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The Gators' road to a repeat looks shaky

The Associated Press

Florida kicker Caleb Sturgis (19) celebrates the game-winning kick with center John Fairbanks, left, and tight end Aaron Hernandez (81).

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 18, 2009

GAINESVILLE - One Mississippi ...

"We'd been here before," Florida linebacker Ryan Stamper said when it was over.

Two Mississippi? ...

Not this time.

Tim Tebow didn't see the winning 27-yard field goal by sophomore Caleb Sturgis sail over Florida and Arkansas players and through the uprights at Ben Hill Griffin Cardiac Center on Saturday.

Florida's Promise Keeper was holding teammate John Brantley's hand. Now here's an upset: No. 15 was praying.

"When I heard everybody cheering, I opened my eyes and saw we'd made the field goal; that was a lot of fun," Tebow said.

No. 1 lives, though we're not sure they're No. 1 anymore. The perfect season lives. The winning streak, now 16, survives.

For that matter, so does The Promise, the one Tebow made after Florida's only loss last season, against you know Ole Who.

With Mississippi burning in their brains, the top-ranked Gators won 23-20, the lucky stiffs.

Wonder if Tebow was thinking up a new promise while his eyes were closed. No need. The old promise worked, barely, but it worked.

"I honestly think the reason we won it was because of our heart," Tebow said.

For nearly 60 minutes, it was all so eerily familiar to all denizens of the Nation - the highly ranked Gators, the unranked underdog, the Florida mistakes, the other team's big plays, all but Mississippi 31-30. Saturday was Ole Miss without the loss.

Arkansas should have won this game. Florida was lucky. The Razorbacks, 24-point underdogs, missed two field goals. They also forced four Florida turnovers and sacked Tebow six times. They hit more big plays against the top-ranked Florida defense than the Gators had surrendered all season.

Florida cost itself all sorts of points with those fumbles. Early on, receiver Riley Cooper dropped what would have been a touchdown pass. Florida looked overconfident against Arkansas and it nearly bit them. It should have bit them.

"Any time you turn the ball over four times, you're going to lose that game," Florida coach Urban Meyer said.

Only they didn't.

When Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett hit Greg Childs for a 75-yard touchdown for a 20-13 Razorbacks lead with under 10 minutes left, a big play just like the winning killer slant last season by Mississippi, Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong shook his head.

"Here we go again," Strong thought.

Only here they didn't go again.

"Mississippi was a wake-up call, and this one was, only we won," Stamper said.

The road to a repeat looks more precarious this morning. There were too many red flags Saturday, starting with the Florida offense. You could chalk up Tennessee to Monte Kiffin's schemes and LSU to a conservative approach to protect Tebow post-concussion. But Saturday, Florida struggled against the worst defense in the SEC, a unit ranked 95th in the country.

"Obviously, statistically, we're not on the same planet we were on last year," Meyer said.

What once seemed a mortal-lock collision course with Alabama in the SEC title game, with the BCS title shot to the winner, now seems fraught with peril - suddenly nearly every game on Florida's schedule seems in play.

And yet ...

There was enough championship feel Saturday. It was there as the defense, ravaged at times, held on. It was there as Tebow hit the longest TD pass of his career, 77 yards to Deonte Thompson, or led Florida down the field to tie the game at 20 or led it again for his first last-minute win as a Gators starter.

And it was there as Cooper, by default the best of a mediocre Florida receiving corps, and who'd suffered a painful hip pointer earlier, helped save the game. Typical of Florida's day, Cooper actually fell down on the crucial third-and-10 pass play but still made the catch for a first down.

Also typical, Cooper's other big play came just one play earlier, when he went up in the end zone to bat a loony Tebow throw out of the hands of Arkansas cornerback Ramon Broadway. The margin was that thin Saturday.

"I got my hand in there," Cooper said.

And Caleb Sturgis got his foot in there.

Ole Miss was ole news, barely, but barely counts.

No matter what planet Florida is on, it beats losing. Promise.

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