Lessons learned for young Gators

Even back when Florida was hoisting the crystal trophy in Arizona on Jan. 8, everyone knew what lay ahead for the Gators for the rest of 2007. They were going to have to go through a long and maybe sometimes painful process of growth and development.

Now that it's happening, it should be to no one's surprise.

The young Gators, who dropped to No. 13 in the latest Associated Press poll, are learning and growing as they fight their way through the season.

The last two lessons have been the painful kind: a heartbreaking loss to Auburn on the final play of the game on Sept. 29 and an equally crushing last-minute loss to No. 1 LSU on Saturday night in Baton Rouge after the Gators led by 10 points in the fourth quarter.

It is an ongoing process - and the Gators are making progress, UF coach Urban Meyer said after Saturday night's experience in Tiger Stadium.

"I don't make guarantees," Meyer said. "I don't know if I've ever done this, but I guarantee we'll be back. The Florida Gators will be back smokin'. I don't know when. I can't make that one yet. I've got to see how everybody responds, but we'll be back."

The Gators were smokin' for much of the night in Baton Rouge. Quarterback Tim Tebow and the offense had stunning success at times against the nation's No. 1 defense and the UF defense was making enough plays to keep the LSU offense from going up and down the field.

After Tebow threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cornelius Ingram to give the Gators a 24-14 lead, it appeared Florida was on the brink of pulling off the upset and re-entering the national championship race.

But the Gators could not hold the lead, thanks to two critical turnovers.

A fumble by tailback Kestahn Moore with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter flipped the field position in LSU's favor. Then a Tebow interception off a deflected pass in the fourth quarter set up a short touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter that fueled the LSU comeback.

The Gators (4-2) learned a great deal about themselves in this loss.

They now know the offense is capable of moving and scoring against anybody and that the young defense continues to show improvement from game to game.

They also discovered they need to learn how to finish a game and make some plays on defense to get opposing offenses off the field.

LSU's ability to control the ball on two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter was the difference in the game.

The Tigers had the ball for almost the entire fourth quarter, using 12:09 of the clock.

Due to those drives and others throughout the game, the Tigers ran 80 offensive plays to only 58 for the Gators.

Defending an explosive offense for 80 plays is asking for a lot. For a young defense, playing on the road in a hostile environment, it was simply too much.

One of the next steps in the development of this defense is to find a way to get off the field and give the ball to its offense. If the offense had more opportunities in Saturday night's game, the Gators might have put up some big-time numbers against America's best defense.

Even with only 58 plays, the Gators scored 24 points, rolled up 19 first downs and had 314 total yards without having the ball for almost a full quarter. The most points LSU had given up in a game this season had been 16 to South Carolina and the Tigers went into Saturday night giving up only 174.6 total yards a game.

Florida's offensive performance certainly is something to build on.

"For certain, the team's future is still bright," said Tebow, who rushed for 67 yards, passed for 158 and accounted for all three UF touchdowns. "We can still make it to Atlanta and win the SEC championship. We have to still believe in each other and the coaches and fight for the rest of the season.

"It's been a tough week. Coming off the loss to Auburn, a game we felt we should have won. Then fighting back and getting ready for this game with a great game plan and playing well. We should have won. There's not doubt about it, we should have won. We've just got to finish the game, play all four quarters."

The Gators now head into their bye week riding a two-game losing streak, the first in Meyer's head coaching career.

UF has much to work on, much to build on.

And they are still in the SEC race. If the Gators run the table against Kentucky, Georgia, Vanderbilt and South Carolina and Tennessee loses another conference game, UF would win the Eastern Division via a tiebreaker because every team would have at least two conference losses. Both of UF's losses came against the Western Division, which helps the Gators in a potential tiebreaker in the Eastern Division.

The season is long from over.

The process continues.

"This will give us time to regroup, get our minds together and start game planning for Kentucky," Moore said.

Robbie Andreu can be reached at 352-374-5022 or andreur@gvillesun.com.