In the past month the UF football team has watched Auburn kicker Wes Byrum do the Gator Chomp in The Swamp, LSU running back Jacob Hester torch their defense on fourth down and Georgia fans celebrate in Jacksonville for just the third time in 18 years.
Needless to say, the defending champs need time to cope after losing three of their last four games.
For sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow, the answer to coping came from abroad.
Christy Allen, Tebow's sister, listened as the Gators lost to Georgia from Bangladesh via the internet. Allen and her husband just began serving as missionaries in the South Asian nation, and plan to be there for a three-year term.
When Tebow got home, he had a phone call waiting from his sister.
"It makes you feel good when people love you like that," Tebow said. "It makes you realize this game really doesn't mean that much in the grand scheme of things."
Wide receiver Percy Harvin said it's the talks with fellow wideouts that help him deal with it all.
That doesn't mean, however, that they ever pictured themselves dropping three of four.
"We never thought we would be in this situation right now," Harvin said. "I think a lot of players took things for granted, were living off of last year a little bit. [They thought] things were going to come easy. We just couldn't deliver that knockout blow that we delivered last year."
For freshman punter Chas Henry, it is Sunday's team service that helps him get over the trials of a loss.
"It's been tough," Henry said. "We just really talk about when we go through adversity what we are going to do to overcome it. Talking to Tim [Tebow's] family, it's such a great family. I talk to his dad a lot. He gives you a lot of inspiration when you go into each week. After a loss, he'll come up and give you a hug and everything."
While most of the youth on this Gators team has never gone through a situation like this, some of the veterans have. In 2005, Meyer's first season at UF, the Gators had a stretch where they lost two of three games, with only a Mississippi State homecoming win sandwiched between losses at Alabama and LSU.
"We wanted to finish the season out strong for the seniors," center Drew Miller said. "We played in the Outback Bowl and finished out a win for them."
Tebow said one of the greatest aids when dealing with adversity is the team's off-season fight or flight syndrome program, which tests players' toughness with their backs against the wall.
Since the Gators no longer control their own destiny in the Southeastern Conference and need Georgia and Tennessee to lose for any shot at the SEC title game in Atlanta, that wall is getting very close.
"What're you going to do?" Tebow said. "Are you going to lay down or are you going to fight? I think our team has a lot of character from the off-season. That's what the coaches try to do in the off-season - back us into a corner where you're either going to stop or keep fighting."
