MILLER REPORT: An era come and gone

It is over. The Muschamp era at Florida has come and gone. The Florida State game was four years of  Muschamp football boiled down to sixty minutes. Hard-nosed opportunistic defense wasted because of offensive ineptitude. Over and over the defense handed the ball back to the offensive with a short field. Over and over again the offense sputtered, floundered and squandered the opportunity to put the Seminoles away. Over the last two weeks I, like some others I believe, had started to convince myself that Will Muschamp and his staff should have been given another year to see if they could figure this offense thing out. Talk about closure. That was so disgusting to watch that I opted to smoke my victory cigar anyway to celebrate the end of this torment.

That game was there for the taking. The players laid everything they had on the field in an effort to send Muschamp out a winner. But, there were just some undeniable flaws in this group of coaches. I cannot tell you what they were or who’s fault but Saturday was so indicative of what Gator fans have seen for the last four years that it was brutally apparent that moving on was the right decision for Jeremy Foley. An offseason wondering if this was going to play out again in 2015 just like 2014 would have been unthinkable. Whatever the new faces bring with them, at least it will be different.

How did the University of Florida come to the point where any semblance of offensive efficiency was gone? In offensive coordinator Kurt Roper’s defense I realize now why what he put on the field at Florida did not at all resemble what I saw Duke do against Texas A&M last year. Roper had nothing to work with here at Florida. To give credit where credit is due, they tried to open it up against FSU but they lacked any playmakers to run the offense. Treon Harris might well become a great quarterback at Florida but right now he is a true freshman that simply is not up to the task. He is inaccurate throwing the ball. I’ve seen so many point to this freshman or that freshman that plays and is successful at other schools. What I have noticed is that most come crashing back to earth at some point if they have to play for too long. Treon looked great at first. He had great moments all the way to the end, but he struggled more and more each game. I imagine some of that comes with the beating a quarterback takes playing in the SEC.

Treon does many things very well considering his lack of experience but to this point his accuracy is an issue. He is not horribly off target but just enough. A lot of teams could make that work because their receivers make those more difficult catches on passes that are just a little behind them or a little low or that require them to adjust to the ball while it is in the air. Florida’s receivers just do not seem to make those catches. There was a chance to keep the hope alive on fourth down on the Gators’ final drive. The ball was thrown behind Demarcus Robinson who is probably the best receiver on the roster at this point. It was not caught. That was a catch that must be made. It should have been a better throw but it also should have been caught. Far too many times this season Gator players could have made plays to win games and just plain failed. This was another of those moments. That must change in the future for Florida to become a contender again.

There are so many questions that must be answered between now and the end of spring. Obviously, the most important question is who will be the next coach. It’s absolutely going to be Bob Stoops. Or it is definitely Hugh Freeze. But then I have also seen that it will almost certainly be Jim McElwain. Whoever it is I will do my best to trust Jeremy Foley’s decision. At least until my first rant about why this was the wrong guy. Just kidding, I hope. The next big question is whether the new hire can salvage this recruiting class. Byron Cowart and CeCe Jefferson are huge targets for Florida. Playmakers like that on the defensive line would give the new DC a lot of talent and depth to work with. I enjoy watching a dominant Gator defense.

Then a decision will have to be made at quarterback. Treon has done some good things and one would think that he will improve from his first season to his second. That said, Will Grier is supposed to be a spectacular quarterback prospect as well. When the change was made this season, I expected Treon to stake his claim to the starting position but I don’t really think that happened. There will and should be a wide open quarterback competition in the spring and that should be good for both players. And then, of course, there is still Jeff Driskel. I guess there is always the possibility that the new staff figures out how to turn on the light. I don’t see it as likely but it is probably possible.

There is still a bowl game for this team this season, I will watch it but I think I speak for most of the Gator Nation when I say that the bowl will be a side story to the coaching hire. Most Gator fans just want to put this era of Gator football behind them and move forward to what all hope and expect to be better times. Foley has to make a monumental decision and negotiation for that future to be positive. I hope he is up to the task.