Charting the course for the Florida Gators

Where Have They Been?

Can somebody please stop hitting rewind on the VCR now. For the past 6 years the Gators have suffered through quarterback injuries and suspensions of their starting quarterback. From John Brantley to now Luke Del Rio, someone should be preparing a documentary on this. Florida won this past Saturday over North Texas 32-0 but did not walk away unscathed. Starting quarterback Luke Del Rio will be sidelined for a couple of weeks with a sprained knee after taking a shot to the knee by a Mean Green defender.

That hit set off some fireworks in Jim McElwain. I cannot confirm if Coach McElwain has been though intense mixed martial arts training, but Saturday he was ready to take it to any and every one after the hit to Del Rio that was dirty and uncalled for.

Overshadowed by the injury was the best defensive performance stat wise in school history. The Florida defense allowed North Texas to manage 53 total yards of offense. North Texas was outmanned from the jump and the first road game for freshman quarterback Mason Fine didn’t go so well. The Florida defense managed to get to him 7 times including a safety to start off the scoring.

Beyond the front and center storylines from Saturday night, the Gators did not do a great job of putting the ball in the end zone once they got inside the 20. Not finishing drives prevented a 32-point win from being more like a 40 or 50-point win.

Now all eyes turn to Tennessee. Backup quarterback Austin Appleby will make his first start as a Gator but don’t expect Mac and Nuss to put too much on him because the four horsemen at running back and that salty defense could carry the day. If the game wasn’t big enough, ESPN has chosen to take College Gameday to Knoxville increasing the exposure opportunity for this still somewhat unknown Florida football team.

What’s Next

In their first three games Tennessee has not been what their fan base expected coming into the season. A recurring them in Knoxville, but they were head and shoulders the favorite in the SEC East and even some pundits found the bravado to choose them as SEC and/or National Champions.

Tennessee is not without their issues on the injury front as well. Top cornerback Cam Sutton went down this past weekend with an apparent foot injury and last week starting middle linebacker Darrin Kirkland, Jr. was lost for an unknown amount of time with an ankle injury. Star linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin also suffered a shoulder injury against Ohio but is expected to be back this week.

Once again the Vols had an underwhelming performance beating Ohio 28-19. Josh Dobbs did have his best game in the air, throwing for 201 yards. Most of that coming to Josh Malone, who has 4 touchdowns in 9 of his receptions this season. Outside of the connection The Vols have left much to be desired in the passing game. Not a good look with Tabor, Wilson, Maye and company lurking.

Coach Butch Jones has yet to get that signature win while at Tennessee. He is still looking to get them over the hype hump and actually being a program of substance. A good place to start would be beating Florida and ending the 11 game losing streak. Jones may think this is a big game because it’s the next game, but in other realms outside of coach speak, this is a tremendous game, not just for this season, but probably for Jones’ perception moving forward. Whatever bricks he is using to build with might be used against him if they go down Saturday.

What’s Down the Road?

Touchdown Louisville! Oh, I thought Lamar Jackson scored again. It was not surprising that Louisville beat Florida State; it was just shocking the way it happened. Anyone who predicted a 63-20 beat down by the Cardinals is probably lying. In their wildest dreams they could not have imagined that type of performance and it honestly could have been worse. Going in we knew losing Derwin James would be a big deal but I am not convinced he is the difference between winning and losing on Saturday, maybe the difference between losing by 23 instead of 43. If there was a place beyond the woodshed, Louisville took Florida State past that.

Seminole defensive lineman DeMarcus Walker gave us his best Tim Tebow imitation following the game but unfortunately, Tim Tebow is not playing in the garnet and gold and neither is Charlie, Jameis or the old man Chris. The talk on Deondre Francois will slow down a bit. Seminole fans ought to be more concerned about the mentality of this team, right now it seems to be unstable after falling behind Ole Miss early and the way Saturday went down. This week the ‘Noles travel to Tampa to take on a dangerous South Florida team who has yet to be challenged with wins over Towson, Northern Illinois and Syracuse.

Elsewhere, Georgia squeaked by on the road at Missouri, which has improved on offense. Jacob Eason threw a game winning touchdown, but the Dawgs have some work to do this week when they travel to Ole Miss. The Rebels very well could be the #1 team in the country if they knew how to close out games like they close out recruits.

LSU with new quarterback Danny Etling jumped out to a 23-3 lead but LSU disappeared and almost allowed Mississippi State to come back. LSU has a road game at Auburn Saturday night and the Tigers have a stingy front seven that could give them trouble. The team creeping up the rankings is Arkansas, who blasted Texas State this week 42-3. The Razorbacks have a huge game themselves at Texas A&M. A must win for both teams if they want to be considered legitimate contenders in the SEC West.

I must admit that Will Muschamp and the Gamecocks surprised me a bit because I did not think they could beat East Carolina nor did I think they could score 20 points. They travel to Kentucky this week who decided to let the basketball team play against New Mexico State and it worked because they scored a 62-42 win.

The most disappointing team had to be Vanderbilt. They were wrecked by Georgia Tech and Derek Mason is probably counting down the days to being fired. In our weekly Presbyterian update, the Blue Hose got their first win of the year going on the road and beating previously undefeated Campbell 31-14.

As for the Gators, the schedule remains very manageable. Tennessee is really struggling right now, Vanderbilt and Missouri are very winnable games then they get LSU at home before the bye week. Even with the loss of Del Rio, the defense is capable of getting them through Knoxville before Luke returns prior to playing LSU and maybe sooner. A SEC East championship is still in sight.

Current Record: 3-0 (1-0)

Predicted Record: 10-2 (7-1)

Predicted Wins: @Tennessee, @Vanderbilt, Missouri, LSU, vs Georgia, South Carolina, Presbyterian,

Predicted Losses: @Arkansas, @Florida State