PD’s Postulations: Thoughts on the EMU Game

Cleanse (verb) \ˈklenz\: to make (someone or something) clean; especially:  to rid of impurities by or as if by washing.

That is what we saw Saturday afternoon: a cleansing.

Close your eyes and listen to the voice of Morgan Freeman: “Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of (bleep)-smelling foulness I can’t even imagine; or maybe I just don’t want to. Five hundred yards…that’s the length of five football fields.” The Florida Gator coaches, players, fans, the whole Gator Nation know exactly what Andy Dufresne felt like when he was crawling through that sewage main to escape from Shawshank Prison. Only the Gators had to go through twelve games, that’s the length of twelve football fields, just shy of three-quarters of a mile. And it was twelve hundred yards of (bleep)-smelling foulness Gator couldn’t even imagine; or maybe we just don’t want to remember. If we were ever going to be ourselves again, we needed a cleanse. A deep cleanse.

Saturday in Gainesville was a Roman bath of geothermal soap, bleach and disinfectant. Tell me it didn’t cleanse you. Tell me your lungs didn’t fill with purified air the likes that you haven’t inhaled in years. Tell me your skin didn’t feel fresh and immaculate, your pores tingling with wholesome goodness. Tell me a chamber in your chest didn’t feel warm again, cleansed of angst, stress, despair, fear and anger. Tell me the sun wasn’t brighter, the breeze cooler, the smiles on strangers brighter and soothing. Tell me this wasn’t just what Gator Nation needed.

Déjà vu All Over Again

Many in Gator Nation looked at the 2014 opener as being as pivotal in the Gator program trajectory as the 1990 season opener, the first game of the Spurrier era. The parallels of an offensive genius coming over from Duke to save the floundering Gator program were uncanny. But the comparisons were a bit too overboard as far as implications. The 1990 opener was something that the Gators – heck, the nation – had never seen before. It foretold a future that was theretofore unimagined in Gainesville. That was not the case in 2014. The connection to 1990 was in the potential effect of the opener to invigorate the fans with confidence and excitement and certain knowledge that things were going to be different. Not just for one game, but permanently under this head coach. And that could be accomplished without approaching the level of blowout of that 1990 opener. After all, there was no way this beleaguered Gator offense, with so many key players shaking off the rust of long rehabs from serious injuries, was going to put it all together this quickly. A convincing win would do the trick, but they would not match the dominance of the 50-7 opening win against Okie State in 1990.

Oops. If my math is correct, 65-0 was an improvement on 50-7.

But wait, there’s more. This was the most points the Gators have scored since hanging 70 on the Citadel in November 2008, six years ago and the year of Florida’s last national title. The 65 point margin of victory was the widest the Gator program has managed since beating Central Michigan 82-6 in 1997 of the Spurrier era, a 76-point win 17 years ago and two games removed from Florida’s first national title. Those seasons harken back to the long-standing Gator dynasty that stretched from 1990 to before the recent spell of coaching transition. An era when it seemed that every week a few new records would fall; a few new program firsts were recorded. A time when the Gators would sit atop of major national statistical categories with regularity. Well don’t look now, but Jeff Driskel set his personal best for completions in a game, Duke Dawson became the first true freshman to ever have a pick-six interception return in his first game as a Gator, the Gators scored the most points in the Muschamp era and Florida leads the nation in both scoring offense and scoring defense. They are also first in total defense, pass defense, turnovers surrendered, sacks allowed, turnover margin and first down defense; as well as second in total offense and fourth in passing offense.

Not only that, but Florida’s most noted national streak has flipped the field. They came into the game with everyone talking about them holding the nation’s fifth-longest losing streak at seven games. However, with the win and the Michigan Wolverines being shut out by Notre Dame Saturday, Florida emerged with the nation’s longest active streak of games without being held scoreless. Florida was last shut out in 1988, when the Emmitt Smith-based offense faced Auburn without Emmitt Smith. What’s more, not only is Florida’s 323-game scoring streak the longest current streak in the nation, it ranks third all-time in the history of college football in the FBS. They are 42 games away from breaking the record held by Michigan (whose streak ended Saturday at 365), and 38 games away from moving past BYU for second place. No other active streak is close to the top of this list. The win also has made the Gators 25-for-25 in season openers, dating back to 1990, which ranks them as the second-longest current streak behind Nebraska with 29.

I am thinking that the deluge that washed out the Idaho game last week was just the thundering global act of washing Gator Nation clean of all the ills, all the darkness, all the bitter divides that had dirtied our community the previous year. The more than 8,800 lightning strikes around Gainesville that night were each one a Heavenly blow to destroy every one of the otherworldly horrid events that went against us; that we carried with us through the winter, spring and summer; that haunted us to our core. Hear him again, Mister Freeman: “The Florida Gators, who crawled through a season of (bleep) and came out clean on the other side.”

Offensive Response

How good was this offensive turnaround? The Gators ran 86 plays Saturday, or in other words a full TWENTY more plays than their average snaps per game in 2013. The 665 total offensive yards was the first time since the 13-win SEC East Championship year of 2009, Tim Tebow’s senior campaign. It was just the 17th time in Gator history that Florida amassed over 600 yards. For anyone looking to see how Jeff Driskel would start out in Roper’s new system, he became the first Gator quarterback to complete 30 or more passes in a game since Tim Tebow had 31 in the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati, following the 2009 season. That is considered the greatest passing game of his historic college career.

When you look at the specific goals of the offense, the improvement jumps out more. Spread the ball around. Eleven Gators caught passes on the day, with seven of them catching more than one and three of them catching touchdown passes. Eight different Gators carried the ball, with three of them rushing for scores.

Explosive plays. Three Gators ripped off runs of over 30 yards (two of them over 40) and three Gators caught passes of over 40 yards (two of them over 70). Andre Debose had a punt return of 55 yards. Both quarterbacks had connections of over 40 yards. The Gator offense as a whole had two 1-play touchdown drives, two 2-play touchdown drives, and one 3-play touchdown drive. And none of them were less than 20 yards. Are you kidding me? Can you say quick-strike?

Sustained scoring drives. Florida also had scoring drives of 10, 10, 12, 13 and 16 plays.

Schematic impact. Many fans began to grouse on the first drive when Driskel kept slinging horizontal perimeter passes for modest gains, one after the other. Was this all the new offense had to offer? But sure enough, on the second drive, the defense adjusted to try to pressure those outside passes, the middle was left nearly vacant and – BOOM! – a one-play touchdown drive with a 31-yard run through a hole that would have accommodated an aircraft carrier. The next drive featured the exact same thing: following an opening pass interference penalty, another 1-play touchdown drive, compliments of a run up the middle facilitated by the wide spread of the defense from sideline to sideline. Blocking schemes helped keep Jeff Driskel’s jersey relatively clean with no sacks. Receivers were open. Running backs found gaping holes and ripped off monster runs. The starting quarterback was checking out of covered running plays into open passing plays. Both quarterbacks were connecting passes shallow, midrange and deep down field.

Gators are So Defensive

The Gators held the Eagles without a first down until two minutes into the second quarter and only surrendered seven on the day. The five turnovers as noted above pushed the Gators to lead the nation in turnover margin. All told, the defense forced seven 3-and-outs and only allowed three third down conversions. That’s how you lead the nation in defense.

Special Team?

You can’t be a special team without great special teams. That’s not axiomatic, but it is something I believe. And it is clearly something that this team possesses in spades. Let’s start with the most electrifying part of our special teams: how great is it to have Andre Debose healthy again? We all know his breakaway speed that has led to all of his kickoff return touchdowns, but against Eastern Michigan, he displayed a very Brandon James quality. That is, he did his biggest damage while moving slowly in traffic. He showed elusiveness and that un-coachable Matrix-esque slow-motion dissection and evasion of the coverage units a number of times. And he looks like he is going to be a very valuable receiving threat this year.

Then of course there are the less exciting but much more critical jobs of punting and field goal kicking. When was the last time the Gators went 3-for-3 in field goal attempts and averaged about 50 yards per punt? I can’t remember either. If Muschamp has solved these two kicking issues, the Gators are going to have two invaluable weapons in any close game the Gators play.

The Road Ahead

As much as we fans would like to keep our expectations in check, it was difficult to ignore the comments of the head coach immediately after the game. Being asked about next week’s game against Kentucky, Muschamp said it was the first step on the road to Atlanta.

Not the road to saving his job. Not the road to improving enough on offense to garner a great recruiting class. Not the road to having a good season that will lead to better days ahead. No, he said the road to Atlanta. As in, this year.

Although we can temper our expectations all we want, the cat is out of the bag. Winning the Eastern division and playing for the SEC title in December is not just a nebulous goal with an obligatory mention in team motivational speeches. It’s the absolute goal of this staff and football team. This year. This week. Right now.

I don’t care how realistic that is: it is a very telling and a very exciting revelation that this team and staff consider this in their hands to lose.

Ain’t We Lucky We Got ‘Em: Good Times!

Anyone who remembers that ditty and the seventies TV show for which it was the theme song, probably feels like it has been since the seventies since the Gators had a good time playing football. In 2012, even amidst eleven wins and a BCS bowl bid, the Gator offense struggled mightily, there was a quarterback controversy that struck a slight locker room divide and almost every game was a nervous nail-biter. Heck even in the 2009 season that brought home 13 wins and an SEC East title, it was clear the team was pressing hard to repeat as national champions, was having more frustrations than fun and had simply lost that loving feeling.

But that’s all gone now. What we could see in practice, interviews and broadcast clips, what we had heard through many a grape vine, what we had hoped for over five years, we could finally see exploding on the sidelines Saturday against Eastern Michigan: these guys were having a ball. After every positive play, and there were many, you saw guys smiling, laughing, slapping hands and hugging shoulder pads. Gone was the stoic sideline that had become commonplace last year. Gone was the wire-to-wire angry smack-talking to the other team between every play. Gone was the Muschamp volacano eruptions.

They were all cleansed away. And it portends the kind of chemistry that builds (or rebuilds) a championship program.

Across the Universe

One of the big national debates before the season started was over the four-five discrepancy with the new college playoff system. Five power conferences, only four spots in the playoffs. If all Power-5 champions go undefeated, would the Big 10 have their champion left out of the big dance because of its perceived weakness in relation to three of the other four power conferences, and to specifically FSU (or Clemson) in the ACC? Well after just two weeks of the season in the books, that question has been rendered completely moot. Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Michigan all have losses. Michigan was blown out and shut out while OSU lost to an unranked team at home. There are still a lot of undefeated teams in the league, but all are expected to struggle this year. Here’s why: the undefeated Big 10 teams remaining are Nebraska (which needed a 58 yard run-after-catch touchdown with 54 seconds left to beat FCS McNeese State), Iowa (which beat Ball State by 4 points, after beating FCS Northern Iowa by 8), Illinois (which beat Western Kentucky by 8, and the Youngstown State Penguins by 11), Minnesota (beat Middle Tennessee by 11), Rutgers (beat the Howard Bison by 13), Penn State (beat the Akron Zips by 18 – the pride of the Big 10 season thus far), Indiana (beat the Indiana State Sycamores by 18) and Maryland (beat South Florida, 2-10 last year, by 7). Sparty and Wisconsin still have a shot at good seasons and a conference title, but Ohio State and Michigan are done. The Buckeyes and Urban Meyer have now lost three of their last four games, with their only win a struggle against a service academy. Despite the focus on their missing quarterback this year, OSU’s biggest problems are on defense, where their surrendered point totals in the three losses have been 34, 35 and 40. After the Buckeyes lost to VPI Saturday night, a friend of mine told me that Muschamp would win a national title at Florida before Meyer wins one at Ohio State. He was giving me a little business, since it is exactly what I said to him in the middle of 2012, when Muschamp was on his way to an 11-win regular season and Meyer was on his way to a 12-win season at OSU while on probation. But Saturday I just laughed and said, “National title? Meyer’s never going to win a Big 10 title.” Michigan’s in even worse shape, because they are going to have to go through yet another coaching change and roster rebuild before they will be relevant again.

The Big 12 has plenty of strength at the top, but their conference has taken some pies in the face in this young season thus far. West Virginia’s loss to Alabama was expected, but Iowa State was blown out by North Dakota State in Week 1 and Texas was eviscerated by BYU in Week 2. The PAC 12 have a few blemishes as well, with Colorado getting crushed by Colorado State, Wazzu losing to a bad Rutgers team last week and to Nevada this week, and Washington beating Hawaii and Eastern Washington by just a combined 8 points. The ACC as always expected, has had some rough patches early: Clemson getting smoked by Georgia, Wake losing to UL-Monroe, Virginia going down to UCLA and NC State only beating FCS Georgia Southern by 1 point. There were also close calls against teams like San Diego State, Old Dominion, Villanova and Tulane.

Then you have the SEC. The conference for which every talking head spent considerable time in the offseason writing its epitaph. The guys who were supposed to come back down to Earth. Well all the conference has done is go 19-1 (thanks Vanderbilt!) against out-of-conference foes (would have been 20-1 had Florida been able to get their game in against Idaho), including marquee wins over Clemson, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Boise State.

And no mention of the strength of the SEC can go by without tipping our hats to the Old Ball Coach. Steve Spurrier notched his 200th win as an SEC head coach Saturday. That makes him the third coach to reach this plateau, joining SEC royalty Bear Bryant and Vince Dooley. I still remember his first SEC win like it was yesterday. 1990 against Oklahoma State. A sign of so many great things to come. Just like Saturday’s win over EMU.

David Parker
One of the original columnists when Gator Country first premiered, David “PD” Parker has been following and writing about the Gators since the eighties. From his years of regular contributions as a member of Gator Country to his weekly columns as a partner of the popular defunct niche website Gator Gurus, PD has become known in Gator Nation for his analysis, insight and humor on all things Gator.

4 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve come to the conclusion that this writer hasn’t a clue. To brag about UF being number one in anything after playing a god awful team is silly. The “cat’s out of the bag?’ Muschamo has always said the goal is to get to Atlanta, he has also said Florida should be the favorite. Of course the goal is to get to Atlanta, that’s the goal every year. Arkansas scored 73 points against another god awful team, but they’ve also played a good team, so we know they are still not a great team, and are probably still a bad team.. Florida gets it’s chance to play a good team in a couple of weeks, I think it’d be prudent to not brag about the Gators until after that game, if they win. Right now the only thing that has happened is that the Gators stomped a very bad team, something that most teams do, even if they are a bad team themselves.

    • Hey ‘PRINT, throw the Gators a bone! We beat our sacrificial lamb worse than many ranked teams beat their sacrificial lambs. Had we pulled out a squeaker like the ‘Huskers did, I would say the Gators were probably as bad as last year, but we spanked our lamb real good!
      We may not beat Alabama, heck, we may not beat Kentucky, but at this very early juncture it appears we’re better and definitely more FUN than last year..