It’s the final Wins and Losses of 2016. Sadly, this week’s 54-16 beat down put on the Florida Gators football team by Alabama in the SEC Championship was filled with a lot more losses. It was to be expected. There should be no tears shed over losing to a team that might not even be human.
I was one of the few who actually thought the Gators would actually put up a fight, and in some ways they did. That might’ve been what made it a little harder to go down like that. The game was actually much closer than the score indicated.
Losses
There were so many things that turned this game into the disaster that it was, but for this, I will just go over the main things to take away.
LOSS #1: Austin Appleby is just bad
For the second year in a row, Florida would have had a real chance to beat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game with any kind of decent quarterback play. If Appleby wasn’t the quarterback, Florida would be one of the only teams in the country who I believe could take down the Goliath that is Alabama. There are playmakers in place to shine on the offense if they would just be given a chance. Some might look at Florida’s total of zero yards rushing and say Appleby had no help, but the Gators knew they were not going to beat Alabama on the ground. It was through the air or bust, and three interceptions will never be a good way to make that game plan work. A good rushing game cannot be established without any threat from a passing game.
Everything that was said about Appleby when he first came to Florida all turned out to be true. He will stare down receivers before he throws to them and will throw into coverage or take a sack, because he cannot find the wide open receivers. He gave the Gators a chance in a couple of games, but he was never going to be the answer to save this season. There are younger guys in line, and if neither of them are going to be the change that Florida desperately needs to see, then Jim McElwain needs to do everything he can to bring a transfer like Jarrett Stidham in. Something just has to change. The Gators are so close to being a real threat on the national level. A decent-to-good quarterback could make all the difference.
LOSS #2: A few plays completely changed the game
The pick-six, the blocked punt, and the goal-line stand by Alabama took Florida out of the game. Even two of those three moments would have been prevented, it would have been a different game. Again, the Gators cannot handle it when they have a chance to take or keep momentum. Momentum just does not work in Florida’s favor very often.
The one that gets me the most is the goal-line stand. The play-calling for a majority of the game was actually much better than it has been, but it went back south on that series of plays. It is amazing how the Gators can drive all the way down the field doing what is at least somewhat working, which is passing the ball, and then get to the two-yard line and change everything. Exactly like the LSU game, but with the opposite plays working. Florida rushed up the middle two times in those four plays, which ended in the loss of a yard. Rushing up the middle is probably the worst possible thing to try against Alabama’s defense. It did not work all night. It was never going to work. Brandon Powell’s rush around the left end was a little more creative, but still was never going to work. Then a desperation pass to the endzone on fourth down obviously did not end with a score. Alabama eats desperation for dinner. If Florida could have taken momentum with a score on that drive to bring the score within 10 points, it might not have changed the outcome, but Alabama would not have scored 54 points. Everything went downhill from that point on.
LOSS #3: Special teams was awful
Florida arguably has the best kicking game in the country. The pieces around Johnny Townsend and Eddy Pineiro are just not doing them any justice. The blocked punt mentioned above put the game in Alabama’s favor early. Punt coverage was just terrible, as Alabama averaged 29 yards per punt return. Alabama got 117 yards back of the 218 yards that Townsend punted the ball in the game. The fake Florida tried was just really embarrassing. The one fake punt Florida has tried in recent memory turned out to be a complete disaster. It all started with a terrible snap, which was probably the simplest part of the play. The team has probably been dialing that play up and practicing it for a while now. There is no excuse to execute that play so poorly.
Special teams is another area that Florida needs to make a huge turnaround in by next season. It is has hurt this team in a major way more than once this year.
Wins
I am going to do things a little different for the wins this week. I want to go over a few good things seen in the game, but mostly just some positives to take away from this season as a whole and to look forward to in the future.
Whether fans want to believe it or not, McElwain has this program headed in the right direction. Florida has overachieved by winning the East in each of his first two seasons, and while that used to be something that was almost expected, a lot has changed in the last six years. Expectations at Florida are very high, as they should be, but McElwain is trying to put the program back on its feet, and that takes time.
This team showed something this season that hasn’t been seen too much in recent years, which is character and leadership. There were emotions after tough losses and hard-fought wins. The players actually care and play for each other. After watching the Alabama game and looking over to the sidelines, there is no way to believe this was a team that did not play with everything it had.
When older guys went down with injuries, they did not disappear, they instead helped the younger guys who would be taking over in their spots. There is no telling what kind of differences could have been made had the injured players not been injured, but after watching what the young players who took their places could do, I feel so much better about where the Gators are headed. There are a lot of stars in the making on both offense and defense. Tyrie Cleveland, Lamical Perine, Jawaan Taylor, David Reese, and Chauncey Gardner are just a few of the names that can be expected to be heard a lot more in the future. The right quarterback next season could really make all the difference for Florida, whether it is Kyle Trask, Feleipe Franks or someone new.