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UF-Bama Should Have Playoff Atmosphere

The Associated Press

Alabama running back Glen Coffee leads the physical Crimson Tide offense with 103 rushing yards a game.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 3, 2008

TAMPA - Gators beware.

I keep thinking that when Florida fans talk about Alabama this Saturday as if it were a fly to be brushed off a sugar cake.

There's not a worry in the Nation, outside of maybe Percy Harvin's ankle, especially since those Notre Dame spy planes have stopped circling Urban Meyer's home.

How can lowly 12-0 Alabama stop Tim Terrific and the Gators' hyperspace offense?

You couldn't ask for more out of a game than this SEC title game.

No. 1 and No. 2 under one roof.

Swift and sure Florida meets rough and ready Alabama.

It amounts to a national semifinal.

The Big 12 title game is a joke.

Using the BCS standings to pick Oklahoma over Texas, which beat Oklahoma?

When, exactly, will Barack Obama take up the cause? During the campaign the president-elect said he favored a real college playoff system.

Oh, who are we kidding? The feds would mess it up.

Nothing short of a crime would keep the Gators from the BCS title game should they beat the Tide.

Oh, we've heard the whispers about how the humans involved in the BCS might keep Florida down to set up the Oklahoma-Texas rematch in the national championship game, that is, if OU wins the Big 12.

Florida won't get robbed.

Remember two years ago, all the talk about Michigan deserving another shot at Ohio State in the BCS title game? It didn't happen. UF got its chance, and deserved it, battering Ohio State in the Arizona desert.

Which brings us back to our starting point: Gators beware.

Beware because Alabama is precisely what you were two years ago.

They're a team with a great defense, but a team that hasn't wowed that many people, has had a few close calls, but built an aura.

Remember the 2006 national champion Gators? Remember the South Carolina game, that blocked kick that saved a season?

Deep inside, a winner was building. Alabama has that feel.

They have done everything that they've needed to do - on defense, with a punishing running game, by eating clock, controlling games. All they do is win.

Gators beware. Remember 1999.

Alabama came to Gainesville that season and beat Steve Spurrier and Florida in a spectacular overtime game. All the same, I remember Gator fans licking their chops at getting another shot at the Tide in the SEC title game. And they did.

Alabama 34, Florida 7.

Gators beware.

Yes, there was no Tim Tebow back then, and Florida has been nothing short of sensational since it came up short against Mississippi.

Does it matter?

Here is Alabama. Here is Florida.

The BCS is a joke. This game isn't.

Gators beware.

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