That little team from the southeast that doesn't carry much significance for Kp and his Bama brethren now stands in the way of the greatness that all Bama fans envision for Saban's bunch. I get the feeling at least Saban will take the Gators seriously. :lol: :wink:
Oh no no... ESPN and all the major media outlets have already proclaimed the best team in the land to be the Florida Gators. Poor Nick Saban and his band of dixie wanderers will be woefully outmatched in this one.. You are mistaking the fact that your program's history would fit in a Roll Tide coffee mug.. That has no bearing on how good or great your program has become now. The bottom line is that there wasn't much of a 'rivalry' there until SOS took over the Gators. At that point, they had Alabama's attention and respect.. But keep trying to get under people's skin.
I never had any feeling that kp doesn't take the Gators seriously so that's a line of bull. However if both teams can win out to the Championship game then I believe the winner will be in the BCS Championship game against the winner of the Big 12.
Yeah I don't see Saban, Bama or kp taking the Gators lightly. It'll be a great game assuming neither team stumbles, which I don't see happening.
MCG, This whole thing you have built up in your mind about Alabama and Florida is rediculous. Alabama has a history of over 100 years of playing a lot of teams for SEC and NC championships. Florida has only been a player in that arena for less than 20 years. The SEC has been in existence since 1933. Do you know when Florida won their 1st SECC? 1984 and they had to forfeit that one. Then they didn't do it again til 91. Tennessee, Georgia, Auburn, of course, LSU, Ole Miss, all won multiple SECCs for that first 50 years (and our history with these guys predates the SEC) and that is where our rivalries were created. Now, to our more recent past, when Florida stormed into prominence we have been in the East/West SEC scenario and we don't get to play every year unless we meet in the SECCG, which we did quite a bit in the 90's and now we are back in it this year. Whether Alabama considers Florida a rival has nothing to do with respect. Florida is obviously one of the best teams of the last 15 years or so and they are one of the best teams of this year and I think Alabama is looking forward to playing them in Atlanta. I think, as a fan at least, you have to play the best teams to beat the best teams. Here's to hoping that UF, and UA continue to win and when we meet in Atlanta the outcome has national significance.
I will be looking forward to watching the game! Should be a good one on the surface. It would appear to me that Florida will have the edge on the offensive side of the ball? Don
That I agree with 110%. I never expected any Bama fan to see Florida as a rival because certainly Florida fans do not view the Tide as a rival. I did denote a touch of annoyance and maybe disrespect in some of your earlier posts about this and that's why I don't forget it. In any event since the advent of the game in 1992 no two SEC teams have more appearances by far than do Alabama and Florida and in fact this will be Florida's 9th appearance. By contrast Alabama has only been there 5 times ( all against Florida ) and teams like Tenn (5 ) Georgia ( 2 ) and LSU ( 4 ) might seem surprisingly absent compared to the Gator's 9 appearances. http://secsports.com/index.php?change_well_id=2&url_article_id=54 So....if we want to talk about SEC Championship games then Florida has been very dominant in it's participation. If you want to go back more than the last 18 years ( I use 18 because Florida won the SEC title in 1991 and had the best record in 1990 ) then the story is different......but the here and now is most important and the more years that go by the last 18 years become the last 30 years...etc..etc..and everything else becomes ancient history.
kp, I certainly don't feel you hold the Gators in any kind of low esteem so let's get that out of the way. Now you are right that the Gators were not a major player in the early years of the SEC. And you are right that we didn't win our first championship until 1984 and we had to forfeit that one. As a matter of fact that is kind of a sticking point for Gators as other teams had won championships and never had to forfeit them after the fact. I have no problem with the SEC for not being allowed to claim 1985 and 1990 as champions or co-champions, which we would have been both years, as the rules were in place. But taking it away after the fact has always stuck in Gator craws as I can imagine you understand. And by the way the trophy for 1984 still resides in Gainesville. Now that we have that out of the way I agree mostly with everything else you said. The Gators burst onto the scene for good in 1990 with the arrival of Steve Spurrier and we have won seven SEC Championships since that time. Losing in the Championship game twice, both times to Bama. This will be the 6th time I believe that the Tide and the Gators have met in that game with the Gators holding a 3 - 2 edge in the previous encounters. You can't get closer than that and I am looking forward to this game and hope both teams win the rest of their games and send another team to the BCS Championship game. kp, Don't take anything I said in the first paragraph personal, it's just a little history that I put forth and has nothing to do with you or Bama. I certainly understand that we are not big rivals with Alabama at this time, if for no other reason that we don't meet every year. And in some ways not winning an official Championship until 1991 is fine as we can kind of look at the Spurrier era as a changing of the fortunes of the Florida Gators. We have been very fortunate to have Spurrier for our coach and now to have Meyer. In those two guys I think we've had two of the outstanding coaches in college football over the last 20 years.
At some point in time Doc Blanchard wasn't so relevant to Army football.... Time marches on for all of us sports fans and our teams. Minnesota once won a national championship....etc.... We can all say what is more meaningful for us personally and for instance who amongst Notre Dame fans would call the last 18 years very significant for Irish football? These thoughts I agree with Bill.
MCG, I still have to say that I don't detect any lack of respect from kp. He's a good guy, a good Bama fan and I can't think of a team I would rather play in the SEC Championship than Bama. I have met many Bama fans at Gator games through the years and like them. I just want to beat them in this game.
Agreed Bill. I went to a Fla-Bama game in Birmingham and attended the 1994 SEC CG vs. Bama and I had very good experiences with Bama fans. Classy bunch. Kp fits into that category very well.
Jesus H Keyrist.... This whole thread is basically MCG reading something into KP's posts that wasn't there... and basically demanding that UF be everyone's #1 rival otherwise you don't 'respect' them. How good is Alabama and why do many 'traditionalist' football fans give them so much respect? In the numbers laid out above, we are clearly living in the Golden Era of Florida football in which you are the dominant presence in the conference. In that same time frame, Alabama is going thru what it considers to be it's 'dark days' and they are still no worse than the 2nd or 3rd most successful team in your conference. Where will you be in your 'dark days?' As we've seen with others, they are a comin... sooner or later the karma comes back. To me the Bama-UF matchup boils down to 3 things: 1. Who controls the line of scrimmage 2. can they make Tebow one dimensional 3. can Florida cover Julio Jones the way I see it right now.. I'd answer those by saying 'Bama has controlled the LOS all year and hasn't needed a spread/perimeter attack to run around penetration'.... it is possible they could, and no, I don't think you have a cover corner that can handle him..
Some SEC Championship game facts from Gator Bill's memory. This will be the 17 Championship game. This will be the 9 time the Gators have appeared in the in the game, wining 6 of the previous 8. The two losses were to Alabama. Six of those appearances will have been against Alabama, the Gators are 3 - 2 against the Tide in the previous 5 games. Most of our wins were in the 90's, winning 4 of the first 5. Since that time Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Florida and Auburn have all won Championships. There were 8 championship games in the 90's with Florida(4), Tennessee (2) and and Alabama (2) winning championship games. There was not a playoff in 90 and 91 with Tennessee winning in 90 and the Gators winning their first offical championship in 91. I think that the Gators did dominate the SEC in the early 90's, through 96. But since that time Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Florida have all won championships. If both teams go though the rest of the schedule without a loss I believe Florida will be favored by the oddsmakers and betters, but I see it as a tossup. This decade LSU (3), Georgia (2), Florida (2) and Auburn (1) have all won Championships.
Well...that's about as wrong as you can get. I definitely have not said that Florida was a big rival of Alabama. I have said that Florida should have earned Bama's respect by now. Has Florida mixed it up with Bama on a regular basis in the last 16 years for the SEC title...absolutely and that in itself may get a few Bama fans charged up about beating Florida whenever they get a chance. It is absurd if any Bama fan is nonchalant about playing the Gators these days....but that doesn't mean there is a rivalry.
1. Florida holds it own on offense....pressures JPW on defense 2. Tebow is really coming on....and so is Harvin and there is still the matter of the speed weapons Demps and Rainey....plus Moody is now healthy! No need to be one dimensional with Tim with all that skill and speed. 3. The biggest improvement in the UF D is the secondary....a push... Jones will get some yards but the UF Dbs wil get 2-3 picks from JPW 4. Special teams....special teams !!!!!!........YES! Early prediction.....UF 35 Bama 20
Not really Bill. The answer is... I don't know, but I am really looking forward to the game. The things each team does, they do extremely well! I think part of what Florida does is try to score quick in an effort to make the other team's offense one-dimensional. It is a trademark of Urban teams that dates back his Utah days at least. The Tide will try to do the same thing, but in a different manner. They play ball control. They aren't a quarter-horse type of team that Florida is.. It all gets down to who does what they want to do... I think, to an extent, both teams will get a chance to make the other team do something they don't want to do. In fact, I think it is likely. I think the winner will be the team that plays best when out of its element. I mean... if you really wanted to know.
ps uhhhh Dave No Bama fans disrespect you.. In fact I can tell you most sports radio and TV shows in the area think that the game is a toss up (at best). No one looks past Florida anymore and they haven't for a very, very long time. I'm just not sure who the heck you're aiming this at?
I have read comments similar to that on this board before Corey when the topic was Fla-Alabama. I certainly don't think though that Bama fans, players or coaches will provide any"disrespect" BB material for the Gators in this game mostly due to how the Gators have been playing and Urban's history of playing up to that angle pretty well.... :wink: