Crazy game at Mississippi State ends with a 29-19 UF victory

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Pretty exciting game here in the beautiful state of Mississippi. Florida defeated Mississippi State 29-19 on Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium. Here's a link to my game story in Sunday's Miami Herald. LINK!

A record crowd of 57,178 watched Florida quarterback Tim Tebow tie former Georgia running back Herschel Walker's Southeastern Conference record of 49 career touchdown. Tebow rushed for 88 yards on 22 carries. He didn't throw a touchdown pass on Saturday, however, and completed 12 of 22 passing attempts with two touchdowns. After the game, Tebow refused to speak with reporters for the first time in his career.

Florida didn't look very good doing it but won its 17th straight game, which is the nation's longest current winning streak. Florida is 7-0 for the first time since 1996. Florida won at Mississippi State for the first time since 1985, breaking an 0-4 skid.

UF keeps on winning but how long will it last with the Gators struggling so mightily in the red zone? Florida was 1 of 6 converting red-zone opportunities into touchdowns. It's much more than a trend at this point. Now, it seems like a serious problem. In SEC play, Florida is 7 of 26 in converting red-zone opportunities into touchdowns.

I asked Urban Meyer after the game who was calling the Gators' red-zone plays and he said, "When it doesn't work, I call them."

Meyer said red-zone scoring is a major problem and will be addressed immediately. He said he planned to begin correcting it "on the plane ride home."

-jo-

Comments

[ReptilesRule]

This has gotten rediculous. Urban needs to step in on the offense and either give play calling to someone else because this kind of play and playcalling will not take us where we need to go. Man, they are hard to watch!!

[green]

Yeah real hard to watch being 7-0 with a great defense, and running game. I much rather be Miami who loses at home to some mediocre ACC team AT HOME with a horrid head coach who absolutely has no clue, NONE. or I would rather be USC who loses to some weak unranked PAC-10 school every single year.

[CCGator]

Good for you green, you BE that. So, why tell us cane troll? just go away. Have a nice time at that bowl game in Boise!

[CCGator]

It is like there is no trust in anyone but Tebow. That pass out of the end zone was insane. We are like a big scoop a vanilla offense. Tebow also made some really poor decisions as well. We looked like Spurrier last week against Bama. Same play over and over and over....Like Tony Robbins said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." The group think going in out offensive plan must change if we are going to get through to Atlanta.

[DieHardG8r]

I am disappointed in our dumb and all too predictable play calling, and Mayer better fix it right before the ride to Jacksonville....
Even the annoncers said that it was well known what Tebow's tendencies are,so it's time to get really really creative and stop doing the same thing over and over, with the same poor rsults...
Albert Einstein was the one originally responsible for the"definition of insanity", and if we do indeed keep doing the same old thing, the results will not be any different, that is for sure...
C'mon Meyer and Adazzio, get your act straightened out open up that playbook against Georgia...please!

[dan]

did you seriously just give tony robbins credit for that insanity quote? get your seminar money back dude...

[Sarasota 'Cane]

You will see us in the Churches Chicken Bowl... GO CANES!!!

[Gator John In Pinecrest]

i do not know what i would be more upset about if i was a canes fan......the fact they lost like that or the fact that they had 35,000 fans at the game!....i could not believe it!.....when they panned to the crowed I was shocked....empty seats on the first level at the 35 yard line! discraceful! pathetic!

[MTX-Cane]

I'm a Cane fan and I'm not upset at all. We lost a tough game, that's it. Nobody expected us to win this year and to be 5-2 is great.

Attendance is bad, but you have to remember that S.Fla is in the worst recession ever and people don't have the money. Unlike Florida Miami has other sports to watch. The Fins play at home today, so if you wanted to see both games it would cost you about $200 buck just for the tickets. Can you afford that? Didn't think so.

Like I said last week, Florida is winning UGLY but their winning. They have the talent to win out even if it's ugly. Look around CFB, there aren't any great teams. You can actually afford to win ugly this year.

[Caniac]

1) Like numerous people have said, once Miami gets a real solid head football coach they will be a force on a national scale, until then, they will lose games like this every year.
Just look at Whipple and Shannon on the sideline bickering. Who is the head coach? Miami needs Shannon back at coordinator where he belongs and bring in a guy who is a true head coach.

2) Florida is winning and that is all that matters. Until they lose, their fans should just be happy they are undefeated. They lost to an SEC West school 10 straight years, and this is the first year they havent. Until Florida is beat, they should be #1. Now if they keep playing like they have, they will be beat somewhere down the line, but they have great leadership on that team and always somehow find a way to win.

[Mel]

Back to the top of the AP poll. It's good to be king.

[Gator John in Pinecrest]

how do we get back to the top of the AP after that? Alabama looks worse? I don't get it? Is it becuase we beat Tenessee worse? That's really picky. I think UF and Alabama are interchangable right now. Maybe slight edge to UF because Tebow seems to pull it together when he really needs to.

[Gator John in Pinecrest]

MTX, you just made my point about Canes fans exactly! Gator fans would not give a crap about the other games or sports or the dolphins on Sunday! If canes fans have choose between the dolphins and canes then they aren't good fans! My college football game makes my weekend! hands down...win, lose or draw....gator sog to Gator games ...period...F the dolphins, jaguars, bucs..or whomever...pro football is for watching on TV sunday afternoon on your coach while you recover from screaming at the Gator game and partying at the Ganesville Ale House!

Go Gators!
Envy the RECENT PAST, envy the PRESENT, and be scarEd sh#@less of the FUTURE!

['envy the past, fear the future' cane fan..]

4 GAYtor joan in pinecrest. EXACTLY, U MAKE MY POINT PERFECTLY, U ALL IN GAYNIESVILLE HAVE NOTHING ELSE 2 DO 'BUT' GO 2 THE SWAMPHOLE OR A WAFFLE HOUSE AND WE HERE IN MIAMI HAVE MANY OTHER THINGS 2 DO.. GLAD WE'RE NOT AS MYOPIC AS U ALL ARE..

[Cane trolls are flat out jealous]

Look at the inferiority complex cane troll. Lmao
go lick your wounds LOSER. Hire a decent coach while your at it. Clemson and VT laugh at your future..... LOSER

['envy the past, fear the future' cane fan..]

enjoy ur breakfast at the WAFFLE HOUSE, meth head. I'm at Joe's Stone crabs now, enjoying a dirty martini and some stone crabs..
LIFE IS GOOD..
My life isn't all about a football team, LOSERS...

[green]

Clemson. BAHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA at home nonetheless BAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH

Look at that powerhouse ACC conference.

Duke has now gone ahead of the Canes and the Canes have found a familiar home, 2nd to last place!

excUse U!!!!! Let them keep rolling in!!!

Cant wait to Manny opens up the blog and comes back. It's funny when the Canes were "winning" he was blogging like a 17 year old girl. Now, he is long gone! What a joke. Cant wait to read all the excUses and next year talk.

Enjoy watching the Gators and hoping they lose every single week!

[Keep eating at Joe's LOSER]

Joe's is just like the canes. A way overrated image driven dump.

Anyone who blogs from a restaurant CLEARLY is all about football..LOSER

[dan]

HAHAHAHA. I'm eating at Joe's!! give me a break, you're on on here everyday talking trash. your a clown.

[Byron]

Tebow is the problem right now... Give him a little rest by running 10-15 plays from under center. Meyer can run stretch plays, screens, I-formation, play action bombs and even reverses. Take most of the decisions out of Tim’s hands for now; with our line and receivers mixing in a little traditional formation will keep the defenses honest!

[Gator Palooza]

Who is this envy the past cane person? Is this a joke? Didn't I beat up a kid on the playground in 5th grade just like him?????

[Dan Mullen]

Tebow was in Heisman form last nite. Those two TD passes he threw to Johnthan Banks looked sick. How about that redzone offense? One in Six trys is really rolling along.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4593595

Can the gators win without the blown calls?

[Swamp Donkey]

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/colleges/uf/story/1299909.html

Can you believe this crap? Do the ref's think we can't win without their help? A blown review? This looks really bad!

[Gatorlegend]

Did you see the look on Meyer's face when Miss. St. ran the pick 6 back 100 yds? Telling, very telling!

[KJ]

^yeah the refs blew that call. AND they also robbed us of a pic-six at the end with a bogus 'blow to the head' call!!

[KJ]

they also blew about 7 or 8 holding calls against MSU as well.. people need to get over this garbage that the refs are actually 'helping' UF. Blown calls happen all the time and in all sports. Unfortunately, it's apart of the game... and yes, most recently, a few of them HAVE gone in fla's favor though. Even if MSU had gotten the touchback I highly doubt they would have driven the ball down the field based on their offense struggles throughout the game.

[Gator Palooza]

We've been jobbed so many times in the past by refs (remember the loss at Auburn in '06), if you choose to focus on the calls this year then chalk it up to karma.

Our defense is playing so lights out (even w/o Brandon Spikes) we don't need a high-flying offense to win. All the coaches need to do is eliminate unforced errors. The only thing that bothered me Sat was Dustin Doe getting Lamar-Thomas'd at the goal line...shouldn't have been hot-dogging like a 'cane!

[CCGator]

dan,

It was a joke and I would never go to a tony Robbins seminar! lol

[Swamp Donkey]

We've been jobbed so many times in the past by refs (remember the loss at Auburn in '06), if you choose to focus on the calls this year then chalk it up to karma.

Posted by: Gator Palooza | October 26, 2009 at 08:49 AM

That's exactly my point! Why can't our ref's just let us play the game? I know there is a ton of money involved in getting two teams into the BCS, but at what point is is considered cheating?

Here is a link to a great piece that Jo wrote on the subject:

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/colleges/uf/story/1299909.html

UGA fan, ARK fan, Miss St. fan, SC fan and EVERY other SEC fan spend millions to attend games, purchase murchandise and to donate to their schools. If the ref's are going to predetermine the outcome of the games for the sake of the bottom line, then why bother playing?

Why would you suspend the ref's for calls like that? If you were serious about the integrity of the game, shouldn't you fire them instead? If you bring these same ref's back it looks like they were in on the fix! What if one or all of these guy's ends up calling the CG, or a bowl game?

The entire country is starting to think that the fix is in at the SEC, and from what I have seen over the last 3-4 weeks, I would say they are correct. This has the potential to become one of the worst scandals in SEC history if it continues!

Clean it up NOW!

SEC, SEC, SEC!

[gatorlegend]

I hate to admit it, but I think Swamp Donkey and Jo are onto something. This SEC has to clean this crap up if they are going to be taken seriously by the rest of the country.

[tbone1999]

I guess the fix is on in professional baseball too. How many bad calls have there been in the baseball playoffs this year?
How many bad calls do you see in the NBA every year? One player drives and gets a fould called every time and another less popular player drives and gets no call.
Human error is part of officiating every game. There are bad calls in every football game. The Doe fumble could have been over turned had there been a goal line camera but no conference has a goal line camera so that call would be a touchdown in all conferences.There was no way to over turn it because you can't see where the ball is relative to the goal line. It looked like a fumble but there wasn't 100% proof that it was. We got calls against us also that no one talks about. The Rainey trip against Arkansas when he fumbled. And the Stamper blow to head when he wasn't even looking and was having his head pushed down by the lineman. That should have been a no call. Florida was going to win both those games regardless of the calls.

[Gator Palooza]

The quality or lack thereof is not impacting the perception of the conference. If that were the case the AP and coaches polls would reflect this sentiment. Colin Cowherd did a great piece on this topic last week. To summarize, he felt that though there were some incredibly bad calls in games the past few weeks, to conclude there is some kind of conspiracy is simply silly. And this comes from a guy who does not pull any punches when it comes to criticizing football in the south (he's a west coast homer). In fact his rant centered on all the "crazies" as he called them waving the conspiracy flag.

The conspiracy stuff makes for good blogging but the reality is the good teams have been winning and the bad teams keep losing.

[Swamp Donkey]

The same ref's from our conference are making the same bad calls to affect the outcome for the same teams.

If you want to send the message that our ref's are not corrupt, then fire them! If we simply suspend them, it look like the comference is complicit!

[gatorlegend]

How did you come up with the name Swamp Donkey?

[Swamp Donkey]

How did you come up with the name Swamp Donkey?

Posted by: gatorlegend | October 26, 2009 at 12:13 PM

He He, I'm a little embarrassed! I used to play baseball for UF, and let's just say I got it during the teams hazing ceremony! Man I still think I have a "knot" on the back of my head! He He

[Gator John In Pinescrest -Lovin' It!]

Wow, you all are pent up!
For the record, I love the waffle house and anything else wholesome...
I live in Pinecrest, I do very well but I dont go to South Beach..I'm a family man....and I spend time with my kids and we go to Gainsville together and it is an awasome thing....when we do not go to Gainsville anjd I am not coaching, we go fishing ....and when it comes to the Gators and football: I love collage and high school football, I am a coach, AND I LOVE THE GATORS! YOU WOULD NOT UNDERSTAND, YOU ARE A CANES FAN...YOU ARE FLATTERING ME WHEN YOU TELL ME I AM MYOPIC..AND HAVE NO OTHER LIFE..! you further make my point! I drive 5 hours with my family 8 times a year and probably will go to Pasadena if it happens...I will definitly go to Atlanata and I will be in Jacksonville...I can drink dirty martinis at any of these places...THIS IS WHAT BEING A FAN IS! WATCH, LEARN, EMULATE...GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF WEST KENDALL AND BUYS OME TICKETS!