by David Parker
Thoughts of the Week – UT Week (09-21-19)
Beating Tennessee never gets old, does it? Dominating them flag-to-flag and blowing them out definitely never gets old. True, the first half was littered with frustrations and frets for Gator fans, with all the points we left on the field, but the game was never remotely in doubt after the Gators’ first drive ended with a touchdown. But this was a game to be savored for many reasons. Let me count out some of those reasons:
Reason 1: Historical Dominance
Although Tennessee made a huge comeback and beat the Gators in 2016 because the orange and blue had to play the game without their starting quarterback, snapping the Gators’ 11-game winning streak – the longest in series history for either team, this run of dominance still stands alone. This was Florida’s 14th win in the last 15 games against Tennessee. That is the most dominant run of the series for any period of time more than ten games. Tennessee won 10 of the first 11 games of the series (91%), and 13 of the first 15 (87%), and in Spurrier’s era, the Gators won 10 of 12 (83%). But this run of 14 out of 15 games hits the 93% mark of dominance. And from the looks of the two teams on the field, and the two head coaches on the sidelines, this run of dominance is not going to end any time soon.
Reason 2: Growth
This Gator team did a lot of growing up Saturday. They learned to play to the beat of a new drummer taking the snaps and running the offense. They learned to overcome big mistakes with their new signal caller. They learned that scheme isn’t going to come to the rescue and save them from having to do their jobs. They learned to refocus and put their boot on the throat of an SEC foe when they are down and put a game out of reach (which is no small thing: this team has shown this year that they can play big time from behind – playing with a lead is much different and sometimes more difficult). All year last year and this year as well, this program has shown they can win games multiple different ways. We are building to the point where we are on the verge of joining the ranks of the SEC and national elite once again – we need to be able to play with a lead and guide it to a win, because when you play other great teams, they know how to come from behind, too.
Reason 3: The Coaches Were Busy
I found myself getting very frustrated in the first half of this game because had we kept throwing the ball, or had we used a stretch running attack that utilized our speed instead of power, we would have led at halftime by at least 30 points. But Dan Mullen doesn’t get the big bucks to think like a nervous fan. He doesn’t get paid to make my fan experience marginally better by registering a bigger blowout win. He is paid to make this team better every week, and to get us ready to beat great teams down the road, like Auburn, LSU and Georgia, not to rub it in the face of an overmatched Tennessee. So he kept on hammering it between the tackles. It also helped me learn by watching that we are not that far away from improving our run blocking, although I don’t know how long it will take. Our primary issue seems to me to be our angle of engagement with defenders. We are not the most physically strong line in the SEC by far, but we border on a dominating pass blocking line, so we are not exactly weaklings. But when run blocking, he how is lower wins. There is literally no way we can block anyone the way we stand so tall in our run blocking. Manute Bol gets lower than our offensive line. So we kept not getting yards between the tackles, but we kept running there and it was valuable experience for our offensive line to get that much work on what they do really badly against an SEC team with highly thought of players (and Tennessee does have a lot of really good players – they’re just a terrible team because of their awful coaching staff…we know what that’s like at UF, don’t we?). There was also no good reason for Dan Mullen to run anything fancy, anything exotic, or to use any formations or speed plays that would have run up the score big time against Tennessee, but in the process give our future opponents a few more weeks to work on stopping our best plays.
Reason 4: We Are a Work In Progress, and This Was Progress
As much as we all want to hit the fast-forward button to where we know we will soon be in terms of deep, dominant, elite football program, we have to enjoy the moment as what we are. And what we are is a team still in the throes of the biggest rebuild Florida has undergone since at least the early 1980s, maybe ever, considering how the game has changed since then and how difficult it is to ascend the ladder to elite in the information age and all-games-televised media age. We are 4-0 overall, 2-0 in the SEC. In other words, we are in as good a position today as is humanly possible. And for Year 2 of a major rebuild, that is not just great; it’s pretty amazing. That we got here by beating one of our most hated blood rivals in Miami, avenging last year’s streak-breaker by Kentucky and then clobbering the sense out of long-time uber-hated East rival Tennessee. If you can’t be happy with this turn of events, then there just might be no pleasing you.
Reason 5: Everyone Looks Beatable
One nice thing about a noon game is that you get the rest of the day to watch all the other teams that you’ll play later in the year. Over the last few weeks, since the third or fourth series of the Miami game, really, Gator Nation has been echoing with laments of how badly the likes of Auburn, LSU and Georgia are going to beat us this year. Well, we have looked better every week, and are improving right on time this year – maybe not as quickly as we’d like, but we are improving every week as we need to be. Compare that to Miami: both teams in Week Zero made a ton of mistakes, played sloppy and out of synch and had a lot of things to fix. Here we are in Week 4, and the Gators have fixed essentially all the fixable things, and have improved on all the issues that can only improve through development, and we are 4-0. And there was Miami Saturday, struggling mightily to escape a third loss on the year, beating lowly Central Michigan and the even more pitiable Jim McElwain by a scant 5 points. This is a Central Michigan team that was waxed by Wisconsin two weeks ago 61-0. And as Florida gets better each week, future feared opponents have appeared more mortal, particularly this Saturday.
Take for instance LSU, the team that had so many Gator fans shivering in the fetal position after flexing their new offense and beating Texas. While their offense may be fearsome, their defense has shown again and again that it is not anywhere near the usual LSU standard. Allowing Texas to walk down the field at will for four quarters may be excused because of their offensive prowess, but the Tigers from Red Stick just gave up 31 points to Vanderbilt (the Commodores last touchdown was a pick-six against a backup quarterback). That’s Vanderbilt, winless Vanderbilt, that scored all of 6 points against Georgia a couple weeks ago. Then there’s Auburn, which looked good against Texas A&M, but like their win over Oregon, it was not nearly as comfortable a win as it should have been if these Tigers were nearly as good as gator fans think they are. Most importantly of course is our most hated rival: Georgia. They didn’t only look beatable in the first half; they looked downright pedestrian. At times they even looked average. They secured a win over Notre Dame with a second half spurt that gave them a 13-point fourth quarter lead that they barely hung onto. But it looked more a function of Notre Dame running out of gas and not being up to the task of playing in an SEC stadium. It was clear from all the procedure penalties and all the forced timeouts that the Domers’ schedule playing in all those piddly little stadiums against the wine and cheese ACC programs did not prepare them for an SEC game atmosphere. Even so, they had Georgia flailing at the end, hanging on for dear life. And here is why this was so hopeful for Florida: Notre Dame is not a good team. They struggled significantly to beat Louisville a couple weeks ago, one of the very worst Power 5 teams in the country, a team so bad that it actually gave up a fourth quarter lead to FSU and lost to Willie Taggart – two things that seem almost impossible to fathom for a Power 5 program. The ACC in general is simply horrendous this year, and the Domers had a difficult time beating the worst team in their league. And Georgia again showed their incredible lack of imagination on offense, running the same highly predictable plays again and again that allowed Florida to hold a second half lead that would have held up last year had Florida not lost its entire starting secondary to injury.
Yes, all the teams left on Florida’s schedule look beatable. Because they ARE beatable. We won’t beat them all, but we can beat each one of them if we play smart and limit our mistakes. And of the big 3 opponents in our upcoming SEC gauntlet, Georgia – the team of the three that we would most want to beat – looks the most beatable. After that, Missouri looks average, and South Carolina, Vanderbilt and FSU all appear to have perhaps their worst teams in a few decades.
So be happy, Gator fans! We’ve been waiting a looooooong time, many years to be happy again. And we have multitude of reasons to be. Right now. So enjoy it. You’ve earned it.
Chomps from the GC Staff & Columnists —
ANDREW SPIVEY
I’m told that things in practice have been running smooth with Kyle Trask at the helm now and that the players have really rallied around him and love his work ethic. Some receivers have even said that he gets them the ball on time and they trust that he will find them open.
In recruiting the Gators picked up a big 2021 defensive tackle Christopher Thomas on Monday night and it was a big pick up as the Gators are trying to add depth at defensive tackle. Thomas was one of the Gators top targets at the position.
Florida also picked up a punter Jeremy Crawshaw from Australia and I’m told that it was his camp that reached out to Florida and showed them his film first. Florida really liked his film and think he’s good enough to be put on scholarship from day one as they believe he can start next year after Tommy Townsend is gone.
NICK DE LA TORRE
There is a lot of excitement and buzz surrounding the Gators’ game against Auburn. It’s the first top-10 matchup in The Swamp since 2012. That game next week won’t be a big game if the Gators don’t take care of business this week.
I don’t see Towson being an issue for the team and the coaching staff is really hammering in that the Gators need to focus on themselves, continue to get better every day and not worry about the opponent.
Andrew and I received word that UF got word on Brenton Cox’s waiver but the outcome is being held close right now. We’re going to find out soon what Cox’s fate is and we’ll keep you all informed. Cox isn’t necessarily needed right now from a production standpoint or in terms of a starter. What really separates good teams and great teams, however, is depth. If Cox is eligible that gives Florida’s pass rush (already tied for the national lead in sacks) ANOTHER guy who will get after the QB. You’re talking about absolutely not let up with him, Zuniga, Greenard, Moon and Bogle. That’s a scary d-line.
On the injury front Feleipe Franks’ surgery went well. He had HBO camera with him the whole way so you will all be able to see what was going on with him, going through his head, and his recovery process begin.
CJ Henderson is healthy and he’s ready to play. If he will play this week is another thing. Right now the Gators are fine without him and playing Townson you have the opportunity to get him another week’s rest while also getting Kimbrough, Hill and Elam valuable reps. Get CJ healthy and get the young guys reps? Win-Win.
Zuniga is out of his walking boot and getting closer to being ready. Don’t expect him to play this week but he should be healthy and ready to go when Auburn comes to town.
ERIC FAWCETT
Florida didn’t sign anyone on last week’s recruiting weekend but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t productive. Once thought to be out of the race, it seems like the Gators have totally recovered and are in a great place to land point guard AJ Hoggard. Long thought to be headed to Michigan State (who usually gets the best point guard recruits) things have shifted and the Gators are looking to be in a good place to land him.
Another recruitment that seems to have turned in Florida’s favor is New Jersey guard Niels Lane. He’s great friends with Scottie Lewis who has been doing a lot of the recruiting and it’s looking like Florida is going to be in a battle down to the wire with Texas for his services. Luckily he’s announced October 8th as the date he’ll make his decision so we will have some clarity soon.
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!