GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The knee-jerk reaction is to consider what transpired on Saturday night at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium a colossal failure. Actually, "dumpster fire" seems to be the term so often used these days. There will be those who go down that road.
Florida fans certainly have experienced their share of I-can't-believe-it moments over the last nine seasons. Believe me, I feel your pain.
I left The Tampa Tribune eight years ago this past week to join the University Athletic Association in a newly created position of in-house senior writer. If you have read this far, you've probably guessed I'm still typing away.
I refer to my era as A.T. – After Tebow.
Six weeks on the job and the Gators did something they had not done in 22 years: lose three consecutive regular-season games, the last one a Homecoming loss to Dan Mullen's Mississippi State team.
By season's end, Urban Meyer announced he was leaving (again) and the Gators lost to Florida State for the first time since 2003.
Hello Will Muschamp.
Well, that didn't stop the oddities from continuing to pile up for a Gator Nation accustomed to national championships, Heisman Trophies and beatdowns of Georgia. It got so weird in 2013 that the Gators lost seven consecutive games, including a home loss to Vanderbilt that snapped their 22-game winning streak over the Commodores. Of course, the biggest stinker in the program's first losing season in 34 years was a home loss to Georgia Southern.
Yep, really.
A year later, goodbye Muschamp, hello Jim McElwain. Four words: Started well, ended badly.
In between, two losses to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, an 11-game winning streak against Tennessee snapped and a 27-game winning streak in season openers stomped on by Michigan. If that's not enough, the Gators suffered their second losing season in five years in 2017.
That brings us to what happened on Saturday night, Mullen's second game as Florida's head coach since he returned to town last November. The Gators lost to Kentucky.
That didn't sink in, yet, did it? The Gators lost to Kentucky.
Much like those other abnormalities in the college football universe mentioned above, Florida losing to Kentucky is destined to be popular fodder for sports-talk radio and armchair quarterbacks on the internet the next couple of days. A week after the Gators opened the Mullen era with a 47-point win over Charleston Southern, they lost to the Wildcats for the first time since 1986.
Might not be such big news if the schools were not SEC East rivals and had not played every year since 1986. So, after 31 consecutive wins in the series, the No. 25-ranked Gators trudged off Florida Field on Saturday night thoroughly beaten by a Kentucky team that racked up 303 yards rushing, converted nine of 13 times on third down, and had three scoring drives of 78 or more yards.
Exactly one week and 14 minutes after Mullen tossed his visor into the stands to celebrate his inaugural UF win, the referee uttered "the ruling on the field is confirmed" at 11:10 p.m. Saturday, which confirmed the final score: Kentucky 27, Florida 16.
The announcement that Davonte Robinson's 30-yard fumble return for a touchdown ended the game set off a victory rush onto the field by Kentucky's sideline. Meanwhile, as Kentucky linebacker Jamar Watson chomped at Gators fans standing in disbelief, UK fans in the southeast corner of the Swamp chanted "Go Big Blue, Go Big Blue."
It was a surreal scene, considering The Streak and the fact the Wildcats had not won at Florida Field since the Gators' 0-10-1 season of 1979.
As disheartening as the loss is for fans, as disappointing as it is for Mullen and his team, and as juicy of a storyline it is for the media, this one is not as surprising as all those other streaks that have faded from Florida's favor in recent years.
Kentucky was the better team and finally broke through against the Gators under head coach Mark Stoops, a feat that should have happened a season ago in Lexington if the Wildcats had not forgotten to cover a pair of receivers.
Mullen opened his postgame press conference with words on the Wildcats, not the Gators.
"I give them credit,'' Mullen said. "As I've said, Mark has done a great job with that program, building that program up, being a team that looks and plays like an SEC team."
Would Mullen have preferred to beat the Wildcats and not be the UF coach burdened as the one the streak ended against? Of course.
Still, he addressed the matter logically afterward, understanding his position at Florida is similar to where Stoops was at Kentucky a few years ago. Sure, the Gators have a lot more tradition than Kentucky, but at the moment, they have just as long a way to go to get to the top.
You don't have to be a millionaire coach and study hours of film to understand what happened in front of a sweaty crowd of 80,651. The Gators missed too many tackles, got beat up at the point of attack. Their offensive line failed to create a strong push. Simply put, Kentucky was the tougher team.
Mullen said as much, and is now ready to see what the Gators are really made of. He started off with a victory, but Saturday's loss could determine if his first Gators team is a winner.
"Our response to this game is really defined by how we show up on Monday [at practice],'' Mullen said. "I don't know if the loss tonight will hurt or help moving forward. We're going to find out.
"We've got to get back to work. There is nothing good to losing in my mind. I don't like it."
He's not alone. Ask Gator Nation. However, what the Gators do about it will determine if Saturday ends up nothing more than a temporary letdown, or another season of strangeness in too many of them this decade.
Florida fans certainly have experienced their share of I-can't-believe-it moments over the last nine seasons. Believe me, I feel your pain.
I left The Tampa Tribune eight years ago this past week to join the University Athletic Association in a newly created position of in-house senior writer. If you have read this far, you've probably guessed I'm still typing away.
I refer to my era as A.T. – After Tebow.
Six weeks on the job and the Gators did something they had not done in 22 years: lose three consecutive regular-season games, the last one a Homecoming loss to Dan Mullen's Mississippi State team.
By season's end, Urban Meyer announced he was leaving (again) and the Gators lost to Florida State for the first time since 2003.
Hello Will Muschamp.
Well, that didn't stop the oddities from continuing to pile up for a Gator Nation accustomed to national championships, Heisman Trophies and beatdowns of Georgia. It got so weird in 2013 that the Gators lost seven consecutive games, including a home loss to Vanderbilt that snapped their 22-game winning streak over the Commodores. Of course, the biggest stinker in the program's first losing season in 34 years was a home loss to Georgia Southern.
Yep, really.
A year later, goodbye Muschamp, hello Jim McElwain. Four words: Started well, ended badly.
In between, two losses to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, an 11-game winning streak against Tennessee snapped and a 27-game winning streak in season openers stomped on by Michigan. If that's not enough, the Gators suffered their second losing season in five years in 2017.
That brings us to what happened on Saturday night, Mullen's second game as Florida's head coach since he returned to town last November. The Gators lost to Kentucky.
That didn't sink in, yet, did it? The Gators lost to Kentucky.
Much like those other abnormalities in the college football universe mentioned above, Florida losing to Kentucky is destined to be popular fodder for sports-talk radio and armchair quarterbacks on the internet the next couple of days. A week after the Gators opened the Mullen era with a 47-point win over Charleston Southern, they lost to the Wildcats for the first time since 1986.
Might not be such big news if the schools were not SEC East rivals and had not played every year since 1986. So, after 31 consecutive wins in the series, the No. 25-ranked Gators trudged off Florida Field on Saturday night thoroughly beaten by a Kentucky team that racked up 303 yards rushing, converted nine of 13 times on third down, and had three scoring drives of 78 or more yards.
Exactly one week and 14 minutes after Mullen tossed his visor into the stands to celebrate his inaugural UF win, the referee uttered "the ruling on the field is confirmed" at 11:10 p.m. Saturday, which confirmed the final score: Kentucky 27, Florida 16.
The announcement that Davonte Robinson's 30-yard fumble return for a touchdown ended the game set off a victory rush onto the field by Kentucky's sideline. Meanwhile, as Kentucky linebacker Jamar Watson chomped at Gators fans standing in disbelief, UK fans in the southeast corner of the Swamp chanted "Go Big Blue, Go Big Blue."
It was a surreal scene, considering The Streak and the fact the Wildcats had not won at Florida Field since the Gators' 0-10-1 season of 1979.
As disheartening as the loss is for fans, as disappointing as it is for Mullen and his team, and as juicy of a storyline it is for the media, this one is not as surprising as all those other streaks that have faded from Florida's favor in recent years.
Kentucky was the better team and finally broke through against the Gators under head coach Mark Stoops, a feat that should have happened a season ago in Lexington if the Wildcats had not forgotten to cover a pair of receivers.
Mullen opened his postgame press conference with words on the Wildcats, not the Gators.
"I give them credit,'' Mullen said. "As I've said, Mark has done a great job with that program, building that program up, being a team that looks and plays like an SEC team."
Would Mullen have preferred to beat the Wildcats and not be the UF coach burdened as the one the streak ended against? Of course.
Still, he addressed the matter logically afterward, understanding his position at Florida is similar to where Stoops was at Kentucky a few years ago. Sure, the Gators have a lot more tradition than Kentucky, but at the moment, they have just as long a way to go to get to the top.
You don't have to be a millionaire coach and study hours of film to understand what happened in front of a sweaty crowd of 80,651. The Gators missed too many tackles, got beat up at the point of attack. Their offensive line failed to create a strong push. Simply put, Kentucky was the tougher team.
Mullen said as much, and is now ready to see what the Gators are really made of. He started off with a victory, but Saturday's loss could determine if his first Gators team is a winner.
"Our response to this game is really defined by how we show up on Monday [at practice],'' Mullen said. "I don't know if the loss tonight will hurt or help moving forward. We're going to find out.
"We've got to get back to work. There is nothing good to losing in my mind. I don't like it."
He's not alone. Ask Gator Nation. However, what the Gators do about it will determine if Saturday ends up nothing more than a temporary letdown, or another season of strangeness in too many of them this decade.
