• Welcome to Green Bay Packers NFL Football Forum & Community!
    Packer Forum is one of the largest online communities for the Green Bay Packers.

    You are currently viewing our community forums as a guest user.

    Sign Up or

    Having an account grants you additional privileges, such as creating and participating in discussions. Furthermore, we hide most of the ads once you register as a member! Furthermore, we hide most of the ads once you register as a member!

Gators clinch BCS Bowl berth, with outside chance of National Title game

travisduncan

Gator Fan
uspw_6786194.jpg

Nov 24, 2012; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida Gators quarterback Jeff Driskel (6) celebrates a touchdown during the second half of the game against the Florida State Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium. Gators defeated the Seminoles 37-26. Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-US PRESSWIRE

By Travis Duncan
Gator Envy writer

"Heck of a season, pulling for fight on (USC)... I've always been a real big Lane Kiffin fan," a gratified Florida coach Will Muschamp Saturday night following a 37-26 victory over Florida State on the road.

The win puts the Gators at 11-1 and guaranteed a spot in a BCS title game, likely the Sugar Bowl, and with an outside chance they could move into the Top 2 BCS spots should undefeated Notre Dame lose Saturday against USC and into the National Championship game.

"Last time we were in this stadium it was a 31-7 football game, and it wasn't tonight," Muschamp said.

Muschamp's goal this season was simple: turn the Gators into a tough football. Win the line of scrimmage. They did that Saturday. His ultimate goal is to win a national championship at Florida.

"You can be fast and all that, said Muschamp, perhaps alluding to the Urban Meyer era.

"But you better be physical and you better win the line of scrimmage."

Muschamp said he told offensive coordinator Brent Pease during the game that they needed to continue to pound the ball, and not allow the Seminoles to rush Jeff Driskel, and the other team would wear down.

Mike Gillislee rushed for 140 yards on 24 carries, including a 37-yard touchdown in the 4th quarter.

Gillislee is the first 1,000 yard back at Florida since 2003. He is the eighth Gator all-time to total 1K rushing in a season.

The Gators totaled 394 yards of total offense (244 rushing, 150 passing) – Florida State had been giving up an average of 236.3 yards per game coming into the game.

Credit Driskel who toughed it out with an ankle injury. The sophomore finished with 147 yards passing on 15 of 23 with a touchdown and no interceptions.

"At the end of the day, you want to be in the conversation," Muschamp concluded. He also stated he knows the Gators' resume stacks up against anyone in the country and they deserve to play for the National Title.

The players bought into Muschamp this season. They played down to the competition a few times, but they did just about everything they set to accomplish and more. At the end of the day Gator Nation has to be well pleased with Muschamp and the remarkable success of the Gators this season.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Well, let's get THIS out of the way FIRST: Will Muschamp may have felt generously optimistic in the warm after-glow of watching his "creation" begin to "become"--become exactly what he had in mind when he came in here, a tough team emotionally and physically that will neither be BEATEN nor beat ITSELF, and it HAPPENED in the 2nd half in Doak-Campbell last night, after they DID pull another Gator-Give-Away that LOOKED like "The Cocktail Party" all OVER again, like SIX MINUTES were pulled out of THAT game and plopped into the middle of THIS one...only then THIS team, the Gator team-that-we-are-becoming reappeared and DID what it is built-to-DO: "Absorb, Adapt, Overcome" (sorry, I can't think of a better way of putting it than that)--as I say, Will was in a generous mood, maybe, but having to rely on Lane Kiffin of ALL people to "get it done" in any clever, subtle or determined and classy way was a forlorn hope if there ever was one...We were ALL hoping, and that N.D. team certainly did little to TAKE it from them (it was just WAITING there to be WON by SC, all the way to that 1st-and goal at the one yd. line with more than 5 minutes left), but once again an average team with a mediocre coach couldn't rise to the occasion...
Having said all that, I DO want to agree about OUR season. Magnificent!--all the MORE so that we weren't quite THERE yet with the team we had coming INTO this season, and we lost key people at key positions to make it a MOUNTAIN to climb more than once...I give our Head Coach ALL CREDIT for holding this team together emotionally, a team he BUILT and nurtured to do that for THEMSELVES, and we saw all that begin to REALLY pay off last night in the 2nd half, AFTER a "bad patch". I don't know that I was EVER more PROUD of a Gator team when we RE-took the lead last night...and it was then I KNEW that we were going to be, not just "OK", but SOMETHING SPECIAL, something GREAT.
Last night was just the final "turning point", "graduation" after a season of "tests". I don't think we'll be failing any of those for awhile...
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
I agree. It looked like a Cocktail Party meltdown. At that point, I had to go outside and play catch with my son for a little bit before I could stand in front of the TV again.

Still, the result was good and I am happy to beat the Noles. I am happy that we are in a BCS bowl. I wish I still lived in Texas. We drove five hours to the Sugar Bowl for Tebow's last game. That same drive from Los Angeles is two to three days. Darn.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
I agree. It looked like a Cocktail Party meltdown. At that point, I had to go outside and play catch with my son for a little bit before I could stand in front of the TV again.

Still, the result was good and I am happy to beat the Noles. I am happy that we are in a BCS bowl. I wish I still lived in Texas. We drove five hours to the Sugar Bowl for Tebow's last game. That same drive from Los Angeles is two to three days. Darn.
THIS time it looks like I'M the "lucky one"--though I would have MUCH rather have made it an expensive trip to that city "with so much (climate, scenery and pretty, half-clothed women) and so little (the list of "negatives" is WAY too long) to offer", metro-Miami. My girlfriend is currently "back home" near Houston helping her mom over the Holidays, and I was invited to visit there as it is...Now that my leg is getting stronger, I believe (if I can get tickets) I will go and spend Xmas-to-New Year's week there, then rent us a nice car (or take the train?) and get us to New Orleans and the Super Dome for the Sugar Bowl.
I missed out on being able to see them in College Station to START the season when I broke my patella (kneecap) just weeks before the game--though it isn't for a National Championship, I feel great pride in this team after all, and this works out just too well to not TRY and get it done.

Btw, I KNEW you'd done SOMETHING like that, left watching the game entirely for awhile, and you weren't alone--I noticed, by the sudden "disappearing act" of about 1/2 a dozen of our "GameDay Crew" who stopped "talking", and since I too had been tempted to "bug out" for awhile, even commented on it and, as we turned things back in our favor, wondered aloud if folks had missed the enormous and stirring turnaround AFTER "what SEEMED like a 'typical Gator collapse', I grant you..."
In addition to giving our team ALL the props, I just want to note my small bit-of-faith: Once we had surrendered the lead and received the 1st KO after the post-Driskel-fumble TD (the one that GOT them that lead), I asked the blatant question, "Is this REALLY the 'never say die' team that comes BACK from adversity? There is plenty of time left to accomplish it if we are." (more or less)
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
Part of the game I was watching, but too jumpy to sit down and type. Besides, my son wanted to play catch during commercial break, and I did not want to pass that up.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Shoot, I was too nervous to sit at the computer and type. I was a pacing, screaming Gator fool for the 3rd quarter.
Part of the game I was watching, but too jumpy to sit down and type. Besides, my son wanted to play catch during commercial break, and I did not want to pass that up.
Believe me--I wasn't anything LIKE "the picture of relaxed Gator confidence", but laid up as I have been these last couple-and-half-months, my Sat.GameDay routine has been to set up at my desk in my "big chair" with my leg up and on a pillow (or, alternately, sprawled similarly on girlfriend's bed w/laptop) watching the game, I'm pretty well stuck where I am and not going ANYWHERE that hasn't been PLANNED on--BUT I'm getting better, into INTENSE PT and getting back (albeit unstable) mobility, so I WAS up pacing like everyone else, keyboard-on-a-dresser so at waist-height and able to stop just long enough to continue banging out comments here-and-there as the action continued...As for MY reaction as that 3rd-qrtr meltdown ensued, reading it NOW I'm actually amazed at my composure as it all happened--I seem more "resigned" than freaked: Inside, I was ready-to-bail, too, just disgusted and deep down wondering when it would be time to "move on"...Made that "If we ARE that 'never-say-die'-team..."-comment, hung in a few more moments as things unraveled...then things began to change, and soon after THAT, with a definite shift-in-"feel" that quickly appeared to be gathering momentum in an almost unbelievable way, like an old STEAM engine that starts up slow, steadily gains more and more speed and soon comes roaring by, THAT WAS US!
One of the most thrilling, encouraging and satisfying "ebb-and-flow"/"twist-and-turn" games I have ever seen us play--Like a heavyweight prizefight from the OLD days, ("The Thrashing in Tallahashing", maybe? Have to give it more thought, I guess...Ali had that special kind of "quick mind/quick mouth" that I can only manage now and then...).
Y'all are right, tho': That WAS "hard to TAKE"! Would have been HARDER to take the loss we seemed destined for about 1/2 way thru' the 3rd, though, obviously--but that HAD to happen to get to the THRILLS, see? We've had MORE than our share of being torn this-way-and-that this season. As we more and more develop an offense that performs like it showed Saturday it can ALREADY do (only from start-to-finish), that DOESN'T "leave points on the field" but instead tends to bury teams, lets the defense pin their ears back and (along with us fans) "have fun after the break", this kind of "Shakespearian drama", with highs-then-lows-back-and-forth leading to the HIGHEST HIGHS-of-ALL, will become ever more rare..."Healthier" for us Gators, maybe, but minus the "chills, spills and THRILLS" that these dramatic shifts-of-seeming-control bring. I wonder if we'll miss it.
Here's a fun thought: Consider how the MOLES-fans are STILL feeling 'bout this game...They want to FORGET about it, not THINK about it but they CAN'T! (Ha-HAAAA!!!) They were all so SURE! Go check out our blogs, their trolls are nowhere to be found on THIS Monday-morning...Now check-out a few of THEIRS: Sparser-than-normal, the ones who are there are RIPPING EVERYONE IN SIGHT--coaches, players, other FANS!!! It is pretty interesting...I dropped but ONE COMMENT (on a board I happen to know is RUN by an FSU guy who I knew in high school but we stopped talking a LONG time back 'cause, well, hey: he went to FSU!)...anyway, here's all I said:
"Hey John S.: Some decisions have lifelong consequences...
It's GREAT. To Be. A Florida GATOR."
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
It's great to be a Florida Gator!

DRU2012, you should give Driskel some pointers on how to maximize time efficiently while laid up.
 

Members online

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
20,339
Messages
90,513
Members
1,226
Latest member
GeorgeDuema
Top