Winning the SEC East not a cause for celebration just yet, Gators say

There has been no celebration of the SEC East title for Florida, and there won't be anytime soon. There are still games left to play, goals left to accomplish.

Despite achieving its first goal of clinching the SEC East and securing a trip to Atlanta, the Florida players and coaches said with four regular season games remaining, Atlanta is the farthest thing from their minds.

"The word Atlanta didn’t even come up in the team meeting (Sunday night),'' defensive line coach Dan McCarney said. "Didn’t even come up. Vanderbilt did. Our performance (Saturday) and rewarding those guys that did a real good job (came up), but Atlanta didn’t even come up. We’re not even talking about it. We had some hard lessons a year ago, some hard lessons this year. You learn from them. You see what happens around college football and you see what happens in the SEC.  And the bottom line is I think our kids have a deep respect for all of  our opponents in this conference. It is the best conference in college football. If you’re not ready, you’ll get beat. If you’re ready, this team has a real good chance to win each week.''

OL Mike Pouncey didn't even realize the Gators had clinched the East. Following Sunday night's practice, he said: "We've got to get Vanderbilt to get it, right?''

When told the Gators had clinched the East with Tennessee's win over South Carolina, Pouncey thanked the Vols, then said there's no chance the Gators will become complacent just because they've accomplished one major goal.

"I don’t think so,'' he said. "Last year around this time we hit our stride and we started playing our best ball. And that’s what we hope to do this year.''

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[The Truth]

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