PD’s Postulations: Thoughts on the Vanderbilt Game

Gator Nation rolled into Nashville looking for something. Not everyone was looking for the exact same thing, mind you. Some were looking for consistency, some for improvement, some for a blowout. Some were looking for the passing game to take off, some for the running game to sustain. Some were just looking for something, anything, that was good.

Well, pretty much everyone looking for something positive Saturday night got what they were looking for, got something to sing about to one degree or another in Nashville – the city built and bred for inspiring song. But despite all the different personal targets and goals, collectively Gator Nation was treated to the same thing, the one thing that is most unifying across all the many wish lists for the Vandy game:

Welcome Back!

Yes, welcome back to normal. That sign should have been hung over the tunnel exiting the visitor’s locker room Saturday night, because when the game was over, it was clear that is exactly what returned to the Gator football program: normalcy.

“Welcome back. To that same old place that you laughed about.”

Yes, laughed, celebrated, talked about with a bounce in your step. Gator football. Remember it? More than anything else, the element of normalcy that returned to me was relaxation. For the first time in many weeks I was able to just relax and enjoy the game. At no time during the Vandy contest did I feel that anything was amiss. That anything was going to lead to a loss or even a narrow win. I was able to breathe easy throughout the entire game. Even after Vanderbilt drove the field in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead, the highest I registered on the stress scale was, “Rats, there goes the shutout.” And if anyone out there in Gator nation had any flare-ups of angst from that drive, they were immediately doused when Florida answered with a quick 4-minute jog down the field to tie the score. On the next drive, Matt Jones carried Vanderbilt defenders 13 yards and Treon Harris put the fear of God into the defense and the joy of the deep pass into the hearts of Gator fans with a 48-yard hookup with Ahmad Fullwood. Although they were stoned at the one yard line on fourth down, a Vandy fumble and a few more runs later, the Gators had enforced their will on the line of scrimmage and put Florida up 14-7. And the rest of the game was your historically typical Florida-Vandy game: a moderate halftime lead methodically stretched out into a blowout win in the second half.

“Well the names have all changed since you hung around. But those dreams have remained and they’re turned around.”

Yes, the names on both sides of the ball had all changed, but this was the same Vanderbilt game Florida fans have enjoyed almost every year since the mid-eighties. Some years the Commodores gave Florida a real battle, and some years the Gators simply buried them, but most of the games went exactly like this one. And it was a comforting sense of calm that told us all that normalcy had returned to the Florida football Gators, and that the aberration of last year’s Vandy game will likely not be back in our lifetime. And those dreams of normalcy have remained because the program has indeed turned around.

“Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome Back!”

The Turnaround (Bright Eyes)

“Turnaround…Every now and then I get a little bit restless and I dream of something wild”

Something wild like blowing out an SEC opponent. And then again. Gator fans were rocking and rolling after blowing out Georgia last week, but it was a surprise. A shock, really. No, a Mick Jagger-Michael Jackson State of Shock, I believe I said. And it was. And nobody really knew what to make of it as far as how it applied to Florida’s future. Was it the new normal, same as the old normal? Or was it just a blip on the screen? Gator Nation was confused and disoriented and looking to the Vandy game for guidance. This game would tell us what to make of the Georgia game. On Saturday night in Nashville, the mystery would be revealed. Were we forever back to normal or were we just kidding ourselves?

“I don’t know what to do and I’m always in the dark; We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks. I really need you tonight. Forever’s gonna start tonight.

Forever’s gonna start tonight.”

This to some was just a standard lopsided win against an opponent who has been readily handing out lopsided wins all year. Just stand in line and claim yours and move along. But it was far more than that to Florida. I don’t mean in the team’s psyche but in the direction of the program and thus the coaching direction of Will Muschamp. Because at Florida, blowouts matter. They matter a heck of a lot.

Even had Tevin Westbrook held onto that easy touchdown pass and Florida would have beaten LSU, Florida fans would not have been happy for long. The Gators would have been 4-1 (5-1 in truth including the canceled Idaho game), 3-1 in the SEC and in the catbird seat for reaching Atlanta. And most Florida fans would not be happy; would not be comfortable. Because none of those SEC wins would have come as a blowout. Most folks I talk to offline agree with me that a win against LSU would have been followed by a win over Missouri. That dropped pass lost two games, as the shock and depression of the loss carried over into Homecoming. It happens a lot. Alabama almost lost to Arkansas because of their shock and disorientation over losing to Mississippi a week prior. But that potential win over Missouri certainly would not have been a blowout. And with a 6-1 record, 4-1 in the SEC and just the game against UGA remaining that would decide the East title, Florida fans would still have been largely unhappy.

Because when Florida is not blowing out opponents, fans always feel like they are on the precarious edge of losing everything. No matter how many close wins they string together, they are just one play away from a catastrophic loss and surely just a couple of games away from disbanding the football program altogether.

But beyond the comfort level of the fans, blowing out teams always indicates that the Florida program is on the right track. Always has, always will. No matter how unsatisfied a faction of Gator fans were with the offense in 2012, the fact is the Gators blew out a lot of opponents. It didn’t feel that way, did it? But they did. The Gators blew out four out of five opponents in the middle of Muschamp’s second season on the way to an 11-win campaign. The tore through the opposition by margins of 17, 38, 14 and 33, molded around the physically dominating but close 8-point win over LSU. And you know what? They did it last year, too. Before the injuries mounted and knocked the season out of the box, they were clubbing their opponents. They blew out four of their first five foes, even though they started out playing with no running back and a quarterback playing with a surgery-addled gut, and then ended the streak with a former third string holdover quarterback from the Meyer era who nobody ever thought would play a down for the Gators. Despite all that, they won games by 18, 14, 17 and 20. Both of the 14-point wins in those streaks mentioned above were never really that close, much like the 18-point win against the Bulldogs two weeks ago was really a 31-point win tweaked with a couple of meaningless cosmetic scores for UGA after Florida went into the prevent defense and started celebrating already.

That’s right, as difficult as it is to remember through the fog of a 7-game losing streak and all the strange and mind-numbing turns of this season, the Gators were on a freight train before the wheels came off last year. Not only did they go on a 15-2 streak of regular season domination (10-1 in the SEC), but they also blew out 10 of their 17 opponents, including 7 of their 11 SEC foes.  And they were doing it with a very predictable, often downright boring offense. It was an imposition-of-will offense (or an “imposition-of-Will” offense, if you will…or if you Will). Like the one they ran against Georgia. But the future state targets a much more creative, unpredictable, balanced and wide-open attack. And these last two games could very well be indicators that the Gators have their S-E-Sea legs beneath them once again and are on their way to having both: an explosive, exciting offense that can impose its will on the ground – or through any other means – when it wants and needs to.

And not just to the tune of narrow one-possession wins.

How Ya Like Me Now?

Of course I am talking about Coach Muschamp. Nothing has been discussed the last four weeks more than his job security, and how it should be measured. At this point, it seems clear that a win over South Carolina will secure his tenure. Beat the Old Ball Coach in Gainesville and only an event of cataclysmic proportions in Tallahassee could change the decision to keep Will Muschamp as the Gator head coach.

The reasons to keep him would be many-fold, and nothing new: significant improvement over 2013’s 4-win campaign; program clearly headed in the right direction (a 4-game win streak at the end of the year, including victories over the two top programs in the division over the last four years, certainly demonstrates the right direction); program being run the right way off the field (see: Treon Harris and Leon Orr incidents, team behaving as one big family; arrest tallies at record low – and almost zero if you exclude quiet barking).

The reasons to make a coaching change have, to my observations at least, revolved around only two positions. Positions that will not change, regardless of wins over South Carolina and even FSU. These are also not new: (1) Regardless of how this season concludes in the balance of wins and losses, they just don’t believe that Muschamp will become the elite coach the program needs and deserves; this is more visceral than evidence-based – though the same can be said of any belief that he WILL become an elite coach – and is a fair position; and (2) Things such as ugly losses to teams such as Vanderbilt and Georgia State last year and Missouri this year, a 4-win season last year, etc., are not merely failures to meet expectations or bad outcomes of hard work, but rather they are personal affronts to the fans; transgressions that require remorse, restitution and most of all retribution. The three R’s of emotional reactions. Yes we have all read or heard some Gator fans say that Muschamp should be forced to personally apologize to Gator Nation for certain losses. Seriously. This I believe is not a fair or remotely feasible position to take because it has nothing to do with the bottom line: securing the best possible future for the football program.

Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of fan disposition to the criteria by which Muschamp will be retained or let go, if Florida does beat the Gamecocks and Muschamp does remain the head coach of the Gators going forward, I can at least offer the following information that may or may not move you, but is nonetheless very much part and parcel to Jeremy Foley’s decision. Because he will look at body of work. And unlike the fans who are angrily set on firing Muschamp, he will not look at the body of work in a vacuum. He will consider the context of everything. And he is already on record as believing not only that Muschamp did not cause the landslide of injuries last year, but he also could do little to mitigate them after they became too great to overcome. If you don’t agree with this, please don’t post a bunch of angry vitriol against me for writing it: Foley said it after last year’s season concluded. He used his own words, but that is why he did not even hesitate to announce that Muschamp was coming back to be the coach in 2014.

With all that having been said, consider this. You may think a cigar should always light the same and taste the same, even if it has been sitting at the bottom of the ocean for a week, but most people think that the time submerged in the brine will significantly affect the cigar’s integrity and it should not reflect poorly on the cigar manufacturer or the tobacco farmers. With that in mind, if you take the uncontrollable injury-caused 7-game slide out of the equation, Muschamp has coached the Gators to a 21-5 record (14-4 SEC, 5-2 against top-6 teams) after his opening transition/clean-up season. I am including the Idaho game, since that was an obvious win.

Once more, under the only remotely normal circumstances with which he has had to work, Muschamp’s Florida head coaching record is this:

  • 21-5 overall record
  • 14-4 record against SEC opponents
  • 5-2 record against top-6 teams (same season as ranking)

Again, this requires that you concede that there was nothing Muschamp could do to overcome the injury deluge that destroyed the second half of the 2013 season. But honestly, I don’t see that as much of a stretch.

If Muschamp is retained, just so long as there are no seasons when the program loses 26 starters and 7 key backups to injury, this is the coach we are getting. A coach with an 81% winning percentage, a 78% winning percentage against SEC foes and a 71% winning percentage against top 6 teams. A coach who has one inexplicably horrid game a year, just like Spurrier and Meyer used to have. But to see this, you have to be able to remove the visceral pain and anger over the 7-game losing streak. A losing streak against which no coach could have stemmed the tide because of the injuries. And if you cannot look past that connection, that direct causal relationship, it is really no matter because Jeremy Foley can and has. And if Florida beats South Carolina, it is almost assured that the Florida coach going forward will be that coach who – when given any normal chance – has won about 80% of his games and about 80% of his SEC games.

Now, let’s continue to get back to normal. By talking about actual football.

Inside the Numbers

Here are a few statistical things that stood out to me in the Vandy game and add to the confidence that the team and program have in fact turned the corner. I mentioned before about the blowouts, and this dynamic is strengthened by the fact that this was the first time since that great 2012 season that the Gators have scored over 30 points against SEC opponents in consecutive games. But this is also the second-straight week that Florida has scored at least 24-straight points against an SEC foe. They did it two weeks ago via the run and did it Saturday night by air and land combined. This tells us that the explosive offense we have been waiting for may have finally arrived. Another telling element of these scoring streaks is that the 24-straight against Vandy and the 31-straight against Georgia were largely done without benefit of short fields set up by turnovers or special teams, and both streaks began after Florida fell behind 7-0.

Now there is nothing good about falling behind 7-0, but it is VERY significant that the Gators not only did not fall apart after immediately falling behind, but they were able to steamroll the opponent after having bad things happen early. And you know why this is important. One of the key signs of a team that has lost its faith in the staff and in itself, one of the key signs of a team that has learned how to lose and has taken on a loser’s mentality, is that it folds up its tent when it faces adversity or falls behind – especially when it happens early. Look no further than the Missouri game: the Tigers ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown. Following the heartbreaking end of the LSU game, that quick 7-0 deficit took the whole team out of the game mentally. They cratered. That was the part of the Missouri game that made me and the rest of the Muschamp supporters concede that he was through: because that collapse suggested to us that the team and the season was lost. However, with two more games to add perspective, it is clear now that the more likely scenario was that the team was still impacted by the end of the LSU game, and it took the bye week for the coaches to shake those cobwebs out of their heads. A common occurrence for even the most focused teams when they meet a shocking loss before a trap game.

So when Florida fell behind 7-0 the last two weeks, it would be typical of a flailing team to say, “Here we go again” and fold up the tents. But these Gators have built a fortress, not a tent. And they came out and rolled, rather than roll over. This should tell us a lot about the direction and future potential of the program with this staff.

Another stat that stood out: Muschamp’s Gators are now 23-4 when they win the turnover battle. This dovetails perfectly with what I said about the team last week: no matter what the balance of talent, the team who tackles the best and makes the fewest mistakes almost always wins. Some fans think the Gators are close to being elite again, and some think they are many miles away. But the stats strongly suggest that we are just a small measure of ball security, tackling technique or other small areas of discipline away from being elite once again.

The last stat I will mention is the 16.5 yards per completion. Our only roadblock to elite team status has been our offense, and almost all the problems our offense has had can be distilled down to the fact that we have no room to operate because we cannot back defenses off the line of scrimmage due to our lack of a credible vertical passing threat. The 16.5 yards per completion is the best Florida has had since 2011 against lowly Furman. It is the kind of average that you usually only see in successful pass-happy teams or teams that throw three passes a game. If The Gator offense can continue to successfully work the ball downfield (and the average will drop, but success rate will increase as we develop the mid-range passing game with the true freshman quarterback), that will open up more space around the line of scrimmage, providing more running room, a larger and cleaner pocket and a lot more space in the shallow and mid-range passing zones in the middle of the field. And the single barrier between these Gators and elite team status will be removed.

What if It Works?

There is still a lot of road to put down, but just think for a second. What if it works? This coaching staff, I mean – what if it works? If Muschamp stays on and the new blood play makers bring UF to the next level and he restores Florida to the perch of East division dominance and even the top of the SEC mountain once again….imagine what a great story it would be. And all of the great elements that Muschamp brings to the program off the field will make this coach the envy of fans all across the nation. Fans who love their school but perhaps are sick of seeing their programs dirtied by cheating, by poorly handled legal matters, by frequent arrests, by win-at-all-cost head coaches, by national scandals. You listening FSU fans?

And consider the sweet layer of eternal satisfaction that will underlie this resurgence: it will all have happened because of the Georgia Bulldogs. Our coach’s career at UF was on life support after the Missouri game and all the Dawgs had to do was pull the plug. But the comatose patient rose from the gurney, pulled out its I.V. and strode from the room. In the hallway, Florida sped by the candy stripers, ripped off the inpatient gown and was already in its special SEC Championship Game combat jerseys.

Oh, and by the way as they passed the slack-jawed Bulldogs with their Mark Richt Halloween mask, the stepped on their shoes, broke wind in their faces and shoved them onto the crash cart, where they remain to this day, face smashed into the gauze pads, wondering how they had missed their chance to put this program away when it was right there in their hands to so easily do it.

All of this will be even more satisfying if it is occurring to the Dawg fans as they sit at home and watch Florida take the field in a few weeks in December, just a few miles west of their campus in Atlanta’s Florida Dome, to play for the SEC title. As they watch pregame warm-ups, the ticker scroll at the bottom of the screen announces yet another elite high school recruit has jumped on the Florida recruiting avalanche, riding the wave of momentum into the future of Gator dominance.

But even for me, that is getting WAY ahead of ourselves. Odds of making the SEC title game are remote. First things first: beat South Carolina. May the rest of the pieces fall where they may.

It’s nice to be able to realistically talk about these things happening this year or next. It’s nice to have the confidence and calm restored to our football universe. It’s nice to be back in these conversations again. It’s only been gone for two years, but it was a very long two years.

It’s nice to be normal again.

David Parker
One of the original columnists when Gator Country first premiered, David “PD” Parker has been following and writing about the Gators since the eighties. From his years of regular contributions as a member of Gator Country to his weekly columns as a partner of the popular defunct niche website Gator Gurus, PD has become known in Gator Nation for his analysis, insight and humor on all things Gator.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Once again, I see you are completely delusional. You can’t remove last year’s debacle. It wasn’t injuries, UF was just a bad team. You say UF “blew out” teams before the losing streak. The fact is that UF lost to the only good team they played, Miami, and that was with Driskel and Easley. The victories came against bad teams. UF has improved this year. Unlike last year, UF has a victory against a good team, Georgia. But I don’t think a victory over South Carolina should ensure Muschamp’s retention. You can’t throw out the 2013 season, it happened and it was not due to injuries. We now know that Driskel’s injury was meaningless, he is an awful quarterback. The only reason Florida is now a good team is because he’s on the bench where he has always belonged. It’s on Muschamp that a bad quarterback like Driskel was allowed to start for as long as he did. Muschamp’s record against ranked teams is 5-13. Unless UF upsets FSU, that record will be 5-14. The fact is that Muschamp has a 26% success rate against ranked teams. He has a winning record built on winning games against bad teams like Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and the paid scrubs like the one scheduled before the FSU game this year. You are great at the “if” game, something I don’t adhere to, what is Muschamp’s record “if” you take away the games against the bad teams listed above? Muschamp, and the rest of this staff, should be fired if UF loses to FSU. You say to look at the overall record? The average record under Muschamp would be, approximately, 7-5 with zero trips to Atlanta and the only championship being a Gator Bowl victory. That’s mediocre in any book, and you think mediocrity should be rewarded because of “ifs?”

    • SnowPrint must be an angry irrational child who loves his gators so much that he wants heads on platters if they lose no matter the reason.

      I guess his stance is Muschamp and staff should be fired if they lose to FSU, and or South Carolina, this year. Probably has been saying from game one of this season, that if we lose to this next team they all should be fired! Wow, FSU is in the top 5 and has won 24 straight games (using your last years weighted scale for stats) and we have to beat them to save Muschamp’s job? Why? Because we lost to Missouri this year and he owes you that much? No? Because we should have won against LSU or maybe even Alabama this year? No? Because we didn’t win by large enough margins earlier in the season against UK and UT? No, Because we haven’t been declared SEC east or overall SEC champion yet? No? Because we lost 7 games last year? No? Because you just want a change? Because you think its just time for a change? No? What then?

      Got news for you, buddy, last year’s FSU game doesn’t have squat to do with this years FSU game! Last years record doesn’t have squat to do with this year’s record either! Wait, I guess it does for argument sake if you want to dilute this years stats by including last years. Ah, a means to a rational based judgment applied irrationally to prove a position! Stats in support of stats! Funny thing, it works both ways. We can say we have improved over last year substantially using the same thinking! We can say Muschamp is a better coach this year too! We are on equal footing in the useless stats department! Most talking heads said that improvement would be enough to save Muschamp’s job, even though nobody ever said it was in jeopardy last year! This year it may appeared to have been the case after losing so badly to Missouri. Maybe it really was in jeopardy but after Georgia that’s no longer the case. Seriously, losing to LSU and Alabama is something a lot of ranked teams will have done by the end of the year! UGA has won and will beat some more good teams before all is said and done. Are we at the bottom of the conference? Nope! Are we at the very top? Nope! Are we competing to be in the top? I think so! Would that be considered the right place to positionally be in this season, if not at the very top? I think so! So, what’s the beef? We’re in good company then! No? So what makes us so special or rather unspecial in your eyes? Oh, I get it, we’re not elite yet! That’s what this is all about, you feel entitled to have your team be an elite team year-in and year-out! And that hasn’t happened quick enough for you has it? This is an entitlement issue for you! I get it now! How old are you anyway? I would think you’ve outgrown childish thinking by now! Maybe not!

      According to your previous postings 2011 was a new season and a new aberration of a record for a new coach. 2012 regardless of the fine record was an aberration of good, that was really masking bad. 2013 was an aberration of bad, just not due to injuries which would hurt your argument! 2014 is another aberration of bad, you just haven’t really put a finger on what is so bad yet, other than Missouri game, and I guess losing to USC and FSU as possibilities! Funny thing is… 2014 is not over, so why draw the early assumptions and make declarations like it is? I see only one bad loss to a team we were not favored to beat! As a matter of fact we haven’t lost to a dog this year. As a matter of fact as a dog we beat the DOGS! Outside of that huge win, we have won our expected games by expected margins with UK the exception. Turns out they’ve been exceptionally better than last years UK team. UF is not bad for a team rebuilding from the loss of a previous coaching staff, not bad for a team who has had three OC’s in 4 years, not bad for a team that had 22 starters lost during a season, not bad for a team that has had a huge turnover of player transfers and boots leaving the team as the staff cleans up the program and puts in place leaders and good character types. Not bad for a team coming together and playing as one for their coaches and each other! Not bad for a team setting new good records and erasing old ones this season, after posting some less than stellar unmentionable records in the past season. Not bad for a team that if they do win out might land one of the best recruiting classes in 5 years! Not bad if this is the season Muschamp get over the hump and puts us at the very top for a long time! Rome wasn’t built in a day, it has been burned down in a day however. Regardless, we ain’t Rome, we are the Florida Gators! We are coming back, baby! Be patient Snowprint! Mediocrity is only a small step away from Excellence in the SEC!

      Snowprint tries and fails horribly describing and using a definition of football mediocrity in the SEC. See Below.
      Snowprint:
      “…zero trips to Atlanta and the only championship being a Gator Bowl victory.” (post-season Bowl victory).
      “That’s mediocre in any book, and you think mediocrity should be rewarded because of “ifs?”

      Basically, for Snowprint mediocrity applies to 85% of the SEC conference at years end by his own definition. Thank GOD his definition is as baseless as his opinion and commentary! Finally he recognizes that Florida is actually a good team, something we all can agree with, however, what’s absurd is that his reasoning bases that judgement solely on “if” Jeff is QB or not! I find his use of “ifs” humorous! He also states, “UF has improved this year.” and “Muschamp has a winning record…”, but implies the opposite by saying ( yeah but….).

      So let’s see if we can cut through his ramblings and boil his comment down to what it really means.
      Snowprint is obviously angry for UF losing games last year due to injuries and hasn’t gotten over it! No… my bad, its wasn’t due to injuries, it was just because as a Team we sucked with Jeff at QB! No wait…Jeff wasn’t QB for most of the bad last season of 2013. So based on his statements and reasoning, Jeff was not playing QB… therefore we were a good team. No wait, that rationale doesn’t apply to last year’s team, just to this year’s team! Wait, but last year’s team was actually a good team by his reasoning. You can’t say on one hand we are a bad team with Jeff at QB and then on the other hand say we are bad team with Jeff not at QB. All the while saying the only reason we are bad is because of Jeff ‘s QB play!! We are just bad team period with that logic, Jeff has no impact! But you said we are a good team without Jeff at QB, its a contradiction! That’s just irrational! You also can’t say the team is improving, that the UGA win was huge for the season, and then say Muschamp shouldn’t be rewarded for that improvement and that win! Does not good results warrant positive recognition? I think I get it, you expect more good result, no you demand more good results! You come across as a very angry irrational demanding person! Just saying! I think next year you may be happier, we probably will be better next year! At some point your entitlement will be matched by UF’s success and all will be right in your world! And that’s what is most important for everyone here to understand. Its all about keeping Snowprint happy! Isn’t it little buddy?

  2. PD you bring up some great points…The last few years, while somewhat painful, have left a lot of us feeling hopeless and like the program has been ruined. Celebrating many new lows. But, there appears to be a shift happening. Will it be enough to derail the negative momentum that has been built around Muschamp? I guess we’ll soon see. If we could beat Florida State and get in a decent bowl-hey I’m all for retaining him. Unfortunately, I’m not sure they’ll be asking me. If adversity can bring on humility and change and resurrect this program-bring it on. Another component no one talks about are the players. How much have they contributed to our downfall? How much of that is them? How much is it development of the players, or lack thereof from the coaches? Here’s to the shift continuing…Go Gators.

    • PD, Malscott, I agree with your commentary. I have put some of the blame on the players and some on the coaches, sometimes these things just take time to overcome. I think that is the case for our team. Not every team and coaching staff, especially when the new HBC is a first timer can transition smoothly and get the program where he envisioned it as quickly as the fan base and by their own admission the coaches would like! Players, all of them have to buy in! Coaches have to coach too! There are a lot of of variables to deal with, I think finally this team is finding itself, the players are meshed, the coaches are meshed and they have also meshed with the players. Everyone has bought in , and is full invested in the putting the best product on the field! The fans have finally meshed too I think, we have the easy part. All we have to do is show up and watch and cheer! It’s even made easier now that the team looks to have turned a corner, we can be proud about who we are cheering for! They look the part of a real team, a contender, and that’s all any fan can want and expect from their team!

  3. DPGATOR If you can accept another year of being a team that does not go to Atalanta for the fifth year in a row, Muschamp is your man. This year is the East division is very weak. The season isn’t over, but if UF can’t win the division this year, it doesn’t look promising for the future. As for recruiting, who cares? What good has top ranked classes done for UF these past five years? You are what your record says you are, and if UF loses to FSU, it will mean, at best, 7-4 record. That’s what you can expect from Muschamp. I expect better and so should you. I reiterate that Muschamp should be fired if UF loses to FSU. Four years is long enough to expect an improved team, UF is no better now than when Muschamp took the job, and that’s undeniable. Meanwhile our biggest rival, FSU, is smoking UF on the field and in recruiting. I’m sure Jimbo Fisher would highly endorse keeping Will Muschamp, it has given him the opening to dominate the state.

    • I’ll give you this Snowprint: you are consistent. Wish you’d branch out, though. The “delusional” insult is not very fresh anymore. Experiment. Explore the space. You can come up with something new, something more colorful. I know, I know, I am delusional for having that faith in you. But I do.