Florida Gators "Settling" Into Season

Now that the University of Florida football team, as expected, have lost their last two football games to conference powerhouses Alabama and LSU, they can reassess their prospects for this season. And incredibly, the fact remains that, even with two consecutive Southeastern Conference losses, the Gators have, as the old cliche goes, "control over their own destiny" regarding their annual goal: winning the SEC championship. Of course, that notion would completely go up in smoke with their next loss, as early as their next game against defending (but much weaker this year) national champion Auburn. Still, most Gator followers will probably be content if they can just win their own division.

This annual process of continual evaluation of the Florida season is interesting to me. After all, optimism abounds at the beginning of the season, even in those years (like this one) in which the team isn't expected to do all that well. The first couple of games are traditionally scheduled against "softy" smaller colleges, so by the time in week #3 when Florida actually plays Tennessee, their first major college opponent, Gator statistics are usually pretty impressive, both offensively and defensively. And lately, Tennessee hasn't had that good of a team either. And the next opponent, which often is Kentucky, usually represents relative mediocrity within this very competitive conference (although on a national level, they're often quite good). So even with only an average squad, the Gators can often start out impressively with a 4-0 record, usually accompanied by high national rankings. This year they did just that, climbing to #12 before being jarred back into reality by their next two opponents.

So what kinds of seasons do Gator fans generally get from their team? Here are some categories:

--Highest expectations: national championship or bust. This happened in 1996, 2008, and 2009, with the last being the "bust" season.

--High expectations, with a national championship or "very close" being the result. 1995 and 2006 were examples of these seasons.

--High expectations, generally met but with disappointing rivalry losses and season endings. This has been the general trend with Florida's seasons, especially since 1990 when Steve Spurrier began as coach. I regard 2001, Spurrier's last season as Florida coach, with Rex Grossman as quarterback, as the consummate season of this type.

--High expectations, average seasons. This is probably what will happen this year, but I think it is the high expectations that are open to criticism, if anything. I think every Gator coach has experienced these types of seasons. During Ron Zook's three-year tenure from 2002-2004, that's all we got.

--High expectations, poor seasons: Many of Doug Dickey's teams, especially that horrendous 1978 season that finally put an end to his coaching stint at UF.

--Low expectations, awful season: Charley Pell's inaugural 1979 season, when UF went 0-10-1.

So let's just enjoy each game this year as they come and appreciate that we have such a strong football winning tradition here without setting too high a standard for a brand new coach and his staff to be able to meet in his first season.