Gator Country VIP Newsletter – 10/9/18 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… and more 

    LSU Checking the NCAA By-Laws

    The Tigers from Red Stick are busy this week scouring the NCAA by-laws to see if it is possible to renounce their poll ranking by request. Because the next time LSU enters a game against Florida in The Swamp while ranked in the top-5 in the nation, the Tigers are going to want to vacate their ranking completely. The last 4 times LSU has faced the Gators as a top-5 team in the AP poll, they have lost. That’s a streak that covers over half a century.

    Dan’s Tells

    Of all the artifacts this season that have stood as evidence that Florida hired the right head coach to return the Gators to glory, one of the most symbolic has been a subtle reaction on the sidelines. Yes, Dan Mullen has been over-the-top demonstrably enthusiastic before and during games, jumping around and shouting his lungs out to ignite his team and the fans in the Swamp into a frenzy, but that is all purposeful theater. The truly telling thing part of Mullen’s behavioral demonstrations, however has been at the end of games, when a win has been salted away, and it is quite the opposite of his crowd-pleasing displays of energy.

    Two weeks ago when Donovan Stiner blew through the middle of the MSU offensive line to sack Nick Fitzgerald on 4th-and-game, Mullen did no such cheerleading, and showed no such emotional outburst. He simply turned to another coach, took off his headset and nodded. Last week when Joe Burrow let the ball fly deep on 4th-and-game, and Donovan Stiner stepped in front of the receiver and grabbed the interception, Mullen just wiped his brow and went about signaling the offense back onto the field.

    Business as usual. The proverbial, “Act like you’ve been there before”. Because he has.

    Flipped the Script (Again)

    These are the games in the past that our last two coaches find a way to lose, and Les Miles finds a way to pull some fluke pay out of his HAT to win (not just against us, but Auburn, Alabama and many other teams).

    A Guilty Pleasure Tradition?

    I do not usually condone unsportsmanlike conduct, especially when it gives the opposition 15 yards when all we need to do is stop them from scoring a touchdown, but was I the only one who saw what Vosean Joseph did to draw the flag after Brad Stewart’s pick-6? He asked Stewart to give him the ball, then he punted it into the stands.

    Remember in 2007 when Bubba Caldwell, in his last game in the Swamp, threw the ball into the stands in the fourth quarter of a big win against FSU? He did it as a tribute to Carlos Alvarez, who also threw the ball into the stands after scoring his last touchdown at Florida Field. The ceremonial throw into the stands was repeated in 2009 by a former Gator tight end after catching a touchdown pass in victories over FSU as well, as a tribute to Caldwell. I can only imagine the tradition would have continued had Florida the opportunity (since 2009, Florida has only beaten FSU once, and in that 2012 game, only one touchdown pass was caught, it was in the 4th quarter, however the receiver Quinton Dunbar passed on the opportunity).

    Well do you all remember the 2008 game against LSU, where Florida rolled LSU 51-21 in The Swamp? With the Gators ahead 34-14, on the first play of the 4th quarter, the blowout was cemented by a Brandon Spikes pick-6. Then he drew a 15-yard infraction. Remember why? For punting the ball into the stands.

    Flash-forward another 10 years, and another 4th quarter against LSU. Another pick-6. Another Gator ceremoniously punts the ball into the stands. Do you think Vosean was a Gator fan in grade school and saw that pick-6 and celebratory punt into the crowd against this same opponent, and remembered? And tipped his cap to Brandon after the game was put on ice? At least the players surely believed that play ended the game. If you did a poll of the team after that play, asking if LSU had any chance in the world to scored a touchdown and a 2-pointer with that much time left, it would have been unanimous. Well turns out he did remember and he did it to honor Spikes, and more generally the whole 2008 team that was honored this past weekend as they visited and spoke words of wisdom to this year’s Gator team.

    Elsewhere in Florida…

    Who else flipped the clicker to the FSU-Miami game as soon as CBS left our game? What a great exclamation point on the great day in college football for Gator fans. FSU blows a seemingly insurmountable 20-point lead to their second-most hated rival, loses once again, and their struggling head coach looks even more incompetent than in the previous 5 games. And even better – Miami’s team, their coaches and all 23 of their fans celebrated deep into the night over the immense accomplishment of beating the second-worst team in the worst conference in the country. By one point.

    The Quarterback of Choice

    Because of the previous two coaches’ struggles to recruit and sign good quarterbacks, at least good quarterbacks who don’t transfer and go ball out somewhere else, Gator fans have seen an influx of grad transfer signal callers into Gainesville the last few years. They have worked out with fair but less than optimal results. But it has been those grad transfer quarterbacks that did not come to Florida – all-star signal callers who Gator fans coveted deeply – that have made significant ripples in Gator fans’ peace of mind the last year or so. Specifically Jarett Stidham, who chose Auburn over us, and Joe Burrow, who Florida faced Saturday afternoon. The guy who had come into Baton Rouge and lifted LSU almost single handedly (if you listen to some of the hype) to a 5-0 start and a top-5 national ranking, with wins over two then-top-10 teams. The guy who came into the Swamp with zero career interceptions. To borrow a line from Steve Spurrier back in the nineties, he didn’t leave the Swamp that way.

    So many Gator fans clamored for Florida to sign Burrow especially because of his mobility and seemingly perfect fit into the Mullen offense. Especially compared to the much maligned Feleipe Franks, who floundered all year in the offensive scheme of McElwain/Shannon last season.

    So. Which quarterback do Gator fans prefer now? Funny how things turn out sometimes. Thank goodness we fans don’t get our way all the time.

    Upon Further Review

    That Kentucky loss that looked so pathetic on game night? The best quality loss of anyone in the country right now.

    The win over MSU that the national media muted because Kentucky had just beat them? Yeah, MSU is a really good football team. Just dominated the #8 team in the country.

    That landslide Tennessee win that the national media and even a ton of Gator fans said was nothing more than an indictment of how bad the Vols are? It looks now that we crushed them because we were just Florida being Florida.

    Dan Knows

    That celebratory cow bell sound you heard in Starkville – not the one where Nick Fitzgerald iced the game for the Bulldogs, but the previous MSU possession – was Fitz busting off a long run against Auburn to pass Tim Tebow and break his SEC record for most yards rushing by a quarterback. And you better believe the elite dual threat quarterback recruits the next several years are going to be made aware that both the old king and the new king are Dan Mullen-developed quarterbacks eating up yards in a Dan Mullen offense. Oh yeah, and the #4 guy on that all-time list? Dak Prescott, Dan Mullen quarterback.

    You Made a Pick-6…Out of a DELOREAN?!

    I’ve already mentioned the turning back of the clock with the punt into the stands, but the pick-6 that precipitated that cavalier kick cranked the Flux Capacitor all the way back to 1991. The pick-6 made the Swamp explode like the Larry Kennedy pick-6 that sealed the big win against Tennessee in Steve Spurrier’s second season. That year, UF famously closed in the north end zone, which used to be very low and open to the air almost at street level, and added the Sunshine Seats upper deck to “bowl in” the stadium and jack the seating to over 80,000. This bowling in of the stadium that was already acoustically advanced because of the way it is built significantly into the ground, not entirely above it, increased the decibel capacity of the noise to a new level.

    I was in the stadium that night, and when Kennedy crossed into the end zone, the student section turned into a cup-throwing madhouse. Those orange hard plastic Gator collector cups that used to be the game day soda standard at Florida Field flew into the air from EVERYWHERE and didn’t slow down for a solid 15 minutes. It was like being inside a giant popcorn popper with Gator orange cylindrical pop corn flying everywhere. It wasn’t the loudest I’ve ever experienced at Florida Field (that was after the goal line stand to beat #3 FSU later that same year), but it was the craziest I’ve ever seen it.

    That night Larry Kennedy ran back the pick-6 to seal the deal against UT was the night Florida Field officially became The Swamp.

    Saturday, when Brad Stewart ran back the pick-6 to seal the deal against LSU, The Swamp officially returned.

    Final Tidbits

    – Dan Mullen is the first Florida Gators coach since Steve Spurrier to win his first game against LSU.

    – I hope everyone saw Dan’s post-game sideline interview where he was holding his little daughter, Breelyn at his shoulder. Reminded me a lot of when Lon Kruger would have his mini-me son Kevin sitting with him on the bench during the Gator’s first every Final 4 run in 1994, and the way Gator baseball coach had his young son Finn tagging around the diamond with him during the Gators championship run in the College World Series last year. Maybe this bring-your-kid-to-work promotion has a little magic in it. But beyond that, it’s just a beautiful thing to see these coaches taking a real loving interest and care to have their kids close to them as they do their thing. Time being such a rare commodity for these college coaches who spend so much time on the road for games and recruiting.

    – Love for the offensive line: Over 200 yards rushing, over 5 yards per carry, and no sacks against a stout LSU defense. Florida more than doubled the yards rushing that LSU has given up per game this year coming into the game. Coach John Hevesy is doing an incredible coaching job with these kids.

    – We already saw the jump pass this year, and now we’ve seen another classic Tebow era play: the quarterback play action to himself. And it created huge separation for Moral Stephens to catch Florida’s second touchdown of the game.

    – Iron Man Award: This is for the toughest hombre in orange & blue. On offense, Feleipe Franks. He got hit a lot in the pocket and running the ball, but late in the 3rd quarter, he got pretzeled so hard betwixt a trio of LSU defenders that people started calling him Mr Salty. However, after a lot of gingerly stretching and loosening up, he stayed in the game and went on to directed the winning drive. On defense, Vosean Joseph seemed to get carried from the field every other possession, but one time in particular he came down hard on his side and had what looked to be a spinal realignment. After many minutes on the ground and some woozy staggering steps around the sidelines befitting Yellowbeard himself, he was back in the game a few plays later and finished the game of his career strong.

    – LSU came into the game with zero interceptions thrown; they left with 2. They came in with only 3 offensive turnovers; they left with 6.

    – Last week the Gators sacked MSU’s quarterback 6 times. This week, they sacked LSU’s quarterback 5 times. The Tigers had only given up 1.6 sacks per game before facing the Gators. Only the two OSUs in Ohio and Oklahoma have more sacks in the FBS.

    – The Gators defense came into the game with LSU tied for the national lead with 14 turnovers (and that doesn’t include multiple turnovers on downs, a safety, and a fumble out of the end zone for a touchback). Against the Tigers, Florida grabbed three more against LSU, giving them 17 on the year. Florida had only 17 takeaways all of last season, which was tied for 81st nationally.

    – Can you imagine how well the defense would be playing if Marco Wilson, the best cornerback in the SEC, hadn’t been lost for the year? The way the rest of the secondary are playing, if Wilson were still healthy, Florida would be a true no-fly zone.

    – The 12 Plays of Defense. Sing it with me: 12 second half TOP, 11 tackles for loss, 10 yards per completion, 9 first downs rushing, 8 quarterback hurries, 7 defensive points scored, 6 passes broken up, fi-i-i-i-ive quarterback sa-a-a-a-a-a-a-acks, 4 third down conversions, 3 total turnovers, 2 interceptions, and a corn dog in a pear tree.

    – Not to even hint that this is a team or a season like 2008, but that was the last year Florida beat ranked teams in consecutive games (#1 Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, then #2 Oklahoma in the national championship game). Mullen also joined Galen Hall as the only coach in UF history to win his first 2 games against ranked opponents. Hall went on to win his first 6, so look out Georgia.

    Chomps from the GC Staff & Columnists —

    ANDREW SPIVEY

    The win on Saturday was such a huge win for the program. Players are saying this makes all the offseason work make sense now and they see how much this has helped them. Players feel like they’re much better prepared for the grind of the season this year. 

    The win was also huge for recruiting. Florida made up ground on a lot of 2019 players but the 2020 class is where the work was really done. The 2020 class is full of prospects in pro Gator areas like Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando and a lot of guys from those areas were in town. 

    Also having guys like Tim Tebow not only around the team but speaking to the team in the locker room was huge for everyone and will pay off in recruiting. This is something that wasn’t seen since Urban left Florida. Tebow is someone that is a key tool in recruiting for the Gators and they need to use it. 

    NICK DE LA TORRE

    What a season Dan Mullen and the Gators are having. This has been fun for me to cover; probably the most excitement there has been in a season since I’ve been with Gator Country.

    With that being said this is a week that could ruin all of that if Florida goes to Nashville and sleepwalks through the game. That has been the focus all week for Dan Mullen and Florida. He simply will not allow the players to overlook Vanderbilt.

    The guys have been straining and beating themselves up since spring football. Nick Savage’s workouts were hard, the last three weeks of the season have been physically and mentally straining and I know the team is ready for the bye week. It would be easy to use a team like Vandy as a two-week bye week. The environment in Vandy will be rough. The stadium will have less than 30-35,000 people in it and it’s an 11 am local time kickoff. Florida is fighting against complacency this week and I think they’re going to be successful in the endeavor.

    Like the last three weeks Vanderbilt should not be able to block Florida up front and that will be a huge factor in this game. Jachai Polite is going to be a first rounder after this season. On offense the Gators’ will likely be able to go back to the quick stand passes and screens that worked against Mississippi State. Vanderbilt doesn’t have the secondary to be able to play man and press like LSU did and that kind of offense fits Florida really well with their skill position guys.

    Another huge key for Florida is coming out of this week healthy. Outside of Jacob Copeland and Marco Wilson Florida hasn’t had guys miss a lot of time because of injury. Again, credit Nick Savage.

    Here’s to a good week in Nashville and heading into Jacksonville at 7-1.

    DAVID WUNDERLICH

    The Florida offense looked dysfunctional in the loss to Kentucky. In the following three games against Colorado State, Tennessee, and Mississippi State, the unit made visible improvement. The line got progressively better with each successive game, while Feleipe Franks settled into a place where, while he wasn’t going to win games for the team, wasn’t going to lose any for them either.

    Against LSU, the trend made a reversal. The offensive line struggled mightily with LSU’s defensive front, and Franks had his shakiest game since Kentucky. There is good news in that: the Gators still won. Unlike in 2015, the landmark win over a top 5 opponent in the Swamp did not require an out-of-nowhere monster game from the quarterback. The offense muddled through its struggles well enough to put three touchdowns on the board, and the defense provided sufficient backup to get the win.

    If the Gators beat LSU by playing amazing, I would still take it. However, Florida is good enough as a team to scuffle for a game on offense and still knock off one of the country’s best teams. That’s more of a sign of immediate progress for Dan Mullen than playing sharply in the win would’ve been.

    ERIC FAWCETT

    With the 2019 recruiting class all finished up there isn’t anything too big on the horizon until basketball season starts, but there was a bit of news with the announcement of a “secret scrimmage” game. Teams are allowed to play one “secret scrimmage” a year, a game with no media and no fans, but a chance for an extra exhibition. The Gators will be playing Furman on the 20th which should be a nice test as Furman was sneakily really good last year and played Tennessee really tight. However, since it is a secret scrimmage, don’t expect any video from this one or for much to come out.


    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 Florida Gators take the field during the first half as the Florida Gators defeat the LSU Tigers 27-19 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida. October 6th, 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?