Florida Week for the Wildcats

Florida is good. Really good. Their second string could beat most teams' first, and if a team rolls into town wounded and reaching deep on the depth chart to fill out a starting lineup, it's usually certain defeat. The crowd is loud, sweaty, and feasted on booze omelets with a booze chaser all morning.

So many words, so little time.

However, this is not the Florida of years gone by where defeat was the norm unless you were something special. Ole Miss showed Florida was capable of defeat. But for this Kentucky team to beat Florida it would have taken a good showing from our skill players and virtually mistake-free football from those not wearing orange. The rushing attack would have needed to take the pressure off of Hartline and the receivers and stop the defense from simply blitzing the shit out of Kentucky.

So imagine my silent expletive when RB Derrick Locke was ruled out for the season after the evaluation of his knee injury sustained Saturday against Arkansas. (For the record, it was a markedly non-silent expletive and rhymed with "fuck". Oh wait... that was the word. Nevermind.) This is bad on most every front imaginable, as now Dicky Lyons and Derrick Locke, two explosive weapons on offense are done for the year because of a knee injury.

Knees. Important. Really.

Kentucky showed flashes of brilliance, so I'm told, on Saturday night when their backs met the wall in the 4th quarter without the two, but the lack of any sort of sustained offense, a defense that continues to get gashed by shifty running backs, and the inability to have Randall Cobb snap himself the ball, throw a high fade, and run under it in the end zone worries me to no end.

I'll write up something a bit more insightful about the Gators personnel later this week (over/under on foreskin jokes stands at 5.5) as knowing your opponent is critical, but knowing their fanbase is even more important. After the shitshow last week around these parts thanks to the Interwebs making its way to Arkansas hollers and trailer parks, here's the best of the Web in case anyone wants to take a look at some Florida faithful.... on the whole an educated, well spoken, knowledgeable fanbase. (Insert jean shorts joke here).

EverydayShouldBeSaturday: Orson Swindle (one of the best nom de plumes I've come across) runs (in my eyes) the premier college football blog on the internet. I would hope most all of you have seen this site already, but if you haven't, click on it. Now. Your workdays will be shot, but your knowledge of college football, and your love for mustaches will flourish under his tutelage. Not entirely Florida specific, as EDSBS has a large national audience, but there is hints of Gator in there. And he hates Tennessee. So really, he's sort of like the cool older cousin at the family reunion who smokes and drives a Trans Am.

Orange and Blue Hue: Great layout, great writing, and insightful analysis about Florida and their opponents.

Saurian Sagacity: Great writing, insight, and analysis aside, consistently ranked Ball State in their blogpoll before most others did. Kudos.