News Article: Florida wrapup: The best team – for now – took care of business

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Florida wrapup: The best team – for now – took care of business
By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-in-Chief
Dec. 6, 2008

Sometimes, the Heisman Trophy voters get things wrong, as anyone who watched the 1993 Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Miami will attest.

Putting his name alongside such luminaries as Rashaan Salaam, Eric Crouch and Chris Weinke, Gino Toretta spent most of Jan. 1, 2003 either in full retreat, completely ineffective or, at times, an outright liability to his team.

But when Florida’s Tim Tebow won the award last year, he proved that most of the time, the Downtown Athletic Club and its voters get things right. On Saturday against Alabama, Tebow cast that proof in cement.

Florida was without the services of Percy Harvin, but it had the full services of Tebow under center, and Tebow’s presence – not to mention his third-down passing, three attempts from which went for touchdowns – were the key to Florida’s win.

Alabama didn’t get dominated in the trenches, ran the ball when it needed to and held Florida’s running game to minimal damage. But Alabama didn’t have an answer for Tebow’s surgically precise passes, couldn’t get pressure on him at all, and was treated to a firsthand lesson about the importance of recruiting when Florida kept running out receiver after receiver who could make plays all over the field.

In the end, what’s to be pointed out is that Alabama is two years ahead of schedule, and the talent level will do nothing but go up from here. Once Alabama improves its pass rush and bolsters its receiver corps with more playmakers, Florida is what Alabama is about to become.

But Alabama can’t plan on having a Tim Tebow dropped in its lap, and Florida fans should enjoy whatever time with Tebow they have left. Once he’s gone, despite the Gators’ collection of talent in other places and strong coaching staff, Florida won’t be the same.

The loss to Florida illustrated just how slim Alabama’s margin of error was. The only clearly missed call – a no-call on an intentional grounding – hurt, as did anything else that might have had any questionability at all about it. In Alabama’s first 12 games, the Crimson Tide was good enough to overcome these things, but not against Florida.

If there’s anything about this loss Alabama can correct in the here and now, it’s special teams. Javier Arenas put Alabama in a tremendous hole when he took a kickoff at the 4-yard line and stepped out of bounds. A curious fake field goal – it’s still unclear whether it was called or not, or whether holder P.J. Fitzgerald had an option on the play – and so-so kick and punt coverage all combined to help doom Alabama. Special teams were a strong point last year with the exception of punting; this year, they’ve been a liability at times with the exception of Arenas on punt returns.

Sunday, Alabama will get official word of its bowl destination, likely to be New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl against Utah, which is essentially Florida without Tim Tebow and about 85 percent the talent level at the other positions. It will be a dangerous game for Alabama, but still one the Crimson Tide should win.

And if Alabama finishes the year 13-1 with a Sugar Bowl victory to its credit, the Tide may not be a title winner in 2008 – aside from the one that came with its West Division win – but it will be a season no one should look back upon with anything other than a broad smile. Like the 1991 season under Gene Stallings, 2008 will be known as the year that Alabama football experienced a rebirth.