The Florida Gators and their fans should be worried. Really, they should be. If they continue to play like they did against the Tennessee Vols last weekend, the defending National Champs will be scrambling to make the Outback Bowl.
Monte Kiffin provided the rest of the country the blueprint on how to beat the Gators. The Vols stuffed the line and played the gaps extremely well and forced Tebow to make more plays with his feet than he has had to in a long time. While Kiffin could be the bulk of the credit, the NFL had a great deal to do with performance as well.
The loss of receivers Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy to the NFL is bigger than expected. Time after time Tebow was scanning the field only to see that no receiver was open down the field. That led to Tebow getting sacked and hit more than he has all season (which if you factor in who the Gators had played up until the Tennessee game isn’t saying much).
In looking at the Gators upcoming schedule, things don’t look better. Imagine if Tennessee had a quarterback on par with the rest of the SEC. How different do you think the outcome of the game would have been? Now take that way of thinking and apply it to Arkansas with Ryan Mallet, Florida State’s Christian Ponder, and if they make it to the SEC championship game it looks as if they will be facing Alabama with Greg McElroy who is playing as well as anyone in the country. This is even without factoring in South Carolina and Steve Spurrier’s offense. The Gators once cupcake schedule is not so easy any more.
What say you?