The last few days have been fun. Beating Georgia is, at least to me, the best feeling in the world as a fan short of winning a national/SEC championship. Yes, even better than beating FSU, as sweet as that is, because even if FSU beats us, the all time record is heavily in Florida’s favor- 34-22 right now, to be exact.
But as great as the win feels, it’s not our season. There’s still plenty for this team, and especially for Will Muschamp, to accomplish. Some of those things include making a bowl game (which looks a hell of a lot easier right now than it did a week ago), wrecking FSU’s season and winning as many games as possible for pride. And yes, there is still somehow a chance for Florida to make it to Atlanta.
Anyway, now we have to turn our attention away from Georgia (trust me, we’ll have an entire offseason to bask in the glory), we turn our attention to our next opponent, Vanderbilt.
There’s no doubt that this Vanderbilt team is nowhere close to as “good”, however you want to define that term, as the Vandy teams under James Franklin. Point blank, this team sucks. They lost to Temple- who’s just 3-2 in the American Athletic Conference- by 30 points at home to begin their season. That was their first clue that their 2014 season was in danger of being a failure. Their next clue was getting thumped 41-3 by Ole Miss- also at home- and it all unraveled from there. Vanderbilt has still not won a conference game, and they’re running out of chances to do so.
But the flip side of that is that Vanderbilt has been very competitive since those first two games. Only Georgia really blew them out. Hell, they gave Missouri ten times more of a fight than Florida did, and in Columbia, for that matter. And now, at 3-6 and facing bowl ineligibility straight in the face, here’s betting that they come ready to play on Saturday night.
So Florida can’t come into Nashville expecting to just roll over the Commodores. Yes, they’re just as desperate as Vanderbilt and I expect them to go out and play another solid game. But this is the type of game that Will Muschamp has lost plenty of times before during his time at Florida- the Gators are supposed to win, they need to win and they somehow defy all logic and don’t win. See the Sugar Bowl against Louisville, Miami, Vanderbilt and Georgia Southern last year and Missouri this year if you want more examples. And no, Muschamp doesn’t always lose this sort of game, but I remember the Gators squeaking out wins over Bowling Green, Furman, Louisiana Lafayette and Tennessee this year, too, and those memories aren’t the most reassuring thing considering how bad Vanderbilt is.
We’ll get to the schematics of the game either tomorrow or Friday. For now, though, know that this game is no sure thing, only because it can’t be a sure thing with Muschamp at the helm. I’d love more than anything in the world to be wrong, but I’ve got a sickening feeling we’re in for a letdown after the huge win over Georgia. New starting QB Johnny McCreary is full of confidence after lighting up Old Dominion for five touchdowns last week (…granted, it was Old Dominion) and if Florida’s defense doesn’t show up ready to play, things could get really, really tense.
Can Florida win? Of course they can. But they have to realize this is a new game. It sounds silly, but some of Muschamp’s teams’ worst performances have come after big wins. He is still very much on the hot seat; a loss to Vanderbilt would probably do it for Jeremy Foley. So he’s got to get his team ready to go.
And if he does, and Florida avoids the huge upset, this Gator team could have a “November to Remember.”
