Gators Hit Rock Bottom With Loss to FCS Team

Will Muschamp is sure to be job hunting

Five years ago, the Florida Gators won their second BCS National Championship in three seasons. Counting NCAA Tournaments, it was their fourth national championship in the two major college sports. No other school has ever enjoyed that kind of success before or since. Four times in a little over two and a half years, the city of Gainesville became a scene of bedlam with people spilled out onto the streets in a massive celebration. It seemed like gator Nation’s dominance would go on forever.

But things can really turn around in college sports on a dime. Now,  only four seasons removed from a perfect regular season and a third 13-1 record in four years, the Florida Gators have sunken to depths with their football program not seen since before Ronald Reagan was President. Today, the Gators lost to Georgia Southern. Not Georgia, as if that isn’t bad enough. They pulled that feat off for the third year in a row a few weeks ago. And by the way, it was only the sixth time in 24 years they failed to beat UGA. No. They lost to Georgia SOUTHERN!

But wait, it gets worse. Not only did the Gators lose to their first FCS school in their history, they lost to an Eagles team that has only 65 scholarship players and 19 of them were out with injuries. Georgia Southern was 6-4 coming into this game. This wasn’t like when Appalachian State beat Michigan. App State was the #1 team in FCS. Same thing applies when Kansas State lost earlier this year to some school in the Dakotas who is a powerhouse in FCS. No. This teams is 6-4. Or should I say 7-4 now?

But wait, it gets even worse. Georgia Southern did not complete a single pass in this game. Not one. Not even to a running back for no gain. Yet this teams rolled up over 450 yards of offense on what was once one of the top defenses in the SEC.

How does this happen? How can a school that has not had a losing record since 1979 and has not missed a bowl since 1990, lose to Georgia Southern? How does a school that had won 15 of 18 games suddenly lose six in a row?

How far has this program fallen in the last six weeks? As far as one can. Florida not only never misses a bowl (until now), they play in January bowls every year. You never see the Gators in the Liberty Bowl, Music City Bowl, Independence Bowl or BBVA Compass Bowl. You don’t even see them in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. In fact, their only season in that bowl was one in which Ron Zook was fired. That’s right. Zook was fired for ONLY getting to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. There are plenty of teams in the SEC that would kill to go to a Gator, Capital One or Outback Bowl. Florida yawns at those bowls. Last year, Gator fans even yawned at the Sugar Bowl. Now, they are going home after Thanksgiving.

So how did this happen? It was more than one thing. It was like all the success the school was having angered the gods of college sports karma and now it is time for payback.

First, there was Carlos Dunlap getting drunk and passing out behind the wheel of his car at a stop light a few days before the 2009 SEC Championship game against the Alabama Crimson Tide in what was the biggest game in school history. It snowballed from there.

First, Tim Tebow was exposed for not being a very good passing quarterback for the first time when he missed a wide open receiver on a wheel route in the game’s opening possession. The Gators were then exposed by Alabama’s smash-mouth style and were whipped soundly, ruining their shot at back-to-back championships. Then after the game, their head coach, Urban Meyer quits after he was rushed to hospital from chest pains in the middle of the night.

Then, a re-consider that resulted in him standing on the sidelines in a daze while his assistants did all the coaching, to another retirement, to a bad hire of another coach with no head coaching experience (I guess they did not learn from the Ron Zook fiasco not to do that), to watching Meyer sit out one year then go to Ohio State where he has yet to lose a game in two seasons, to losing six in a row and facing one of the best Florida State teams ever.

Just to add insult to injury, former offensive coordinator and favorite fan scapegoat, Steve Addazio has Boston College bowl eligible now.

Perhaps this will turn out to be a good thing for Florida football. When you’re school is yawning at going to Sugar Bowls and Capital One Bowls, it is time for a dose of reality. An 11-1 season and a trip to the Sugar Bowl is not a failure. You don’t win a national championship every year (although Alabama is making it look like it lately). Perhaps Florida needs this reboot to get the fans back down into getting pumped up at winning instead of expecting it.  Every school goes through a down period. Even the Mighty Gators. But it sure was a nice 23 year run without one.