A year ago, the Florida Gators endured one of their most exasperating seasons in decades.
This season, although it won’t end with a berth in the national championship game, has turned into one of their most satisfying.
Saturday night, No. 6 Florida stormed back with a huge fourth quarter to beat No. 10 Florida State 37-26 at Doak Campbell Stadium and finish the regular season 11-1.
The Gators entered the weekend fourth in the BCS standings and are a near lock to finish no worse than that, which would guarantee them a spot in a BCS bowl game.
The only thing that didn’t go the Gators’ way Saturday was top-ranked Notre Dame beating USC to clinch a spot in the BCS Championship Game. Florida needed a Notre Dame loss to keep alive its hopes of playing for the title.
The winner of next Saturday’s SEC title game between Alabama and Georgia will face Notre Dame.
“At the end of the day, you want to be in the conversation, and we are,” Gators coach Will Muschamp said. “You want to play in the big game, but regardless, I’m really proud of our team and the resolve.”
The Gators are almost certainly headed to the Sugar Bowl. That is a shocking reality for a program that last year needed a late-season win over Furman to become bowl eligible and finished with a winning record (7-6) only after beating Ohio State in the Gator Bowl.
Last season, the worst for UF since 1987, included a moment at the end of a 21-7 loss to Florida State in which Muschamp, tired of watching his players get outmuscled, called the Gators a “soft football team.”
He felt a world away from that disappointment Saturday.
“Very proud of the mental toughness that we played with,” he said. “When I first came to Florida, that was a little bit of a question mark. That football team showed you their resolve and their fight and their oneness and their togetherness.”
He was in such a good mood that he added, “I’ve always been a real big Lane Kiffin fan,” knowing he needed Kiffin’s Southern Cal to swing an upset.
And he felt great about answering critics who believe the Gators’ wins have not been “sexy” enough for the team to be a title contender.
“It was a really sexy win,” he said. “I was gonna come in here with my shirt off. But my wife and the players did not want me to do that.
“Our résumé speaks for itself, come on. You’ve seen where we’ve played and the quality of football teams we’ve beaten. We’ll play anyone anywhere.”
While Florida pondered postseason possibilities, it celebrated another landmark in a season full of them. FSU (10-2) rallied from a 13-0 deficit with 20 straight points, but the Gators answered with 24 in the fourth quarter.
In a span of 6 1/2 minutes early in the fourth, UF went from down 20-13 to up 30-20 and jumped ahead 37-20 before FSU quarterback EJ Manuel ran 22 yards for a touchdown on the last play of the game.
This was the site of a 31-7 demolition two years ago. Last season, the Seminoles embarrassed Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
“It was a personal game for us,” UF defensive end Dominique Easley said. “They had to feel the same black hole in their heart that we felt. So, we just had to give them what we felt, which was pain.”
They did that in many ways, notably when true freshman linebacker Antonio Morrison delivered the hit that saved the season.
With the Gators down 20-16 and 11:09 remaining, Morrison jarred Manuel so hard that he lost a fumble — one of five turnovers Florida forced — and had to leave temporarily with an apparent head injury. Florida scored on the next snap as Mike Gillislee ran 37 yards for a touchdown and a 23-20 lead.
Gillislee ran 24 times for 140 yards and two touchdowns, never losing a yard. He stands at 1,104 yards and 10 touchdowns, becoming UF’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2004.
Now the Gators wait, hoping upsets, polls and mathematics go their way. Unlike the last two seasons when they spent this time of year wondering which bowl they would fall to, they rode out of Tallahassee having assured themselves of something meaningful.
“We fared fairly well against everybody we’ve played, and we’ve played some of the best,” said quarterback Jeff Driskel, who threw for 147 yards on a sprained ankle. “Hopefully we can sneak in, because nobody wants to see us right now.”
