Pat Dooley’s Back Nine: Florida Needs To Play From Ahea

The Back Nine comes at you after a great Saturday where everything kind of fell my way, including the Gators not losing.

10. So, what do we take from UCF’s pounding at the hands of Colorado? Well, the UF coaches had better take something, but we really can take nothing, because I believe for the most part that every game is its own game. Yes, that looked like a defense Florida can handle. But until Florida gets some stops on defense, every game could come down to how well it starts. Because this is still a football team, three years in, that needs to play from ahead. Maybe UCF does as well.

11. Obviously, the thing I took from that game was that Travis Hunter needs to be on my Heisman Trophy ballot. I don’t like to talk Heisman this early in the season, but when a dude does the Heisman pose in September, you know he’s thinking about it. The Buffs have a couple of tough games remaining (Kansas State and Utah are both at home) and the path to the Heisman still depends on your won-loss record. Hey, I don’t make the rules. Actually, there are no rules. But you know what they are. You also know there are people who will not vote for a player coached by Prime Time and that’s not right.

12. The SEC saw some amazing games Saturday, none better than the one we hoped would be great. Alabama fans would have thrown themselves off the Tuscaloosa Railroad Bridge if the Tide had blown a 28-0 lead. Unfortunately, the hero of the game is a young man who still needs some maturing. Ryan Williams, who is only 17 years old, had “KILL EVERYBODY” written on his faux eye black and his coach needs to put an end to that crap. In the name of Tim Tebow, the officials could have stepped in as well. Moving on, that was an incredible game and you only needed cable TV to realize how far Florida has to go to get to the level of those two teams.

13. I did not see the Kentucky upset of Ole Miss coming. Neither did Lane Kiffin. The Gator fans who want him to be their next head coach probably were injured jumping off the Lane Train. It’s pretty amazing that Mark Stoops has again put together a team that can’t score, but can still win games. That defense has given up a total of 30 points to Georgia and Ole Miss. That’s the stat of the year.