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Gut-check time

The Gators need a win, but there are fears the season already is a waste after a beating by LSU.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 17, 2002

GAINESVILLE -- In his wildest dreams, Taylor Jacobs never envisioned the Gators would be in this position.

In his first three years as a wide receiver the Gators had a 29-9 record.

Everything has changed.

Florida is 4-3 and coming off its worse home conference loss in 23 years. The team is on a downward spiral like Florida fans have not seen in more than a decade.

"The worst nightmare for me right now is probably just (the fear of) the rest of the team losing whatever they have for going out and playing on Saturday," Jacobs said. "I'm not by far, and I try to talk to all the guys and just make sure. Nobody's showing any kind of signs, but that's the worst thing that can happen right now in my mind. I'm worried that guys might just start feeling like they don't want to go out there and play."

For any chance at winning the SEC East title, Florida must win its remaining conference games and hope Georgia loses two of its final games. To finish at least 8-4 Florida must beat No. 5 Georgia and/or No. 12 Florida State. The Gators haven't had four regular-season losses since 1989.

For seven weeks Florida's season has been up and down, including a loss to defending national champion Miami, followed by an upset over then-No. 4 Tennessee. But after back-to-back losses to Mississippi and LSU the excuses about the new coaching staff, the new system and first-season adjustments no longer seem valid. All hopes of salvaging the season, and possibly coach Ron Zook's future, depend on winning.

"This is serious," defensive tackle Ian Scott said. "This is the time we need to step up as men and accept that we haven't done what we've needed to do. We need to take it upon ourselves to get better. Out on the field everybody is trying to do that. ... This is a serious time and these are serious challenges. We need to show that we accept these challenges and can get to the top."

A mass exodus in the third quarter of Saturday's 36-7 loss to LSU indicated that some fans have lost confidence. The Gators say they haven't lost it in themselves.

"We're all confident guys," running back Earnest Graham said. "We still come out here like we haven't (lost). That's the great thing about the University of Florida. We're all winners and we know that we can play at a certain level, but it's like we're thinking 'What's wrong?' Everybody wants to know what's wrong and we have to go out here and fix it because we can play better than this. We have to shake it off. We're not going to go out against Auburn and worry about that. We're going to go out and try to win."

The players seem more relaxed and focused this week. After Tuesday's practice, players ran off the field, laughing and joking with one another. Zook kidded around with reporters.

"I think we're a little bit more loose for some reason this week," quarterback Rex Grossman said. "We realize that it's a huge game and a must win, and we're getting down to business. We're not going to press. I think last week it took a while to get over that (Mississippi) loss. We may have hurt our preparation for looking back too much, and we need to just look forward and move on."

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville watched the fourth quarter of Florida's game against LSU and said he saw similarities between his team and the Gators.

"It kind of reminded me of our game (38-17 loss to Arkansas), just things kind of bounced the wrong way and we didn't make a lot of plays," Tuberville said. "But they've still got a good team, and I'm sure they will regroup, as we have to this week, and try to put together a good game plan and get better."

The Gators are unranked in the Associated Press poll for the first time in 209 polls. They have lost two games at home (Miami and LSU) by a total of 54 points, have lost consecutive conference games for the first time since 1992 and Grossman has 11 touchdowns with 14 interceptions.

Zook has stressed mental preparation this week and believes his Gators will take heed.

"I haven't sensed panic in our football team, I haven't sensed doubt, I haven't sensed finger-pointing" he said. "I've sensed concern from the standpoint of they know it's important, they know what's expected of them and (winning) is important to them. They know we've got to get better and that we have to control the things we can control."

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