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Colleges

Flaws unmasked, but Gators still can be great

By JOHN ROMANO
Published October 15, 2006

AUBURN, Ala. - This was the night when the truth would be revealed.

After all the buildup, after the slow ascension in the polls, after the growing realization something remarkable might be possible, the Florida Gators would find out if they were good enough to be national championship contenders.

The answer is yes.

And, sadly, the Gators will have to live with that.

You see, Florida has, at least temporarily, taken itself out of national championship consideration after blowing a second-half lead against Auburn and losing 27-17 Saturday.

And the Gators have to know that the fault was theirs. Their turnovers. Their penalties. Their special-teams goofs.

They could have been halfway to perfection. For a long time Saturday evening, the Gators appeared to be on their way to a 7-0 record with seven more victories visible on the horizon.

Instead, UF is like a lot of other one-loss teams. The Gators are close enough to paradise to realize exactly what they're missing.

Of course, it has happened like this before. This is the fifth time since 1983 that an undefeated season has been put in its grave by Auburn.

And like some of those heartbreaks from the past, this one had enough close calls and bizarre moments to turn a 60-minute game into a lifelong regret.

There was the holding call that turned into a safety. The botched punt attempt that was returned for a touchdown. The fourth-quarter pass attempt that was ruled a fumble, but will forever be the source of tailgate arguments.

The worst part of all, however, is that it will make you question some basic truths about the Gators.

Like why was Tim Tebow hardly used?

And how clutch is Chris Leak?

With Florida moving into position for a possible go-ahead score late in the fourth quarter, Leak appeared to hold up his throwing motion and was called for a fumble when the ball came out of his hand.

Later, with 3:16 remaining and the Gators trailing 18-17, Leak threw an interception on the first play of a drive.

So what does this mean for the season? Has hope been lost? Have the horrors of Zookville been revisited? Hardly.

The SEC title is still within Florida's reach. In fact, the Gators may even remain the favorites. As long as Florida wins its final three league games - and any loss would be an upset - it has a date in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game.

What this game did was bring the Gators back to reality. Too much success had made them too susceptible to heartbreak.

You see, when you're always dancing in victory, it's easy to miss the stains on the carpet. It's only when your head is bowed in defeat that those blots seem to stand out.

Six consecutive victories had kept us from seeing omens that had been hidden in the box scores for too many weeks.

For instance, the Gators can be terribly undisciplined. They came into the game leading the SEC in penalty yards, and managed to leave in even worse shape.

There was the holding call in the end zone that resulted in a second-quarter safety. There were two flags for offside, a roughing-the-quarterback penalty and a face-mask call that kept Auburn drives humming.

For another thing, the secondary misplaces receivers on a regular basis. Not just here or there, but all over the field. The defensive backs played so far off, you wondered if Auburn's receivers didn't have some communicable disease.

The Gators are supposed to have reinvented the forward pass under coach Urban Meyer, yet they are giving up more passing yards than they are getting in SEC games.

Worst of all were the special-teams goofs. A long kickoff return led to one Auburn field goal, and a dropped snap on a punt was turned into a touchdown.

It's a shame because the offense looked better than ever in the first half.

This unit is far from perfect, but it adds possibilities every week. There are times when Leak seems entirely comfortable, and Percy Harvin appears more and more to be UF's long-lost game-breaker.

The running game, which had mostly been a rumor the past few weeks, turned into something out of Nebraska, circa 1970. At one point, on UF's first drive, DeShawn Wynn, Harvin and Kestahn Moore alternated on consecutive plays and gained almost 15 yards a carry.

If the Tigers were surprised by UF's emphasis on running the ball, they caught on quickly. The Gators were stuffed on their first two drives of the second half, including the one that led to the botched punt.

[Last modified October 15, 2006, 02:11:11]