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A Gator Never Forgets

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By MICK ELLIOTT

melliott@tampatrib.com

Published: October 27, 2008

Updated: 10/28/2008 01:56 am

GAINESVILLE - The elephant sitting at the breakfast table being ignored during this week's buildup to the Florida-Georgia game is the Bulldogs' first-touchdown, bench-emptying celebration from a year ago.

Both coaches, Florida's Urban Meyer and Georgia's Mark Richt, are insisting the issue is old news and of little importance in Saturday's nationally televised meeting. There are more pressing things, like getting the inside track to the SEC Eastern Division title. Just the same, Georgia's 42-30 upset remains a sore spot with the Gators. But if they say the Bulldogs' celebration isn't part of that pain, who can disagree?

You know, besides, well, everybody.

Well, I Didn't Expect Anybody To Read It

Meyer might have pulled off the last-year-is-old-news effort, except for one problem.

He's the one who proclaimed it an issue.

In "Urban's Way," an authorized biography by Buddy Martin released this summer, Meyer had this to say about the premeditated celebration and penalty Richt used as a motivational ploy:

"That wasn't right. It was a bad deal. And it will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team."

Just Something To Hang On The Wall

It's late evening after practice and quarterback Tim Tebow is talking about the Bulldogs.

He is asked if the loss might have been used as motivation during offseason workouts.

"Absolutely. Other games, LSU and stuff, but that was definitely one of them. We've had a picture of them all dancing in our locker room."

Isn't That The Objective?

Would the Gators like to have a celebration of their own? Would they like to storm an end zone this year to celebrate a touchdown?

"Oh, no," star wideout Percy Harvin said. "That's not been our style. When teams do that, they weren't expecting to score. We plan on putting points on the board, so we don't need to."

Ask Early, Avoid The Rush

Before being muzzled on all "celebration" comments as the game drew near, the Gators didn't mind talking about the Bulldogs.

Before the Tennessee game, sophomore linebacker Brandon Hicks had this to say:

"Georgia is the game everybody wants on our team. Everybody wants that game back. It feels like we have something to prove to the world. Everybody thinks they intimidated us and we didn't play good after that. That's the team everybody has on their list."

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