So it all comes down to this. Will Muschamp’s Florida Gator career will come to an end Saturday in Tallahassee. For the most part, Florida cruised past Eastern Kentucky easily to close out their home schedule for the season with a 52-3 thumping. Things will be much tougher this week. As the regular season closes out with coaching search rumors swirling, players deciding their futures and the Gators desperately trying to salvage the recruiting class, Muschamp and his staff have to somehow prepare to play the undefeated Seminoles. This is Muschamp’s last chance to actually cut it loose one time. What do you have to lose Will?
If Treon (or Jeff if Treon can’t go) throws a few picks and the Gators lose because of it, so what? If we have learned nothing else from watching Nole football this season it is that if you end up in a one score game with FSU late in the fourth quarter, you are going to lose. Somebody in burgundy and yellow (I know but they hate it when you call it that) made a deal with the devil. Jimbo Fisher seems to be as lucky as Will Muschamp is unlucky. It is hard to imagine that the ball will bounce the Gators’ way in the end of close game in Tallahassee. I don’t think you can hope to beat the Nolies in a low scoring defensive battle. Nor do I see any reason to try.
This is the time to pull out all of the stops. Try it all. Andre Debose should get the ball on sweeps and end around plays several times. At least one of them should end up as a reverse where Debose tosses the ball to Brandon Powell going the other way. I would like to see a handoff to Matt Jones where he takes one step, stops and pitches it back to Harris who throws deep to Demarcus Robinson or Quinton Dunbar. This is the time to let these Gators have some fun. They have been forced to labor painfully in mundane unimaginative offenses for years now. Please let them finish this season with some fun. It is time to spike the punch.
This Florida State team is beatable. Everyone knows it. But you aren’t going to beat them with dive plays up the middle or predictable read options where the quarterback never pitches the ball. I would rather watch the Gators lose by thirty in a game where they tried every play in the book than end the Muschamp era with a boring, agonizing, remote control throwing game where Florida tried to run the ball, play tough defense and shorten the game. This is it Will. It is time for your voice to change. Drop a pair.
I am sorry if I come across as a little harsh here. Well, no I’m not. I like this staff. I really wanted to see them coaching in Gainesville for another decade. They did everything the right way except win football games. I remain convinced that they failed because they were too afraid to let this team spread its wings and flex its muscle. They were just too timid for their own good and in the end it cost them. There is nothing left to be timid about. This is your swan song. There are no more repercussions for players making mistakes if you let them take chances. There are no more moral victories.
The Gator Nation is too embroiled in the coaching search to even judge you for losing a game you are expected to lose anyway. To paraphrase Cassius Clay, shock the world. Light up the scoreboard at Doak Campbell, break the Seminoles’ hearts and revel in their despair. This is your chance Will to stride off of the field with your head held high in triumph and an opportunity to reward your players with a day they will remember for the rest of their lives.
I believe I speak for nearly all Gator fans when I say that you have our advanced approval for unexpected onside kicks, fake punts or field goals and jail break blitzes. I would love to be sitting outside as it grows dark Saturday smoking a ten dollar cigar and sipping a glass of Booker’s bourbon celebrating the crushing of FSU’s playoff aspirations. I would settle with just knowing Florida threw everything they had at them and made the Noles earn their spot in the title chase. Most importantly, I would like to see this embattled team end the regular season and send their coach off while holding their heads up proudly. I believe it can be done if the governors are taken off this vehicle, the training wheels removed and the throttle is finally pushed wide open.
Sadly, I do not expect to see that happen. I fear that Will Muschamp will opt to ride out of town on the same tired horse he rode into the dirt while here. I imagine we will see the same game plan and coaching philosophy I saw in the Swamp against South Carolina. Somehow the staff will hope for a different result believing that surely the ball will bounce their way at some point. Not in this game it won’t. FSU has made an entire season of waiting for the ball to bounce their way late in the game and it has without fail every week. The only way you are going to beat them is to take a big lead early and then keep stoking the fire for four quarters. You have to put FSU in a “must pass” situation and then attack Jameis Winston mercilessly. If Winston has the ball in his hands with a chance to win the game in the final minute, the odds are high that he will do just that. If Florida gets the lead and then tries to run the clock out for the whole fourth quarter, FSU will win. Muschamp must break out of his mold if he wants to end his tenure at UF with a win. It really is as simple as that.
Great article…. we must do whatever it takes to win. I believe we will. Go Gators!!!!
Mark, from your mouth to Muschamp’s ears. Did you e-mail him? Have you fedx’d him the article? Have you dropped it by his mom’s house? Did you put in a call to his wife? Did you buy a billboard on University Ave and write on it-“coach outside of the box this time. We have lost four years straight it can only change for the better.” Did you tell him to coach like he screams at the ref’s-ya know- with reckless abandon? Maybe there will be a mutiny and the kids will run their own plays?
I, like you, don’t expect it. If he did have a paradigm shift and won because they went for it. I would fly to Florida and ask Foley in person to retain him another year. And that’s a fact, Mark. PS: If the kids play possessed they might just win in spite of playing it safe. This is a bowl game, a culmination of four painful years, an opportunity to make a difference, a state title. And, surprisingly people are still with him. They want him to succeed…Go Gators.
I think he’ll do just what this article is hoping. I really, really do. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have a good feeling here. We might not win but maybe we get to see the Gator team we hoped to see at the beginning of the year for at least one game? So, lets keep our fingers crossed. Go Gators! Beat FSU!
I know that it’s not going to happen the way you wish. By this time of the season, you are what you are. UF is a running team that can pass occasionally, but that’s very occasionally. FSU is a team that putters around until it’s time to win and go home. That’s who they are. FSU is sort of like The Rolling Stones while they were making “Exile on Main Street.” The Stones would lay around and smoke, drink, and do other unsavory things while tinkering around The producer knew that is was all B.S. He knew when Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts came into the room was the time something actually got accomplished. You’d think FSU would get tired of the disrespect shown them, after all, when has an undefeated team ever been ranked lower than a team with a loss? But if that hasn’t happened yet, why would it happen now? It’s absolutely amazing that they are able to switch it on like they do, but we’ve all seen it. Once the switch is flipped, there’s no stopping them. Even having a hobbled Winston doesn’t seem to matter. I saw the Boston College game and know what it means to stand around in that kind of weather on a sprained ankle, it didn’t matter in the slightest. If number 5 is on the field, it’s pretty safe to book an FSU victory since no one has defeated him yet.
Good old Snowprint. Of course you are not alone in not noticing that the ball was aired out repeatedly against EKU, and pretty successfully. Especially by Driskel. 9-11 and 164 yds in a quarter plus.
Maybe that was a preview.
Or maybe it was an indication of what the offense can look like when the Oline provides a pocket and the receivers can actually catch balls that hit them in the hands. May also help when Driskel is healthy.
As to Snowprint’s assesment of #5; actually Notre Dame beat him & his merry band of thugs this year, but could not handle the officials. Some would say that BC had beat them if #5 had not been allowed to man handle an official. Never mentioned in the discussion of that episode is the issue of whether BC was ready for the snap since the ball had not been put in play by the officials.
very good article, good nice dreams, of course he will not do it, what he did in the SC game borders on criminal , people always talk about what Gator Nation feels , the pain and frustrations, I say also what about the players ??? they have had to endure losses that never should have been , WM has no imagination on the O side of football, it goes beyond running or passing, is the type of runs , SAME ONES OVER AND OVER………my God Debose I forgot the game took a jet sweep 32 yards and THEY NEVER CALLED THE PLAY AGAIN, they keep talking about Powell , I have not seen a swing pass to him in a game in a while , TH ran 20 times versus SC , 20 times and he is `180 lbs , Mark you were dreaming when u wrote your article, I just hope UF plays very hard for the entire game and give FSU a good game , by the way against EK the dive play did not work check the yardage that Taylor and Jones had , by now people that watch film of UF know what every lineman of ours does every second in those plays , every single tendency , the dive play of UF by now should be very easy to stop, funky check the UGA game a lot of UF’s runs were outside the tackles a small change at that time and look what it caused 412 yards on the ground , I was in a golf T yesterday and got paired with a nice fellow from UF , after ten minutes of super frustrating talks we both decided HEY THANK GOD IN A YEAR FROM NOW THIS TALK WILL NOT EXIST , this is basically what the fans need to know, no more of this WM talks, finally , the Bowl Game as all always say will be good for the players especially all those young defensive linemen , GO GATORS enjoy the cigar======
I suspect if WM read this article he would laugh and say, “that’s the last thing we need to do.” After what, 47 games? He’s just going to abandon his entire coaching philosphy?
I wish you were right, But, he looks at this FSU team and realizes their weakness is stopping the run, so this game plays right into his wheel-house. Run the football, keep JW off the field as much as possible and don’t turn the ball over. If you expect anything else, you should maybe start with the bourbon before the game.
Love the idea tho!
I thought he would coach balls out vs SC. That didn’t happen, I don’t expect anything this week either.
It’s all about comfort zone. We can be an effective running team, but if we are a predictable running team, defenses can stop us. It is all about mixing it up. He has to throw some slants on first down, pass to a fullback after faking to the halfback, and utilize the tight end repeatedly. Our tight ends should get at least 10 targets with our WR streaking down field forcing the safeties to vacate the middle and not clog the box. The tight ends will not have to stay in to block and will be able to get 6-10 yards a clip with simple out patterns. That’s how you beat FSU.
All I can say about the end being near is…. Thank God!
OLEG8R Why do even bring up the game with Eastern whatever? It’s about as silly as the writer who listed all the categories UF led the nation in after playing the other Eastern team to start the season. Both games are totally meaningless. The only thing they do is pad the won/loss record. As for your comments about Winston, they are meaningless too. I’ve watched him play, and there’s not a better quarterback in college football. I don’t care about stats, the only stat I care about is wins and losses, in that area Winston has no peer. I don’t think you understand that. Someone who brings up Jeff Driskel’s stats against Eastern whatever is not paying attention to what matters.
Hey Mark….were you going for a Frank or Doors reference? Good read. Hope he throws the kitchen sink. Like, whatta got to lose? 10$ cigar. La Gloriana Cubana Serie R? CAO Brasil Samba?