I consider myself a “glass half-full” person.

I’m sure plenty of college football fans are, as well. That comes out when they’re flipping through channels on Saturday afternoon and they see that Rutgers is getting its teeth kicked in by Buffalo. It’s a nice reminder that things can always be much, much worse.

Florida fans don’t need to be reminded of that. At this time last year, their program was on the brink of a total implosion that would soon make the Gators the laughing stock of the college football world. (Until Tennessee started looking for a coach, anyway.)

LSU fans don’t need to be reminded of the “it can always be worse” belief, either.  At this time last year, their program was trying to recover from a total implosion against Troy that made the 3-2 Tigers the laughing stock of the college football world.

A year later, nobody is laughing at Florida or LSU.

When they face off in The Swamp (again) Saturday, they’ll both be Top 25 teams with winning records in SEC play. They’ll both have offenses that make them optimistic about the future along with defenses that rank among the top 12 nationally in scoring. The winner will further establish themselves as “legitimate” nearing the midway point of the season.

Either way, one thing is for sure. Life could be a whole lot worse for both programs.

Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

It’s comical now to think that LSU once had an over/under season win total of 6.5 and was predicted to finish fifth in the SEC West. Barring a Joe Burrow injury or Dave Aranda deciding he’d rather pursue his passion of running a Chick-fil-A franchise — a Purdue special teams coach did that once — LSU won’t have any problems surpassing that low preseason bar. That’s the feeling despite the fact that the Tigers have a tough 4-game stretch starting Saturday.

Part of that is because of the 3-week stretch that LSU got through to start the season. With a quarterback making his first career starts, the Tigers beat a pair of top-10 teams away from home. The fact that those teams haven’t lost any other games only solidified the notion that they were quality wins (LSU’s opponents are actually a combined 13-1 if you take out the game against them).

Based on what he said after the convincing opening week win against Miami, this is exactly where Burrow expected the Tigers to be:

The rest of the world is now seeing what Burrow saw when he showed up on campus. When many were questioning who was going to fill the shoes of Derrius Guice, Burrow saw guys like Nick Brossette and Clyde Edwards-Helaire look plenty capable (756 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns through 5 games ain’t too shabby).

One could argue that LSU has the best résumé in America. The fact that Burrow admittedly hasn’t been as sharp as he believes he’s capable of being yet and LSU is still ranked No. 5 — don’t forget about the opening week loss of K’Lavon Chaisson, too — bodes well for the future.

If a diehard LSU fan went into a coma from the moment that Burrow announced he was coming to Baton Rouge and woke up now, what would they think? They’d be ecstatic. Giddy. Happier than Ed Orgeron eating at a Sunday night crawfish boil.

I’d argue the same “woke up from a coma” feeling could be applied to Gators fans, though I think Dan Mullen is more of a buffalo wing guy.

Yes, I know that losing the Kentucky streak was painful, especially at home. For that week, Florida was a laughing stock.

But think about this: The Gators are 4-1 coming off consecutive SEC road wins, the second of which they were a touchdown underdog. That once-embarrassing loss is actually to a team that’s undefeated and now ranked No. 13. Let’s not forget that Florida might have lost by double digits, but it at least attempted a game-winning drive.

There’s something else that’s key with Florida’s perspective right now. Feleipe Franks is coming off what I thought was the best game of his career against Mississippi State. Mullen’s first major project showed serious progress that we never came close to seeing under the previous regime. Franks completed 71 percent of his passes, all of which were 20 yards or less.

Even in a game that Florida only scored 13 points, the skill players that we’ve been hearing about since before Mullen arrived are finally being put in the right spots. The likes of Lamical Perine, Freddie Swain, Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes all seem to be establishing key roles in the offense. They’ve even been used in a little trickery:

The uptick in perception with Florida and LSU can largely be attributed to the offenses answering a ton of preseason questions. Against Power 5 competition, the Gators and Tigers are averaging 25 and 33 points, respectively.

That’s more than enough for two defenses that have been even better than advertised. If we’re making All-America teams right now, you could make an argument that all of the following Florida and LSU players would be deserving:

  • Devin White, LSU LB
  • Grant Delpit, LSU S
  • Greedy Williams, LSU CB
  • Jachai Polite, Florida DL
  • Jabari Zuniga, Florida DL
  • Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Florida CB

That’s a good sign for a pair of defensive coordinators who just got hefty raises this offseason. Both Aranda and Todd Grantham are looking like they’re worth every penny so far.

It’s because of that reason that we expect Saturday to still be another classic defensive struggle between these rivals. This could be a repeat of the past two years, when neither team surpassed the 17-point mark. Or perhaps both offenses have figured things out in ways that we haven’t seen in years past (first-year LSU offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger stays up all night coming up with plays, according to Burrow).

Saturday will be fun for two fan bases that could have been in extremely different places right now. LSU can earn its first win over a ranked team as a top-5 team since the 2011 SEC Championship. And on the flip side, Florida can surpass its 2017 win total and earn its first win against a top-5 team since Will Grier led the Gators to a win against No. 3 Ole Miss in 2015.

There will be no hot seat talk for Orgeron. Mullen won’t be discussed like the bevy of first-year coaches who look like they’re in over their heads in Year 1. Both have a lot to be happy about after the first month. Both would do their versions of dancing with a win.

By day’s end, one fan base will keep pouring a victory beverage into a glass that’s already half-full.

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