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Florida Gators Football: This Team Is Owed An Apology
The Florida Gators deserve a lot of credit and should be applauded for what they’re doing.
It seems like we used to bring the Florida Gators up all of the time. Now, they don’t seem to come up in the conversation as much. Part of that is due to what we’ve seen in Knoxville, Tennessee over the past couple of years.
The 2016 season in the SEC East was supposed to belong to the Tennessee Volunteers. We’ve been waiting on them to break through for quite some time. 2015 saw the Vols lose to the Oklahoma Sooners, Florida Gators, Arkansas Razorbacks and Alabama Crimson Tide by a combined total of 17 points. That had many under the impression that 2016 would be the year.
Why wouldn’t it be? They were led by senior quarterback Joshua Dobbs who had 22 career starts to his credit. They were also returning a huge portion of the core that made this team successful.
The Florida Gators, on the other hand, ended the 2015 campaign by getting backhanded by the Michigan Wolverines in the Citrus Bowl. The way the 2015 season began led some to believe that the Gators had moved on from some of the trials and difficulty that had plagued the Will Muschamp regime.
The way it ended created some questions as to whether or not Jim McElwain had advanced the program as far as we had originally thought.
At the start of this season, some of us didn’t see the Gators as anything more than the third best team in the SEC East. That theory was furthered when the Gators got out to a decent sized lead against the Volunteers before blowing that lead and losing by a score of 38-28.
Since that game, both teams have gone in opposite directions. The Gators have won three straight. The Volunteers followed their meeting with Gators with a narrow victory over the Georgia Bulldogs. Things were looking up, but their fortunes have now turned and they’re enduring a three game winning streak.
A once energized fanbase has seen their beloved Vols lose to the Texas A&M Aggies, the Alabama Crimson Tide and, surprisingly, the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Florida’s now in control of their own destiny. Things are a long way from being over. Still, a shot at the SEC Championship Game isn’t too far out of the realm of possibility. The Vols close with what should be three winnable games against the Kentucky Wildcats, Missouri Tigers and Vanderbilt Commodores.
The Gators face a more daunting task still needing to face the LSU Tigers, the Razorbacks and a scrappy Gamecocks team. The winner of the SEC East could very easily have two or three conference losses by the time the regular season ends.
The Gators deserve credit because of the fact that they’re still a factor, could be the favorites and many of us didn’t want to give them credit for any of that when the season began. Fans of this team should be proud.
They’re loyal, and there’s a possibility that loyalty could result in them earning a trip to Atlanta. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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