Look, this season is a veritable DEMONSTRATION of how and why all-of-the-following are true for a young team in the SEC--in all of Football, really:
(1) Coaches MUST somehow have the players on their team all narrowly focused on "The Next Team" they face in "The Next Game" they play--PERIOD. "One Game At A Time": That is the mantra.
(2) Run the ball and stop the run: It will pay off in the 4th quarter. Dominate the line-of-scrimmage and you ultimately dominate your opponent--and win the game.
(3) Defense wins Championships.
There are other approaches, obviously, other options and means-of-attack that a successful team will likely have to incorporate and become familiar with not only for its own use but in order to defend against it, and as a team gains experience and grows in depth and versatility the above "3 Basic Rules" can seem to fade in importance--but you lose sight of them at your peril.
All of which brings us to the question-at-hand:
Of COURSE I am surprised at our success this season--not just our record but how far we've come in every way, and the fact that we are now on the brink of it NOT being any kind of "surprise" anymore: This team is showing all of us that it belongs where it now is, and has a chance to go further than even any of US thought they'd be ready for this soon. However, I also now see that we SHOULDN'T have been so surprised, and had I realized how thoroughly this team had pursued, and to what degree achieved, acceptance and efficient performance in those simple "3 Basic Rules" above, my own expectations for this Gator team might have been more secretly optimistic than they actually were.
(Btw--At THIS point, I only hope that the coaches have done as good a job both preparing and concealing the continued development in variation and versatility they'll need, especially on offense, from here on throughout the rest of this season--starting with the NEXT game, of course--as they did with this team coming INTO the season, and are able to continue springing this "surprise" on all of college football, "one game at a time"!)
One more thing I DO want to take this opportunity to say, though, as we approach another huge test: No matter what, I am REALLY starting to love this team. Tough and getting tougher, good and getting better, I'm PROUD of them. Once again, it is GREAT TO BE...