Quite the moral quandary Gator fans have found themselves in
This weekend’s showdown between Ole Miss and Georgia will have the eyes of the entire country trained on Athens, Georgia.
A good chunk of the population will either be rooting for a good game or hoping to see Kirby Smart and his juggernaut of a program show some more cracks in the foundation.
And 99% of the time, Florida Gator fans would be right there with everyone else, cheering the downfall of their biggest rival.
This weekend is a little different, though.
With the news of Indiana locking up their sensational head coach, Curt Cignetti, many teams in the market for a new skipper suddenly saw one of the hottest names in the business come off the board.
For Florida fans, this makes Lane Kiffin a nearly essential acquisition at this point, but a win against Georgia “between the hedges” would almost certainly put those dreams of nabbing the mercurial offensive mastermind on life support.
With a win over the Bulldogs, Kiffin and the Rebels would have a virtually spotless runway to the College Football Playoff, as their schedule gets much easier following next week’s game at Oklahoma.
Even with a loss in Norman, Ole Miss would be a lock to make both the SEC Championship and the College Football Playoff with how their schedule sets up in November.
With that, Florida’s timetable with regard to hiring their next coach gets incredibly tight.
If the Rebels make the Playoff but don’t receive a first-round bye – which they likely would as a one-loss SEC champ – there may still be hope with the new transfer portal window rules.
Should Ole Miss make it past the opening round, however, the Florida Gators may have to make a last-second pivot to find a new head coach.
I’ve talked rather extensively about how perfect Lane Kiffin would be as the head coach at Florida, so the thought of having to settle for anyone else makes my stomach churn.
That’s why this Saturday, myself and several other Gator fans will be going against every instinct in our bodies and cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs.
I’d like to chalk this up as just another way Billy Napier has brought the program to historic lows. I’m not sure that I would ever see the day when large swathes of Gator fans would stoop to this level, yet here we are.
Go Dawgs, I guess.
