GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators used last year’s loss againstAuburn as motivation that helped propel them to the national championship.

Now, they will try to do it again.

This time, though, the Gators won’t have the same senior-laden team to leadthe way.

Florida’s inexperienced team was exposed in a 20-17 loss to the Tigers onSaturday night. The offensive line opened few holes in the running game and gaveTim Tebow little time to throw, and the defense allowed too many big plays.

The Gators also made four huge mistakes on special teams that proved to bethe difference.

“We just kind of fell apart,” right tackle Carlton Medder said.

The ninth-ranked Gators (4-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference), who fell fivespots in The Associated Press Top 25, will try to regroup this week as theyprepare for what had been a much-hyped matchup at top-ranked LSU.

“The phrase I was taught as a young person is the soul of a man is exposedwhen you get hit in the face,” coach Urban Meyer said Sunday. “I don’t want toover-dramatize a loss in football with some of the major issues in life.

“But the soul of a man isn’t exposed when you pick up a crystal ball andput on a championship ring. A lot of people can do that. It’s when you have torebound from some adversity.”

Florida did that last season after losing 27-17 at Auburn. Meyer played anaudio clip from 1996 Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel, who described how theGators relied on their senior leaders to rebound from a late-season loss toFlorida State and win it all.

Meyer would like that to happen again this season.

But that won’t be easy, especially with 49 freshmen or sophomores playing.

“The negative right now is we probably have 10 seniors,” Meyer said. “Howmany of which are actually playing a lot? … How are we going to respond?Obviously, I don’t have that answer. I feel like there’s a lot of character onthis team and some good people.”

The Gators showed some character Saturday, rebounding from a 14-0 halftimedeficit and tying the game at 17 with 7:36 remaining. They even looked like theymight pull off a comeback, but the offense stalled on its final drive.

There were numerous questions about offensive coordinator Dan Mullen’splay-calling, especially since Tebow ran 16 times — often right up the middle.There were even more eyebrows raised when it was learned that Mullen had anemergency appendectomy late Friday night.

Mullen was having side pains at dinner Friday and then had blood tests.Meyer said he learned about 11:30 p.m. that Mullen needed surgery.

Mullen missed the team’s first walkthrough but arrived at Ben Hill GriffinStadium in time for the game.

“He is a tough guy,” Meyer said. “He did everything he possibly could.That didn’t affect the game. He still called a fine game. We still could havedone things better.”

Forced to punt to Auburn with about 4 minutes to play, Chas Henry shankedone 25 yards — the last of the four special teams miscues.

The other three were:

– Florida was flagged for running into the punter on Auburn’s openingpossession, which turned good field position into a first down and the Tigerseventually scored a touchdown on the drive.

– The Gators had a 34-yard field goal attempt blocked in the second quarter.

– They faked a punt and picked up the first down late in the third, but wereflagged for illegal formation and were forced to kick it away.

“It hurts a lot,” Medder said. “It feels like you’re getting stabbed.”

The final blow came after the shanked punt. Quarterback Brandon Cox andrunning back Ben Tate drove Auburn into position for the game-winning fieldgoal. Freshman Wes Byrum made a 43-yarder — twice — to snap Florida’s 11-gamewinning streak and its 18-game home winning streak.

Meyer called timeout just as the ball was snapped for the field goal thefirst time. The Tigers started celebrating as Byrum’s kick slipped inside theright upright, but then they had to return to the sideline. Byrum calmly linedup and did it again.

The Gators were left trying to rebound again — hoping they can find the sameresults they did last year.

“You got to grab onto something and I think that’s what we’re doing,grabbing onto that,” Tebow said. “There’s a lot of good still out there wecould do. We’re looking at that and trying to stay positive about it, keepworking and get better and knowing there’s a lot out there that’s positive forus.”

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