Winning solves a lot of issues but when wins don’t come frustration can boil over. That happened on Saturday for the Florida Gators after a 17-16 loss to the LSU Tigers.
Former and current players voiced concern, most notably former Gator, now Carolina Panther, defensive end Bryan Cox Jr.
Cox took to Twitter shortly after the loss and tweeted, “Time is running out on Floridas predictable high school offense….trash.”
Time is running out on Floridas predictable high school offense….trash
— Bryan Cox Jr (@BEECoxx) October 7, 2017
He followed that up with, “Tired of it…can’t even tell you how many talented offensive players I have seen come through UF during my time…not a personnel issue.”
Tired of it…can’t even tell you how many talented offensive players I have seen come through UF during my time…not a personnel issue.
— Bryan Cox Jr (@BEECoxx) October 7, 2017
Jim McElwain was asked on Monday about that frustration and the third year head coach at Florida understood the frustration.
“I was told about those comments,” McElwain responded. “That’s Bryan, man, I love him. He’s a Gator.”
It’s hard to decipher precisely what tweets mean — not in Cox’s case there, that was pretty self explanatory — but current players also took to Twitter seemingly voicing frustration.
Backup quarterback Malik Zaire tweeted this shortly after the loss.
Smh! What. A. Shame. #OnlyLordKnows
— Malik Zaire (@MalikZaire8) October 8, 2017
And freshman defensive lineman Zach Carter tweeted “free 94.”
Free 94
— Zachary L Carter (@_ZachAttacks) October 9, 2017
That kind of attitude is something that can tear a locker room apart. McElwain understands that it’s natural for players to be frustrated and he knows that it’s his job to ensure that they don’t manifest into a problem for his team.
“It doesn’t matter what field you’re in, there will be frustration if you’re not getting a bunch of snaps,” he said. “It’s natural, the reaction piece to it, but as a whole, when you look at it, this team is pretty close. They were hurt. So, you know, we have the same thing when you go win. So it’s no different. And usually you can probably predict the guys that are disgruntled.”