As the last of the Rebel yells faded from Gainesville on Sunday night, a UF football team still reeling from an upset loss to Mississippi the day before took to the practice field.
It was a measure that coach Urban Meyer said he had never called for before, meaning this was a drastic time.
But instead of a few hours of angry punishment for the turnovers and other miscues that cost the Gators their first loss and top-five ranking, the practice was therapeutic, a chance to get the loss out of the team's system.
"Actually, it was fun," running back Chris Rainey said. "It was cool out there, and everybody got hyped up because everybody was still mad from the game."
As the football team begins preparing for this weekend's trip to Arkansas, No. 12 UF is walking the fine line between wanting to remember Saturday's events and trying to forget them.
Quarterback Tim Tebow said Saturday he wants the Gators to keep the loss to Ole Miss in their hearts and use it as motivation throughout the season, but dwelling on it too much poses another threat.
"The Mississippi loss can't cost us an Arkansas loss," defensive line coach Dan McCarney said. "You can't sit around and keep talking about it, and we haven't. We put it behind us as fast as we could."
The hard part now is taking the defeat without breaking stride toward the season goal of a Southeastern Conference title. The Gators (3-1, 1-1 SEC) still control their fate in the conference, and hopes for a national championship are still alive should they win out.
But the season outlook isn't what concerns Meyer right now. He said his cell phone was bombarded with text messages over the weekend, citing LSU, the NFL's New York Giants and the NBA's Boston Celtics as teams that lost games but rebounded to win titles last season.
"I know all that," Meyer said. "I know the '06 and '96 (UF) teams lost. I think I have 4,000 examples. What we need to do is learn to step with the right foot and get hand placements and be fundamentally sound. When 10 guys do it and one guy doesn't, bad things happen."
Saturday's game against Arkansas will be the testing ground for how much the Gators have learned in a week and how well they can bounce back from a big loss, a challenge defensive coordinator Charlie Strong said will show just how good UF is.
Early indications have been good as far as the team's psyche. Rainey and others said they have stayed positive, and McCarney added the players have responded just as the coaching staff wanted.
"Everybody is disappointed and upset, and there's not many smiles going on," McCarney said. "It's not a happy time right now at Florida, but there is great resolve in this program, and I know we'll come back."
And while the Gators want to erase the pain from the Mississippi loss, there's one thing Strong said they will definitely not forget from it.
"We won't take anyone else lightly after this game."
