Gator Country VIP Newsletter – 9/26/18 Edition

    Thoughts of the Week… and more!

    By popular demand, Gator Country is refreshing one of its favorite features, this time in a weekly cadence to get everyone over hump day and rolling into the next Gator game day. Ray (Solari), in his everlasting wisdom (?), assigned the bulk of the newsletter to me, David Parker.

    Most of the thoughts will revolve around our beloved Gators, of course, but many will stray about the field of college football, as well as other ports of call along the pop culture spectrum.

    Following that, you’ll find additional snippets and tidbits from the Gator Country staff and columnists. Sometimes it’s factual stuff, sometimes it’s insider stuff, sometimes it’s something else entirely. But it’s always relevant to the Florida Gators!

    We’ll be mailing this out every Wednesday morning just in time with your coffee, tea, or whatever voo-doo you use to get your day started.

    Hope you all enjoy. -PD

    After Further Review…

    We all know that with all the new rules, so many of them without any apparent purpose, that college football officiating would be somewhat of a work in progress this year. That’s fine – heck, that’s what instant replay is for, right? No matter how badly they screw up a call, they have that safety net to correct the mistakes. In addition, the numbingly long downtime the replay procedure takes allows the officiating crew to confer, check the rule book, phone a friend, and catch up on any of the rules they may not exactly remember. 

    But here is my question: If the officials are going to take all that time, stopping play and grinding games to a halt – and in fact this season they have made it a habit to frequently interrupt the game in progress after they have let the next play be snapped and started, one time of which took a Gators touchdown off the board against Kentucky, a critical turn of events that caused Florida to lose that game – if they are going to do all of this to watch the replay angles to get the calls right…shouldn’t they actually get the call RIGHT once in awhile? 

    I am not going to re-watch 4 full Gator games to be perfectly accurate here, but I am fairly certain that the refs have gotten every single replay review wrong in the Gators’ season so far. Even in games where they have no impact, like Saturday in Knoxville, it’s as frustrating as it is incredible that they continue to get even the most obvious replay reviews wrong. Every time, or at least to my memory, this year. Replay is supposed to correct bad on-field officiating, but can we get a system to appeal to a higher officiating power to check the replays that the replay officials get wrong? 

    And while we are at it, why not clean up the rule book and make everything reviewable? Florida was robbed of another 3 points against Kentucky with a terrible “no good” call on a made field goal. However, the replay officials didn’t even get a chance to review it because for no apparent reason, the rule book states that field goals are reviewable…oh, except if the ball goes above the goal posts. Because NCAA.

    After Fulmer Review…

    Watching Tennessee’s new head coach on display Saturday got me thinking conspiracy theories. The fun kind, not the tin foil hat YouTube from your basement kind. I got this thought somewhere around the juncture of the game when for the first time in my life I saw a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty assessed on a team because of their head coach’s foul mouth. To borrow from Annie Savoy in the Carolina League, he must have used a certain word that’s a no-no with referees. 

    So here’s what seeped into my brainpan: Vince Dooley hired and kept Ray Goff far beyond his expiration date because he wanted a coach who would preserve and even boost the Vince-the-Prince legend, and Ray Goof made him look like a demigod in comparison. Punishing the Dawg fans was collateral damage for inflating the Dooley mythology. Wouldn’t it be funny if this were the exact same punishment Tennessee Athletics Director Phil Fulmer is doling out to Tennessee and its fans for stabbing him in the back after all he had done for them (kind of like what he did to Johnny Majors, sabotaging the team in 1992 to get him fired and take his job after all he’d done to put Phil in a springboard position). After all, it was less than a week after taking the job that he tapped Pruitt, after over 20 – yes over TWENTY – candidates for the UT head coaching position turned down the job offer from former AD John Currie. Did Phil hire Jeremy Pruitt, so he could sit back and say, “You thought I wasn’t good enough in my later years? Well here you go – how do you like me now?” (spits tobacco – “TINGGGG”). 

    Wow, can you imagine Fulmer launching from a springboard? Regardless, here’s to Phil keeping Pruitt at UT far beyond his expiration date.

    We Got Trouble My Friends, Right Here…So?

    In the wake of the highest-scoring Gator effort in Neyland Stadium history, the Gators are fielding more criticism than praise from the media and fans, pointing out all the problems the team has, and crediting most or all the success Saturday to the low quality of opposition wearing the home jerseys. Well, even if we concede for sake of argument that much of this talk is largely accurate…so what? All of these denigrations, all these ubiquitous reminders that the Gators aren’t “back” yet, are generally on the money or close enough, but here’s the problem: these heavy-handed caveats to the big win Saturday are comparing this year’s team to a standard of perfection. Comparing the team to the current elite programs in the country. Comparing the team to the typical elite Gator teams in the program’s back pages.

    But that’s simply not fair to do just 4 games into a ground-up rebuild. Everything is relative right now. And relative to this time last year (and the year before), and relative to all the other rookie coaching regimes at major programs this season, we are succeeding at a high level right now. In that context we’re practically killing it. 

    I mean, yeah we have all those problems being mentioned, but what we should be looking at is all those OTHER problems we’ve had the last 9 years that we DON’T have anymore. All those things that are going right that haven’t gone right for the last 9 years. Sure we have all those problems, but how long have we been complaining about bad special teams play? About not forcing turnovers? About not owning the line of scrimmage against even lesser teams? About not making big plays? About not cashing in on opponents’ mistakes? About not executing in the red zone? About not having a quarterback who can improve week to week? All of those problems of the past are not showing up under Mullen, and some have been turned on their ear. At least Saturday they were. 

    We’re not gunning for Alabama this year. We’re not gunning for a playoff spot. We’re gunning for a culture change. We’re gunning for relentless effort. We’re gunning for reinstituting the Gator standard in all phases of the game. We’re gunning for finally knowing how to practice the right way again. There is no Easy Button for doing all of that at once. So some things will come faster than others. Things we have been waiting 9 years to come, and never have until now. 

    So, while it is true that we still have many holes that will only be filled with long-term coaching and development and recruiting, some pretty size-able holes have been filled already. And I for one don’t see anything wrong with celebrating that improvement.

    They’re BAAACK! Four Special Things:

    Four things in particular are back, and they look back to stay: 

    1. Great special teams
    2. Quick scoring drives
    3. Big plays
    4. Players making plays. 

    Last week really took special teams over the top with touchdowns on a punt block for a touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown. But this week was exceptional again, with a 46 yard punting average, including two that went over 50 yards and two that pinned UT inside the 20. And counting badly blown call against Kentucky, Florida is 8-for-8 in field goal attempts this year. Against Tennessee, it was the quick-strike offense that stepped up, but that has been a developing trend all year. 

    Of Florida’s 27 scoring drives this year, nearly half (13) have taken only 4 plays or fewer; 16 have taken 5 or fewer plays. The last two games have really stood out: Florida has scored 10 offensive touchdowns, and half of them were 1 or 2 play drives; 7 were of 4 plays or fewer, and all 10 were 7 plays or fewer. On the season, almost half the Gators’ touchdown drives (9 of 20) took less than 5 plays. Florida is averaging one 1-play touchdown drive a game. This is Spurrier and Meyer pace, ladies and germs. 

    And quick scoring drives are in large part the result of big plays. Through 4 games, Florida has made 20% more big plays than last season. And besides all the long runs and passes and special teams touchdowns, each week we see more players in orange and blue making the kind of athletic plays – like Brad Stewart’s circus-catch interception and Tyrie Cleveland’s twisting jump-ball grab for a score – that we haven’t seen being made for many years. 

    These are the building blocks of an elite program. Dan is building them, and it will come. 

    Benchmarking the New Gator Era

    While on the subject of judging the Gators’ progress in its proper context, let’s look at the early returns for the new coaching regimes at big-time Power 5 programs. There are 13 such regimes, and overall things aren’t going very well for the new jacks. They have a combined conference record of just 2-12, only 4 have winning records, and collectively they possess a piddly 5-17 record against Power-5 competition (and 2 of those 5 wins were against other first-year staffs).  Thus far, they are falling into 3 tiers, and I’ve ranked them overall in my opinion of their performance thus far.

    TIER ONE: These are the 4 new head coaches with winning records, including 1 of the only 2 without a losing conference record. These programs’ new eras are starting the right way, showing improvement from last year and progress through the first few weeks of the season.

    1. Dan Mullen, Florida: 3-1, 1-1 SEC; blowout wins against two cupcakes and conference foe Tennessee on the road, and 1 close loss to undefeated newly ranked Kentucky, which just beat #14 Mississippi State. The only new coach with a winning record and not a losing conference record.

    2 (tied). Joe Moorehead, Mississippi State: 3-1, 0-1 SEC; blowout wins against Kansas State and 2 cupcakes, and a 3-TD loss to 4-0 Kentucky.

    2 (tied). Matt Luke, Mississippi: 3-1, 0-1 SEC; blowout wins against 2 cupcakes and Texas Tech (which just beat ranked Oklahoma State), and a truly pathetic blowout loss to Alabama.

    4. Mario Cristobal , Oregon: 3-1, 0-1 PAC; blowout wins against 3 cupcakes, come-from-ahead loss to #7 Stanford, blowing a 24-7 lead.

    TIER TWO: This is a 3-coach group that isn’t too far behind Tier 1, all with .500 records and featuring the only new head coach with a current winning conference record.  These new eras could be doing better, but these are still optimistic results.

    5. Kevin Sumlin, Arizona: 2-2, 1-0 PAC; blowout wins against a cupcake and conference foe and moribund fellow first-year head coach-led Oregon State; competitive loss to a good BYU team and a blowout loss to Houston.

    6. Herm Edwards, Arizona State: 2-2, 0-1 PAC; close win over Michigan State, blowout win over a cupcake; competitive losses to San Diego State and #10 Washington.

    7. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M: 2-2, 0-1; blowout wins over 2 cupcakes; a competitive (late in the game, at least) loss to Clemson and a blowout loss to Alabama.

    TIER THREE: This group could be described as anything from struggling to making fools of themselves. You decide.

    8. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee: 2-2, 0-1 SEC; blowout wins against 2 cupcakes; blowout losses against West Virginia & Florida. Believe it or not, this is probably the best effort of Tier 3, given that they stayed competitive with West Virginia for most of 3 quarters, and only an avalanche of turnovers kept them from at least staying in the game at least for a little while with Florida.

    9. Jonathan Smith, Oregon State: 1-3, 0-1 PAC; blowout win against 1 cupcake; a close loss to a cupcake and two blowout losses to P5 teams (one of them to Sumlin’s ‘Zona team). This is a program with low expectations and a new coach with low expectations, so well, this has met expectations.

    10. Scott Frost, Nebraska: 0-3, 0-1 Big10; a close loss to Colorado State, a competitive loss to some kid named Troy, and a huge blowout loss to #19 Michigan. Got demonstrably worse every week. He would be lower except he’s had the toughest schedule so far of the new guys, is hampered by losing his starting quarterback for the year, and was at least within striking distance of going 2-1.

    11. Chad Morris, Arkansas: 1-3, 0-1 SEC; a blowout win over a cupcake to go with a blowout loss to a pretty bad Colorado State team, a blowout loss to cupcake North Texas and a blowout loss to #9 Auburn, which was actually their best of the three losses.

    12. Willie Taggart, FSU: 2-2, 0-2 ACC; A last-minute comeback home win against FCS foe Samford, and a middling win over NIU, which is 0-3 against the P5 this year; a blowout loss to Syracuse who is 4-0 on the strength of FSU and the 3 collectively worst cupcakes in this entire list, and a blowout loss to a Virginia Tech team whose only other win is against William & Mary (which is only slightly better than Peter, Paul & Mary). Oh, and the Hokies just lost to Old Dominion, a program that only restarted 10 years ago, marking that school’s first and only win ever against the Power 5. While WT is the only coach in Tier 3 besides Pruitt with two wins, he also is the only new P5 head coach with 2 conference losses. And the Samford win was more embarrassing than most teams’ losses. The real reason WT lands one step from the basement, however is because of the eyeball test. I’ve watched all these teams play at least two games each this year, and there is no team in the bunch that looks like a bigger cluster-bleep than Taggart’s gaggle of confusion.

    13. Chip Kelley, UCLA: 0-3, 0-0 PAC; a somewhat competitive loss to Cincinnati, a blowout loss to Oklahoma (which looks even worse now that the Sooners were taken to overtime the following week by a service academy), and a blowout loss to Fresno State. I don’t think there’s any doubt as to why Kelly is at the bottom of this list. The team he took over wasn’t particularly bad, and he has been the most anticipated coaching return to the college ranks since Steve Spurrier took his visor to South Carolina. Kelly’s the guy whose name surfaced so often every off-season as the next great college coach (again), that John Gruden got jealous. And of course, we all know how close he came (or so he led us to believe) to being the current Florida Gators coach. But above all, he’s heralded as one of the all-time elite offensive geniuses in the sport. And his product thus far has been white-hot garbage and his offense has been horrendous. Full face-plant in Westwood.

    In addition to the short-term performances, we’ve seen enough to get a read on the long-term projections of the new regimes, or at least we know enough to know that we don’t know enough. The tiers also closely align with where these coaches are projecting in the future. Mullen, Moorehead and Cristobal all have most of their school’s fans feeling very good that they got their man for long-term high-level success. The same could be said for Matt Luke, but only until he gets Ole Miss on probation again. In Tier 2, Sumlin and Edwards have their fans feeling optimistic, but in a wait-and-see mode; they could go either way. Fisher of course aligns with the Tier 1 coaches in having the near full confidence of Aggie fans that he is THE man.  

    In Tier 3, we have a mixed bag, but mostly very grim forecasts. Frost likely has the rosiest outlook among his school’s fans, but the honeymoon has been like those honeymoons that go to an exotic locale and have a tropical storm park overhead the whole time. It’s tough to get a read on the projection for Jonathan Smith, because it’s so difficult to find anyone who cares. Arkansas fans are holding their breath with Morris, because he was hired on the strength of his Clemson resume as offensive coordinator…and they’re starting to wonder if his career losing record as a head coach in 3 years at SMU (14-22, only winning season a 7-5 mark last year) wasn’t a major red flag. FSU fans can certainly relate, as their head coach was hired despite having a career losing record, and his glum resume was built over 8 years, not just 3. If you want to know how badly his future is looking to FSU fans, check out how many GoFundMe accounts have been set up to pay his buyout. He may have more than Jeremy Pruitt. 

    At least Taggart was FSU’s first choice, inexplicable as that is. Pruitt was around #23 on the Tennessee wish list. That’s how many times they offered other coaches, and were turned down. In truth, one guy – Greg Schiano – accepted the job offer, but then Tennessee fans protested by burning mattresses on campus until the Vols brass sent Schiano home. They were going to burn their toothbrushes, but nobody in Vol Nation could identify them. Crowdsourcing a head football coach is bad enough; when the crowdsourced coach lets hated Florida score the most points they’ve ever scored in Neyland Stadium history, and then on national television loses a kickboxing fight with a whiteboard, things are far worse. 

    And then there’s Chip Kelly. UCLA fans would probably still be willing to hold out faith, but funny thing about Chip Kelly…when people get to know him, they quickly wish they could un-know him. When you don’t make any friends, you can’t afford to coast in neutral in recruiting and then come out like a dead fish and lose to everyone that comes down the pike – all while struggling to do the one thing that everyone thinks is your biggest strength: producing a functional offense. 

    The Key to Comedy:  Timing

    Fans of teams with new coaching staffs in rebuilding years usually want to wait as long as possible to play their biggest rivals. Every additional week they can wait to get their legs beneath them before facing the big time foes is something to squeeze for all its worth. But that is not always the case, and this year certainly demonstrates that. Because tell me: how bad do you wish we could play FSU right now? Or last week? We certainly have our list of issues right now, but we are playing like a cohesive unit and playing pretty darn well given our many flaws. Conversely, FSU has played the first month of the season like the cast of “Glee” being dropped into The Hunger Games. 

    Sure we have offensive line deficiencies. But FSU is on another planet in this category. Their offensive tackles look like they squeezed Winnie the Pooh into football pads and an FSU uniform. If Winnie the Pooh had just eaten all the other animals in the Hundred Acre Wood. And Christopher Robin. And Christopher Robin’s house. 

    Music for the Week

    This is one of my favorite songs for many reasons. I have about a half million favorite songs, or so it seems sometimes, but that doesn’t diminish the quality of any of them. I just have very diverse taste in music. But I think this one is something that plays to most anyone’s ear, despite its lack of renown. It’s a little garage, a little country, a little blues. This isn’t even a 1-hit wonder, because it’s never been a hit. But it should be. And it’s a tune that can come in very handy to sports fans looking for a little comfort and perspective when things don’t go their way on game day. Hopefully we Gators won’t have much call for this sort of song in the future, but everyone does sometimes. Even when your teams win, it’s just a positive self-affirming song that does a body good. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEN6sxU4bZc


    Chomps from the GC Staff & Columnists —

    ANDREW SPIVEY

    First things first, I’m looking forward to the weekly newsletter so we can give you guys an even more inside look at things for the Florida Gators.

    GC was the first to report that Jacob Copeland underwent knee surgery (meniscus) during fall camp. The hope was that he would be back for the Tennessee game. That didn’t happen and he didn’t travel, but the good news is that he’s back practicing with the team. Copeland is running fine but we’re told that when trying to make cuts he’s experiencing discomfort. That’s not uncommon but Florida isn’t going to rush him back to the field. We don’t expect him to travel this weekend.

    On the recruiting front, things are pretty much in wait and see mode for most recruits still but the LSU game will be a big one as far as getting guys on campus. Florida could have 6-7 official visitors on campus and will have dozens of targets on campus for that game. All of Florida’s commits are also expected to be in town for that game.

    NICK DE LA TORRE

    One thing that caught a lot of people off guard last week when Florida showed up to Tennessee was the absence of T.J. McCoy. The center lost his starting job to Nick Buchanan this season but has been the backup center, so his absence was puzzling.

    McCoy suffered a knee injury that required surgery, which is the reason he did not travel. It’s very unlikely that McCoy will be able to play this season, so Florida will look to get Brett Heggie (finally back to 100% after turf toe sidelined him all fall camp) more reps. Heggie can play all three interior offensive line positions.

    DAVID WUNDERLICH

    Freddie Swain has emerged as Florida’s most effective receiver in 2018. Among players with at least seven pass targets on the season, he has the highest catch rate at 72.7% after catching 8-of-11 passes thrown his way.

    That naturally gives him a leg up in yards per target, a category in which he leads those top pass targets at 17.5. The next-highest is Trevon Grimes’s 10.0 yards per target. Swain also leads the team in yards per catch with 24.1, well ahead of Van Jefferson’s second-place 15.9 yards per catch.

    Jefferson and Tyrie Cleveland are tied for the team lead with 17 targets, while Swain is next with 11. So far, Feleipe Franks has not really forced throws to Swain when he’s not been open, something he’s done with both Jefferson and Cleveland that has pushed their catch rates downward. If Dan Mullen decides to make Swain the primary target on more pass plays as he’s done with Jefferson and Cleveland, it’ll be worth watching to see if Swain’s catch rate goes down from Franks trying too hard to hit him when he’s not open or if he can keep his hot start going through the season.

    ERIC FAWCETT

    It was men’s basketball media day yesterday and the Gators were looking sharp in their new Jordan Brand gear as anticipation builds for what should be a loaded roster and a tantalizing schedule. Coach White was particularly optimistic when talking about freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard, talking about how his blend of size, vision, and passing ability could see him somewhere near the top of the country in assists.

    A major recruiting story could be going down this week as top-10 wing Scottie Lewis announced he’s down to Florida and Kentucky and a decision could come any day now. A player that Mike White and his staff has been recruiting since the day they got to Gainesville 3 years ago, snatching him from the grasps of the Wildcats would be a tremendous get that would firmly establish the Gators as one of the big boys in recruiting. This is definitely a story to keep an eye on.


    That’s all, folks!

    We’ll send you off with our photo of the week below. Until then, see you in your inbox next Wednesday. : )

    All the best,
    Your friends at Gator Country…where it’s GREAT to be a FLORIDA GATOR!

    Sep 22, 2018; Knoxville, TN, USA; Florida Gators defensive back Brad Stewart Jr. (2) intercepts a pass over Tennessee Volunteers wide receiver Brandon Johnson (7) in the second half of a game at Neyland Stadium. The Gators won 47-21. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports
    Raymond Hines
    Back when I was a wee one I had to decide if I wanted to live dangerously and become a computer hacker or start a website devoted to the Gators. I chose the Gators instead of the daily thrill of knowing my next meal might be at Leavenworth. No regrets, however. The Gators have been and will continue to be my addiction. What makes this so much fun is that the more addicted I become to the Florida Gators, the more fun I have doing innovative things to help bring all the Gator news that is news (and some that isn’t) to Gator fans around the world. Andy Warhol said we all have our 15 minutes of fame. Thanks to Gator Country, I’m working on a half hour. Thanks to an understanding daughter that can’t decide if she’s going to be the female version of Einstein, Miss Universe, President of the United States or a princess, I get to spend my days doing what I’ve done since Gus Garcia and I founded Gator Country back in 1996. Has it really been over a decade and a half now?