On Friday, I moved from my home in Hyde Park to a new home on Harbour Island here in beautiful Tampa, Fla. It was exciting and exhausting, but ultimately, I got my dream – a place right on the water. All day Friday I moved, all morning Saturday I shopped, and was absolutely ready to take a break on Saturday afternoon to watch the Gators play. I was cautiously optimistic that Florida could contend with an Alabama team that did not seem quite as dominant in their previous games, coupled with a Florida team that had seen some improvement on offense.
Well, for a few hours on Saturday, we did get some excitement, but ultimately, the Gators got taken to the woodshed – much worse than the 42-21 score indicates.
As usual, we will look at some statistics (which are not good right now) and examine the current Gators football team – a very tough feat.
10 Thoughts on the Alabama Game
- The fact that Florida was down one touchdown with 1:44 left in the second quarter with three timeouts and all Florida did was run out the clock, showed you how much faith they have in Jeff Driskel. Will Muschamp’s decision to stick with Jeff Driskel through anything, could be his demise. Yes, he has a great record as a starter, but ultimately, he has not proven to be able to elevate Florida.
- This is the worst pass defense I have seen at Florida since 2007. Outside of Vernon Hargreaves, the Gators struggle mightily not only in actual pass defense, but in reading and adjusting to offenses. Antonio Morrison should have never been on the outside covering Kenyan Drake, but since he was, Jabari Gorman should have immediately picked up and provided the deep pass help, but of course, they were slow to react and got burned for 87 yards. The Florida Gators are ranked 108th in pass defense, with the number one cornerback in the country, that should never happen. Keanu Neal can lay the wood, but he needs to really worry about wrapping up more. Jabari Gorman struggles with the speed of the game and picking up coverage. Brian Poole hasn’t quite stepped up the way a junior should that is as talented as he can be, and of course, you cannot rely on the freshman to ease the pain just yet. This falls solely, in my opinion, on coaching both with Will Muschamp and Travaris Robinson. Sure, they have a number of interceptions on the year and passes defended, but they have also given up four plays of greater than 60 yards, just three games into the season.
- Speaking of Antonio Morrison, he is a huge liability in the middle of the field and particularly in pass coverage. While he can be a great pass rusher at times, he is missing the fundamentals – wrap-up tackling, reading offenses, and taking good angles. The guy that was hailed as the next great middle linebacker after the 2012 Florida State game, has so far been a major liability.
- It is great to see Kyle Christy return to form. He leads the NCAA with a 50.38 yard average, nearly a yard more than second place punter Hayden Hunt from Colorado State. Christy has drastically improved over last seasons 39.62 yard per punt average. If Christy keeps this up, he should win the Ray Guy Award. Christy’s ability to flip the field helped the Gators only allow 42 points against Alabama.
- The horse has been beaten enough, but Treon Harris needs to get some meaningful playing time. If you are the captain of a boat and it starts sinking, you figure out a way to try to dispose of the water, rather than just twiddling your thumbs as the boat fills with water. The tribe (fans, beat writers, national media, etc.) has begun to chant loudly that they want Harris, if Muschamp does not deliver something; he is as good as gone.
- The Gators partially lost on Saturday because they could not control the clock. Entering the game, the Gators had a national high of about 42:00 per game of ball control. After the game, that number had dropped down 30:02 because they only held the ball for 20:44, with the worst of it coming in the third quarter where they only ran six plays.
- Kurt Roper called a good game, the Gators just could not deliver. Between bad reads, dropped balls, and overthrown passes the Gators could not do anything fundamentally right. Sure, you can say that Kelvin Taylor deserved more than four carries in the game, but all in all, Roper called a great game. Maybe Brent Pease called some good games, too?
- If Florida wants to get better, they need to work on third down conversions, both converting them and stopping them. The Gators are ranked 104th in the country in third down conversion, with an abysmal 17-for-50 (34%) conversion record, with a conversion percentage of only 7-for-30 (23.33%) against SEC teams.
- The fundamentals are horrible. The Gators had 30, yes 30, missed tackles. Michael Taylor, Brian Poole and Jabari Gorman each had at least four missed tackles. Marcus Maye was the only starter on defense that did not have a missed tackle. For a defensive minded coach that is poor. Shame on Travaris Robinson. Shame on D.J. Durkin. Shame on Brad Lawing. Shame on Will Muschamp. How many players were going for the knockout hit and missed? How many tried to just drop a shoulder? Or just dove at their legs? You are not going to tackle Derrick Henry by not wrapping-up. I don’t always blame coaches, but I do blame coaches for bad tackling.
- Roderick Johnson will be an All-SEC tackle before graduating. He stepped in very nicely for Chaz Green on the right side. He only allowed one quarterback pressure on 34 pass blocking attempts. He moves his feet really well, has great pad level, and follows through on his blocks. Game ball on the offensive line.
Overall Thought
The Gators are a mediocre football team at best and there is no reason to hark on that. They lack talent at certain spots and they lack a quarterback, truthfully. But my biggest complaint as a fan of the game of football is not that the Gators lost to Alabama, but how they lost and how they should have lost to Kentucky. They play very un-fundamental football. If they want to improve, they need to improve on the fundamentals. Too many missed assignments, missed tackles, misreads, missed blocks, and missed plays are the demise of this football team. For a coaching staff that is full of “technicians”, I haven’t seen it and I have a feeling that its not only missing talent. For the past four years, Florida has been a mistake-ridden football team and it is frustrating to watch.
Gators in National Rankings
Matt Jones – Rushing Yards/Game – 54th
Jeff Driskel – Passing Yards/Game – 62nd
Demarcus Robinson – Receiving Yards/Game – 10th
Andre Debose – Punt Return Yards/Game – 6th
Andre Debose – Kick Return Yards/Game – 26th
Frankie Velez – Place Kicking Percentage – 27th
Frankie Velez – PAT Kicking Percentage – 1st
Kyle Christy – Punt Yard Average – 1st
Frankie Velez – Scoring Per Game – 17th
Jeff Driskel – Total Offense – 61st
Demarcus Robinson – All-Purpose Yards – 61st
Matt Jones – All-Purpose Yards – 65th
Demarcus Robins – Yards from Scrimmage – 39th
Matt Jones – Yards from Scrimmage – 89th
Demarcus Robinson – Long Scrimmage Plays (10+ Yards) – 45th
Neiron Ball – Sacks/Game – 68th
Alex McCalister – Sacks/Game – 68th
Keanu Neal – Interceptions/Game – 10th
Brian Poole – Interceptions/Game – 58th
Antonio Morrison – Interceptions/Game – 58th
Duke Dawson – Interceptions/Game – 58th
Vernon Hargreaves – Passes Defended – 9th
Keanu Neal – Passes Defended – 34th
Neiron Ball – Fumbles Forced/Game – 31st
Dante Fowler – Fumbles Forced/Game – 31st
Leon Orr – Fumbles Forced/Game – 31st
Keanu Neal – Fumbles Forced/Game – 31st
Caleb Brantley – Fumbles Forced/Game – 31st
Austin Hardin – Kickoff Average – 31st
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Song of the Week
A rising name in country music right now is Lee Brice. He has a great voice and it becomes very believable, especially in songs like “Drinking Class” his latest single. It is not a drinking song, but a song about the blue-collar workers of America. A good listen, in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4P6jBb3wCQo
daniel thompson for hbc at florida great read made me think about more than muschamp and driskel even though they both need to go, t-rob,durk and the rest need to come up also like you said, can’t add nothing to this imho you just wrote one of the best articles i’ve seen since the game
Everything here is spot on! We’ve seen so many coaches over the years lose their jobs because of bad QB play. They are affraid to make that gamble, but JD has four years under his belt and sorry kiddo, we didn’t execute well enough is not a good excuse, week after week. I hate to see a kids career end, but it happens everyday. Mack Brown is riding the pine over there, why? Because the two boys in front of him are better. Brown could start for 100 schools in DI. That’s the way it works, Driskel has graduated and can transfer out to smaller school like USF, where he could probably succeed much better, like Brisset and Murph, but if JD stays at the helm, this is another 4-8 team. EKU is 4-0 BTW, that is not a guaranteed win at this point.
Daniel: Very good. Please excuse the metaphoric diatribe…
One of the good things about friendship, really good friendships is hopefully your friends don’t sell out on you. Particularly when you really screw up. Anyone can blame someone else, anyone can say, “no, you were cool, bro.” But it takes someone who really cares to tell you the truth, and take a stand for change. And, risk being rejected because the news you are reporting, the truth you speak of, is very uncomfortable. It takes courage. “Bro, you acted like an idiot, or you need to do some work. Maybe you should do some therapy.” Whatever it is…So when people speak the truth in some of these threads ( some of it IS harsh) some of it is rude, but most of it is the truth because people are tired of mediocrity. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Some people, coaches and players alike just aren’t good enough to compete at this level of college athletics. Florida is a big program that has wallowed in a sub-standard place for a while now.
Foley has got to be squirming. And Driskel and Muschams must be waiting for the call. This doesn’t mean the coaches and kids are bad folks. They’re just not ready for prime time, not at this level. Some can be saved with excellent coaching. So your truthful expose’ tactfully illustrates all the inadequacies we are experiencing. It isn’t mean-spirited. It is simply the unfortunate truth. And the sooner the powers-to-be have the courage to make a change for the the better, the sooner Gator football will ascend to where it should be. Go Gators.