“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” – Vince Lombardi.
The Florida Gators are a battered and bruised football team with a fractured fan base and an uncertain future. The glory days are over for right now and the expectation bar has been lowered to somewhere between average and slightly above.
Suddenly the Florida-Georgia game is the Super Bowl.
This is how life used to be for The Gator Nation.
Welcome to harsh reality and the topsy-turvy world of college football.
Answers, answers – we all want answers. Including the head coach.
Dr. Phil, where are you when we need you?
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Pardon my delay in checking in since the Day the Music Died. A little corrective eye surgery had been scheduled months ago with the hopes of recuperating during the open-date week.
I’m completely recovered. And yes, I’m sure the outcome of that 10-7 debacle last Saturday didn’t cause the problem, as some have suggested.
I haven’t had time to go back and read all the threads, stories, etc. after Mississippi State and don’t propose that the following will be terribly enlightening or even completely fresh, because of the time lag earlier this week. And some of it has possibly been previously addressed, and if so, please pardon the redundancy.
I did wade through Naptha’s excellent summation and must say, from my vantage point and based on what I believe to be true, there is a lot of veracity in that post. So thanks, Naptha.
If I had one wish for the Urban Meyer regime, it would be more transparency. The Circle The Wagon mentality has created a gap between Urban and the public, and instead of using the media as a conduit, it has developed into a wall.
That said, it’s time to address a few matters – although I’m not going to attempt to put Humpty Dumpty back together in one fell swoop. All I can do is offer to pick a few pieces up off the ground, throw in an opinion or comment or two, take two aspirin and call the doctor tomorrow.
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Once experiencing the downside of harsh reality, it’s generally best to step back, take a breath and assess the damage. One’s wisdom usually comes in small revelations, not burning bushes or bolts of lightning.
Instead of focusing on everything that’s gone wrong and who’s to blame, there has to come a time when damage is assessed, fixes are made and plans for a new beginning take place. The Florida Gators have many, many problems as everyone knows. The recovery may not be possible overnight, but it is not only possible, but also probable. Because all the same elements are pretty much there that got them to 4-0.
Meanwhile, every problem is magnified times 10. Wild rumors are rampant. The coaches and players say they are hanging together. The coaches will want to take the heat for he players and vice versa.
I hear about rifts between factions and players, but have no real evidence to support that notion. And there have always been rifts between factions – even on championship clubs. The chasm gets wider when you lose.
We’re all experiencing a bit of football fatigue and The Gator Nation probably needed this open date as badly as the team, because we’re all a bit weary of dissecting and diagnosing the woes.
I don’t really know everything that’s wrong or I would gladly send Urban Meyer an email and tell him. I just know what I hear and see, even before the corrective surgery. And here are a few things:
— This team never seems to come out of the locker room with any steam and, as a result, the offense can’t seem to get cranked up. It’s like every game is a noon kickoff and the Gators can’t wake up. Otherwise, maybe some of those dreadful first-quarter performances might improve.
— They’re not only failing to “play great defense,” sometimes it’s not even very good. When a team comes at you with a single-wing hammer and you know that team is not going to pass but can’t stop it, as did Dan Mullen’s Bulldogs, that’s a problem. Even though Meyer says the defense was being “plus-one’d,” it makes me wonder how suddenly so many 290-300 pounders can look undersized. Especially when they can’t bring down a 215-pound back. Otherwise, why would any decent running team ever want to throw against the Gators?
— Johnny Brantley? Give the guy a chance. He doesn’t have the right cast around him. It’s true that the game has changed and this offense was built around a running quarterback four years ago, but the Chris Leak model can still be invoked. Except Leak had three full seasons to prepare. JB IV has had seven games. He was also hurt very badly late in the Alabama game, played hurt against LSU and maybe shouldn’t have even been on the field against Mississippi State. Nobody should ever question that young man’s courage.
— Trey Burton has to continue to be a vital part of the game, which is why he is on the field almost all the time, including in Brantley’s sets. I’m not sure they’ve figured out how to mix and match the offense while both are in the game, but maybe they’ll have something for Georgia. Burton’s passing is not up to par, even where Tim Tebow’s was as a freshman, but he has a great heart and excellent leadership skills.
— Whatever happened to the running game? Well, most of it is in sick bay. Without question, the running game will be the priority during the off week because without that it wouldn’t matter if Tom Brady or Brett Favre were playing quarterback. Meyer said as much this week. He also said despite moving the ball well at times, turnovers and failure to execute (including field goals) were the big red-zone culprits. Personally, I’m wondering why the offense just isn’t in sync, period.
— Some people are questioning how much Charlie Strong’s influence is missed. It’s too early to start calling for coaching changes, although that might eventually come into play, but anytime a veteran coach leaves a program there is a sense of loss. Strong’s departure may have been far bigger than we first realized—but you move on.
— Clearly, head-on collisions cause casualties. And playing in the SEC results in them. This was a beaten-up football team a few weeks ago, but playing Alabama and LSU on successive weekends was like fighting Ali and Frazier seven days apart. That’s why it’s different for teams like Boise State.
— Given the battered state of the team, I sometimes wonder why so much emphasis is put on “Bloody Tuesday” when maybe it should be “Timing Tuesday” to enhance the passing game and the precision of running plays.
— Urban Meyer is going to resign again after the season? Sounds like recruiting rumors to me. I see and hear no basis for that theory. I get why some people wondered if he was all in after the sudden reversal of his resignation, and no doubt Steve Addazio was elevated as the Plan B coach in case Meyer’s health became an issue. Nothing I’ve heard from the few sources that haven’t dried up lead me to believe Urban will cash it in after this season. Nor should you want him to do so. The best coach in school history wouldn’t walk away from the program in its time of dire need.
— The offensive line has not measured up? You could say that, yes. Certainly it has not ever reached the “dominant” stage as was suggested by some. The talent is there. It simply has to come to surface when there are more healthy bodies. When Addazio defends the unit for bad snaps and sacks, he is not entirely off base, but he also fails to take into account the lack of good plays that might come from better execution and protection, because Brantley is constantly throwing under duress. Some are due to poor pickups of the blitzes by running backs as well and less-than-inspired route running. Coupled with the inordinate amount of third- and fourth-down throws he is forced to make for first downs and whenever there is a dropped pass, it’s cataclysmic. That’s why Carl Moore has emerged as a star because he’s nothing but money on crucial downs.
— Then just lump a whole bunch of other stuff under “Miscellaneous,” including injuries, play-calling, the hiccups on special teams, lack of a kicking game, the absence of playmakers like Chris Rainey, talent lost to the NFL, ad infinitum.
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Bad as it seems, when you analyze Florida’s last two losses, they could have gone either way in the final moment. Maybe even for lack of a kicker they could have been different, but let’s not lay that blame at the feet of Chas Henry, who was asked to perform a task that is not normally his.
Some of these maladies are reversible, like if Chris Rainey makes it back on the field and can play tailback/slot, or Caleb Sturgis comes back to kick, or Matt Patchan returns as an offensive tackle/tight end.
Mostly, it requires the will of the players. Meyer likes to equate bitter losses like Auburn in 2006 and Ole Miss in 2008 to “getting punched in the mouth.”
Staying with that boxing metaphor, this team has been punched in the mouth, knocked down three times and could be bordering on a TKO if something doesn’t change by next week.
Good coaches can alter courses effectively. Urban Meyer and his staff are fully capable.
There is still some hope, sparse though it may seem.
I’m not saying I expect the Gators to go unbeaten and win the SEC East and Atlanta doesn’t look so much in their future as maybe Nashville or Memphis or Jacksonville. Lower expectations will help lower the stress.
Right now just beating Georgia is huge. And maybe the next one will be getting “bowl eligible,” which is a term we haven’t heard around here in 20 years.
Taking victory for granted anymore is so yesterday.
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I’m sorry, I can’t equate this losing streak with human tragedy, painful though it may be.
The reason it hurts so much is that most of us expected so much more, and we were pretty certain that we all deserved it. Shattered dreams now crunch beneath our feet like broken glass.
Harsh reality is not disappointment in your favorite sports team. Harsh reality is not being able to find a job or a place to sleep or something to eat. Or worse yet, trying to be caregiver to a family.
While painful, losing three football games is not a death sentence. Nothing in life is fatal except death itself.
As for The Gator Nation, when nothing else works, the fumes of faith will have to get it through the day.
Fans may have to revert back to that old axiom, “In all kinds of weather, we all stick together.” It may be a cliché, but nonetheless, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.