Charting the Course – Week 4 Florida Gators football

Where Have They Been?

Now that we are a couple days removed from the disappointing loss in Knoxville, the Florida Gators have to recover and get ready to travel back to Tennessee to face Vanderbilt. This was one of more of the baffling losses in recent history. A game they led 21-3 at halftime, they ended up losing 38-28. I now know what Ole Miss fans have felt like the past month.

The Gators did just about everything right in the first half and even stunned the Vols early in the 3rd quarter with the Tabor interception but could not put them away. After the interception on the opening possession of the 2nd half, the Gators came out with three straight runs that started a string of 6 straight possessions the finished with a 3 and out or a turnover. Regardless of the caliber of the defense they Gators have, they cannot constantly keep them on the field and in short field situations time after time after time and expect them to hold up.

Field position was a major advantage for Tennessee which contributed them making the comeback. At this very moment I am still wondering why Callaway was fielding punts inside his own 10 make that inside his 2-yard line. It was so bad he even found himself featured on Monday Night Countdown’s C’Mon Man segment.

Tennessee does deserve credit for getting off the mat and being booed entering halftime. We should know that in college football it only takes one play to spark a comeback and when the Gators went flat it was going to be hard to recover. The offense went in the tank and when Florida was put in obvious passing situations Appleby didn’t have a chance. In the first half he gave you all you could ask for and more, hitting deep ball after deep ball with precision. The Gators had three magnificent touchdown drives in the first half of 75, 93 and 80 yards. That didn’t hold up in the second half unfortunately. Florida didn’t gain a first down in the second half until 7:45 left in the 4th quarter. Until Florida has some consistency on offense, first downs will remain one of the most important stats for the Florida defense.

A part of the inconsistency was the inability to run the ball when they needed to, I expect McElwain to learn from this and other things that will make the Gators better going forward.

As the defense started to break down it didn’t take long for the 18-point lead to dissipate. A busted coverage for a touchdown, a quality tight end vs a linebacker for another touchdown and one cornerback slip for a touchdown and all of a sudden the Gators were down. Tennessee was able to scheme up some good things to get receivers open and make plays.

The big question this week heading up to Nashville is what will the Florida mindset be? Vanderbilt doesn’t exactly excite you and Vandy noon crowd will not get the blood flowing. The Gators were humbled after barking behind the yard gate for a year and discovered they didn’t have enough bite. I have no problem with the trash talk and wouldn’t want them to stop but everyone needs to show up for 4 quarters to beat the top tier opponents. Overall the character of this team will be challenged when facing themselves in the mirror. They should beat Vanderbilt, but how they do it is going to reveal another layer of this team’s mindset.

What’s Next

Up next for the Gators will be a less than impressive Vanderbilt squad with a coach probably coaching to try and get off the hot seat and a win over the Gators will go a long way to accomplishing that goal. The Commodores come in 2-2 with wins over Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky this past weekend in overtime. In losses to South Carolina and Georgia Tech their offense managed to score a grand total of 17 points. That does not bode well for this week going against what should be an upset and motivated Florida defenses out to regain some traction.

Last year Vanderbilt led majority of the 2nd half before losing on a 43 yard field goal. At home Vanderbilt will not be intimidated and will definitely feel confident that they can pull off the upset. If they have any chance they will need to get Ralph Webb going who put 118 yards last year against the Florida defense. At home with a noon start and anything can happen.

What’s Down the Road?

The big news coming out of the weekend was obviously the firing of Les Miles. We will miss the Mad Hatter. A piece of me is glad we won’t see those unpredictable antics that made him so loved and annoying at the same time. It was amazing to see the fate of two coaches change in literally a second. With the timing of his firing, chances are he was done anyway. Ed Orgeron will take over now and he has proved to be a better interim head coach than a real head coach. During his time at Ole Miss he went 10-25 as an interim head coach at USC he was 6-2. The game against the Tigers will be very interesting next week, where will this team be schematically and emotionally.

There seems to be a slight separation in the SEC East now. Florida and Tennessee are a step or two above Georgia who got ran over by Ole Miss who finally closed a game against a quality opponent. Despite the performance in Oxford, the Dawgs will probably show better at home this week against Tennessee. Nick Chubb seems to have hit a wall since his 222-yard season opening outburst. In his last 3 games he has 200 yards on 51 carries.

The late night SEC contest was a tight game before Texas A&M pulled away from Arkansas. The Razorbacks have a quality squad but not up to the level of the top of SEC. That trip to Arkansas in November could be a huge game for Florida if they were to win out and Tennessee were to drop 2 of their next 3. That is way down the road but could be a determining factor in who wins the east.

In other outcomes from upcoming opponents, Missouri obliterated Delaware State 79-0. The Tigers set a school record with 79 points. The previous record was 69. Missouri has improved as a team and especially on offense. Will Muschamp continues to find ways to demonstrate awful offense. They managed to score 10 points on a Kentucky defense that had been giving up an average of 43 PPG coming into the game.

Down in Tampa Florida State bounced back but it wasn’t without a slight scare. South Florida challenged the Seminoles early but could not sustain that success to pull off the offense. Florida State’s defense has not been the traditional defense we have come to expect from the boys in Tallahassee and the loss of Derwin James will continue to be a major, major problem.

On a sad note, Presbyterian lost another one to Florida Tech 28-7 in their home opener. The Blue Hose fall to 1-3 on the season.

The Gators SEC East championship hopes are still alive but out of their hands. Florida will have to sit around the next month monitoring what Tennessee does on the field as they continue a brutal four game stretch. In the meantime, Florida will need to take care of their business and focus on improving from top to bottom.

Current Record: 3-1 (1-1)

Predicted Record: 9-3 (6-2)

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

Predicted Losses: @Arkansas, @Florida State

Kevin Camps
Kevin, a lifelong Gator fan has followed and studied Florida football since 1990. He is a Gainesville native that has experienced many great triumphs of Florida football. Born and raised as a Gator, Kevin loves to talk and promote the Gator Nation. When not talking Gators, Kevin is spending time with his wife and five kids, serving in his church or grilling great bbq.

1 COMMENT

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