The old Florida.
A time when the Gators were strong on both sides of the football; a team playing with great energy, effort and strategy.
It’s something current Gators — like safety Keanu Neal — are looking to get back to Saturday against Georgia, despite the criticism of the team and hot seat of head coach Will Muschamp.
“Last year we didn’t have a good season,” Neal said. “This year, we’ve got to bring Florida back, the old Florida football. I wouldn’t really say coach’s job, but just Florida in general.”
Outside the Florida Gators football program, the talk about the team has been frequent this season, mostly negative. A 3-3 record isn’t fully indicative of a team that hasn’t lived up to expectations. Among the team, however, the confidence among the team remains strong.
“It’s pretty surprising,” Safety Keanu Neal said. “No one expects to have a season, what is it? 3-3? Like I said, we have all the talent in the world. We’ve just got to execute.”
Despite the talent of the team, the Gators’ execution has been inconsistent this year. The defense, while playing well overall, is 10th in the conference in pass defense. On offense, the Gators are 12th in the conference in scoring and 10th in pass offense. During the off week, the Gators worked on correcting those mistakes as well as moving attention away from the previous weeks and towards the Bulldogs.
“That week’s over,” Neal said. “Missouri’s over, LSU’s over. All of the games that were in the past are over. We’re just focusing on Georgia. So we’re excited to play them. It’s going to be a great atmosphere. It’s going to be exciting and we’re looking forward to it.”
Focusing on Georgia also means preparing for a strong running game that may see the return of Todd Gurley. In the back’s absence, freshman Nick Chubb has played well, running for 569 yards and 5 touchdowns on the year. In the October 18 contest against Arkansas, Chubb ran for 202 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 6.7 yards per rush.
“I actually remember going to media day and somebody showed me a picture of this guy just jumping high in the air, but he was huge,” defensive lineman Dante Fowler, Jr. said of Chubb. “I guess he was on the track and whatever, and they said it was him. I always knew he was going to be a good player from when I saw that. He can run. He’s pretty powerful just like Gurley. I mean all their backs are good.”
Though the first half of the season has been substandard for Florida, the team remains confident in their abilities. The team looks forward to a major test against a storied rival in Jacksonville.
The contest will give Gator Nation an idea if there is any sign as to whether the current squad has brought back old Florida football.
“I mean, we know we’re good. The last game wasn’t so pretty and against LSU that game was questionable,” linebacker Neiron Ball said. I feel like we could have won that game, but we lost. I feel like we’re a great team. We’ve just got to come out with the win.”
We have won 18 of the last 24 games. However we are 5-5 over the last 10 3 of those losses coming under the Muschamp era. So 3 of the last 6 losses that we have had in the last 24 years have come under this head coach.. I ask myself, if I dedicated 4 years of my life to a university that gave me an opportunity that other universities didn’t to further my education and pursue goals that only a fraction of the people on this planet get the pursue, could I then actively fight against that team if I had never given anything back to it (ala Spurrier)? The answer is clearly no.
Such is the dilemma that we are faced with. How can a person who has done nothing for his university, watch is university be also rans year in and year out and not be depressed by it? The last time Georgia won a national championship was 1980. Muschamp was 9 years old and dreaming of being a Florida Gator as a player. A dream that never came true.
No matter who my employer is, I am always going to bleed orange and blue. That is loyalty, and any true Gator wants to leave a legacy that all Gators can be proud of. All true Gators desire the academic and athletic programs to be at the top of college rankings year in and year out. How could you give 4 years of your life and be given such opportunities that we have to support our families and enjoy the fruits of life and not have a special undivided bond to your university?
It would be unnatural for someone not to have such a bond. Welcome to Georgia- Florida 2014.
At some time, as Dirty Harry said: “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Sorry Mr. Neal, an unranked .500 team is not “great.” It’s great to be confident, for instance Jeff Driskel never lacked confidence, he always talked very confidently. But sooner or later, talk has to translate into action. This team has not done anything that last year’s bad team didn’t accomplish. Both have won over Kentucky and Tennessee. Winning is all that matters, not coming close and losing. This team has a chance to prove the skeptics, myself included, wrong this Saturday, and talking won’t get that done.