Week 13 of the Southeastern Conference football season was memorable not as much for who won, but who lost.
Most of the favorites won last weekend except for one notable exception — the Florida Gators. The Gators were beaten by Georgia Southern, an FCS team that lost to Wofford, Samford, Appalachian State and Furman before upsetting the Gators in The Swamp.
After Will Muschamp received a vote of confidence from the Florida administration earlier in the week, the Gators endured their most humiliating defeat ever. The Florida fan base, which was already down on Muschamp, has turned on the coach who was being lauded just 12 months ago after leading the Gators to an 11-2 season and a Sugar Bowl berth.
“Very disappointed for our program and an embarrassment in this situation,” Muschamp said. “We had our opportunities there. The kids kept playing hard”
Playing hard is not enough for Gator Nation. They are faced with the fact that Florida lost to a FCS team for the first time and it was the first non-conference home loss to anyone other than Miami or Florida State since 1988. The loss was the sixth in a row for Florida, the longest winless streak in 34 years. It eliminated any slim hope the Gators might have had that they could qualify for a bowl game, snapping a streak of 22 consecutive bowls.
“We’re hurt and we’re shocked,” said senior linebacker Darrin Kitchens.”The thing about the Gator Nation is this is not usually what you envision. But all I can say is we’re going to bounce back and Florida is going to take care of Florida. Losing that type of game is embarrassing, but when everybody plays as hard as they did, everybody gave it their all, that’s all you can really ask for. I’ll take those guys any day of the week.”
Gator Nation is probably not as analytical as Kitchens. Most want to hear that the administration, namely athletic director Jeremy Foley, is rescinding his vote of confidence and handing out a pink slip to Muschamp.
Meanwhile there is no discord in Columbia, Missouri where the Tigers clinched at least a share of the SEC East championship with a 24-10 win at Ole Miss. The win was Gary Pinkel’s 100th win at Missouri leaving him one win shy of matching Don Faurot’s record as the winningest coach in Tigers history. But Pinkel wanted to talk more about the support his team had from Missouri fans who made the trek to Oxford for the game.
“I want to thank all Mizzou fans; they estimated about 8,000 Mizzou fans here,” he said. “We get the SEC, and the fans get the SEC and the responsibility that goes with being an SEC fan.”
But the players knew that to get to their ultimate goal of an SEC championship they had to take care of 24th-ranked Ole Miss.
“We’re just a focused team. Coach has been keeping us focused all week with a great game plan,” said linebacker Andrew Wilson. “The players knew what was at stake, what we had to do.”
LSU’s win over Texas A&M was convincing. The Tigers’ defense, for the second straight year, was not overly impressed by Johnny Manziel’s Heisman Trophy.
“You set up the plan and you stick to it and you practice it and you tell them, ‘This is what it’s going to be like.’ When it starts to go that way, they say, ‘I got this.’ And that’s what happened,” said LSU coach Les Miles.
“We didn’t turn the ball over, we got movement at the point of attack. The defense rushed and spilled and the defense rushed and maintained leverage. We put speed on the field and the young corners – the secondary – covered. Big play by [Craig] Loston. Two picks to no turnovers. Lamin Barrow had a big game. It goes on and on. Jermauria Rasco had a big game. That’s the kind of LSU defense that we’re used to.”
Vanderbilt’s comeback over Tennessee kept the Commodores’ November winning streak alive. They have not lost a November game since 2011.
“Over the last three years we’ve created a culture that the players expects to win and they find ways to win,” said coach James Franklin. “It’s not always pretty. Sometimes the offense plays really well, sometimes the defense plays really well, sometimes it’s the special teams stepping up for us. A lot of different ways people are playing well.”
This time it took a 5-yard touchdown run by Patton Robinette with 16 seconds left in the game as Vanderbilt came back for a 14-10 win.
Georgia’s win over Kentucky came with a big price — senior quarterback Aaron Murray saw his college career end when he tore his ACL.
“That part is sad, but you knew it was coming relatively soon,” said Georgia coach Mark Richt said of Murray’s injury. “You didn’t want it to happen under this circumstance, but you were kind of getting used to the idea that you weren’t going to have many more games with Aaron.
“I’m feeling a little better now because I actually exchanged some texts with Aaron and he’s basically saying, `Hey, let’s get back to work. Let’s get this thing done and let’s get to work.’ He’s not going to mope around and cry. “He certainly, initially, was heartbroken by it, but after he realized what the deal was and what was going to have to happen…he’s already kind of getting geared up for that challenge.”