by David Parker
The Vanderbilt Game
I know we’re all thinking it, so why don’t I just put it right out there.
Let’s start a petition to the SEC offices to drop the Vanderbilt game. Forever.
I don’t mean to booth them from the conference or the Eastern division, because they do bring quality baseball to the SEC armory, and probably equestrian or Ultimate Frisbee or something else equally unknown to normal people.
Just kick them off our schedule, for good. Because they only thing they bring every year to our program is bad. Take Saturday for instance. We breezed to a relatively easy win without putting forth much effort. Usually a joy to report for an SEC game. But not when we play Vandy. Not when Vegas is throwing out a 30+ point spread…for the first half. And we are never up for the Vandy game, and we as fans have to sort of sit uncomfortably and watch to see what percentage of the normal effort the players are going to put out this year against the ‘Dores.
On the up side, SEC East contenders behind us in the race get their hopes up for 2-3 quarters, sometimes all the way into overtime, only to see them dashed to the ground. But that little satisfaction is hardly worth the risks. Recall in 2012 that we were rolling into the Georgia game undefeated and a win over the Dawgs away from winning the East, probably the SEC and landing a spot in the national title game. Then Vandy came along with their filthy-dirty knee-chopping defensive techniques, that should have been flagged until they didn’t have a defensive lineman left, but instead gave several of our best offensive linemen lower body injuries that made it impossible to get leverage and beat the defensive line of Georgia, which got by us and took our path to finish the year instead.
That wasn’t the first or last time Vandy had injured some key Gators that threatened to derail the rest of our season. And sometimes we are so disinterested that they almost beat us while we were on track for a championship season.
Nobody wants that in their coffee. I know we can’t dump them from our schedule, but let’s ask anyway. The SEC can only say “No”. If Missouri can be in the Eastern division, they could surely move Vandy to the West without anyone noticing.
The Game
Another thing that is bad about a Vandy game is it focuses us fans on otherwise very secondary things, like individual stats and records. With no concern whatsoever about the outcome, Florida fans were on the edge of their seats to see if Trask was going to get the chance to keep his already SEC-record string of games with at least 4 touchdown passes. And we were crestfallen, to say the least, when Trask was on his way to carrying that record another game, and Dan Mullen unceremoniously inserted the backup quarterback into the would-be record-extending drive. And then he tossed an unassuming short connection to the tight end, and he ran all the way down the field to the end zone. Gator fans should be celebrating every touchdown, but most of them were shouting, “NOOOO!” as they saw the inevitability of the score unfolding. Because they knew Trask’s day was through with this drive, and the record had ended. The record that could have easily extended to every game left in Kyle’s Florida career, in the normal course of the games.
Letting Trask throw that touchdown on his last drive, instead of taking it away, also would have allowed him to tie the NCAA record for the most touchdown passes in the first 7 games of a season. As it is, he stayed tied for second behind that NCAA record at 31.
All because we were playing Vanderbilt. Stinking, worthless, meaningless Vanderbilt.
Same Old Grantham
I’m going to stop harping on the fatally flawed defensive scheme. At least a little. At least on the scheme. It’s difficult, because once again, in the seventh game of the season, there was our defense giving up big plays and touchdown plays because we still, in Game 7, can’t even figure out how to communicate to our players how they’re supposed to line up. When we can’t get a defensive play called in time for the Vanderbilt offense, in Game 7, the coordination of our defense is a disgrace, and it is 100% on the responsibility sheet of the defensive coordinator. If winless Vanderbilt can make our defense look helpless after the snap, after making it look like a pre-snap clown show, just imagine what Alabama is going to make this defense look like.
That’s all for now.
Some Trends that Continued
The record trend of seeing Kyle Trask throw at least 4 touchdowns in a game may have ended, but one very important offensive trend continued. Scoring a touchdown at will at the end of the first half. Coming into this game, the Gators had scored a touchdown 3 times this year in the last 20 seconds of the first half. In the last 3 weeks, the Gators scored a touchdown with 1:41, 0:11, and 0:17 left on the first half clock. In the first 3 games of the season, they scored a touchdown with 0:05, 1:22, and 4:14 left on the first half clock.
Well against Vandy, they did it again. It wasn’t their last possession of the half, but only because the defense held Vandy to a 34-second 3-and-out, and had to field a punt and take a snap to run out the last 18 seconds of the half. But before that, the Gators got the ball at their own 15 yard line with 2:34 left in the half, staring down a possible halftime score of 10-10. The SEC East-leading Gators tied at the half with winless Vanderbilt, 10-10. That wouldn’t have been just disappointing; it would have been dangerous. So, the Gators took just 1:45 to blast 85 yards down the field into the end zone, ending with a 34-yard strike to emerging star receiver, Trevon Grimes. Another first half, another staggering 2-minute drill by the Gators hitting pay dirt, this time with just 49 seconds left on the clock.
So in seven games, in rank order of remaining time, the Gators have scored at the end of the first half with 0:05, 0:11, 0:17, 0:49, 1:22, 1:41, and 4:14 left on the clock. All touchdowns. I don’t have to look that up to know this has never happened from a Gator team before.
Another streak that did continue Saturday: the Gators snapped a program record for most consecutive games with at least 35 points scored. This was the 9th-straight game to set the new record. The two Gator teams that until Saturday shared this record with 8-straight games? The 1996 and 2008 teams. Yeah, they both won national championships. This was also the 7th-straight game of scoring 35+ points against SEC competition, another school record.
Despite being denied his last chance to throw a touchdown pass on the day, Kyle Trask still set a new SEC record for most touchdown passes against SEC competition in a season, breaking with LSU’s Joe Burrow and Gator legend Danny Wuerffel, both with 28, both with Heisman Trophies on their mantles. It should be noted also that Danny and Joe Burrow got their previous record 28 touchdown passes in 8 conference games; Kyle got his 31 in 7 conference games.
And one more SEC record broken by Trask Saturday: Most touchdowns by an SEC quarterback in the first 7 games of a season. Kentucky’s Tim Couch and Burrow again had the previous record of 29 each.
Projecting the Future
After 7 weeks, it’s clear that a cursory read of this column will provide us insight into what this team will be the rest of the season; what they are at core, and it isn’t going to change. This is an offensive juggernaut with a defense that essentially stinks, but can make some plays in the second half of games if the offense stakes them to a big enough lead to make the opposition one-dimensional and predictable. If the Gator offense can’t given them that charity, the game – no matter who the opposition is – will be a shootout where the team with the last offensive possession will likely win.
While certainly not assured, it is safe to expect the Gator offense will afford the defense that big second half cushion with which to work in the next two games against Kentucky and Tennessee. Win those two, and there will be no game against LSU, but that game would produce the same expectations, just with more effort needed by the offense to out-run the Tigers’ offense.
When and if the Gators reach the SEC Championship Game, Alabama will not allow the Gator offense to run away and leave them one-dimensional or predictable. The Gators will have to score on every possession, and they’ll have to score touchdowns. Because Alabama is going to score on every possession against our defense, and they’re going to score touchdowns. If our offense can keep up that break-neck pace, the game will come down to who makes the big mistake or two on offense, who turns the ball over, and who has the ball last.