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Question: What do defensive backs and football coaches have in common?
Answer: They both have self-imposed amnesia.
The best way to get over a busted assignment or bad performance or a nightmare is to forget it and move on. Which is what Urban Meyer tried to do at his Monday press conference, much to no avail.
I don’t blame Meyer for not really wanting to revisit the Saturday Night Massacre at The Swamp, because it was a graveyard of
disappointment, discombobulation and despair. There are quite a few members of the Gator Nation and a few people in the media who would like to do the same thing.
And no wonder he came to the press conference with an up-tempo cadence, looking to quickly move forward to Senior Day and Appalachian State.
Unfortunately, Gator football is sometimes a blood sport among the fans and media, so standing before the firing squad can be like a monarch trying to survive anarchy by a thumbs-down vote to let the bull die.
After such a complete flop against South Carolina, the restless natives were at the gates demanding answers. They wanted answers. They want explanations. They wanted people thrown under the bus.
They didn’t get much in the way of answers to all those questions and/or demands which are out there bouncing around on message boards. Such as: What’s wrong with the offense, what’s the reason so many passes are being dropped, why can’t the offensive line block, why is this quarterback starting over that quarterback, how come there isn’t a change in who is calling plays – you know the drill.
So who would be the sacrificial lamb? Urban would have none of it on Monday. “I am not into blame or excuses. We’re into solutions,” he said, refusing to identify any culprits. And perhaps no major changes are forthcoming—in the coaching staff (including the head man) or even the starting quarterback anytime soon. But that’s not to say there won’t be some down the road.
If you listened closely to Meyer’s words, however, there was an admission of guilt about the inability of the coaching staff to fix the problems, identify the leakage of energy or even to stick to the game plan. In fact, he blamed himself for losing his composure late in the South Carolina game and said it was his fault. “I panicked,” he said.
* * *
I’m going to step aside from my reporting job here and admit that I’ve been hoping for more changes recently myself. I know some coaches – successful coaches especially – who are wed to a philosophy which sometimes makes them prisoners of their own will.
From the get-go this season, I didn’t feel like the timing or tempo was there on the passing game or that the offensive line was living up to its reputation as the strength of the team. There were reasons, even valid excuses, that the rhythm of the offense was slow to develop, but I kept thinking it would surface by mid-season. Instead it seemed to slip backwards after four games, return for a couple, and then regress to a low point against South Carolina.
Like everybody else, I am left scratching my head and have my own Monday Morning Quarterback theories, suppositions and misguided notions. But here is one:
There are two kinds of offensive linemen: Hard charging bulls who clear the path for runners and dancing bears who can do balancing acts and even dance backwards to fend off the on-rushing enemy attacking the passer. I just don’t see a lot of dancing bears in this offensive line. After four seasons of being road-graders for a 235-pound battering ram, they’ve never been trained to dance. They do what they do.
Coupled with missed blocking assignments by running backs and lackluster receivers who don’t get there when the are supposed to, or can’t hold the ball when they do, this is created a less-than-stable environment for any kind of passing game.
Add to that the lack of a strong running game and the predictability of what No. 12 is going to do when he comes into the game on third and eight – well, you get the picture.
That’s not to say that Johnny Brantley has played his best every time or hasn’t missed open receivers or has always made good throws (or catches). But based on the offense around him, plus the lack of weapons, I honestly can’t yet evaluate his real ability as a quarterback. But I have it on pretty good authority that a career awaits him in the NFL one day.
There are many other points to made, including the lack of cohesion of the team and meshing of the freshmen with the upperclassmen, plus the newness of four coaches – but for now, let’s leave the speculation at that. And that’s all it is: One man’s opinion.
Who do I blame? Why the head coach, of course. But he has already made that clear that he accepts that blame and on Monday he took on a little more of it.
Do I think there will be changes? Yes, some, but not wholesale shifting of staff – at least not at this point. Maybe tweaking in the off-season.
Should there be people and players thrown under the bus? Absolutely not.
Is Meyer still all in as coach? Yes.
* * *
One of Meyer’s strengths has always been adaptability, plus the ability to change his offense to fit the personnel, as well as a keen acumen for analyzing problems and making fixes. For some reason this season he has been stymied. I asked him about that. He admitted it has gone lacking this season and really isn’t sure why.
“When you said we’ve had the ability, ‘we’ have the ability, not ‘I’. We have had the ability to fix issues around here. That’s our job. We’ve not done a great job of that. We are pushing every button possible to get that fixed,” Meyer answered.
Getting him to hone in on one part of the offensive shortcomings is like herding cats, but he did mention a few. I asked him about the problems of the offensive line, which was one of the team’s strong points.
“That’s one of several concerns we’ve had,” Meyer said, “and to say we’ve lost confidence in the offensive line would be very incorrect because so many things go into it. Are we holding the ball too long? Are we dropping passes? Are we this, are we this, are we this? Once again, this is not about the excuses or problems or blame, it’s coming up with solutions as fast as we possibly can.”
As for making changes he said he would be doing some things differently, but refused to say when, except “at some point…”
He wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t going to allow anybody to lay the blame at the feet of Johnny Brantley.
“To say it’s all our quarterback, that’s not fair, and that won’t be said,” Meyer commented. “Obviously, our team wouldn’t say that.”
He did confess that there was a mysterious “void” somewhere in the team and that he and his staff need to root it out and “coach the mess out of it.”
All in all, not enough to satisfy the harshest of critics, or the blood sport, but perhaps enough for some people. Certainly no definitive plan revealed and nobody thrown under the bus.