Troubled over Bridgewater

Headline of the day goes to our own PigskinTiger, who threw out the aforementioned on last night's Sugar Bowl game thread.

Duly inspired -- and revolted by the Gators' embarrassing conduct -- I came up with a few of my own:

Big East Beats Big Mouths in Big Easy

Muschumps

The U (of F)

Men From Ville Smack Boys From Hood

Punks Get Punked

I have nothing against Will Muschamp, nothing against Florida, and nothing against the SEC beyond the excessive hype of it.

But I can't remember ever seeing a team talk that much smack while getting its brains beat in. It was almost like the Gators thought they were some of those renegade Miami Hurricanes teams from back in the day, such as the one in the Cotton Bowl that racked up like 890 yards in penalties against Texas.

But one problem: The U talked smack when it was whipping tail. Florida was getting bulldozed and was acting like it was the one doing the bulldozing.

All this overshadows a splendid performance by Teddy Bridgewater, who carved up a supposedly great Florida defense like a Thanksgiving turkey. All that SEC speed in the back seven couldn't hang with Big East speed as Louisville's receivers repeatedly won one-on-one matchups.

It overshadows one of the most compelling stories in college football, the story of a coach (Charlie Strong) remaining loyal to a program and an AD and a fan base when 99.9 percent of other coaches would've bolted for the first big-time job available. So refreshing.

But you know what? We need to make a big deal out of Florida's behavior because it's an embarrassment to the game. Other than Kirk Herbstreit mentioning it during ESPN's halftime analysis, I can't recall the talking heads presenting much criticism of the Gators' behavior. Color guy Chris Spielman kept saying Florida looked "disinterested."

Oh, they were quite interested -- just interested in the wrong things. It was almost as if the score was secondary to the desire to fulfill their gyration-per-quarter quota after getting in their kill shots on Louisville running backs and receivers ... 15 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

You almost wondered if Florida's academic folks were considering putting a new class into the curriculum for football players in Gainesville: How To Read A Scoreboard 101.

When interviewed at halftime, Muschamp said he and his staff had to make some adjustments to try to do a better job of stopping Louisville.

His objective during the offseason should be making adjustments to stop the Gators ... from making fools of themselves and their entire program.

LW