Gators pull off upset, beat Ole Miss

Third-ranked Ole Miss arrived in Gainesville ready to remind the Florida Gators of their new position in the middle the SEC. Both Thompson and Deayon had one pick each in Saturday night’s dismantling of Hawaii. You don’t need any proof of that after the Gators jumped to No. 11 in the AP Poll, but we’ll present it to you anyway.

UF’s brand had faded appreciably since 2013. Even with Florida State producing sloppy win after sloppy win last season, the Seminoles still made the playoff field because they went undefeated, something no other team could do.

LaQuan McGowan is a Baylor tight end who’s listed at 6-7, 410 pounds on the official Bears roster. “There’s a lot of talent in this building”. But neither of those seasons began with the low expectations this one did.

The Gators are not there yet, McElwain cautioned.

“It’s the way it should be, ” McElwain said. “That’s what we want to do”.

While fans fretted whether Grier would be able to play after reports surfaced Friday he was one of the players battling the flu, his teammates were not concerned.

Grier was among 22 Gators struck last week by a 48-hour illness, throwing his availability Saturday night into question. Grier found freshman Antonio Callaway for his fourth touchdown pass of the game. “It might be something we have to look into”. “That allows him to be successful”. After having scored over 70 points in each of their first two games it was a safe bet that the offense wouldn’t be keeping up that pace. However, a 50 percent (8-of-16) conversion rate on third down helped Florida keep drive alive and wear down the Landshark defense. Those days appear to be over. My 2008 self figured Florida was favored by more than three touchdowns and, while I’d love to go to the game, I shouldn’t be spending the money for gas and a hotel room for a game in which Ole Miss would likely be killed.

“The dam broke and unfortunately we just didn’t have enough counterpunches to get back in it. …”

So much for No. 3 Ole Miss’s triumphant rise to the top of the college football world. “We took a few shots, we were aggressive”.

While those were all great gifts that I will treasure forever, none of them compare to the finest, most valuable gift this game gave us.

Near perfection would have to do this time. Conference play will continue to chip away at that, possibly blurring the picture even more over the next few weeks. Jaylen Walton, Jordan Wilkins and Eugene Bradley all have over 100 yards and have combined as a trio for six of Ole Miss’ 13 rushing TDs.

Florida, now 5-0 and 3-0 in SEC play, are in the driver’s seat in the SEC East. They travel to Columbia next week to face the two-time defending division champion Missouri Tigers.

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“We have to figure out a way to get the ball in the endzone, whether it’s through a naked (bootleg) or to run it wide, we have to figure out a way to get it in there or get in the jumbo set and power it in there”, Luke said. “People doubted us before this game”. 1-5, in that order, prior to me tweaking the hell out of them this weekend as I just erased everything and started everyone with a blank slate.