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Monday, October 2
Gators not as good as advertised

By Bob Harig
Special to ESPN.com

What appeared to be an aberration is apparently part of the program now. For years, the Florida Gators ruled the Southeastern Conference, passing teams silly while building a solid defense. Three losses to end last season were viewed as a fluke, like Steve Spurrier sitting on the ball at the end of a blowout.

But Saturday's 47-35 defeat at Mississippi State confirmed a growing suspicion in Gatorland, one that pegged them nowhere near as formidable as their No. 3 national ranking and undefeated record suggested.

Thoroughly outplayed two weeks ago in a victory at Tennessee, the Gators were playing on borrowed time -- and they knew it.

"We're not playing like the No. 3 team in the country," said offensive lineman Leon Hires last week. "We're not playing on the level of Florida State, Nebraska and probably Virginia Tech. If I were a sports writer, I'd probably put us around No. 10."

	“	Mississippi State ought to be embarrassed for tearing down the goal posts for beating this team. They made a mistake. They need to wait on a good, solid, tough team to come in here because we're not that at all. ”
		— Florida's Steve Spurrier

Hires called it right. The Gators were nowhere deserving of their lofty status. Spurrier searched for answers throughout the early part of the season, fretted over the lack of disciplined play, wondered why his defense was not more physical. Allowing up more than 500 yards to Kentucky was another clue.

Heading into the game at Mississippi State, the Gators were ranked ninth in the SEC in total defense, giving up more than 330 yards per game. The pass defense was ninth and run defense eighth. And considering the number of supposed superstars on the defensive line, the number of sacks was alarmingly low -- just eight, with half of those coming in a 55-0 victory over Middle Tennessee State. After four games last season, defensive end Alex Brown had nine sacks alone. He has just one this year.

The Bulldogs saw the weaknesses and exploited them for 517 yards, including 351 rushing yards. It was the fifth-most yards ever allowed by a Spurrier team at Florida, and it came against the SEC's worst-ranked offense.

"We'd been flirting with disaster," Spurrier said. "We had a lot of bad things happen, a lot of bad things. We got what we deserved, I guess."

Spurrier promised changes on defense, and the person looking over his shoulder is Jon Hoke, Florida's defensive coordinator. There might not be a more difficult task in coaching than working on Spurrier's defense.

Not that his offense has anything to brag about. The offensive mastermind's "Fun 'N Gun" is obviously no longer as prolific as during an earlier time. Whether opposing defenses have caught up to Spurrier's schemes or his teams simply don't execute as well, the points don't go up on the scoreboard as quickly or as often.

And there was Spurrier rotating quarterbacks again, going to Rex Grossman and Brock Berlin after starter Jesse Palmer suffered an ankle injury. It is a system that worked with mixed results in recent seasons.

No matter. The loss was Florida's first to an unranked team in Spurrier's 11 seasons, snapping a streak of 72 straight victories.

The good news for the Gators is they still control their own destiny in the SEC East. They've already defeated Tennessee, while everyone else has at least one defeat. And yet, that hardly seems like much consolation to a team that is playing so poorly.

"Mississippi State ought to be embarrassed for tearing down the goal posts for beating this team," Spurrier said. "They made a mistake. They need to wait on a good, solid, tough team to come in here because we're not that at all."

Ron who?


	Wisconsin's Michael Bennett has rushed for 841 yards in four games.

Michael Bennett did something his predecessor, Ron Dayne, was never able to accomplish: rush for 100 yards against Michigan. But Bennett's 123 yards came on 30 carries, and the Badgers were unable to overcome the Wolverines, losing 13-10 and severely damaging their hopes of returning to the Rose Bowl for the third straight year.

Nonetheless, Bennett's success following the Heisman Trophy winner has been quite impressive. He has 841 yards on 136 carries in four games. Twice, he's rushed for 290 or more yards.

"To be honest, there's no way that I could have anticipated Michael developing as fast as he has and putting up the numbers he has," Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said.

Quiet redemption
Quincy Carter's Heisman candidacy ended almost before it began. The Georgia quarterback was intercepted five times in a stunning 21-10 loss to South Carolina three weeks ago.

That was one less interception than all of last season. And it was one loss too many for the Bulldogs, who were ranked in the top-10 at the time and expected to contend for the Southeastern Conference title and perhaps the national championship.

"It had to be a real letdown for him to be a national contender for big awards and then have that kind of game," said Georgia coach Jim Donnan. "It takes away from that individually, but he's more into winning."

Carter started his 26th straight game for the Bulldogs on Saturday, and led them to a 38-7 victory over Arkansas that puts them right back in the SEC East race. Carter was looking forward to the challenge. "I thrive on adversity," he said before completing 13 of 22 passes for 168 yards and a touchdown. "Going on the road and playing against a hostile crowd, it'll be fun."

"This is the biggest game we've played since I've been here," Donnan said. "You've got to remember how fragile our team has been since (the loss to) South Carolina, and we needed something good to happen."

It did. Not only did the Bulldogs get a big road victory, but their main SEC East rivals, Florida and Tennessee, lost on Saturday, as did South Carolina.

Upon further review
After learning last week that Big Ten officials blew two crucial calls during his team's 35-31 loss to Michigan, Illinois coach Ron Turner -- not surprisingly -- said he is in favor of replay in college football. Television replays showed that the officials made mistakes on two fumbles in the fourth quarter, both going against Illinois.

"I would love to see instant replay come in, and not because of what happened on Saturday," Turner said. "If you would have asked me the same question last week, I would have given you the same answer. I would love to see it come in in some form."

Instant replay has been a subject of controversy in the NFL, where it is more easily employed because every game is televised. For college football, the project would also be expensive.

One possible idea: institute instant replay for conference championship games and the Bowl Championship Series games, all televised by the networks.

"With technology the way it is nowadays, it could happen," Turner said. "If we wanted it to happen bad enough we could make it happen. There is plenty of money, plenty of resources. Definitely the technology. It could happen. It could work."

Bob Harig covers college football for the St. Petersburg Times.

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No. 3 Florida defenseless, loses 47-35 to Miss. State

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