The Week That Was: Five thoughts on the South Carolina game

The lifeless Gators were blown out by South Carolina on Saturday, 40-17. Here are my thoughts on the week that was and the future that may be ahead for the program.

1. That was about as disheartening a loss as possible.

That was a really bad South Carolina team that they played. They needed fourth-quarter comebacks to beat East Carolina and Vanderbilt, the latter of whom the Gators beat by 42 points. The Gamecocks were down to their third-string quarterback who transferred in from a school that I didn’t even know existed (St. Francis in Pennsylvania).

The Gators were completely outplayed in every phase of the game. They didn’t try to establish much of a running game against the 11^th ranked rushing defense in the SEC, and they only averaged 3.2 yards per carry when they did run it. After a strong first quarter, the passing game slowed down drastically. Emory Jones continued the Gators’ theme of giving away points by fumbling with less than a minute to go in the first half.

Defensively, they let one of the worst rushing teams in the league do whatever they wanted with minimal resistance. The interior of the defensive line played soft, and the linebackers didn’t make the tackles on the rare occasions that they executed their assignments correctly. They gave up 6.8 yards per rush and allowed two 100-yard rushers.

Jason Brown looked like an All-American in the first half, completing 12 of 17 passes for 169 yards in the opening 30 minutes. They couldn’t get much pressure on him, and there were way too many open receivers for him to throw to.

What makes the way that they lost this game even more disappointing to me is that Dan Mullen kept his team away from the media all week so that they could stay focused on the task at hand. Mullen then talked ad nauseum about how the players needed to overcome adversity better. So, clearly, preventing something like this from happening was an objective of his, but he still couldn’t stop it.

Throughout the season, the Gators have been plagued by one or two different issues in every game. Against South Carolina, all of their issues finally showed up at once, and it was very ugly to watch.

2. Despite what Mullen said afterward, there was a lack of effort among the players.

You don’t lose by 23 points to one of the worst teams in the Power Five unless there’s a lack of effort.

To be clear, I’m not accusing anybody of intentionally giving up on the season or purposely playing bad. The fact that they had a bunch of players battle through the flu to play in the game is proof that they’ve still got some guys who want to play their best and help this team win.

I just think that due to a lack of confidence and all of the noise about their coaches’ futures, they kind of subconsciously checked out and weren’t able to play as hard as they wanted to.

They were several of those long runs where it felt like one of the linebackers could’ve made a better effort to make the tackle after five or 10 yards instead of letting it become 50. There were times where they could’ve made better attempts to catch the ball or block somebody.

Basically, this game meant way more to the Gamecocks than it did to the Gators, and that’s a huge red flag.

3. I find it hard to believe that Mullen didn’t know that the band was there.

For the second week in a row, Mullen caught heat on social media for not joining the band to sing the alma mater after the game. After all, this is the same coach who arrived at UF and immediately started talking about restoring the Gator Standard and embracing all of the UF traditions. He’s even had the band out at practice before so that the players could learn the lyrics.

So, for him not to be there with the band two weeks in a row is a terrible look.

After the game, Mullen said that he didn’t intentionally ignore the band.

“We’re on the road right now,” he said. “So, yeah, that’s on me. To be honest with you, I didn’t even know we had our band here today with that. We’ll sing with the band next week in the Swamp.”

I find that very hard to believe. Yes, this was only the second true road game that the band traveled to this year, but he walked right past them during Gator Walk. He was on the field when they performed during pregame and after the Gators scored. Was he really that focused on the game that he became completely oblivious to everything going on around him? Did it not seem peculiar that a bunch of his players stayed on the field for a few minutes after the game?

4. It’s time for athletic director Scott Stricklin to seriously consider making a change.

Look, I have no doubt that Mullen is much better than a 4-5 coach who gets blown out by South Carolina. But, ultimately, coaches are judged on their records and the championships that they win. And, frankly, it’s hard to see how things are going to get significantly better in the near future.

This season went from being a disappointing one to a full-blown disaster with how they played against South Carolina.

This program has so many issues right now. The offensive and defensive lines are both struggling big time and will lose a bunch of starters after the season. The secondary, despite having two new assistant coaches, is still experiencing some of the same communication issues from prior years. They don’t even have a true middle linebacker with Ventrell Miller out for the year with an arm injury.

Even Mullen’s specialty, the quarterback position, has taken a huge step back this year. Jones and Anthony Richardson have combined for 17 passing touchdowns and 15 interceptions this season, and neither one of them seems to be significantly improving as the year goes on.

Their 2022 recruiting class, which looked somewhat promising at the beginning of the summer, has fallen to shambles.

When there are that many issues, the head coach is the one who should be held accountable.

Plus, nobody associated with the program is having any fun right now. The players aren’t having fun playing, the coaches look miserable coaching, the fans are ticked off and even I am tired of writing a different version of the same thing every week.

It might be in everybody’s best interest, including Mullen’s, for Stricklin to make a change.

Obviously, there is a huge financial component to this as well. Mullen’s buyout is $12 million, $6 million of which must be paid within 60 days of his firing. Then they would have to buy-out the assistant coaches and pay a hefty buyout to hire someone else’s coach. Given all of the money the UAA has invested into facilities projects in recent years, I’m not sure if changing coaching staffs is something they’re willing to do at this time.

It’s Stricklin’s job to figure all of that out. If the money isn’t an issue, though, he should strongly consider making a change.

5. There are two days until Gators basketball season and 103 days until baseball season.

This football season has made a lot of people feel excited about watching Mike White’s basketball team, which certainly isn’t a sentence that I thought I’d ever type. Or, if you’re like me and prefer the diamond over the hardwood, there’s only a little more than three months to go until the season.

Both the basketball and baseball teams have a lot of uncertainty surrounding them heading into their seasons, but I can just about guarantee you that they will be infinitely more entertaining to watch than the football you’ve seen over the last month.