Gator Misery

This is delicious. There's no bigger Gator sunshine pumper than Pat Dooley which makes this piece so much more tasty.

PWD

Florida Review

So, it has been three days and 300 miles.  I did re-watch it, but didn't get too much more from the experience, except the abject joy of seeing disappointed Gator fans leaving the stadium.

The Good:

• The defense.
• Honk your horn if you sacked Brantley Saturday night.
• Jarvis Jones, honk your horn a bunch.  
• Bullgoat sized balls on three different must have play calls: Two fourth down TD passes and Murray's first completion in 10 attempts for first down to keep a drive alive.
• A manhood robbing 9 play, 58 yard, 5:32 drive to end the game.
• Give Richard Samuel a high four for his best rushing game, not statistically, but actually, of his career.  He ran hard, with purpose and looked to punish the defense.  That is what we've been looking for from you Mr. Samuel.  
• Offensive line's run blocking.  
• Aaron Murray running the football.
• Michael Gilliard quietly leading the team in tackles. Again.
• The defense. 
• Georgia playing like they own the series, probably for the first time since 1989.

The Bad:

• Drew's punting.  Gotta have you back, big guy.
• Allowing a TD on 4th and 19.  Ogletree had a monster game, but no way you can allow a receiver to get that open on that play.
• Falling for the one play you knew they would run to open the game.  Mad props on keeping it from happening again.
• QB and receivers not on the same page.  I get some of that is the clown cop car full of WRs we keep pulling into the stadium (we've had 17 players, approximately 1/5th of the roster, catch a pass this season; we have five guys with double digit receptions), however, when it happens on back to back plays from inside the opponent's 20, that has to be fixed.
• I toyed with putting Walsh's performance further down, but his problems are fixable.  He is getting plenty of leg on the ball, he is just pushing it right.  Consistently.  

The Ugly:

• Scary special teams play.
• Kickoff coverage.  Just have Walsh kick it out of bounds.  I agree with Blutarsky that it was worse on TV.  Guys didn't contain lanes, and even worse, ran to a spot on the field and stopped.  
• I miss Fabris [insert sounds of power puking]. 

I am sure I missed some good and bad stuff.  Overall, I am always happy with a win in Jacksonville.  To me the most impressive thing of this game was coaching.  We outcoached the Gators.  We played like a team that never thought it was going to lose.  We played hard, made defensive and offensive adjustments to win.

When is the last time you could say that at all?

TD

Random Thoughts on the Cocktail Party

Watching our special teams play was like watching a teenage cutter holding a box of Wusthofs. It was sad and gross to watch, yet the plot line would make a pretty decent Lifetime Movie with Meredith Baxter playing the role of Coach Richt. It was enough to make me miss Jon Fabris...a little.

But we won. And that's all that matters. After 17 trips to Jacksonville, I can tell you I've seen us play way smarter and lose.

And why did we win? Because the defense, which was a rolling shipment of fail last year, simply got dramatically better. The result -- If you have a few minutes to enjoy a cold beer and warm schadenfreude, read these Gator recaps from Orson Swindle and Run Home Jack over at EDSBS:

"You could give Charlie Weis a Garmin, fifteen Sherpas, a moving walkway made up of arrows saying "MARZIPAN FACTORY THIS WAY FREE SAMPLES" and the ball on the eight yard line and that piece of shit still couldn't find the end zone." - RHJ

"But don't say this is all necessary. It's not. Meyer's struggles in his first year got him to nine wins. [NAME REDACTED] learned and unlearned basic arithmetic on the job and still won seven games. This team will lose to Vanderbilt. This team will lose to South Carolina. This team will lose to Florida State, and they will miss a bowl game for the first time since the pre-Spurrier era. That is not good coaching. That's failure, and boring, depressing failure at that. At least fight James Franklin at the fifty when you're done losing to Vandy, Will, and thus give us something to cheer about." - OS

Honestly, I don't expect Weis to be back in Gainesville next year. Muschamp really can't fire the guy, but Weis has the career competence to look around and see that his QB situation isn't going to get much better (he's sampled the goods already). This is just a bad fit. The bad news...the Gators will be better off without him.

However, without Charlie's offensive reputation, there's the cold reality that the Gators' head coach is just a loudmouth ex-UGA player who is now 0-5 in Jacksonville.

And by the way ... going for it on 4th and 19 is an absolutely, positively stupid call. It doesn't matter that it worked. It's still such a galactically stupid call as to bring your entire thought process into question. Assuming there was a thought process to begin with.

See Also:
-- "If Weis is a Genius, then Addazzio was a Mastermind." - Orlando Sentinel


PWD

3 Questions Answered: Florida

On to the questions.

1. Will decided schematic advantage matter? No.  Hell, no.  I mean Jarvis basically called BS on it.  Grantham's adjustments in the second half were awesome.  For that matter the adjustments after the second drive were dead on (Florida had 152 yards at 7:34 in the 1Q; they had less than 70 the rest of the way).  Bobo's play calling was strong, again.  The two TDs on 4th down were exactly the right calls and to the right spots.  That sound you heard was Richt's cojones clanking together.  We showed up more prepared and with a better game plan.  When it the last time that has happened?
2. Can Aaron live down last year?  He had a serviceable game. There were some throws that were off, either because he or the receiver missed the route.  However, he never had the one WTF throw. I'll take it.
3. Will the defense handle the running game well?  Dude.  Just. Dude.  If you had told me we'd hold them to -19 yards rushing, I'd have bet my house on the game.  Outside of one Rainey run of 17 yards (that ended in a forced fumble), they had nothing.  The one bubble screen was the only time we seriously over pursued on a misdirection.  Very strong performance all around. 

I'll get to the special special team's play, which nearly cost us another game (hello, South Carolina), later.  Beyond that, we did what we needed to do.  It was very 2002, but we were on the other side of the score.

TD

CBZ Round Table on Georgia Florida

Kevin asks, I answer:

In what area do you see Georgia as having a specific advantage over the Gators? Passing offense vs passing defense.  The Gators have really struggled with Brantley out.  They weren't exactly world beaters, passing wise, with him in.  Murray has had his issues, but he is quite good when he is given a few seconds to make his reads.  I expect the Gators to come after him.  I also expect us to be able to exploit that with the TEs, RBs and quick routes like last week against Vandy.  Tyler Bray did a good job until Tennessee's lack of running game allowed the Gators to sit back and dare them to pass without Justin Hunter in the game.  We have more competent receivers than Tennessee and more plays designed to leverage that.

In what area do you see Georgia as being at a specific dis-advantage to the Gators? Individual big play threats on offense.  Hey, we've got very good play makers, especially Mitchell.  He will be individually as good as Rainey or Demps in a year.  At any given time, on any given play, at any given spot on the field, either of those guys can hurt you running or catching the ball.  We don't have that.

Give us one Georgia player that needs to play his best game of the season for Georgia to win this ball game (and why). Murray. The smart money would be on someone on defense, but I feel ok about them.  If Murray gets rolling, completes 60% of his passes and has one int. or less, I feel very good about our chances.  If he tops 325 yards, completes 65% of his passes, has 3+TDs/0ints and throws around 30 times, we win big.

Many thanks to Kevin at College Football Zealots for putting this together.

TD

3 Questions: Florida

This is a bit speculative, since I am writing it nearly a week early (due to being on a cruise during the whole week of Georgia-Florida).

1. Will decided schematic advantage matter?  Ignoring all evidence to the contrary, I don't believe in the Jacksonville curse.  I do believe Florida has consistently showed up more ready to play for the past 20 years.  Now, we come into a game where we have been doing a good job preparing and look to be a better team than Florida. Will that matter? We have to be able to run the ball, which is the Florida defense's 'weakness.'  Do that and we will be ok.
2. Can Aaron live down last year?  The 2010 Florida game was his worst.  Can he come out and play sound offense, deliver the ball well, and make good decisions?  
3. Will the defense handle the running game well?  Vandy has me nervous. Up until then, I'd have been very content with our game preparation and take our chances with Rainey, Demps, and Burton.  Now, I think it remains to be seen if we can correct the issues we have with misdirection and delay hand offs.  I feel good about slowing down Florida's pass offense, which you have to figure they will still try to establish.  I feel decidedly less so about playing soundly against their potent rushing threats.  Despite what we have seen the past few weeks from Florida, they aren't nearly as bad as they have looked.

A House Divided?

This isn't a house divided. This is a bad life decision.

TD

Jortastic

Warning: The following video isn't safe for those with any sense of decency due to the wide use white rap beats, bad fade haircuts, over-sized muffintops, men in body socks, flip flops with socks and the use of the color orange. Viewer discretion is demanded.

TD