MILLER REPORT: Birmingham or bust

Believe it or not, the Florida Gators have a bowl game this week. It seems to have gotten mostly lost in the shuffle of incoming and outgoing coaches and players. I hope that the players are more excited and focused on the game that most of the fans are, myself included. As it draws closer, I remind myself that this is the last time I will see many of the players in the orange and blue. It is also the last real Gator football I will get for about eight months.

Naturally, I would like to see a Gator victory in Birmingham. It sets the tone for the offseason. I will be pleasantly surprised if the team is focus and determined in this game. They have had so many distractions in the last few weeks. Perhaps the players will have immersed themselves in game preparation to get their minds off the many changes. I would understand completely if they are flat in this game. Meanwhile, the opponent is a capable team with the chance to knock of a team from the big bad SEC.

East Carolina has scored a lot of points this season. Quarterback Shane Carden has thrown for over four thousand yards and 28 touchdowns with only eight interceptions. He was also sacked 28 times. If the Gator front seven bring any kind on intensity they should get to the quarterback early and often. Senior wide receiver Justin Hardy has 110 receptions for over 1300 yards and 9 touchdowns. Vernon Hargreaves III will need to blanket him to slow down the Pirate offense. The running game is effective but not overwhelming.

This game will come down to basically one thing. Intensity. If the Gators prepare for this game and take the field in Birmingham with the intensity they showed in most games this season, Florida should win the game handily. East Carolina is 54^th in the country in points allowed. If the Gators can avoid the offensive ineptitude we have seen so many times over the last four years they should be able to line up and run the ball right at the Pirates and keep the ECU offense on the sideline. If Florida walks out on that field just wanting to get the season over with this thing could be ugly. East Carolina is not a bad football team and it will require a focused effort to defeat them.

The intriguing part for me is to see what Florida decides to do on offense. Who will take the lion’s share of snaps at quarterback? The quick answer would seem to be Treon Harris as that it appeared that the torch was officially passed during the regular season. However, Harris has not been real effective down the stretch. With nothing really on the line the coaches could decide to give Jeff Driskel one last start or they may opt for a quick hook if Harris continues to struggle with accuracy. Will this be one last opportunity for departing players like Matt Jones to showcase their talents or will the coaches spread the wealth and let some young players like Adam Lane show the new staff what they can do?

Florida will be without two key players with Darious Cummings and Andre Debose gone for what would have been their final game for the Gators. Debose will go down as one of the all-time enigmas in Gator lore. Andre was loaded with talent but could never seem to rise above a special team’s player during his quarter century in Gainesville. There was always some question about his ability to catch the ball but let’s be honest that applied to virtually every receiver and tight end on the team of late. It is my not so humble opinion that Andre’s pension for wanting to fight after nearly every play kept him from contributing more on offense. Cummins apparently violated some team rule. I hate it for him as he was a solid defender most of the time. I wish them both well in whatever life has in store for them. Hopefully the University of Florida prepared them to face that future. There is more to life than football.

Honesty compels me to admit that I view this particular bowl game with less anticipation than any I can remember. It’s not just that it has been a rough two seasons for the Florida. I have been through worse Gator seasons. It is more the way these seasons went. The feeling all the way that the talent was there to do so much more led to a lot of frustration. I wanted things to work out for Muschamp and his staff because they were very likeable people who seemed to be doing things the right way which just made their failure that much harder to endure. As the game gets closer, I find myself getting a little more pumped up for one last Gator game before the long offseason, but I think I speak for a sizeable chunk of the Gator Nation when I say I will be glad to put this season in the rear view mirror and truly begin the Jim McElwain era at Florida. This program needs some momentum.