I just want to go ahead and say it officially. We were ready to say it last year, until…well, you know what happened. Just as we were ready to try on the “We’re Back!” phrase for size, we lost our quarterback and everything started to go backwards at high speed until we crashed into the brick wall of reality. We knew we were back to having a great head coach again. We knew we were back to competing with any team in the country, even without an offense. We knew we were back to owning the SEC East. But the second half of the season made us realize in crystal clear terms that we did not yet have the depth at critical positions to say we were back. Not as an elite program again. Not back to normal for the Gators.
Because you’re not back when one injury or suspension at any key position – let alone multiple positions – can knock you from championship contention. You’re not back when you have no eligible quarterback who can play the position, and you have to hold school-wide open tryouts to find a kicker who can make a field goal or even extra point. You must not only have great players at all positions (or at least all position groups), but you have to have great, good or at least serviceable backups to be back. Because otherwise, even without suspensions or injuries, all elite opponents can take away one or two players and roll you if you don’t have someone else to step up into those voids.
Enter Coach Mac.
How Deep Is This Lake?
When you only have one real receiving threat that you can count on, you’re not back. Last year we really only had one: Antonio Callaway. And he was a true freshman courted and signed by Mac in his first extremely-abbreviated recruiting cycle. There was a second receiver that year, but he was the opposite of reliable. Demarcus Robinson had NFL talent, but could not keep his head on straight. When you have a #1 receiver that will be selected in the fourth round in a few months, you expect him to catch more than two touchdowns. Flash forward to 2016, and Mac brought in 5 new receivers, three to four of whom were expected to impact the team as first year players, and continued to develop two holdovers for a full receiver’s stall that lost its #1 slot receiver for the year in the first sequence of the season opener and still have a full depth chart of SEC game-ready receivers.
When you have only one quarterback on the roster who can play at a serviceable level, you are not back. When Mac took over, the tragically neglected and fatally inconsistent Jeff Driskel was the only real quarterback on the roster who had ever played, and he decided to transfer out before the paint was dry on Mac’s office door. All that remained was a demonstrably ineffective Treon Harris and promising-but-witless freshman Will Grier who had never taken a college snap. And as we know, Grier didn’t last half of a season with the program and Harris followed him out half a season later. So Mac went out and got transfer Luke Del Rio before his first season, and next year added transfer Austin Appleby and signees Kyle Trask and Feleipe Franks, a foursome who showed in the spring that at least three were ready to start this year.
You are not back when you only have one running back, like Mac inherited with Kelvin Taylor. Or if you inherit so few offensive linemen that you don’t even have enough bodies to hold a spring game…for the second-straight year. Or if you don’t have a kicker…at all. Mac brought in the two Jordans last year at running back, who played like true freshmen, and then SEC-ready JUCO transfer Mark Thompson and equally SEC-ready true freshman Lamical Perine. In one year Mac transformed the team from a one-back depth chart an injury away from complete disaster to a backfield that is 4-deep with starting-caliber runners. On the offensive line, Mac brought in 8 high school signees and a versatile legacy transfer, four of which are already in the starting rotation , and has the line numbers right again. Mac took care of the year-long kicking vacancy by signing one-time Alabama commit, the national internet sensation and target of every program in the country looking for a kicker, and he can bury it from nearly 80 yards out.
Defense was never in question as far as talent or depth, and with the offense now at full mast and with full wind, by every measure of personnel, the Gators are back. Back, baby!
What? You doubt me? You say a depth chart is just names on paper until they prove it on the field? Well then I give you: the Kentucky game.
“Offensive Game” Finally a Compliment Again
If you think this was just another inconsequential early season game against a sacrificial league back marker; if you think it was just Kentucky; if you think we should have beaten them by more; consider how long it has been since we experienced this level of dominance on offense.
The last time Florida scored this many points on offense against an SEC opponent was 8 years and 2 head coaches ago, when they hung 49 points on the board against South Carolina on November 15, 2008. That day Tim Tebow threw for 2 scores and ran for another, Percy Harvin ran for 2 touchdowns including an 80-yarder to open the second half, and Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey both contributed scores. They also went on to win the national championship that year, the last time they won any title bigger than the East crown. If Eddie hits all his kicks, we have to go even further back to find the last time a Gator offense scored so much.
Heck the Gators hadn’t scored that many points on offense against anyone – not even the bevy of patsies they’ve faced over the years – since November 20, 2010, when they put up 48 against FCS program Appalachian State. Six years and still two coaches ago, the final touchdown being scored on a 2-yard run by walk-on reserve defensive tackle Gary Beemer. Yes, that Gary Beemer.
And the 564 total offensive yards the Gators logged in the game was the most against an SEC foe since racking 571 for the old ball coach Steve Spurrier against Vanderbilt on November 3, 2001. That’s 15 years to you and me, Russ. Note that all three of these “last time” benchmarks were in November, after the teams had all season to gel and ramp up to their production zenith. This was September. Game 2. Another thing that happened back in 2001 was Rex Grossman throwing for 464 yards and 4 touchdowns against LSU (yeah, remember back when the Tigers were awful for a few decades). No Gator quarterback had thrown for over 320 yards and 4 scores since then until Luke Del Rio did against the Wildcats Saturday.
Not enough for you? Until Saturday, the Gators hadn’t converted 13 first downs in a single game since 1996, the Gators’ first national championship season. Want more? Until Saturday’s performance by Luke Del Rio, no Gator had thrown for over 250 yards and completed over 55% of their passes in a game since Tim Tebow turned the trick in 2007, en route to winning Florida’s third Heisman Trophy.
This was real. This happened and it was significant. And it was not done with smoke and mirrors or even with a bunch of huge plays. There was only one scoring play of over 28 yards. There were touchdown drives of all durations: 1, 3, 6 (twice), 13 and 15 plays. Six different players scored touchdowns. All four running backs averaged 4 or more yards per carry. Nine Gators caught a pass, including 2 running backs and 3 tight ends. The offensive line gave up zero sacks in over 30 pass attempts (I don’t even want to try to find out when the last time we did that in SEC play), and plowed the way for nearly 250 yards rushing. Despite running a pedestrian offense in a steady rain in the opener, Florida is #5 in the SEC in total offense, #3 in passing.
This offense is back. These special teams are back, increasing the field goal percentage by nearly 30% even given a small sample size and a couple of close misses on deep kicks in game 2, while booting 3 kicks over 48 yards, one of which was the sixth-longest field goal in team history. Which means this team is back. Because we know that the defense never left. Only one score surrendered per game (both resulting from a fluke blown coverage), holding an SEC team to 10 yards passing through three quarters (under 60 for the game), holding both opponents to under 100 yards rushing, zero passing touchdowns surrendered, 38% completion percentage, 3 interceptions and 9 sacks (tops in the SEC). The defense also held consecutive opponents to fewer than 200 yards for the first time since 2009.
So say it loud and say it proud: The Gators are back, bay-bee! For reals. Not the way that programs like FSU and Miami and Tennessee have said every week for years because they keep proving that they are in fact NOT back.
So just say it now. No need to keep saying it next week or the week after that. Because we know.
And believe this: so do our rivals and their fans.
Nice. One thing, though, you wrote: “Heck the Gators hadn’t scored that many points on offense against anyone – not even the bevy of patsies they’ve faced over the years – since November 20, 2010, when they put up 48 against FCS program Appalachian State.”
Maybe I misunderstand, but we beat teams in each of the last two years in which the offense scored 50-60 points.
LOL. This guy using facts. I mean we have crapped all over New Mexico St., Eastern Kentucky, and Eastern Michigan (2 are FBS), but that doesn’t count.
You do misunderstand sir. Yes, the team scored that many points, but you have to subtract Defensive and Special Teams scores from that to get points scored by the team when the Offense was on the field.
“Until Saturday, the Gators hadn’t converted 13 first downs in a single game since 1996” Inaccurate? lol
Probably not, We have had more first downs, but have we had more 3rd downs and 4th downs that we successfully converted.
He had to be talking about converting 14-20 3rd down plays. Which is a pretty amazing stat against any team.
Does it read that? If so, it was a typo. It should have read third, not First. A quick glance of the stat sheet would make that obvious, I would think. But it doesn’t look like your intent is to find the correct stats, but rather to ridicule and hate. Knock yourself out, but there was only one factual error in the entire piece: the sentence about Appalachian State that I merely threw on as an aside, however I did overlook the one single game last year (thought it was the orange and blue game on the schedule) that was the only game in that span the contradicted that statistic. The other attacks on the point totals are very obviously a reading comprehension issue, as it reads very clearly at the beginning of the section that I am discussing offensive points, not total points, and against SEC opponents.
But if you guys want to hate on that one error, have a ball.