Spivey Senses breaks down the Florida Gators huge win

Excitement, shocked, what the heck just happened, are you kidding me and wow. Those are all the feelings and words that can describe the Florida Gators win over Tennessee on Saturday night.

The environment in the Swamp on Saturday was crazy and electric and just the perfect storm that Jim McElwain could ask for when he planned such a big recruiting weekend.

I think my friend Nick de la Torre said it best, the game went from being a recruiting nightmare to absolutely great for recruiting in the span of five minutes and after the last few years of Florida Gators football what else would you expect?

The offense didn’t execute well for three and a half quarters but in the fourth quarter, when it mattered most, they played well and that all started with quarterback Will Grier who was 5-5 for 123 yards passing and two touchdowns in that final quarter against the Volunteers.

I would love to sit here and tell you that Grier played a great game, but he didn’t and he has a lot of things to clean up, but I’m not near as critical of his play as some others are.

First and foremost he’s a redshirt freshman who’s still learning and he’s going to make freshman mistakes. You saw some of that on Saturday when he took unnecessary sacks instead of throwing the ball in the stands.

The thing I did like about Grier on Saturday was the way he got more comfortable in the pocket and for the most part did a good job of keeping his eyes down field, which is a big plus for me with Grier.

The second and biggest plus with Grier is that he simply gets how to run a two-minute drill, as he’s now converted three two-minute drill drives so far through four games. That  says a lot about Grier’s understanding of the game in general.

Now here are a few things that Grier must work on if the Florida Gators are going to continue to get better. He must gain better control of his offense, because the tempo of the offense was down right slow at times and that’s all on the quarterback.

The last thing that I want to see from Grier is that he remembers his mechanics in the game, there were several times where Grier was throwing off of his back foot while still going through his drops and that led to bad throws. That’s a problem that should get better with more experience, but something that needs to get fixed ASAP.

One quick note that I want to make on the passing game is that the receivers have to do their job if this offense is going to work and that almost cost the Florida Gators a football on Saturday. Two particular plays stand out to me during the game that I have to single out.

One of those was the interception where Demarcus Robinson was held but after being held he simply gave up on his route and cost the Florida Gators a chance to score. The second is on a wheel route in the first half where Deandre Goolsby quit on his route and caused for Grier’s pass to fall incomplete 20 yards past Goolsby.

One receiver that played great ball was Antonio Callaway.  Wow, that young man played some great ball on Saturday night and he will go down in the history books for that play last night.

Now that big play doesn’t happen if receiver Brandon Powell doesn’t make good blocks after a heads up football move, and that’s a play that should be celebrated along with Callaway. So to that I give you a game ball, Powell.

Next I want to talk about the offensive line that, for a majority of the game, actually created a pretty good pocket for Grier to throw in and also created a few holes for Kelvin Taylor to run in during the game.  It’s still a major work in progress and once again the right side of the line was very bad including the right guard position that I counted giving up two sacks on his own.

The play of the line is something we can dissect all day long and talk about how they missed blocks and what not, but the one thing you can say is that they are improving as a unit and I believe that Jim McElwain and offensive line coach Mike Summers are encouraged by some of the individual performances so far.

Before I head to the defensive side of the ball I have to hit on the play calling from Saturday and say that I was somewhat disappointed by the predictably of the play calling from offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier.

Tennessee, for some reason that I’ll never understand, was giving Florida the short crossing routes and short curl routes all day long but Nuss went away from that for a majority of the game. If you’re Nuss you should’ve been licking your chops because what more could you ask for, short passes that don’t make your line block for long.

Also for the majority of the second half the play calling looked like this…. pass on first down, draw or run on second down and pass on third down. Now if I can see that then how obvious was it for Tennessee who started bringing run blitzes on second down.

Enough about the offense, let’s go to the defense who has to get some tackling drills in this week in a bad way or things may not go there way next time because missed tackling almost cost them a win over Tennessee.

Tennessee could not and was not willing to let Josh Dobbs throw the ball, so they resorted to Jalen Hurd and Dobbs running. Florida was in position to hold Tennessee to short yards several times but the Gators missed tackles that led to big plays.

Simply put, this defense is a veteran group that should not be missing tackles like that especially when they are in the open field where they have a chance to end the play.

If missed tackles weren’t the biggest problem then bad discipline was and that showed itself on Tennessee’s two trick plays. The first one on the double pass back to Dobbs. Alex McCalister was responsible for the backside there and he simply lost containment, which allowed Dobbs to catch the ball and get to the sideline.

The fourth down jump pass was a blown coverage by someone who didn’t cover up the tight end and, while it looked like Vernon Hargreaves should’ve had the coverage, I can’t say with certainty that it was his responsibility.

Once again this is inexcusable for a veteran defense like the Florida Gators, but the good thing is that you can correct those mistakes.

Overall though this was a good defensive effort by a lot of guys including defensive end Jonathan Bullard and safety Marcus Maye, both of who are playing their best football to date. Bullard looks to have an extra burst this year and he has become a tough guy to block on the defensive line.

I also have to include redshirt freshman kicker Jorge Powell, who didn’t even think he was going to play on Saturday. Powell had a pretty solid debut for the Florida Gators. Powell hit four PAT’s and handled the kickoffs well and, oh yeah, he recorded his first career tackle, one that saved a touchdown.

Oh, how could forget this stat, the Gators committed just four penalties for a small 25 yards and there were no dumb unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

To end this thing, I have to say that this is a huge win for McElwain and his staff and a huge confidence booster for this team that simply hasn’t seen a lot of good luck over the course of the last two years.