The Florida players filed one-by-one into a crammed media room in the bowels of Neyland Stadium, fresh off a 38-28 loss to Tennessee.
Running back Mark Thompson, linebacker Alex Anzalone, quarterback Austin Appleby and cornerback Quincy Wilson each took his turn speaking with reporters after blowing a three-touchdown lead, the largest collapse by the Gators since a loss to Miami in 2003.
Each echoed the same sentiment: No national championship team at Florida has ever gone undefeated.
Yes, that is true. All three of Florida’s national championship teams had one loss.
But no, that does not justify this loss. Not the way the Gators played in the second half. Not in the first chance Florida had to prove itself against a top opponent. Not after all the smack talk and the guarantees and the definites the team boasted about heading into the game.
“It sucks the way it happened,” Anzalone said.
If so, then the Gators need to show it.
The players acknowledged they were hurt.
Tears and sad faces enveloped the locker room. Appleby, who had 296 passing yards and three touchdowns, threw his shoulder pads on the floor.
“That was the most emotional locker room that I’ve ever been in,” Appleby said Monday. “There were a lot of guys that were really hurt. We fully expected to win that game and we started fast, and we just came up a little bit short.”
But instead of the loss lighting a fire under the team, the Gators seemed to disguise their disappointment behind defeated demeanors even though they accurately said they have everything still to play for.
That’s not how those one-loss national championship team’s respond.
The prime example of this came in 2008.
Did Tim Tebow enter his press conference after Florida’s 31-30 loss to Ole Miss and simply say the Rebels were the better team that day? A plaque inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium with Tebow’s 96-word promise says otherwise.
“I just want to say one thing: To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I’m sorry. Extremely sorry,” Tebow said. “I promise you one thing: A lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. God bless.”
Are the Gators out of the running for the 2016 SEC Championship? Not by any means.
Will it help the team to be optimistic? Yes.
But without a sense of energy, a driving force and a bubbling passion, the rest of the season will be a tough road should the Gators encounter more adversity along the way.
Jordan McPherson is a sports writer. Contact him at jmcpherson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @J_McPherson1126.
Austin Appleby (12) directs the offense during Florida's 38-28 loss to Tennessee on Sept. 25, 2016, at Neyland Stadium. Appleby passed for 296 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
