Gator Country VIP Newsletter — 10/31/18 Edition

    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

    Thoughts of the Week 

    Well this certainly is the least fun I’ve had writing my thoughts of the week this year. That game in Jacksonville was not just winnable; it was begging us to win it. But we steadfastly refused. As sick to my stomach as it makes me to ever lose to Georgia, made several times worse by the fact that we should have won as comfortably as we lost, it does nothing to distract from the rather incredible season the Gators have had thus far. And that includes the Georgia game. We’ve heard the refrain all year, every week: “If someone told me before the season that we would be in Week X and have X number of wins, I would take that in a heartbeat.” Well those expectations that Dan Mullen & his staff and football team have blown out of the water included getting boat raced in Jacksonville. Didn’t they. Yes, that ends with a period, because it’s not a question.

    And given the fact that we were in the game until sometime in the 4th quarter, despite having only one of five starters playing in the secondary and we were behind in the turnover balance 0 to 4, it was quite a statement. I am not sure how deep into the quarter we were still in the game, because by then I was watching the game through my fingers, and my pinky was covering up the game clock. I will get to the bad stuff soon enough, but first I’d like to squeeze that black River City cloud and coax a few drops of silver lining.

    The Good

    The goal line stand that had to be done not once, but twice thanks to a certain be-striped individual whom Marv Levy would call an “over-officious jerk,” was one for the ages. It has been discussed at length, but bears repeating that when Georgia sought to put the game away by jamming it down our throats and showing they had the bigger manhood, the Gators answered with a stand that would make Gandalf proud. The Dawgs tried seven times to push it in from less than 1 yard out, and the Gators put their staff in the ground and said, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” Kirby Smart and the Dawgs wanted to show the world that they are cock of the walk. The Gators showed them that they are cock of nothing.

    Still, UGA on their next two possessions marched 77 yards downfield for a touchdown, then 66 yards for a touchdown, both times about as easily as if they were practicing against the scout team. So I stood and perhaps still stand as one of few voices questioning if that stand really had the impact on either team that the fans think it did. I don’t think we will know until next year. It may turn out that we will dominate the series again like we did during the Spurrier-Zook-Meyer run of 21 years that produced 19 Florida wins in Jacksonville, Gainesville and Athens, and we will point back at Saturday as the catalyst: the Gator Stand. If not, there’s always money in the Banana Stand.

    The second big silver lining comes from the uneasy acknowledgement that this loss mirrors the Kentucky loss in that it may be better in the long run to have lost it than to have won. If we hadn’t had the come-to-Jesus loss to Kentucky, it is unlikely that the team coalesces and dives headfirst into the coaching staff’s practice standards that pushed them to beat Tennessee, MSU and LSU, and probably gave them the stones to come back against Vanderbilt. Now we lost to Georgia, and while it may provide the team with the necessary motivation to finish the season on the next level, the real benefit might be in what the team doesn’t get to do: play Alabama.

    Regardless of game plans or improvements to date and between now and then, this Florida team is not ready for this Alabama team. If mostly healthy, this year’s Gators could compete with and – if everything went right – maybe even beat the 2015 and 2016 Bama teams that shredded those Florida in Atlanta. But not this Tide issue. The last thing we need or want is for this season to bear any resemblance to the first two Jim McElwain seasons, which it inevitably would if we topped off the regular season by winning the East and getting crushed in the big spotlight again. Nothing would be the same, but it sure would feel like it was. But for losing to Georgia, Florida has the opportunity to win out, finish wrap up the season with a big win over floundering FSU on Bobby Bowden Stadium at Ron Zook Field, and get a nice New Year’s bowl against a very beatable opponent and head into the offseason with an 11-2 opening serve for the Mullen Era. And Georgia gets to go to Atlanta ad get their eyes beat out by Alabama (if Tua stays healthy). That will all take a little of the sting out of this loss, for sure.

    The Bad

    Unfortunately I must break tradition and single out a player for some atrocious play. I’ve been largely singing his praises all year, and this doesn’t change any of that. But it has to be said that you simply cannot play quarterback at the University of Florida like Feleipe Franks did Saturday. Not against Georgia. Ever. It simply can’t be done. Everyone has down games, bad games. Heck, the best of them all have: Danny, Timmy, Chris, Rexy & Shane. Spurrier, too. But those guys were super stars who had the occasional toe-stubbing. When you are a game manager – and a tenuous one at that – you simply cannot play that badly in the biggest game of the year. When he threw his one good pass of the game for a touchdown and a 14-13 lead, it should have been 21-3, bare minimum, would have taken UGA out of their offensive game plan, given all the advantage to our defense, and forced the very average Jake Fromm to play outside of his comfort zone, which has spelled a Bulldog loss every single time it has happened against an SEC defense. There is no reason to elaborate. We all saw the game and the poor kid has taken enough heat this week. And I expect his to return to the efficient game manager he has been for the rest of the season if he can stop making multiple unforced turnovers like he has the last two games. He should be able to go back to working on developing what he can against the average-to-bad defenses we face the rest of the year.

    But the light absolutely must come on for him in the spring, or at least by next fall before the season starts. We can’t go to the next level with this iron ceiling on quarterback play. Jalon Jones will be a true freshman, it is unclear when Emory Jones will be ready to start, and for whatever reason or reasons, Kyle Trask is never going to see the field at Florida. So by default again, it has to be Franks. I will be rooting for him as hard as ever, but I have no inkling of an idea whether he will ever get to that level of a good SEC quarterback, that level Florida has to have to win any championships.

    The Ugly

    If you haven’t seen it yet, find the video of Kirby Smart cussing out the Florida players, coaches and fans as we waddles his impish little Weeble body to midfield for the postgame coach’s handshake. In addition to being the second-biggest/worst cheater in the nation behind his mentor Nick Saban, I’ve always found him to be a classless phony. This is just another artifact in that case study.

    Patience grasshopper

    Everywhere you look these days, you read and hear about Florida’s recruiting, and how impressively it is trending upward. The big question on everyone’s mind right now is when the next commitments will pop, and when will we have a class full enough to assess where it will slot in the national pecking order, regardless of what or who measures that pecking order.

    I know this will be unpopular with many, if not most Gator fans…and for some recruitniks, it will flat out make their head explode. However, here is the inconvenient truth: the longer it takes Florida to secure the rest of its 2019 signing class, the better. There I said it, I’m sorry, now I’m ready to die (bonus points for naming that movie reference).

    Fan impatience around recruiting is nothing new of course, and it has been at a fever pitch for many months. But we have seen already very clearly how patience pays. If signing day had taken place just three weeks ago, there is no way Florida would have signed a top 10 class. If signing day were tomorrow, Florida would absolutely sign a top 10 class. What will our prospects be a month from now when Early Signing Day is mere hours away? Every week, every game performance, every official visit weekend, every win, and our recruiting stock trends further and further upward. And around the country, every week, almost all of our recruiting rivals have seen and will likely continue to see their seasons and their recruiting prospects trend further and further downward. FSU, Miami, Tennessee, Auburn, and South Carolina are all trending down and will continue to. Specific schools against whom we are going head to head for big time recruits (I’m looking at you, MSU), are also nose-diving. Those national programs that are most successful in raiding Florida for recruits? Many of them – like Ohio State, USC, and Oregon – are struggling or falling apart either on the field or off of it (or both). LSU is about the only major program not named Alabama that traditionally recruits Florida well that has been trending up, and Florida got a big leg up on them with their impressive head to head win a few weeks ago. Even Georgia, which is managing to keep a strong record afloat by feasting on of bad teams and an avalanche of self-inflicted wounds by a Florida Gators’ MASH unit, has been crashing and burning in recruiting the last few weeks, spitting out de-commitments faster than Kirby Smart can spit out vile, profane insults at opposing programs. They’re suffering from a loaded and youthful depth chart, an uninspiring step back on the field this year, and strong undercurrents of racial issues in their football program and university. The drooping recruiting hat trick.

    Cyst-a Soulja

    This week Urban Meyer strategically spoke to the media about a brain cyst that he claims is giving him debilitating headaches. I’d love to see the x-ray. Call me cynical but I don’t think there’s anything clinically wrong with him. I’ve seen this movie before and I know how it ends. Spoiler alert: the film premier after-party will be catered by Papa John’s. I think this is just another health scare fabrication used as cover fire while he flees the scene of his own crime.

    Again.

    Missouri Game: Feel the Pivot

    Call me crazy, but I think the date with the Missouri Tigers this Saturday will dictate how we end the season. Strange to anticipate a game against such a lesser opponent, one with such a dismissible record, could be so telling for the rest of the year. Especially since we don’t have any good opponents left on the schedule after them, either. However, the fact that we have better personnel than all the teams left on her schedule is not the pivotal factor going forward. I think the pivotal factor is the collective gas in the Gator tank. How much is left, and what’s the octane? And that is made up of several elements.

    Despite the fact they just had an off week, this team is physically beat up, and has to be mentally and emotionally tired at this point. They have endured tectonic change in every facet of their football, academic and probably personal lives, while they’ve absorbed a great deal of teaching and learning and re-directing. And they have played a very tough slate of opponents. Four-straight games that were high intensity, high effort, high stress contests for 60 minutes. After losing to Georgia, they have to be hurting mentally and emotionally because they know they beat themselves, and fumbled away and almost sure ticket to Atlanta in doing so. And now in Missouri they face the best passing offense they will see all year with four of their top five defensive backs still missing or variously limited. Dropping two-straight games after all they’ve gone through and accomplished could be a tough blow from which to recover.

    Of course, a bounce-back win could be just what the doctor ordered, pardon the reference. Especially if they play their first good overall game since beating LSU. They went from a focused force that would not be denied against Tennessee, MSU and LSU, to a team against Vandy and UGA that couldn’t stop trying to give games away. They badly need to get well in this department against Missouri. As they say, one time is happenstance; two times could be a coincidence; three times is a pattern.

    I don’t have any feel for whether Florida will win or lose Saturday, but I will venture this guess for what happens after the game: If the Gators lose, they will lose at least one more game, either South Carolina or FSU; If Florida wins, they won’t lose another game the rest of the year, including bowl season.

    And to close, a tune that is always appropriate when Florida trips into the rare, often inexplicable misfortune of losing to the mangy Dawgs:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrOQC-zEog

     

    Chomps from the GC Staff & Columnists —

    ANDREW SPIVEY

    While the Georgia loss hurts for this season, many prospects around the country took notice of how far Florida has come since Mullen started. One key guy who was vocal about this was Auburn offensive line prospect Keiondre Jones. Florida has really helped its chances with him. 

    Defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux who many consider the number prospect in the country has scheduled an official to Florida for the South Carolina game. Florida is trailing FSU for him. 

    Things with defensive back Chris Steele continue to improve. The Gators are sitting in a good spot with Steele now expected to announce at the Army All-American game. 

    NICK DE LA TORRE

    I know we’re all disappointed this week after the loss to Georgia but hear me out. I actually come away encouraged by the game. I think the things that were exposed are things we all already knew to be true. Florida is thin in the secondary and it was exposed when C.J. Henderson went out. We all knew Florida was thin, but had been lucky to not have big injury concerns outside of Marco Wilson. The other is that Feleipe Franks is just a serviceable quarterback. Mullen has been able to put him in good situations this season and disguise his deficiencies but Georgia was able to exploit them.

    The biggest thing for me, the point that I thought about the most was how would the team handle this loss? The loss to Kentucky was an eye opener from the standpoint of learning that you can’t sleep on an opponent. Florida took Kentucky lightly and paid the price. They learned from that and grew from it but they had their goals still in front of them. The loss to Georgia eliminated Florida from contention in the SEC East so I wanted to see how the team responded. Monday’s practice was intense. The team was flying around the field and hitting. I think that’s a great attitude for them to have and I was encouraged that they guys were taking out their frustration on the field.

    Turning our attention to this week Missouri presents a challenge for Florida. The Tigers are similar to Florida offensively in that they don’t depend on one thing to win or be effective on offense. They run the ball, throw the ball to their running backs and they have a true mismatch in redshirt sophomore tight end Albert Okwuegbunam. The athletic, 6-5 tight end hauled in 11 touchdowns last season and has five this season on a team-high 39 receptions. That’s 20 more receptions that Florida’s leading pass catcher, Van Jefferson. Okwuegbunam is a matchup nightmare that Florida needs to try and deal with.

    The Gators also need to put pressure on Drew Lock. He’s the best quarterback Florida will face this season and if he has time in the pocket he will dice you up.

    This is a very winnable game for the Gators and I think the team is going to enter into the game with the right mindset. They need a good homecoming crowd to help them as they return to the Swamp for the first time since October 6.

    DAVID WUNDERLICH

    Florida has four non-true freshman defensive backs who earned a 4-star rating in the 247 Sports Composite coming out of high school. Once CJ Henderson went down for the game early, it meant the Gators only had one of them available to play. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson still was out there, but Marco Wilson has been gone for the season for a while and Brad Stewart missed the game for undisclosed reasons. With former 3-star corner Brian Edwards also on ice for an unexplained rationale, the Gators leaned heavily on one of only a pair of former 2-star recruits on the entire roster in C.J. McWilliams.

    McWilliams played like a former 2-star recruit as you saw, but the defense still managed to do what it needed to keep it close for three quarters. This was against an offense with Jake Fromm, who is currently No. 5 nationally in passing efficiency. Had Henderson and Stewart been in the game, much less them and Wilson too, you can believe it’d have been a much different story. It’s cold comfort to know that the defense could only hold out for three quarters, but just imagine what this staff will pull off next year and after when the two-deep consists of mostly blue chip players who aren’t in their first years.

    ERIC FAWCETT

    Gator basketball got off to an official start last night! Well, an exhibition game, but still, the final tuneup before the season kicks off against Florida State was against a solid D-II program. Unfortunately there is no television or radio, but I have some moles that are going to give me the scoop on exactly what happens — stay tuned to our front page and forums for the scoop.

    The buzz around practice is the play of Deaundrae Ballard. Now, people who read my stuff know I’ve been critical of him, but I’d be very happy to be proven wrong! Apparently he is one of our best scorers in practice and a great source even claimed to me that he will start some games this season. I’ll have to see it to believe it, but he’s a great kid that I’m really cheering for.


    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!

    The Gators defense stuffs Georgia six straight plays inside the 5 yard line during the second half as the Florida Gators lose 36-17 to the University of Georgia Bulldogs at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. October 27th, 2018. Gator Country photo by David Bowie.
    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?