Most people won’t remember October 13, 1945.
The No. 1 song in America was “Till the End of Time,” crooned by Perry Como. Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound” with Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman topped the movie box office charts. And, it was a sad day for candy lovers – Milton S. Hershey (yep, the one with the chocolate bar by the same name) died on that Saturday at the age of 88.
It had been just 68 days since the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
Before this past weekend, it had been 68 years – October 13, 1945 – since the Vanderbilt Commodores had defeated the Florida Gators in Gainesville. You can’t say that today.
And today, you can’t say that the Gators are a major player in Southeastern Conference football, at least for this season.
Where have the real Florida Gators gone?
It wasn’t that long ago that we had the real Gators. The 2009 team played eventual national champion Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, then demolished outmanned Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl.
But something happened after that win in New Orleans. It’s hard to figure out exactly what it was, but something happened.
The 2010 Florida team went 7-5 in the regular season, losing four conference games for the first time since 2004. Losses included home defeats to Mississippi State and Florida State, each game producing just one Gator touchdown.
There was a head coaching change the next season – Will Muschamp replacing Urban Meyer – and the results changed, too. Things got worse. Florida went 6-6 in the regular season, winning just three SEC games. Georgia beat the Gators for the first time in four years, and FSU gave up just a single Florida touchdown for the second straight season.
Then, came 2012 and things appeared to be back to normal by Gainesville standards. The Gators lost just once in the regular season (it was against Georgia again) and were chosen for the Sugar Bowl. But, apparently the UF players thought they deserved better than a New Orleans game against Louisville … and they played like it. Florida sleepwalked from the outset of the game and limped home with a demoralizing loss.
It’s hard to tell if the Gators have awakened from that sleep yet. With just three games left on the 2013 regular season schedule, Florida sits with a 4-5 overall record (3-4 in the SEC), including no wins over a conference team with a winning record. The Gators must get two more wins in order to qualify for a postseason bowl game.
The chances don’t look good. They play at South Carolina on Saturday, with the Gamecocks needing a win to keep its SEC Championship Game hopes alive. Don’t expect Steve Spurrier to cut much slack to the team where he played and coached.
Florida ends the season against in-state rival Florida State with the Seminoles needing an impressive win to keep its place in the BCS Championship Game pecking order. Don’t expect Jimbo Fisher to have much sympathy for the hated arch-rivals.
In between is a game with Georgia Southern. If they win that one, the Gators have to win one of the other two or they fail reach the magic number – six wins.
There are a lot of reasons for what has happened this season. Injuries have been a nightmare in Gainesville where the locker room has looked more like a MASH unit. In a year where injuries have sidelined more key players nationally than in recent memory, few teams have suffered more than Florida.
The schedule has been a gauntlet. The Gators have played traditional in-state power Miami on the road, plus Toledo, one of the best teams in the MAC. They played LSU (No. 21 in this week’s BCS poll), Missouri (No. 9) and Georgia (No. 25) in consecutive games, all on the road, and the Gamecocks (No. 10) are dead ahead. Florida also has a date with the mighty Seminoles in the regular season finale.
And, the offense hasn’t been able to get it done. Florida’s defense has been one of the SEC’s best, but several outstanding defensive performances have been wasted due to critical turnovers and offensive ineptness.
Those may be reasons, but Florida fans, used to being championship contenders, can’t be too happy with just four wins in their last 10 games and the near-certainty of a season without a bowl game. There has been just one season in the past four with a winning conference record.
From the SEC standpoint, the Gators picked a terrible time to have sub-.500 mark. Kentucky and Arkansas already have seven losses each and will spend the holidays at home. Mississippi State needs two more wins to be bowl eligible, with a road game against Arkansas and home games with Alabama and Ole Miss still ahead. Tennessee, losers of three in a row, must beat Vanderbilt and Kentucky in order to become bowl eligible. (In case you forgot, Vandy beat the Gators by 17 points in Gainesville, where Tennessee lost by 14 in September.)
If things don’t go just right, that could be five SEC teams not bowl eligible. If an SEC team plays in the BCS Championship Game for the eighth consecutive season, there will be 11 bowl slots available. Do the math on that.
Florida, which started the season as a consensus Top 10 team in the polls, was counted on to fill one of those spots. It won’t seem right to have the bowl season without the Gators for the first time in 22 years.
You’ll be missed Gators and the Southeastern Conference needs you to be there. Come back soon.