HOW WE GOT THERE
Gators move from disarray to 'destiny'
A frustrating midseason loss and several key games helped Florida reach Arizona
BY MIKE PHILLIPS
mphillips@MiamiHerald.com
The night before the first Bowl Championship Series rankings were to be released, the Florida Gators' national title hopes took a serious blow.
A nationally televised loss on the road against Auburn had all but undone the impact of impressive victories against Tennessee, Alabama and LSU.
Potentially more damaging, however, was that the Gators had turned on each other immediately after the Auburn game.
''There was anger in that locker room,'' coach Urban Meyer said. ``When you have a close family like we have, there was a lot of anger amongst each other. Players felt certain players didn't play very well, and we had to get that right.''
The Gators, who likely would have been among the BCS' top three teams in that first poll, instead were sixth on Oct. 15.
But during the next seven weeks, the Gators recovered -- winning the final five games in their regular season and crushing Arkansas to claim the Southeastern Conference championship.
Just as important, many of the teams around them tumbled, clearing a path for Florida to move into the No. 2 spot in the final BCS rankings and a date with top-ranked Ohio State in the national title game on Jan. 8.
''I'm never surprised at anything that happens in college football,'' BCS analyst Jerry Palm said. ``In college football, stuff happens, especially when you have three or four teams with one loss. Florida got a little bit lucky, but they won the games they had to. They took care of business.''
But only after the frustrating loss against Auburn and the locker-room scene played out.
The Gators moved the ball easily in the first half and eventually built a 17-8 lead. But they fell apart in the second half and Auburn won 27-17.
Auburn took an 18-17 lead on a blocked punt, and hung on when -- with about nine minutes left -- the Gators fumbled at Auburn's 6-yard line. Meyer and Gators fans still believe Chris Leak was passing the ball, but officials ruled the play a fumble. Auburn scored its final nine points in the closing minutes on a field goal that was set up by an interception and a touchdown on a rugby-like fumble recovery as time expired.
Afterward, the Gators took each other apart -- and Meyer stood there and watched.
''As a coach, you don't mind seeing that, a lot of anger. There were a lot of invested players in that room,'' Meyer said. ``Some guys were in a hurry to take their stuff off and get going, but there were lot of things being said, and I let it be said for awhile. Then we calmed it down and talked. It was very unique. Close families have issues, and there were a lot of issues in that locker room that night.''
Players lashed out, shouting and cursing at teammates.
''Absolutely, there was finger-pointing,'' Meyer said. ``When you lose and get hit in the mouth, the human element takes over. You're darn right [there was finger-pointing].''
That's the kind of moment coaches want to avoid at any cost, because once teammates turn on one another, it usually destroys a team. Somehow, the Gators moved on from the loss -- and from that heated locker room.
Meyer said they survived because of ''the 21 seniors,'' and because of former quarterback Danny Wuerffel, who inspired the '96 Gators after they lost to Florida State. Meyer carries a copy of Wuerffel's message to the '96 team in his pocket.
''I didn't have to say much,'' Meyer said. ``I let Danny do the talking.''
FIRST BREAK
Two weeks later, the doors started opening for the Gators.
Oregon State upset Southern Cal 33-31 when USC quarterback John David Booty, who threw for 406 yards, failed to complete a two-point conversion pass with 7 seconds left. Jeff Van Orsow knocked down the pass, and the Gators got the news in Jacksonville, where they beat Georgia 21-14.
The Gators' next break came when the Big East unfolded perfectly. On Nov. 2, unbeaten Louisville beat unbeaten West Virginia to move ahead of UF in the BCS, but a week later, Rutgers came back from a 25-7 deficit and beat Louisville 28-25.
Even Meyer took notice of the bizarre ending when Rutgers' Jeremy Ito missed a 33-yard field-goal attempt, then -- because Louisville was offside -- kicked a 28-yarder with 13 seconds left to win the game and eliminate Louisville from the BCS title hunt.
''We started feeling like we were a team of destiny,'' UF receiver Percy Harvin said that week. ``We were watching the Louisville game and we were talking to each other on the phone during that game. We know we have to keep winning, but you know everybody is talking about it.''
If Harvin and the Gators needed another sign, they got it Nov. 11 -- two days after the Rutgers-Louisville game -- when defensive end Jarvis Moss blocked a field-goal attempt in the final seconds to preserve a 17-16 win against South Carolina. Moss also had blocked an extra-point attempt late in the fourth quarter.
After the game, Moss boasted: ``We're going to Glendale. We're going to play for the national championship.''
The Gators, who had moved past a two-loss Auburn team and Louisville, landed at No. 4 the next day, but USC had been impressive in beating Cal 23-9 and leapfrogged Florida to land at No. 3. The pollsters still were penalizing the Gators for not winning convincingly.
''We are a team of destiny,'' Moss said last week. ``. . . We never stopped believing that we could get [to the BCS title game], and we started seeing things fall into place for us. But the main thing was we knew we would win our games. That's what we had to concentrate on, and we knew if we won, we could get to Glendale.''
FINAL PIECES
Still, the final pieces had to fall perfectly for the Gators during the final three weeks.
USC had to beat Notre Dame on Nov. 25 and then lose its final game to UCLA for UF to move ahead, because if Notre Dame had beaten USC, the one-loss Irish might have moved ahead of Florida.
First, Ohio State beat second-ranked Michigan 42-39 on Nov. 18, but the voters kept Michigan at No. 2 the following day. Meyer, who had been mute on the BCS earlier in the season, opened up, and was one of many critics who blasted the idea of Michigan playing Ohio State in a rematch.
USC thrashed Notre Dame a week later, demolishing the Irish's faint title hopes and impressing enough of the voters that, along with the growing sentiment against an Ohio State-Michigan rematch, the Trojans climbed to the No. 2 spot.
That left one small opening for the Gators, still fourth in the BCS. They had to beat Arkansas in the SEC title game, hope for a UCLA upset of USC, and then hope that the voters would leapfrog another team -- this time Florida -- over Michigan.
The news of UCLA's upset spread quickly throughout the Georgia Dome, where the Gators took the field in the second half leading 17-7 and knowing USC had lost.
''Everyone knew, but we didn't want anyone talking about it, because we knew we still had to play the second half,'' UF co-defensive coordinator Charlie Strong said.
''We deserve it. We deserve to go to Glendale,'' shouted Moss, who looked like a prophet after the Gators beat Arkansas 38-28.
The next day, the voters agreed, bumping Florida to No. 2 in the BCS for the first time.
''This team has been through a lot,'' middle linebacker Brandon Siler said. ``But we always believed we could play for the national title.''
posted by Trader Rick @ 11:29 AM
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