Miami — Too bad for Florida that college football isn't a video game.
If it were, the fifth-ranked Gators would be playing for the national title this week instead of hanging out 3,000 miles away at the Orange Bowl, still wondering what happened to a season full of promise.
"I still pick Florida on PlayStation every time," Gators center Zac Zedalis said. "If I have to win the national championship, I still go with those guys. I think everyone else would, too."
Maryland receiver Scooter Monroe says he sure does. Monroe and the sixth-ranked Terrapins (10-1) find the whole thing kind of strange.
After all, Maryland was supposed to be in its traditional spot for the New Year sitting at home. And the Gators (9-2) were supposed to be in the Rose Bowl.
"We play the College Football 2002 video game all the time, and they're the best team, by far," Monroe said. "It's kind of funny, though. We're actually playing them, and we were ranked 64th in the preseason."
So, one team's dream is another's consolation prize.
On one side, it's surprising Maryland, a team with a new coach (Ralph Friedgen), an ecstatic fan base and only one legitimate high-round NFL prospect (linebacker E.J. Henderson). On the other, it's disappointed Florida, a team with arguably the most recognized coach in the game (Steve Spurrier) the Heisman Trophy runner-up (Rex Grossman) and at least eight players headed for the NFL, three or four of whom could go in the first round.
Could the Gators, the preseason No. 1 team in the nation, match up with Miami, Nebraska or any other team in the country?
"I'll let you answer that," safety Marquand Manuel said. "Everyone in the country knows that. By far, we've got one of the most talented teams. You'll see that in the draft. But we didn't do the things we needed to there were two or three plays per game that didn't add up."
The Gators lost two games by a combined five points, and to hear them tell it, one of them the 23-20 loss to Auburn didn't really count.
Indeed, even with that loss, they were still in the national title chase when they played Tennessee, and lost 34-32.
Nobody is making excuses for that loss. "Tennessee was a big game for us. We didn't take them lightly," Zedalis said.
Explanations are more like it.
"We gave up four runs for 156 yards" to Vols tailback Travis Stephens, defensive coordinator Jon Hoke said. "The linemen got tied up at the line, the linebackers went the wrong way on misdirections and the defensive backs missed tackles in the backfield. We think we've got those problems corrected."
If so, it would figure the Gators will win big in the Orange Bowl.
They are 16-point favorites. That makes it 12-for-12 this season: the 12th time Florida has been picked by Vegas oddsmakers to win by double digits a sure sign of how much talent the Gators are perceived to have, and their penchant for winning big.
But they also lose close.
"It's amazing, we're always a double-digit favorite, everybody we play," Spurrier said. "We get beat, but we win by a lot. So we just sort of quit looking at the point spreads."
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