Saturday Night Hangovers

The pounding in Urban Meyer's head on Sunday morning was the hangover of his first loss to Georgia in his three years at the helm of the Florida Gators. Similarly, Jim Leavitt woke up with a throbbing temple, the result of his USF Bulls losing on the road at UConn for the second time in three years.

Me? The pounding in my noggin is the fault of Blue Man Group.

The Sun Sports studio is located on a sound stage on the back lot of Universal Studios Florida. My windowless office on the third floor, like all of our offices here, is one thin wall away from the recently constructed Blue Man Group theater. When the group rehearses or performs -- which is every day, mind you -- the pounding from the percussion-heavy music reverberates through our offices. It's akin to the guy in the apartment next door with the loudest stereo in North America, and it happens...every...night.

Still, I would rather be here than in the coaching offices in Gainesville or Tampa.

As I write this, I'm watching Duke play Florida State, getting ready for a live postgame show that is sure to be seen by literally tens of loyal fans. Whose idea was it, exactly, to have Duke and FSU kick off at 8pm on a Saturday night?

At this hour, the wringing of hands among Gator and Bull media has yet to begin in earnest...but it's coming. You know it's coming.

Florida has now lost three of its last four games, all in the SEC. Coming off the 2006 National Championship, the Gators find themselves in a situation where next week's game against Vanderbilt -- Vanderbilt -- has serious SEC implications for both teams. Those blessed 'Dores, the perennial conference footwipe, have exactly as many SEC losses this season as Florida, with the added benefit of a win in hand over South Carolina. UF has to win out against Vandy and the SpurCocks, plus get help, to reach the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.

That, friends, is what nine new starters on defense, no running game to speak of, and a shoulder injury to SuperTebow will do for a team.

Florida has been living on borrowed time with Tim Tebow all season, and while they knew it, they had little choice. Tebow was, and is, Florida's most effective ball carrier, leading the team in carries and rushing yards. When he's slowed by an injury -- as he was Saturday night against Georgia -- the threat of a running game all but disappears. While he did find the end zone twice on the ground against UGA, placing him two rushing TD's away from tying Florida's single season record of 14 set by Emmitt Smith in 1989, those numbers are misleading. With six sacks on Saturday, Georgia held Tebow to -15 yards rushing, and the "real" Gator running backs (as opposed to Tebow or the wide receivers) finished with 46 net yards on 8 carries.

On a related note, Kestahn Moore may never be heard from again.

Aside from Tebow's health, a horrific game from Moore, and a young defensive backfield that was burned repeatedly on Saturday, you have to give Georgia some credit. Yes, the team celebration on the goal line after the game's first touchdown was inflammatory and stupid, and yes, Mark Richt's halftime comment -- "I told them that if they didn't get a celebration penalty after our first score, I'd be mad at 'em" -- was a spineless method of glossing over the fact that the UGA coaching staff practically shoved their guys out there. But it worked, didn't it?

Look, Georgia had lost 15 of its last 17 meetings with Florida and 17 of its last 23. Richt, who happens to be the fourth-winningest active head coach in D-I football by percentage, was 1-5 against the Gators. He had to do something to get his guys emotionally invested in the game. So he made a statement -- a potentially suicidal statement, but a statement nonetheless. And while Florida did indeed march right back and even the score at 7-7, and even took the lead later in the game, the Bulldogs were duly energized by the goal-line celebration.

Georgia played with more emotion, and took advantage of a Florida team whose weaknesses were all exposed at once. The wonderfully named Knowshon Moreno, who was only toting the rock due to injuries to Kregg Lumpkin and Thomas Brown, gashed the Gators for a career-high 188 yards and three scores. Matt Stafford, like Andre Woodson a week earlier, showed what an experienced quarterback can do against Florida's 79th-ranked pass defense. The Bulldogs' 42 points were the most they've scored against Florida since the memorable 1982 game, when eventual Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker romped for 219 yards in a 44-0 rout.

If they lose, the Bulldogs' goal line celebration is viewed as a classless, thuggish mockery of the game. But they won, and you have to point to that act as the moment that the Bulldogs set the Gators back on their heels.

As for USF's loss in East Hartford: if you thought the tumble from 2nd in the BCS Standings to 10th (after losing on the road, at night, on a short week, to media darling Rutgers) was dramatic, wait until you see what happens now. UConn, despite entering the South Florida game as the leader of the Big East Conference, has received zero respect from the pollsters, failing to show up in either the AP or Coaches' top 25 until now. They were, however, 23rd in the BCS prior to the South Florida game, and will soon be climbing.

Much like Florida, USF's offense was exposed on Saturday. Much like Florida, USF relies upon its running quarterback, and Matt Grothe delivered, to the tune of 145 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. However, unlike Florida, USF doesn't have a stable of five-star receivers to take the pressure off Grothe, and when faced with a defense much like their own -- Connecticut has the best scoring defense in the Big East and the second-best rushing defense -- they stumbled.

Grothe is to USF as Tebow is to Florida, but Tebow has more help in the passing game. Without help, Grothe cannot beat everyone by himself, as we discovered in East Hartford. From BCS National Championship Game contender to outside shot at winning its own conference, all in the span of three weeks -- that's what's causing Jim Leavitt's headache this morning.

Me, I'm still blaming the Blue Men.