Florida's Meteoric Rise

By Terry Johnson
Follow me @TPJCollFootball

As expected, Week 6 helped clear up the national championship picture.

However, it was an unexpected surprise that stole the show. Largely ignored by most of the college football world as a contender for the BCS title, Florida registered one of the most impressive victories of this young college football season with a 14- 6 win over LSU.

This convincing triumph against the defending conference champion leaves no doubt that the Gators are the second best team in the nation right now.

Let's be honest: no team in the country has a resume as impressive as Florida's. Sure, the team struggled to score points in the season opener, but that was only because Muschamp wanted the Gators to learn how to block an eight-man front. Had margin of victory factored into the equation, the final score of that contest would have been much different.

Despite the struggles against Bowling Green, Florida proved itself as one of the nation's elite teams once conference play began. The Gators opened the season with a bang, posting solid road wins over Texas A&M and Tennessee. They followed those wins with a convincing 38-0 victory over Kentucky (something No. 3 South Carolina did not do).

Oh yeah, Florida also turned in a dominant defensive performance against reigning SEC Champion LSU on Saturday night, who hadn't lost a regular season game since November of 2010.

To recap, that's four SEC wins, with three of them coming against teams that spent time in the Top 25 at some point this season. If that doesn't qualify as one of the top two teams, what does?

Another reason that Gators should have moved into the two-slot in both polls this week is because they have one of the best defenses in the nation.

Even the most casual football fan knows that defense wins championships, and that's where the Gators excel. Florida's defense has emerged as one of the top units in a conference loaded with stellar defenses. The Gators rank 16th nationally against the run, 12th in total defense, 6th in scoring defense, and 2nd in passing efficiency defense. More impressively, Will Muschamp's team has a knack for coming up with timely turnovers, forcing an average of 1.2 net turnovers per game. As Saturday night's game showed, sometimes a single turnover is the difference between winning and losing.

Unfortunately, the numbers listed above fail to tell the entire story. Despite posting such astronomical stats, the Gators do not lead the SEC in any defensive category. While the rankings alone might suggest that other defenses are better, it's important to note that Florida's numbers include games against Tennessee and Texas A&M, who lead the conference in passing offense and total offense, respectively.

As any coach will tell you, the true measure of greatness is how you perform against top competition. The fact that Florida has compiled such gaudy statistics against two of the best offenses in the SEC leaves little doubt that the Gator D is one of the best in the land.

Despite its impressive credentials and smothering defense, Florida is currently sixth in the both the USA Today and Harris Polls, which accounts for two-thirds of the final BCS formula.

However, after it's demolition of LSU this weekend, don't expect to see Gators outside of the Top 5 for very long.