Time is up for the Gators and they can no longer rest on the laurels of their 'back in the day' reputation after falling to the University of Central Florida 29-17. Thursday night at Raymond James Stadium, the team from Orlando sent a message that they are ready for the BIG12 and are in fact the best team in Florida. That message however may have fallen on deaf ears at every level (outside Knight Nation).  Take a look across social media and even some of the UF fan pages, it's all there for the reading - EXCUSE after excuse as to why UF lost and how UCF won - bla bla bla.  The truth of the Matter is UCF likely could have beat the Gators at anytime, in any arena and with any of it's squads dating back as far as 2017 but unfortunately for the Gators it happened in a bowl game with the whole country watching and 63,669 fans in attendance.

Greg Knox himself still apparently doesn't get it, he was quoted as saying “We gave it everything we had. We had a lot of penalties and you can’t make the mistakes we made and expect to win a ballgame.” and even went as far to elaborate by adding “I thought our kids played hard but we just couldn’t overcome the mistakes we made. ….and we just can’t win big ball games when you make that amount of mistakes.”  Don't bother mentioning that UCF is a great team with players that are driven to win based on their talent and not their school name.   

UCF gained 117 more yards rushing and completed 1 more pass than UF even though the Knights attempted to throw the ball a dozen times less than the Gators. Sure it's not the same passing team since the departure of it previous quarterback but they are adapting and growing without him.  I have no doubts that Gus Malzahn will have this team ready next season.  This team will continue to grow and now that they have proven they are the #1 football program in Florida, the talent will continue to come pouring in and recruiting will be as easy as beating a team from Gainesville.