ORLANDO — Backed against a wall outside Florida’s locker room late Friday afternoon, sophomore cornerback Jalen Tabor reeled off a list of warning signs.
The 9-7 escape against Vanderbilt on homecoming.
“That’s not supposed to happen,” Tabor said.
Needing overtime to defeat Florida Atlantic.
“That’s not supposed to happen.”
What about the lopsided loss at home to Florida State in the regular-season finale?
“That’s not supposed to happen,” Tabor said once more.
They did though, and taken into context, what happened in the Citrus Bowl against Michigan can’t be that big of a surprise to Florida diehards who follow each play as if its life and death.
The Gators were outplayed in every facet Friday and as Michigan celebrated a 10-win season and bowl win in head coach Jim Harbaugh’s first season, the Citrus Bowl scoreboard and lack of orange-and-blue-clad fans still in attendance told the story.
Michigan 41, Florida 7.
“It was a case of getting your rump kicked in,” Gators head coach Jim McElwain said. “They took it to us, beat us up front, did a great job in the red area, kept us off balance, and I think more than anything, played with pad level.”
The 42nd bowl game in UF football history is one the Gators would soon not see or hear about again. The Wolverines rolled up 503 yards of total offense, the most allowed by the Gators all season, and scored 34 unanswered points after the Gators tied the game 7-7 late in the first quarter on a trick play that turned receiver Antonio Callaway into passer and quarterback Treon Harris into receiver.
Other than Callaway’s 2-yard underhand pass to Harris for a touchdown, little went right for the Gators. McElwain quickly turned the disappointment of the Gators’ second-worst bowl loss in school history into a lesson for the future.
“I think we had some guys satisfied when we first won the East,” McElwain said. “And I think they’ve gotten a taste of that now what you really have to do in preparation.”
As McElwain spoke about complacency in his postgame press conference, fifth-year senior offensive lineman Trip Thurman shook his head in agreement.
“I back that,” Thurman said.
So did Tabor.
“I don’t think they’re that much better than us,” Tabor said. “They had a better mindset than us. They came out and took it to us and we didn’t respond.”
The Gators spent much of their week in Orlando talking about their desire to finish McElwain’s first season on a positive note. They wanted a win badly after back-to-back losses to FSU and Alabama.
McElwain said the team practiced hard during their stay in Orlando and refused to blame the loss on any dead fish, his term for players who lack energy. But soon after the game started the Gators looked a step slow and step behind the Wolverines.
Michigan took its first drive 73 yards on nine plays for a touchdown, capped by Drake Johnson’s 4-yard run. It marked only the second time this season Florida allowed an opponent to score a touchdown on its opening possession. East Carolina did it in the second game of the season.
Michigan led 17-7 at halftime and really took control in the third quarter with a pair of scoring drives that ate up clock and racked up yards. Michigan outgained the Gators 160-2 in the period.
By the time the fourth quarter started many Florida fans headed for the exits and began looking toward the future, which is exactly what McElwain did.
“It’s disappointing to go out that way,” he said. “We’ve got a ways to go … and yet we’re on our way to building something special.”
Florida finished the season 10-4, a season easily divided into two parts. Part I featured a 6-0 start as redshirt freshman quarterback Will Grier began to assert himself and showed signs of becoming the answer at the game’s most important position.
However, the NCAA suspended Grier for one year after he tested positive for banned performance-enhancing substance. He plans to transfer after losing an appeal.
Meanwhile, Harris, whom Grier beat out in a quarterback battle, returned as the starter and guided the Gators to some early success, but each game the offense seemed to lose more and more of its punch on the way to a 4-4 finish over the last eight games.
As the Gators departed their locker room Friday, the players trudged toward the team buses for the ride home. Their expressions left no doubt about Friday’s outcome.
“We’ll learn from this,” Tabor said. “It’s definitely a motivation piece.”
Not too far away, Harbaugh sat at the same podium where McElwain had addressed the media only minutes earlier.
“I don’t think I’ve seen our offense play better,” he said. “And defensively, same thing.”
It was Michigan’s day. As a consolation, McElwain walked out of the stadium believing better days are ahead.
“We know now the expectations,” he said. “You can never take your foot off the gas pedal.”
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