MILLER REPORT: And you thought last week was ugly

That was ugly. It was real ugly. I know that Alabama is the #2 team in the country but Florida was not even close to being competitive in that game. Don’t let the 42-21 score fool you. It was much worse than that. Alabama outgained Florida 645 to 200 in yardage. Alabama generously kept the Gators in the game for a little over two quarters, but anyone paying attention knew much earlier that Florida was not going to win that game. All it took was a quick look at the time of possession at halftime to know that the Gator defense was going to be gassed in the second half and Alabama would just run the ball down their throat. That is exactly what happened.

But it wasn’t the Tide running game that did Florida in. For the second straight week, the Florida secondary was shredded. Alabama threw for an alarming 449 yards against Florida. On the rare occasions that Gator defensive backs were where they should be they failed to make the play.  That really is not all that surprising. The Gator secondary is extremely young and inexperienced. Here is the scary part. That probably will not improve much this season. Usually, young inexperienced defensive backs do not make quantum leaps forward during the season. It is usually not until the offseason when they get time to lick their wounds and dissect film of their mistakes. This does not bode well with games against some pretty good offenses still on the schedule. It is safe to say that head coach Will Muschamp will likely not have the luxury of a dominant defense like he did in 2012. This means that the Gators are going to have to put up some pretty good offensive numbers of their own to win games.

This means that Muschamp finds himself at probably the biggest crossroad of his coaching career. Living up here in Georgia I watched Jim Donnan ride Quincy Carter right out of Athens. Donnan’s loyalty to Carter cost him his job and he was never able to rebound. Muschamp must decide if he is going to ride Jeff Driskel right out of a job or if he is going to take the enormous risk of turning to a true freshman quarterback. I like Jeff Driskel. I think he is a tough gritty Gator with a ton of heart and dedication to the Florida program. I think he has had little help during his career at Florida with bad offenses and bad offensive lines. But, it is getting harder and harder to believe that the light is going to suddenly come on for Jeff. Muschamp and offensive coordinator Kurt Roper must decide if Treon Harris’ upside could possibly outweigh his probable freshman mistakes. Harris appears to have that “it” factor that so many talk about when discussing quarterbacks. So does Will Grier. Your quarterback must be able to look at everyone else in the huddle and exude confidence that he IS going to lead them to a score. With all due respect to Jeff Driskel, he appears to me to approach every play hoping that something horrible does not happen.

This is a critical time for the Florida Gator program. They are being passed by several other SEC programs on the recruiting trail. Several blue chip recruits seem to be poised to choose the Gators but are waiting for evidence that the coaching staff will remain in place. Everyone who follows college football knew that Muschamp was on a least a warm seat coming into the season. That seat didn’t get any cooler Saturday. Florida really needs Muschamp and his staff to turn this thing around and solidify their hold on their jobs if the Gators want to keep pace in the arms race that is SEC recruiting. To do that, the staff needs to win at least five if not six of their remaining eight games. That is a tall order with the likes of LSU, UGA, Missouri, South Carolina and FSU on the schedule.It doesn’t help that an already thin offensive line is getting banged up more and more every game. If those injuries prove to be at all serious, Muschamp’s fate might already be decided. It will be very difficult to give the “injury pass” back to back seasons.

The coaching staff has an off week to work with before going to Tennessee. Perhaps the prudent move would be to give Treon some extensive work to expand his range in the playbook. Then start Driskel in Tennessee with the stated intent to give Treon a couple of series a half no matter what. This would provide the opportunity to see what Treon can do against a starting defense without completely throwing your current starter under the bus. Regardless of how it is done, I believe it is imperative to know whether or not you have a viable second option if Driskel is ineffective down the road. As much as I hate calling out a single player, I just do not see how the Gators can proceed without at least acknowledging the possibility that a change will have to be made at some point. If not, the change that ends up being made may be much higher up the ladder than starting quarterback.

I said last week that this game would give the Gator Nation a good idea of just where the program really is at this point. I’m afraid that it did exactly that.

Mark Miller
Mark Miller's bravery knows no limits. He's a Gator living deep in the heart of Georgia. Mark's weekly columns appear in the Coosa Valley News in Rome, Georgia, where Gators are few and Bulldogs are many. His updates about football and life among the heathens will appear in Gator Country on a weekly basis.

6 COMMENTS

  1. thank you , very good article, except lets not go after the O line again they actually did decent job at blocking and pass protecting , please D has been here 3 years , anyone who has eyes can see , no need to say anything else , he does not have it, WM has a responsibility to the UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA and he has to play the better QB , if he truly believes is D , the grand majority of GATOR NATION would be in the other side of that fence , just like they were on the other side of JF when he insisted in keeping WM ——–two hard headed moves that are killing UF=======of course H has to play NOBODY can playa as bad as D=========let me say this was not ROPER the great hope, which is it ROPER NO GOOD OR DRISKELL NO GOOD ——I think all of us know the response to that.

  2. What is amazing is that you normally lose a game where you have four turnovers. Instead, Alabama wins easily. It’s an indication that Florida is a bad team, there’s no other way to interpret what’s been seen on the field this season, except in the glorified scrimmage against Eastern Michigan.

  3. Our program is a bottom tier SEC team because of a stubborn coach and an upperclassman QB that should be a backup QB.. Muschamp is NOT the answer – our team has very little talent starting and NO depth..he is in over his head and it’s been proven in his time here.. This defense was bad last year, so I don’t why people are surprised the defense is bad again– and that’s Muschamp’s specialty !! Jeremy, the Muschamp era is OVER… Please accept reality and move forward, before the program is set back another 5 yrs

  4. Let me continue to beat this dead horse. Foley put us in this position again by hiring this untested supposedly defensive guru. You may want to note two things about the 2012 team defense. One, they were mostly Meyer recruits and two, the guru was Quinn and not WM. Since then, that defense went on to the NFL along with the guru. Now we’re left the WM, whose only claim to fame was being a DC at LSU when the micro manager Saban was head coach. Notice again, that Saban refused to promote WM while at Miami so WM goes to Texas where Mack Brown let’s his coordinators do their own thing. Every year WM was in Texas they had a top 5 recruiting class and yet Texas went into the toilet with WM as DC, where he would now be HC except “for the grace of Fooley.” How many of you would be willing to trade WM for Charlie Strong who could have been our head coach. Alas, what could have been.

    This clown WM has done nothing at Florida. His recruiting classes have been so-so, his decision making terrible and the results catastrophic. He needs to be fired along with Fooley for one: hiring him and two, for bringing him back last year. Nobody cares whether Fooley has hired good volley ball coaches, and softball coaches, etc. Football is the bread and butter and his two hires — he gets no credit for Meyer since it was the Prez’s man — has been Zook and Muschamp. Case closed.

    • Well first, I’m not sold on Charlie Strong. I thought he won most of the games he should have won and lost almost all of the games he should have lost at Louisville.. I’ll wait to see if he can turn Texas around before I decide whether he is a good head coach or not. I know he was a great DC.

      People calling out Jeremy Foley are just foolish. He is the best athletic director in
      college sports. Bar none. And Muschamp’s recruiting classes have all been top ten classes. I’m not convinced he is a head coach either but some of these rants get just plain silly.

  5. OXKING you are EXACTLY CORRECT with ALL of your comments..Thank you – In addition, when Quinn was DC , we didn’t allow Driskel to throw the ball much and expose him for what he is..In the Georgia game, when he needed to make plays and not turn it over, he had 5 turnovers by himself I believe..The players quit last year as we LOST at home to Vandy and Ga. Southern–he should have been GONE immediately..