Thursday, November 27, 2008

Florida - S.O.W. Preview

It's time for the annual Florida - Florida St. game. Thanks to both schools victories over Miami earlier in the season, this will be a true battler for the esteemed Seminole War Canoe trophy.

Finally, FSU is playing with a full roster and no suspensions. Unfortunately for them, this Gators team is possibly playing the best football in the history of the Florida program. Florida St. D's may actually be talented enough to keep up with the Gators on Saturday. Then again, we said the same thing about South Carolina.....



5 Keys to a Gator Victory


1. Score Early.

Florida has been absolutely dominant in the first half of their recent ball games. Playing in a hostile environment like Doak Campbell, it will be all that more important to get out in front early and shut the FSU faithful up. I don't know how effective scoring early will be at quieting the crowd though. I've seen FSU fans do their stupid little spelling thing after their team just picked up a first down in the fourth quarter of a 45-12 losing effort!



2. Instill Fear With Tebow.

Last year, the Seminoles seemed to give up once Tebow started running wild. I'd like to see if a feeling of deja vu came over the FSU D if Tebow started to repeat last season's performance. With all the NFL talk lately, this may be Tebow's last shot at FSU. You know he'll be fired up for this one!








3. Run Percy Harvin

Before there was Geno Hayes calling out Tebow only to get steamrolled. There was Myron Rolle calling out Percy Harvin only to get run right by. Two years ago, Rolle sated that Harvin didn't scare anybody on their D. He also said something to the effect that once he caught Harvin he would lay the wood on him. Harvin responded with something like Rolle couldn't catch him anyway so he wasn't too worried about it. Of course Harvin was correct. I wonder if FSU players are sick of eating crow?




4. DB's Make A Play

You bet your ass that's a picture of Avery Atkins making a play against the 'Noles. That happened to be the best game of Atkins' life. Someone from the Gators' secondary is gonna have to play that type of game on Saturday. Our cornerbacks are tiny compared to FSU's receivers, although that wasn't much of a problem against Georgia. Ahmad Black could be the key in our secondary. It would be a long day for the Noles offense if our secondary provided support for Mr. Spikes and company.






5. Invite UF's chapter of Phi Beta Sigma to Tally

Imagine if you will. You're a Florida St. receiver. You're running your route, hoping Ponder looks your way. Out of your ear hole you hear a blood curdling sound, "SIGMA!!! YOU KNOW!!!!". You immediately turn your head to see this:





You immediately give up on the play and charge into the stands to "take care of ya buness."


5 Players that need to step up


1. Louis Murphy - Murphy had a huge game last season. Plus he's a senior this year. Dallas Baker and Bubba Caldwell both had big games against the Seminoles in their final season. Time for Murphy to continue that tradition.

2. Percy Harvin - I expect Harvin to come close to the 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving feat again. He'll probably be the go to guy out of the backfield, and I look for Tebow to throw to him more often than not.

3. Joe Haden - Haden will probably draw the assignment of Greg Carr this weekend. Carr has Haden dominated size wise. However, Haden is a rockstar, and if he plays like the ALL-SEC corner that he should be, Carr should be shut down.

4. Will Hill - With every game that asses, Will Hill sees more and more playing time. This can only be a good thing as Hill is a bona fide superstar. I wouldn't be surprised if he got a pick this weekend.

5. Emmanuel Moody - Of course I had to put Moody on this list. He finally got over 100 yards last week. Albeit against 1-aa Citadel.


Here's some highlights from last seasons beatdown to wet your whistle.




Here's what some Florida and Florida St. fans are saying about the game over at Topix. It's amazing how some Nole fans are trying to play the character card. Really??? Florida St. Fan??? Character???? Wow, they get one bright light (Rolle) and all of a sudden they're the Ivy League of the South.


My prediction

Florida - 48

Florida St. - 15 (All Gano field goals.)

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