The people that build palaces in the desert aren’t giving Florida any shot this Saturday against Alabama, and those guys in Vegas didn’t build sprawling, opulent hotels and casinos by being wrong.
There won’t be many people picking the Gators to win the game either. Florida is coming into this game as a 14-pint underdog. That isn’t as bad as 2015 when the Gators were a 17-point underdog or the most lopsided line in SEC Championship Game history when Florida was a 24.5-point underdog to the Crimson Tide.
Alabama has been the most impressive team in the country. The Tide are scoring just a hair under 50 points a game (49.5) and their defense, which had its fanbase panicking after three weeks, has figured things out and is now back to its typical suffocating ways.
“Not a lot of weaknesses in any aspect of their game,” Florida coach Dan Mullen said on Sunday. “Obviously they can put up a lot of points offensively. They can do it through the running game, they can do it through the short passing game with getting the ball to their athletes in space, letting them go make big plays, or they can do it with shots deep down the field. They do a great job protecting the quarterback and let him take those deep shots down the field.
“Defensively solid upfront at the linebacker level and on the back end. Just great athletes all the way around. There's a reason they're the No. 1 team in the country. You see it on film, how they play, how they execute.
That isn’t stopping Florida from preparing. They’ll get on on a plane in a few day's time and they’ll strap on their helmets with plans on being more than just a participant on Saturday.
The Gators and Tide are both ranked in the top-7 in the College football playoff poll. Both teams have electric offenses, which can score at a moment's notice. In terms of ranking their offenses, it's clear to see who the cream of the conference is. Scoring offense, it's Alabama one and Florida two. In passing offense, Florida is first and Alabama is third. Total offense, second and third. Both teams have Heisman candidates. Both teams have complete mismatches in Kyle Pitts and DeVonta Smith
Then why are the Gators' not being considered a worthy adversary? Some of that may have to do with the way Florida showed up last Saturday against an LSU team that was just disregarded by Alabama the week prior. Some of it, perhaps, is just because Alabama is simply that good.
"We got playmakers that can match up with them, just the same way that that they play. Alabama, they get 5-stars and whatnot," linebacker James Houston said. "I mean we get five-stars, we get four stars, we get three stars that play like five stars. So, we're not too much focused on what their ability is but where our ability is to stop them.”
That's a lot of confidence from Houston, who will be tasked, along with the rest of the defense, at trying to stop Najee Harris. The senior has already eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark this season and found the end zone.
"I’ve never really gone into a game thinking like this team is much more talented or this player is much better than me," Houston continued. "I’ve always gone into a game with the notion that I’m me, I’m always going to be me. I know what I got. I know what we got. And I think we can go whip your butt."
The game won't be played on paper and maybe when the coin is flipped and the ball is kicked, Alabama will prove the oddsmakers right. That's not the attitude that Florida has heading into this weekend.
"We know this is going to be a dogfight, but we’re prepared to go in there. We have great coaches and great players and we can compete with anybody in the country," Trevon Grimes said.
"Just to go in there, do what we’ve got to do. We feel like we’re going to come out victorious. We know we’re going to come out victorious.
