The Florida Gators were expected to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2020 SEC Championship Game by no group of people larger than the contingent in their own locker room. And they never led in Saturday’s 52-46 classic in Atlanta, either, which lends credence to the idea that, for Florida, this was the Rocky version of Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa meeting in the ring — the one in which the bloodied, beaten loser wins only if you tell the story from a sympathetic perspective.
But especially after a grueling year in which Dan Mullen’s Gators had been knocked down and slipped of their own accord, it’s not like they were Central Casting’s choice for Creed.