Where are we at, Gator Nation?
Many words come to mind, but none of them pleasant. You watched our game with Miami and all you could do was sit there and shake your head and wonder if we could call a decent play or catch a break on offense. None of that happened. The one thing this weekend did was prompt me to write this missive. Life gets busy, so whether you noticed my considerable absence from the Gator Nation in recent months or not….or the fact that I didn’t produce anything for the start of football season…is probably not high on your list of things to manage. Well, it wasn’t on mine either. Let me ‘splain.
I was very frustrated at our lack of ability to show up for a BCS Bowl after a hard fought season, I was equally miffed at our basketball team for blowing the SEC Tournament Championship….and…really…mainly…I just made a conscious choice to spend more of my free time with the family after being gone a year for deployment. It was needed and still is, but I’m at a better point now with balancing life after 9 months of being back in the swing of everything. I didn’t miss writing this blog or doing the research necessary to write this blog. It was kind of nice. NOW…however…I recognize that it’s time to get back in the swing of things. For those who had no clue I had even fallen off the map, no worries, you probably encompasses the largest majority so balance in the world was maintained.
That said, I was highly charged during basketball season when I thought we had a Final Four team. We almost did and then reality came crashing in hard with Michigan in the Elite Eight. Our periodic, big time no shows during the season didn’t help either. I was not at all convinced our football team would be as advertised. I didn’t think we had the long ball receivers and I really didn’t think, even with our depth that we could have a power running football team that would bowl everyone over in the SEC. Having watched two games now this season, I would say our defense is pretty darn good and going to get much better. Our offense is not bad, but we have no deep threat receivers and, let’s face it, Jeff Driskel is solid, but not great. Solid could work for us except for one glaring point….our play calling on offense is abysmal.
I did not expect much in the Toledo game. I expected a majority of rushing plays right up the middle and with almost 50 run calls, that’s what we received. I did expect more during the Miami game and, truthfully, we did get more. Just very little of good. I have never been sold on Muschamp‘s bill of goods with this team. He has stuck to his principles and has been upfront about what he wants to do as a coach. I can’t fault him for that. Of course, you and I both know that we want more and in his 3rd year we expected more. We at least expected 40 points against Toledo. I’m guessing a paradigm shift is in order which means I need to start enjoying our defense more since that is what our team image is gonna be. I’m probably not going to get too many kickoffs returned for touchdowns this season either.
So waa, waa, waa. I think I’ve got it all out of my system now. Time to get focused on Gator football and the rest of this season. Join your local Gator Club for your weekly Gator games where Victory is best served with Gators! ’nuff said…for now.
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- Florida Gators: The defense deserves better (isportsweb.com)
- 18 Reasons Why Gators Fans Are the Worst (blogs.browardpalmbeach.com)
- Florida vs. Miami: Score, Grades and Analysis (bleacherreport.com)
The Gator Narrator 
Welcome back! The defense will be fine, the offense looks improved yet Driskel is still making dumb mistakes in critical situations. The offensive line that was supposed to be deep and a team strength didn’t look like it, especially against a mediocre Cane defense. It will be a tough season and might as well accept we’ll take our lumps this year and maybe next year will be our year. Go Gators!
Thanks. I was less than pleased at how hard it was to run up the middle on the ‘Canes defense. Of course, we rarely stretched the defense. Miami only played to stop the run. We could have done quite a bit of damage on swing passes. That doesn’t negate the fact that we have no long ball threats. I see a repeat of last year….only we’re not doing a great job on the turnover margin to this point. Will be an interesting year.
Driskel threw for almost 300 yards and if not for the turnovers in the redzone the Gators would have won going away. Sadly the game reminded me of the Georgia loss. I see improvements in Driskel’s accuracy and in the receivers, but Jeff is still making poor decisions under pressure and in key situations. That doesn’t bode we’ll.
Like I said…he’s solid. He’s not great. The problem overall is that we had to go with Driskel last year because he was mobile. I always thought Jacoby Brisset was going to be the better QB in game time. Doesn’t matter. He’s at NC State. Driskel is the guy we are going with at this point….which makes recruiting top tier receivers a problem this year.
Welcome Back Patrick, we’ve missed you. I was just wondering if your messages were somehow going to my Junk mail since I hadn’t seen your posts. Now i know what happened. Thanks for your insight, it’s always fun to read!
Many thanks for the kind words. See you in two weeks!!