted how difficult it was to win at the level that he did at Mississippi State. I think that’s the primary reason for it. I think it’s an unfortunate thing in the coaching business but sometimes if guys go somewhere for three years and then jump then all of a sudden we decide they’re a whole lot smarter than if they go somewhere and stay close to a decade. He went, stayed at Mississippi State and they were solid all the time and really good at other times. “Think about it, Mississippi State was No. 1 when he was the coach there. That’s hard to do and he did it. I think he’s going to do great here. I think they’re a year or two off in getting their roster just right in terms of depth and the number of linemen on both sides that they’d like to have and that kind of stuff but he’s doing a great job and this is a great opportunity to be a proving ground on Saturday.” The Gators offensive line has been admittedly suspect and it has hampered the run game to the tune of averaging a mere 141.40 rushing yards per game. The passing game however has flourished, averaging 288.2 yards per game through the air. Now it will take finding the Jimmy’s and Joe’s to match Mullens X’s and O’s, as Pollack explains. “I don’t doubt Dan one million percent when it comes to Xs and Os and football. He’s proven himself. If you don’t buy in to what he’s done, you’re an idiot. I can’t help you. I can’t fix you. But from a recruiting standpoint, can he get those guys out wide and those playmakers. Because if you get that, this offense goes from really good to next-level great. And a quarterback, he’ll find one I’m sure that will do what he wants from a running standpoint - Nick Fitzgerald, Dak Prescott, those guys, Fitzgerald set all the rushing records.” The talking is over, the conjuncture is finished. So can Dan Mullen help give the Gators their biggest win in years? As Desmond Howard says, “We’ll see tomorrow.”

BY BUDDY MARTIN GatorBait Editor These kinds of games come along every 25 years or so. In the case of Florida-Auburn, exactly 25 years ago. Two former rivals, both unbeaten and ranked in the Top Ten, locked in a Lollapalooza of college football game. In 1994, with a guy named Spurrier was coaching and a guy named Nix (Patrick) was pitching the winning touchdown in the final ticks. No. 6 Auburn pulled off an epic 36-33 upset over No. 1 ranked Florida in The Swamp. Here we are two and a half decades later with another guy named Nix (Bo) playing quarterback for the Tigers on a field named after Steve Spurrier, two undefeated teams renewing an old rivalry – No. 7 Auburn a field goal favorite over No. 10 Florida. Topped off with the Gators wearing vintage throwback uniforms from the Spurrier Era in a Homecoming setting featuring ESPN Game Day on campus. All of college football could benefit by taking notes and noticing our cover with the Two No. 11s featured over Kassidy Hill’s brilliant headline “Back to the Future.” The perfect Old School/New School blend. This is good for what ails college football. In more ways than one. What beautiful symmetry is spawned by this déjà vu. This game could be epic whether it turns out close or not, just because of the organic spirits which are bound to be stirred up in The Swamp. And it answers two mega-questions: Is Auburn a dilletante masquerading as an emerging No.1, as some so-called experts are saying? On the other side, could the revival of the Florida Gator football brand with the start of a four-game Murderer’s Row of Top Tens: Auburn, LSU and Georgia? Murderer’s Row is not new to Dan Mullen. He’s fought his way out of it before. Remember, he coached in that SEC West division full of Tigers and the Tide. The season was 2014, full of serendipitous success, and the Bulldogs were on top of the world, holding on to the No. 1 ranking for four weeks. First time ever for Mississippi State. Mullen was sashaying down his own Mississippi State Murderer’s Row. “At Mississippi State we played (No.) 2, 4 and 6 in consecutive weeks,” Mullen recalled. “It was actually 6, 4 and 2 in reverse order. We played No. 6, won, we played No. 4, won, played No. 2, won.” Actually, depending on what poll is used and when, it was No. 8 LSU, No. 6 Texas A&M and No. 2 Auburn at the time they played. Still impressive. Nine straight wins by the Bulldogs. The problem is that Mullen’s team couldn’t hold serve and lost three of its last four games to Alabama, Ole Miss and Georgia Tech. After a 10-3 record and a No. 11 finish in the final poll, however, Dan Mullen had made his bones. Once again, it’s on. Mullen is 19-3 at Florida with 9 straight wins. The last time his Gator team lost was almost exactly a year ago when it was knocked off by Missouri. Not a ton of love from the national media, but sneaky little building blocks have gotten Florida to the precipice of SEC contention which will be determined after Murder’s Row: No. 7 Auburn, No. 5 LSU in Death Valley, with unranked South Carolina following and then an open date before No. 3 Georgia. The bright lights will be shining on Gainesville this week, conjuring up such a rich history. You can go all the way back to Spurrier’s playing days when he struggled at Auburn in a loss which featured the ballhawking of a linebacker named Bill Cody from Orlando, who picked off one of his passes and caused him to fumble. Or the next year when Spurrier kicked the winning 40-yard field goal on Florida Field to beat Auburn 30-27 which probably won him the Heisman. Then as a coach at Florida Steve beat those Tigers from the Loveliest Village on the Plains like a dusty rug, 10 x 13 times. One of the times he didn’t was that 1994 game when Patrick Nix hit Frank Sanders for the winning touchdown. Now comes another No. 11 to try his hand. Kyle Trask may have to get the ball out quicker against Auburn’s stellar defensive line. Ironically, he’ll be wearing a similar uniform to what Spurrier wore 1964. And the same number. If you can’t get jacked up about this weekend, then have your cardiologist check you for a heartbeat. Nostalgia prevails, but the reality is that the Florida-Auburn is just what the doctor ordered to spice up some feeble cupcake schedules for which fans are sick of buying overpriced tickets. I’ve heard all the yada-yada-yada about scheduling problems and don’t buy it. Still no good reason why they can’t get this rivalry back on the front burner, but the truth is that is must be done now, somehow someway if the SEC is serious about the integrity of the game and getting rid of the ripoff prices for those cupcake games. No wonder CFB attendance is falling like the Dow-Jones of March 2009. Paul Finebaum agrees. “It’s and going to something drastic before somebody does something,” Finebaum told me on the Buddy Martin Show. “It’s like it takes a heart attack sometimes before we start being concerned about our health.” Finebaum has not been on the Gator bandwagon, which is why I was surprised to hear him say Florida has a real shot at Auburn, pointing out that this is the first trip to The Swamp for both Bo Nix and Gus Malzahn. “Of those three big games (Auburn, LSU and Georgia) Florida’s best chance is against Auburn,” he said. Meanwhile, we’ve got this to live for: Lollapalooza definition: A person or thing that is particularly impressive or attractive. Last year’s crowd buzz for LSU was the loudest we’ve heard in a long time. Will Saturday’s game equal it? Even Dan Mullen had a little extra juice this week when he talked about his days of coaching against Auburn – and what life was like in the West when Mississippi State was batting its own version of Murderer’s Row. “I’ve gotten an opportunity to play a lot of top 10 teams. (he laughs). I just wasn’t always Top 10 at the same time as a head coach. But I love them. This is what it’s all about. These are a lot of fun. These are fun games to be a part of.” This being the first time since 2007 that the Tigers have been to The Swamp, Mullen pause to reflect on a return to a regular home-and-home series which he hopes could happen someday. “I think it would be great to get to play for the players,” said Mullen. “I think for the fans and for the players to have these games be played more often would be benefit for everyone. That's why you want to come in the SEC, to play big games and to play other SEC schools. So I think it would be great for these games to be played more often.” And then there is “The Battle of the Visor Coach.” It is believed that Malzahn started wearing his visor when he was a high school coach. Mullen began wearing one as a rookie coach at Wagner College. “I wasn’t really the first one,” Spurrier said. “Maybe the first one in college. The Green Bay Packers were playing the Rams in the Coliseum one hot sunny day. And Vince Lombardi was wearing one. (Bill) Belichick wears one every now and then. Maybe I was the first in college ball.” Somebody noted to Mullen than Malzahn was a “Visor Coach” as well. His inspiration was also Spurrier. “That’s all right,” Mulled wisecracked on the way out of the presser. “We’ve got Coach Spurrier!”

There are only so many opportunities such as these. Only so many Saturday’s, only so many games, only so many moments to create memories. This Saturday is one of those. I don’t have to tell you why this game is important. Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past week, you know. I don’t have to tell you how much this game means to the Florida Gators program. You can feel it in the air in Gainesville. I just want to tell you why you’re important and why you need to be in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium early. Games like this one—Florida versus Auburn—they’re what college football is about. It’s a rivalry that has been ignored for far too long, making it all the sweeter the times it does come around. It’s a Top 10 matchup. It’s the game of the week. There are playoff implications on the line. It's Homecoming. You can go pregame with ESPN's College Gameday at the Plaza of the Americas. These games are special, they’re rare and the kind we tells stories about for years to come. Tell the whole story. "In a game like this, every single moment is going to matter. Be a part of every single moment." There’s no point avoiding the elephant sized gator in the room. If you’re a student reading this, there’s been a contentious relationship between your fellow peers and media/administration/alumni/any opposing fanbase on Twitter and anyone else that got a glimpse of the stadium before kickoff. And I get it; it feels like the utmost disrespect to be called out about attendance. You pack in on the sunny side of the stadium in central Florida, stand in the dead heat and create a deafening wall of sound. You stand behind your team and support your Gators and feel like you give everything within your soul and voice to help impact the course of the game. That's the point. When media or older fans point out the empty student section 15 minutes before kickoff, it’s not a slight or a slap in the face. It’s a plea. When those who drive hours to Gainesville for six to seven weekends each year, pay thousands of dollars in dues and expenses, go into a Gator Boosters meeting and ask Scott Stricklin what can be done about the students, it’s not because they don’t want you there. It’s because they want you to want to be there. When people get upset that you’re not there early for the game, it’s because you ARE the game. Anyone can sit at home and watch the matchup on television, taking in the replays and screaming to their refrigerator when something exciting happens. But being there in the stadium, that’s what you remember most. Being a part of the outcome of the game is the feeling you carry with you when reminiscing on the day some Thanksgiving 30 years from now. “No matter what you do and watch on TV, it's still really exciting and it's a lot of fun. But not like being there, when you can feel the noise, when you can feel the energy, when you can feel the excitement,” head coach Dan Mullen waxes poetic. “I'm sure watching Jarvis Moss block a field goal against South Carolina was pretty cool on TV. But probably felt a little differently if you were in the stadium. Right? You know, I mean, were you there? It was pretty cool to watch Brad Stewart pick off that pass last year against LSU. A little bit different when you were there and saw it and you were in the corner of that end zone.” That Stewart Pick-6 against LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, I’m convinced, was a direct result of the atmosphere the fans—and particularly students—had helped create in the Swamp. It was a cacophony of discordance, pressing down on the Tigers and forcing Burrow into not one, but two bad decisions; the interception to Stewart and then another to Donovan Stiner, effectively ending the game. It’s easy to remember those plays and games and think that’s when the atmosphere is more important. But there’s so much more to a game than just the final moments and the tone can be set from the moment the gates are open. “At the beginning, that's when people will be really spooked,” says corner Marco Wilson. “Usually, towards the end of the game, you're already used to what's going on [but] they come out loud right away, you're going to be worried about this and that because it's loud. The beginning part is really important.” It’s stepping out of the opponents tunnel, according to wide receiver Freddie Swain, that creates the first curl of dread. The visitors enter Steve Spurrier Florida Field from the corner of the southeast endzone, stage right of the Gators tunnel. The visitors first see the alumni side, with its packed fans and windowed boxes reaching into the sky and reflecting back the sun. Then they turn the corner towards the sideline and are met with the students. Corner Trey Dean III thinks that when the Gators can first affect Auburn’s true freshman quarterback, Bo Nix. “It’s very important especially a freshman quarterback coming in, it’s overwhelming. Even me as a freshman playing—and I’m playing defense—I’m like ‘wow this thing rocking’ so I know if a quarterback get behind center, he gonna feel it…especially a freshman quarterback, it’s gonna have a big affect. He hadn't played in the Swamp. He played a lot of different other teams but he hadn't played in the Swamp. Yea they played Texas A&M, but it’s not the Swamp.” “Man we need everybody there. That atmosphere, the crowd yelling, crowd screaming, they can’t hear. It’s going to mess them up. We need everybody there,” pleads defensive lineman Kyree Campbell. The time before the game kicks off is filled with an incredible pregame video and a moving band performance. The Mr. Two Bits Cheer can be chill inducing no matter who the celebrity is donning the seersucker pants that week. It really is something to see, even if just once. It also provides a chance to begin the mental game, using the intimidation factor during pregame warmups. This is something the Rowdy Reptiles do extremely well, so I know this student body is capable. So prepare accordingly, and for the love of all that is good and holy, don’t convince yourself that this is finally going to be the Saturday when everyone shows up at the same time to the gate but there’s somehow magically no line. I didn’t graduate from the University of Florida so I can’t appeal to you as an alumnus. Journalist integrity with an unbiased opinion means I can’t appeal to you as a fellow Gator. But as a college football fan, I do implore you—nay, plead with you, to not let this opportunity pass you by. One of the main things that makes college football so special is the atmosphere. The NFL can’t match it, baseball can’t replicate it and we spend all year waiting for those near spiritual experiences that only come from within these cathedrals. No matter what you do for the rest of the season, don’t let this Saturday be wasted. In a game like this, every single moment is going to matter. Be a part of every single moment.

THE TEAM WITH THE POISED QUARTERBACK WILL WIN THIS ONE Essentially, you can forget everything that's happened in the five weeks leading up to Saturday's Florida-Auburn clash at The Swamp (3:30 p.m., CBS). Consider all those other games preliminaries. This is The Main Event because it's the first Southeastern Conference game that matches unbeaten, top ten teams and it will be played before a frenzied sellout crowd that should easily top 90,000 while millions more watch on national television. As if more hype is necessary, ESPN's College GameDay Crew will be set up on the Plaza of the Americas, meaning this is more than just a football game. It's an event. For all the theories about which team – 10th-ranked Florida (5-0, 2-0 SEC) or 7th-ranked Auburn (5-0, 2-0 SEC) – has the upper hand, you can almost count on this one being decided by which team's quarterback plays with the most poise. Both Florida's Kyle Trask and Auburn's Bo Nix have come up big in tight situations already. Trask has only two collegiate starts to his name but he came off the bench to rally the Gators to 19 straight fourth quarter points to pull out a 29-21 win on the road at Kentucky. Nix, in his very first college football game, rallied Auburn from a 21-6 deficit to a 27-21 win over Oregon at a neutral site in the season opener. Neither Trask nor Nix, however, has ever played in a college football game of this magnitude and certainly, neither has faced a defense this good. Which one will make the fewest mistakes? And, which one will be able to put mistakes behind him and move on to the next play without reliving the bad plays in his mind over and over? Whoever can do that is going to win this football game for his team. The Sayer Says Sooth: Trask has the home crowd advantage and that's going to be a real factor. For as much poise as Nix has shown so far, he's never been in an environment quite like this. He'll discover what it's like when it's so loud you can't think, which is why he will blink first and blink more often. Trask, meanwhile, is going to get the ball in the hands of Florida's receivers and Auburn will struggle to cover them. When the dust settles it will be FLORIDA 24, Auburn 17. THE SEC SOOTHSAYER #3 Georgia (4-0, 1-0 SEC) 37, Tennessee (1-3, 0-1 SEC) 7: This will qualify as one of the great upsets of the 2019 season if Georgia breaks into a sweat Saturday night in Knoxville. #5 LSU (4-0, 1-0 SEC) 55, Utah State (3-1) 17: Jeau Burreaux will threaux for at least five touchdowns. Coach Oeaux will crush at least two Red Bull cans against his forehead. This one will be all but over by the end of the first quarter. Ole Miss (2-3, 1-1 SEC) 27, Vanderbilt (1-3, 0-2 SEC) 17: It's not often we have a “must win” for a couple of teams with losing records, but since there are only a handful of wins remaining on both their schedules, the team that loses this one can almost guarantee a sub-.500 finish. Missouri (3-1, 1-0 SEC) 35, Troy (2-2) 21: Barry Odom needs to send over a case of single malt Scotch to whoever came up with Missouri's October schedule. Unless the Tigers go totally in the tank there isn't a game they can lose until Georgia on November 9. COUNTDOWN TO FIRING DAY: EDITION SIX EXTINCT SPECIES LIST Chris Ash, Rutgers: It was reported that Rutgers is taking a long look at Mississippi State's Joe Moorhead, which raises the question – does he want to start each year battling it out for fifth place in the SEC West or fifth place in the Big Ten East? Now that Dan Mullen is no longer in Starkville, Mississippi State is once again a graveyard. Do you leave one graveyard for another? ON LIFE SUPPORT Phil Montgomery, Tulsa: Other than the fact the academics are tough, the facilities suck and the weather is brutally hot in the summer, colder than a well digger's butt in the winter, this is a wonderful place to coach. All Montgomery has to do is win six games – seven would be really nice – and he'll get to coach another year at this buckle on the tornado belt. Lovie Smith, Illinois: Buzzards are circling the Illini (2-2) football offices. There are exactly two (Rutgers and Purdue) winnable games remaining on the schedule and 4-8 isn't going to cut it. Alums are praying that Army's Jeff Monken, who grew up in Illinois, was dropped on his head as an infant and grew up thinking Illinois is his dream job. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee: Two things of note happened in the last 48 hours – (1) Phillip Fulmer said he doesn't want to coach the Vols, which means he's going to let Pruitt crash and burn with a 2-10 or 3-9 season; and (2) Fulmer gave Pruitt the dreaded vote of confidence. Translation: Fulmer is going to fire Pruitt but he doesn't have the buyout money (more than $9 million) just yet. Bob Davie, New Mexico: The Bob Davie Farewell Tour stops in San Jose Saturday evening. The Lobos (2-2) have a chance to win this one. Win or lose, however, Davie will be in administration next year and someone else will be head ball coach. ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST Brent Brennan, San Jose State: The euphoria of beating an SEC team didn't last long. A week after beating Arkansas, Brennan and the Spartans crashed and burned against Air Force. They have a chance to win against New Mexico. A loss probably means Brennan goes On Life Support next week. Clay Helton, Southern Cal: Helton deserves better than he's going to get at Southern Cal. They're going to fire him. Not this week because there is an open date, but there's a really good chance it happens next week when the Trojans visit Notre Dame. Randy Edsall, UConn: This should tell you how bad things are at UConn. As bad as South Florida is, the Bulls are still favored by 11 points and that's on the road up at Dysfunction Junction. If they took a vote for the worst HBC in all of Division I, Edsall might win in a landslide. Tony Sanchez, UNLV: About the only thing that can save Sanchez's job would be for UNLV to win six or seven of the remaining eight games. Donkeys might fly first. Matt Luke, Ole Miss: Six wins and Luke coaches the Rebels next year. The big question is where is he going to find four more this season? Mike Bobo, Colorado State: Bobo and the Lambs – sounds like a bubble gum band, doesn't it? – have lost four games and there are at least five more losses on the schedule. This isn't going to end well. Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech: Fuente hasn't hit rock bottom yet but that could happen Saturday at Miami. If the Himmicanes give the Hokies a beatdown like the one they got last week at the hands of the Dookies, BEADS OF SWEAT FORMING Charlie Strong, South Florida: The Bulls (1-3) go on the road to UConn (1-3) Saturday. If they lose, Charlie Strong is as good as gone and he might not make it until Monday. If they win it might simply be a delay of the inevitable. Kilani Sitaki, BYU: Everybody expected the Cougars to lose to Washington and they did. Losing to Holy Toledo last week wasn't expected and isn't acceptable. Sitaki is 2-3 and needs to get to at least seven regular season wins or else he will be going through the Rolodex looking for a friend who could offer an assistant's job. Steve Addazio, Boston College: If the folks who make the decisions in Chestnut Hill are content with 7-6 records, then Addazio will be there for awhile. This season has 7-6 written all over it. If they want more, then Addazio needs to be finding a new place to work. Derek Mason, Vanderbilt: With a roadie to Ole Miss Saturday and UNLV coming to town next week, that ever so rare 3-game winning streak is possible for the Dores, who ensured they wouldn't oh-fer the season last week when they beat Northern Illinois. Everybody likes Derek Mason and they really don't want to fire him, but those two straight 9-win seasons for James Franklin convinced Vandy folks they don't have to settle for 3-9 and 4-8 anymore. SAVED BY THE BUYOUT Willie Taggart, Florida State: They won't be screaming for Taggart's scalp this week. That's because the Seminoles have an open date. They will be screaming next Saturday after Clemson decides it's midseason and time to break out of its funk. The screaming won't help, however. Nobody has $17 million to buy Taggart out. Chad Morris, Arkansas: They won't have Chad Morris to kick around this week. That's because the Hogs have an open date. Unless one of the gozillionaire boosters writes a $12 million check, Morris will be back next year even though the Hogs are going to lose eight or more games. Chip Kelly, UCLA: Just when Bruin fans thought Chip Kelly had finally turned the corner with that wild comeback over Washington State, UCLA goes in the tank to lose to Arizona, 20-17. It's entirely possible UCLA could lose to Oregon State this week, which would get Kelly fired except for the $9 million it would cost to fire him. Will Muschamp, South Carolina: The Gamecocks are 2-3 while playing one of college football's most brutal schedules. The win over Kentucky last week was nice for public perceptions but the fact is Muschamp isn't going anywhere. That $18 million buyout ensures he's got at least one more year. GOOD QUOTES FOR FRIDAY Bruce Feldman of The Athletic on Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and why the Buckeyes are one of the best tackling teams in all of college football this year: “Hafley said he learned a lot about the nuances of tackling from (Greg) Schiano, the guy he followed in Columbus and his old boss at Rutgers and with the Tampa Bay Bucs. Schiano taught him that when you wrap and roll, sweep the ankle, and that you should try to put a shoulder pad through the ball carrier’s sternum.” From the San Jose (CA) Mercury-News, San Francisco 49ers corner Richard Sherman opines about California's Fair Play to Pay law and what he hopes it does to the NCAA: "I hope it destroys the NCAA in general because I think it's corrupt and it's a bunch of people taking advantage of kids, and doing it under a mask of 'fair play.' Even the things they're suspending these kids for are ridiculous. You're suspending kids for YouTube channels and they're saying, 'Oh it's because other kids can't do it.'" From Yahoo Sports, Washington State coach Mike Leach on what he sees is the danger to college sports of California's Fair Play to Pay law: “Obviously bigger schools with bigger media bases and richer alums are always going to have the biggest advantage. Because it literally opens the door to buying players without really any salary cap. Even the NFL has a salary cap. This would be openly buying players without any salary cap. None whatsoever. Because virtually anybody can go up to anybody and say ‘Hey, I’ll endorse you for this or that.’” RANDOM THOUGHTS: The New England Patriots signed placekicker Mike Nugent to replace injured Stephen Gostkowski … Prosecutors in Palm Beach County plan to appeal a judge's ruling that blocked use of surveillance video of New England Patriots' owner Robert Kraft visiting the Orchids of Asia Day Spa … The New York Mets fired manager Mickey Callaway after two seasons and an 86-76 record in 2019 that was a 9-game improvement over 2018 … Aurora, the Air Force Academy's falcon mascot, died Wednesday. Aurora suffered injuries to both wings last year when Army cadets abducted the bird in a prank.

Kyree Campbell knows exactly what it’s going to take for the No. 10 Florida Gators to pull off a win against the No. 7 Auburn Tigers. “This week is really about disciplined football.” Sometimes it’s just that simple. Well, maybe. The Tigers come in with arguably the best defensive front seven in college football. If one listens to national conversation, the Gators offense has little to no chance of working around the unit, particularly with a rushing attack that failed to push for lanes against FCS teams like UT Martin and Towson. But the Gus Malzahn run offense is also considered an advantage for the SEC West team, even when run by a true freshman quarterback. Typically in those situations the playbook is dimmed down, sparse for ease on a young mind adapting to the speed of the college game. That should be what the Tigers offense is right now. One could assume Nix would be hampered by inexperience leading to a simplified call sheet. STAR Trey Dean knows otherwise, because what this Tigers offense does is anything but simple and will take every bit of the discipline Campbell mentioned. “They do a lot of stacks and motions, try to get a player out of position so they might send a motion and then another motion and you gotta read your keys. So a dude might be fitting like he blocking but he end up getting the ball. And sometimes they might give the ball to the tailback and the next time they might give the ball to the slot or something.” That’s just before the play even has time to develop. Then comes the curveball, continues Dean. “Then the different things in their different formations, 1, 2 and 3 can run the screen. Usually 1 or 3’s gonna run the screen, we never see 2 run the screen. So it’s just different things they can do, they got a lot of switch motions. “Also when they get, even if they get five yards in the run, they gonna do a hurry up. Usually people do hurry up after they get a big play or something.” So much of this is a result of Malzahn taking back play calling duties. During his first stint in Auburn as offensive coordinator, he and current Gators defensive coordinator Todd Grantham went head to head, with the latter coaching with the Georgia Bulldogs at the time. They split games in 2010 and 2011 with No. 1 Auburn taking the game 49-31 in ’10. The following year, Grantham and the No. 19 Dawgs held Auburn to one score for a 45-7 final. The rubber match came in 2013 when Malzahn returned to Auburn as head coach and the No. 2 Tigers defeated Georgia 43-38. Needles to say, Grantham is aware of what Malzahn can do with a call sheet in his hands. “They do a good job of working to formation you to create softness. And with softness comes seams, and when you have seams, guys that run downhill hard can hit it and make things happen. Then sometimes you lose the edge of the defense and guys can bounce it out and cut it back. That allows the double-digit runs and things like that. Because now you’ve got seams through the defense. [Gus] really stresses you at all levels from a standpoint of making sure that the edges of the defense are set, you’re stout inside building a wall. Then, as you get motions and movement, you can rotate and maintain your edges.” And let’s not forget Bo Nix as a rusher. He’s currently second on the team on the ground with 173 yards and two touchdowns on 35 carries. “Anytime your quarterback can run the ball it becomes truly 11-on-11,” explains Grantham. Florida’s defense has been holding teams to 281.2 total yards per game (17th in the country) but how do they stymie an offense racking up an average of 454.4 yards per game? Kyree Campbell said it; discipline, something he admits wasn’t always present during the 38-0 win over Towson last Saturday. “We did some things on our side defensive wise that we could have done a lot better…hand placement, footwork, keeping base, staying in your gap, not getting out of your gap too fast. Simple stuff like that. It’s simple stuff like that that wins you the game.” The Towson Tigers were 8-15 on 3rd down conversions. Auburn is currently converting 49% in that category. The middle of the field has become suspect at times for the Gators who will rush three and leave no help for coverage around middle linebacker David Reese. It’s a risk/reward that has paid off to this point for Grantham and the Florida defense, thanks in large part to the switch flipped within the redzone. “It’s a mindset that you just get prepared,” says Campbell. “It’s a mindset. You just need a blade of grass and we’re going to defend it. Our redzone defense we take very seriously. We want to hold them to three points or nothing.” Adds BUCK Jon Greenard, “It’s hard. You’re tired. You’re sore. All of that plays into it. The momentum’s obviously not going our way; they’re driving. Their offense is clicking, so it’s really easy to give in. If anybody could do it, it would be easy. So, we know we have to take that chip on our shoulder every time we go into a game. "I feel like we pride ourselves on finishing everything. So, no matter how the drive starts or what they’re doing in the middle, we just basically have to stop and put the fire out.” So what will it take for the Florida Gators to defeat the Auburn Tigers? A knowledge of what they’re facing, which Trey Dean proved is not an issue. And a laser focus that never strays from each man’s own job. It will take discipline.