Apparently, there just weren't enough upsets during the daylight hours of an unforgettable college football Saturday.
The night time has been the right time for Auburn against Florida in recent years, but on Saturday, Tommy Tuberville pulled off his biggest upset of the Gainesville goliath.
In 2001, the Auburn coach knocked off a Steve Spurrier juggernaut at home, and last season, the Tigers gave Urban Meyer's team its only loss in a national championship campaign.
But on Saturday night in the Swamp, the Plainsmen recorded their most unexpected win over Florida in recent memory. The Gators have been great on other occasions when they've encountered Auburn, but an upset seemed to be a remote possibility on this night because the Tigers had played such woefully bad football coming into this contest.
Quarterback Brandon Cox looked impotent. The offensive line was simply whupped. A once-feared rushing attack had been stymied. Offensive coordinator Al Borges looked like a fool, with 2004's joyride alongside Jason Campbell a very distant memory. Mississippi State jumped the Tigers in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
What should have been a 4-0 start by every reasonable measure instead became a 2-2 nightmare. And while the Tigers did figure to spill their guts in Gainesville Saturday night, the old college try didn't figure to be anything close to enough against a squad as skilled and swift as the Gators.
The fact that Florida had already played a listless "hangover" game the previous week at Ole Miss only lengthened the odds against the Tigers. Surely, the defending national champions wouldn't go through the motions for a second straight week.
But as many teams and fan bases found out on "Upset Saturday," the sure thing was anything but. Florida coasted, and Auburn decided to punch the aristocratic, rest-on-your-laurels Gators in the mouth.
The secret of this shocker was no secret at all: Auburn played the game at a faster tempo and with much more passion for most of the night. Florida made a second-half flurry, but then again, that 14-point surge came when Quentin Groves, the Tigers' standout linebacker, left the game with an injury.
The Gators fought back to earn a 17-all tie midway through the fourth quarter, but they still needed one more score in the game's final seven minutes and change. That score never came, as Auburn gathered its breath, rededicated itself to playing phsyical football, and made all the key plays down the stretch.
A late stand against Tebow followed by ballsy third-down conversions set up a game-winning ice-veins field goal by Wes Byrum, who sweated out the unique pressure of having to make two 44-yard field goals in the final seconds, not just one.
After a first field goal attempt (which sailed through the uprights) didn't count, due to an intentionally late (but legal) time-out request by the crafty and cagey Meyer, Byrum calmly hit an even better ball the second time around, and the upset was sealed on the game's last play. The parallels with Damon Duval's game-winning kick in 2001 (sealing a 23-20 Auburn win in a game with similar patterns) were absolutely extraordinary.
On one hand, college football lovers must be hating what transpired throughout the sport on Saturday: two mammoth showdowns suddenly had their five-star profiles wiped away. On the other hand, it's upset festivals such as this one — with five ranked teams going down in a matter of six and a half hours — that gives this sport its eternal lifeblood: thrilling unpredictability.
We'll see where the newly uncertain road leads Auburn and Florida for the rest of the season. Tonight, however, the road home to Alabama is a joyful one for the revived Tigers; the walk back to campus residences for the losing
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The night time has been the right time for Auburn against Florida in recent years, but on Saturday, Tommy Tuberville pulled off his biggest upset of the Gainesville goliath.
In 2001, the Auburn coach knocked off a Steve Spurrier juggernaut at home, and last season, the Tigers gave Urban Meyer's team its only loss in a national championship campaign.
But on Saturday night in the Swamp, the Plainsmen recorded their most unexpected win over Florida in recent memory. The Gators have been great on other occasions when they've encountered Auburn, but an upset seemed to be a remote possibility on this night because the Tigers had played such woefully bad football coming into this contest.
Quarterback Brandon Cox looked impotent. The offensive line was simply whupped. A once-feared rushing attack had been stymied. Offensive coordinator Al Borges looked like a fool, with 2004's joyride alongside Jason Campbell a very distant memory. Mississippi State jumped the Tigers in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
What should have been a 4-0 start by every reasonable measure instead became a 2-2 nightmare. And while the Tigers did figure to spill their guts in Gainesville Saturday night, the old college try didn't figure to be anything close to enough against a squad as skilled and swift as the Gators.
The fact that Florida had already played a listless "hangover" game the previous week at Ole Miss only lengthened the odds against the Tigers. Surely, the defending national champions wouldn't go through the motions for a second straight week.
But as many teams and fan bases found out on "Upset Saturday," the sure thing was anything but. Florida coasted, and Auburn decided to punch the aristocratic, rest-on-your-laurels Gators in the mouth.
The secret of this shocker was no secret at all: Auburn played the game at a faster tempo and with much more passion for most of the night. Florida made a second-half flurry, but then again, that 14-point surge came when Quentin Groves, the Tigers' standout linebacker, left the game with an injury.
The Gators fought back to earn a 17-all tie midway through the fourth quarter, but they still needed one more score in the game's final seven minutes and change. That score never came, as Auburn gathered its breath, rededicated itself to playing phsyical football, and made all the key plays down the stretch.
A late stand against Tebow followed by ballsy third-down conversions set up a game-winning ice-veins field goal by Wes Byrum, who sweated out the unique pressure of having to make two 44-yard field goals in the final seconds, not just one.
After a first field goal attempt (which sailed through the uprights) didn't count, due to an intentionally late (but legal) time-out request by the crafty and cagey Meyer, Byrum calmly hit an even better ball the second time around, and the upset was sealed on the game's last play. The parallels with Damon Duval's game-winning kick in 2001 (sealing a 23-20 Auburn win in a game with similar patterns) were absolutely extraordinary.
On one hand, college football lovers must be hating what transpired throughout the sport on Saturday: two mammoth showdowns suddenly had their five-star profiles wiped away. On the other hand, it's upset festivals such as this one — with five ranked teams going down in a matter of six and a half hours — that gives this sport its eternal lifeblood: thrilling unpredictability.
We'll see where the newly uncertain road leads Auburn and Florida for the rest of the season. Tonight, however, the road home to Alabama is a joyful one for the revived Tigers; the walk back to campus residences for the losing
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
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