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Florida vs. FSU: Muschamp says Gators are 'better equipped' for Seminoles

The Florida Gators have lost to the Florida State Seminoles for two straight years, but head coach Will Muschamp sees things turning out differently this year.

Al Messerschmidt

The Florida Gators have focused their full attention on their in-state rivals the Florida St. Seminoles, reports Gator Sports. How the Gators will finish their season has a lot to do with how the BCS rankings shake out, but that's out of Florida's control. That's left head coach Will Muschamp and others to focus on the rivalry at hand. "There are a lot of things that...you need to do," Muschamp said, "and you need to beat your rivals."

The Gators are 33-21-2 against the Seminoles dating back to 1958, but they've lost their last two games against FSU and are 0-1 under Muschamp. What's worse, in those two games the Gators were outscored by a combined 52-14.

Senior defensive tackle Omar Hunter provided some insight into what the Gators see as key to their victory:

"It's a big game. There's a lot riding on this game. Anytime you play a rival, it's going to be fun. It's going to be a hard-fought game. The team that makes the least amount of turnovers and mistakes is going to win the game."

The Gators had four turnovers in each of their most recent losses to the Seminoles. Muschamp sees things turning out differently this year:

"We're very different. We're differently more equipped this season than we were last year. I think we're much better on the offensive line. That's really where we struggled against this group last year. They rushed four guys and were able to stop the run and were able to play guys in coverage and force the quarterback [John Brantley] to throw the ball off rhythm. We're much better equipped on the offensive line and we're better than we were last season."

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