FORT LAUDERDALE - Alabama may have given UF its toughest contest of the season, but you wouldn't know it from the Crimson Tide's 31-17 loss in the Sugar Bowl to Utah on Saturday night.
Several UF players expressed disbelief at the game's result while speaking to the media Sunday at the Harbor Beach Marriott Resort in Fort Lauderdale.
UF sophomore cornerback Joe Haden was taken aback by the Tide's poor performance.
"I thought they were gonna murder Utah," Haden said. "I haven't watched Utah at all, so I thought Alabama, I knew we played them and they were a really good team."
Not good enough to defeat the champions from the Mountain West Conference, however.
Utah jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, and that's when Haden turned off his television.
"They were just picking 'em apart," Haden said.
UF coach Urban Meyer, who led the Utes to their first BCS victory back in 2004 before he came to Gainesville, asked Haden after the game if he saw the results.
"I was like, 'Yeah, I don't know how they did that one,'" Haden said.
The Gators handled the Crimson Tide in a close 31-20 contest back on Dec. 6 in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game in Atlanta to earn a berth in Thursday's BCS National Championship Game against Oklahoma.
But Saturday's Sugar Bowl was never as tight as the SEC Title Game, and Utah finished its season undefeated.
Count UF linebacker Ryan Stamper among those impressed by the Utes' performance.
"I definitely was surprised by Alabama," Stamper said. "I'm not going to lie, I was pretty upset about that game because I thought they'd come out and play harder than that just because of how hard they played us. Utah just showed that they was a good team."
The Utes are the only team from a non-BCS conference to win two BCS games.
UF defensive lineman Jermaine Cunningham was also upset Alabama did not play harder against Utah.
"Alabama, I was pretty surprised," Cunningham said. "They gave us a real good game."
Mississippi, which is responsible for the one blemish on UF's schedule, defeated Big 12 Conference member Texas Tech 47-34 in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.
Cunningham and Stamper were not amazed by that outcome.
"Ole Miss is a good team. I must say Ole Miss is a real good team," Stamper said. "The games they lost they barely lost, so I wasn't surprised by that."
Still, that doesn't mean he thinks the Rebels are better than the Gators.
"We know that like if we played Ole Miss again, we'll beat them," Stamper said. "Not to take away from Ole Miss, they came ready to play hard when they played us, but I think we're a much different team now than when we played Ole Miss."
Haden, however, said he did not expect Mississippi to beat Texas Tech.
