No. 4 Florida Credits Championship To Upsetting Loss At Auburn

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) _ When Florida coach Urban Meyer walked into the locker room after losing at Auburn last season, the scene was surreal. <br/><br/>There were tears, tirades, fights and finger-pointing.

Friday, September 28th 2007, 2:17 pm

By: News On 6

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) _ When Florida coach Urban Meyer walked into the locker room after losing at Auburn last season, the scene was surreal.

There were tears, tirades, fights and finger-pointing.

``It was wild,'' Meyer recalled. ``It was a tough deal. One of the coaches said we've got to get this thing under control and I said, 'No, let it go.' So we let it go for about 15 minutes. I wanted them to clear the air.

``We cleared the air and we dried everybody's eyes and we had a State of the Union on Monday _ where we're at, where we need to be, where we want to go and how are we going to get there.''

The Gators regrouped and responded better than anyone could have imagined. The defending national champions haven't lost since.

The fourth-ranked Gators (4-0, 2-0) have won 11 straight since that upsetting _ and unifying _ 27-17 loss at Jordan-Hare Stadium last October.

The teams meet again Saturday in Gainesville, with Florida trying to stay unbeaten and Auburn (2-2, 0-1) hoping to turn things around after close losses to South Florida and Mississippi State.

``I think people are overlooking us because of how we started,'' Tigers linebacker Craig Stevens said. ``That'll give us a perfect opportunity to go in there and get an upset.''

Although the Gators are well aware of next week's much-hyped game at No. 2 LSU, they're vowing not to overlook Auburn. Given last year's outcome, no one should expect anything less.

Florida scored on three of its first four possessions and led 17-11 at halftime. But the Gators surrendered the lead and the game with a variety of mistakes.

Auburn blocked a punt that Tre Smith returned 15 yards for a touchdown and a one-point lead early in the third quarter.

The Gators looked like they would retake the lead in the fourth. But on third-and-3 from the 6, Chris Leak started to throw then decided to hold the ball as Auburn's Quentin Groves applied pressure. The ball squirted from Leak's hand and linebacker Tray Blackmon scooped up the disputed fumble.

Leak threw an interception on Florida's next drive, and John Vaughn's fourth field goal made it 21-17.

The Gators had one final shot from their own 20 with 31 seconds left. Three incompletions later, Leak hit Dallas Baker across the middle and Baker lateralled to Jarred Fayson, who then fumbled trying another lateral. Patrick Lee recovered and raced 20 yards into the end zone to place an exclamation point on the Tigers' win.

It also turned Florida's postgame locker room into shambles.

``I'm sure they were disappointed after that game because they made a couple of mistakes in the kicking game that gave us some big plays and a couple of calls went against them that probably could have gone the other way,'' Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. ``That's motivation for them.''

It was last year, too.

Two days after the loss, former Gators quarterback and 1996 Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel helped the team get back on track. Meyer played an audio clip from Wuerffel, who described how the 1996 national championship team relied on its senior leaders to rebound from a late-season loss to Florida State.

The message?

``It's easy when you lose to throw everything away, and you can't let that happen,'' defensive tackle Clint McMillan said. ``No matter what, you've always got to go forward.''

Meyer also had Wuerffel's words imprinted on the back of business cards. On the flip side was a picture of five rings _ four SEC title rings and the '96 championship ring. Meyer gave each player one of the laminated cards, which they carried with them the rest of the season.

``Every game we went into, we used the Auburn game as fuel to know this is not what we want to do, this is not Florida football,'' receiver David Nelson said. ``That second half against Auburn really stayed in the guys' minds all year long and I think it made us a better team.''

And eventually champions.