Hot Boudin, Cold Cous-Cous...

Picking Up the Pieces: My God, Is This 2004?:

Where do you begin? I'd like to say we simply got beaten by a better team; that would be tremendously easier to take. But at the upper echelon of the conference, the differences in talent are just too neligible to blame. We're as talented as Florida, I'm sure of it.

Now, for a Florida team so reliant on young talent (remember their past recruiting class was consensus top-2), they simply played with more poise and patience. Everything I've said or thought about this team being mature and professional enough to play their near-best every game can now be taken with a grain of salt.

Any team is going to make costly mistakes, that's inevitable. But the way a team responds to those mistakes says even more about their mental toughness and leadership. The game wasn't over after that JaMarcus fumble, but this year, we don't have a Kyle Williams or Chad Lavalais to make sure the team realized that.

Ever since the Saban years, we've typically been a third quarter team. Last year in Tuscaloosa, for example, the third quarter was the only reason we even brought that game into overtime. So I was deflated going into the half, for sure, but I expected some kind of comeback. Any halftime locker room momentum immediately fell to the ground with Early Doucet in the LSU endzone. And before you knew it, a manageable seven-point deficit became an insurmountable 23-7 score in the Swamp. I don't care if you run JaMarcus no huddle the rest of the half, we're not good enough to give Florida sixteen points and even it up in thirty minutes of football.

The lack of no-huddle drives would have to be my biggest complaint from a playcalling standpoint. JaMarcus's game relies so heavily on timing and repetition, even ol' Verne Lundquist was wondering why the no-huddle was not employed earlier. Jimbo Fisher's always been overrated since his 2003 patented Horizontal Passing Game; I just have to wonder how much of his offensive strategy is constricted by Miles's conservative philosophies.

Where to now? Well, a BCS bowl is out of the question, along with an SEC West division crown. The best we can do now is the Capital One Bowl, which I imagine would require a 10-2 record, since those Capital One Execs are itching to get Tennessee down there. A more realistic prediction would be the Cotton Bowl, a game we haven't been to since 2002, or the Outback Bowl, where we haven't been in at least 19 seasons. This team appears headed for 9-3, dropping a game to Tennessee, Alabama, or Arkansas. I just hope the underclassmen learn something about maturity, leadership, and mental toughness from this road-heavy season.

Florida, on the other hand, is positioned nicely for the SEC East title and a legitimate shot at the national one. They're a team getting better with every game and could definitely beat Auburn next week with similar offensive execution. I don't see any reason not to pull for Florida to win the whole thing; they represent the SEC exceptionally better this season than last. A team that got physically dominated last year in Baton Rouge looked much tougher and returned the favor.

Sure, it was painful to watch the special teams miscues, failures in pressure-filled situations, and JaMarcus's worst passes since last year's Florida game. But it was personally more painful to watch a team that is not mature or well-coached enough to regain focus from costly mistakes.

- P.T.