Colleges

Meyer: We must respond

By ANTONYA ENGLISH, Times Staff Writer
Published October 1, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Brian Cassella | Times] Quarterback Tim Tebow, getting stopped short of the goal line against Auburn, says UF's leaders must step up

GAINESVILLE - This is the week that will determine how the remainder of the season goes.

Florida is coming off a 20-17 upset loss to Auburn at home and the No. 9 Gators 4-1 must now travel to Baton Rouge to play No. 1 LSU in another prime-time, nationally-televised game Saturday. It had been a highly-anticipated matchup between Top 5 teams. Now it's a game between the best team in the nation, according to the Associated Press' media poll, and a UF team trying to rediscover its identity on offense and find one on defense.

"The phrase that I relied on as a young person is the soul of a man is exposed when you're hit in the face," coach Urban Meyer said. "I don't want to overdramatize a loss in football with some of the other major issues in life. But you find out the soul of a man isn't exposed when you pick up the crystal ball and put on a championship ring; a lot of people can do that. It's when you have to rebound from some adversity. The negative is, we probably have 10 seniors and how many of them have actually played a lot? How the hell are we going to respond? I don't have that answer. But I feel like there is a lot of character on this team and some good people."

Florida has been in this situation before. The Gators' only loss last season was to Auburn; they went on to win the national title. But that was a veteran-led team.

"It's going to be hard, especially to lose a game like we did and lose at home when we didn't play our best ball," senior Tony Joiner said. "We saw last year how to bounce back. We just got to take this game as a learning curve for us."

"It's pretty similar to last year," sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow said. "We just have to have great leaders step up and lead this team to bounce back and get ready for LSU."

MULLEN SURGERY: Offensive coordinator Dan Mullen was in the coaches booth calling plays less than 24 hours after an emergency appendectomy, Meyer confirmed Sunday. Mullen complained of pain during the team dinner Friday, and was sent for blood work. "The next thing I get is a phone call about 11:30 p.m. that he's going to have an appendectomy, but he should be fine for the game," Meyer said. "So he wasn't at the first walk-through, but the second one he was. He's a tough guy. He did everything he possibly could and that didn't impact the game. He still called a fine game, but we still could have done some things better. But he should be fine."

RAINEY SURGERY?: Freshman running back Chris Rainey (shoulder) may have to have season-ending surgery. Rainey, who has mostly seen action on special teams, did not play Saturday. "He re-injured it," Meyer said. "It has been unstable really since he got to Florida and it looks like he will not play again this fall. I don't know the exact date and that is not final, but he has a problem with his shoulder."

Antonya English can be reached at english@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 30, 2007, 21:40:03]