What happened to the D?

Seriously were they supposed to be good and you saw them get smoked on two deep passes that went for touchdowns, allowed a 29 run yard on 3rd and 23, and overall allowed 645 total yards which is the most allowed in Gator history. They better fix it because the opponents will watch game film and possibly exploit the Gators D unless Muschamp fixes it. I'm not on the fire Muschamp bandwagon yet. I know if the Gators lose to UT, more than likely I will be.

I'm not on the fire muschamp bandwagon , I'm actually driving it

Leakfan12 said:

Seriously were they supposed to be good and you saw them get smoked on two deep passes that went for touchdowns, allowed a 29 run yard on 3rd and 23, and overall allowed 645 total yards which is the most allowed in Gator history. They better fix it because the opponents will watch game film and possibly exploit the Gators D unless Muschamp fixes it. I'm not on the fire Muschamp bandwagon yet. I know if the Gators lose to UT, more than likely I will be.

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I wasn't aware of those stats--but "the eye test" said enough yesterday to tell us pretty early what those numbers "prove" analytically: As more than one of us said in-game (and all of us must face, by now), DEFENSE is supposed to be our Head Coach's forte, is what he himself takes personal responsibility for, and what even our detractors expected to be very good, based on our personnel alone. But what do we see out there? All those breakdowns--and watching our Head Coach grilling his players angrily after-the-fact each time (freaking out, actually) is getting real old. They're your guys, Will: You and your DC got 'em, taught 'em, prepared and installed a game plan, and only a combination of deficient planning and deficient execution produced those results. Oh yes, and a now regular failure to properly adjust between halves. That's called "poor coaching".
Not so sure about Roper and the offense--I mean, he's stuck with a DEvolving QB (who keeps coming up shorter than the continually lowered-expectations that are revised for him--and I don't think Muschamp would LET our OC sub Harris as starter unless Driskel were knocked out of there) who cannot throw long ("long" being anything past about 15 or so yards requiring something called "trajectory"), and a core of WRs all of whom except for one now are 50-50 likely to bat those "accurate within 15 yd." balls away like a volleyball strike. I THINK he might have the goods at OC, so I'll reserve judgement on that hire, but still: We didn't run the ball, begin to assert control and wear them down early when we had a lead (and we DO have a strong bevy of RBs), use those RBs to slow things down (and "take control" AND "wear them down") when things started going sloppy/crazy in the 2nd qrtr, still tied and having gotten the ball back--of course, when given ANOTHER (what turned out to be our LAST) chance late in the half, JD promptly "handed off to the opposition" in that pathetic "unforced-error". Neither did Roper's offense adjust and respond between halves, though admittedly I don't think he had the tools for the required passing attack in any event. Maybe that's the way he figured it, too.
Point of the above re-hash? COACHING CHANGE time--and all the changes that will bring, all the time it could take, and NO guarantee that THIS one will be anymore successful than the last. That's why we don't go into this lightly, and why we make the case clearly before we do. But we're there, I think.

Sorry awebbf5, I was on the bandwagon 2 years ago. So, it HAS to be my turn to drive.

DRU2012 said:

I wasn't aware of those stats--but "the eye test" said enough yesterday to tell us pretty early what those numbers "prove" analytically: As more than one of us said in-game (and all of us must face, by now), DEFENSE is supposed to be our Head Coach's forte, is what he himself takes personal responsibility for, and what even our detractors expected to be very good, based on our personnel alone. But what do we see out there? All those breakdowns--and watching our Head Coach grilling his players angrily after-the-fact each time (freaking out, actually) is getting real old. They're your guys, Will: You and your DC got 'em, taught 'em, prepared and installed a game plan, and only a combination of deficient planning and deficient execution produced those results. Oh yes, and a now regular failure to properly adjust between halves. That's called "poor coaching".
Not so sure about Roper and the offense--I mean, he's stuck with a DEvolving QB (who keeps coming up shorter than the continually lowered-expectations that are revised for him--and I don't think Muschamp would LET our OC sub Harris as starter unless Driskel were knocked out of there) who cannot throw long ("long" being anything past about 15 or so yards requiring something called "trajectory"), and a core of WRs all of whom except for one now are 50-50 likely to bat those "accurate within 15 yd." balls away like a volleyball strike. I THINK he might have the goods at OC, so I'll reserve judgement on that hire, but still: We didn't run the ball, begin to assert control and wear them down early when we had a lead (and we DO have a strong bevy of RBs), use those RBs to slow things down (and "take control" AND "wear them down") when things started going sloppy/crazy in the 2nd qrtr, still tied and having gotten the ball back--of course, when given ANOTHER (what turned out to be our LAST) chance late in the half, JD promptly "handed off to the opposition" in that pathetic "unforced-error". Neither did Roper's offense adjust and respond between halves, though admittedly I don't think he had the tools for the required passing attack in any event. Maybe that's the way he figured it, too.
Point of the above re-hash? COACHING CHANGE time--and all the changes that will bring, all the time it could take, and NO guarantee that THIS one will be anymore successful than the last. That's why we don't go into this lightly, and why we make the case clearly before we do. But we're there, I think.

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Even Emmitt wants Harris to be put in there. So does our best receiver. (based on tweets) Speaking of receivers, perhaps they should use Dunbar only for KR and PR. Then he could concentrate on making the transition to defensive back (since being able to catch isn't in the job description on that side of the ball).

I just want everyone to remember that mushcamp did not call one time out during that 12 minute possession.

Oh wait, no Timeouts the entire game.

Just let that sink in........

Our HC is setting all kinds of records at Florida. Problem is, they're all negative. He's worse than Zook.

Dale J. Rodriguez said:

I just want everyone to remember that mushcamp did not call one time out during that 12 minute possession.

Oh wait, no Timeouts the entire game.

Just let that sink in........

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Wow. (I keep having these "THIS is the final piece-of-damning-evidence" moments--and then there's another, like this one!)

miltongator said:

Our HC is setting all kinds of records at Florida. Problem is, they're all negative. He's worse than Zook.

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Sigh...I'm afraid I have to agree at this point.
I "liked" Zook too, and he was "a fiery guy" as well; Will is even MORE "fiery" and driven on the sideline and (by all accounts) in the locker room, seemingly a real "leader-type right out of Central Casting". I liked him on a gut-level, Gator-to-Gator, that much more than Zook, too--but when it comes down to actual results, he turns out about that much LESS competent as HC! Guess it's safe to say that the two, charismatic enthusiasm and on-the-field success, aren't necessarily related in any way. I'm not gonna say that the former SHOULDN'T be a feature of the next Coach's personality, but for me, I guess maybe a "shut up, hunker down, and get the job done"-attitude would best sum up MY attitude now--and HANG your image, along with everything else that isn't program-progress-centric.

I will foolishly hang on to some hope that Will Muschamp will ignite this team into success starting with a beatdown at Tennessee. If the Tennessee game does not restore some hope in the Gator Nation, then expect Muschamp to be fired at the end of the season.

Some key things to note:

• Jeremy Foley has too much respect for Will Muschamp to fire him mid-season unless he commits a crime.
• Jeremy Foley is not only looking at victories as a metric of success, but ticket sales, donor support, and overall profit of the program.
• There are no major coaches on the market right now or at the end of the season. Charlie Strong will be at UTx for a few years. Steve Spurrier is not coming back to Gainesville. Art Briles is not leaving the state of Texas. Chris Peterson is not coming anywhere east of Pac-12 country. Neither of the Gruden brothers have any interest in coaching snot-nosed college kids. Mark Dantonio is the only name on the market that makes sense, but he is a defensive coach, like Muschamp.

Escambia94 said:

I will foolishly hang on to some hope that Will Muschamp will ignite this team into success starting with a beatdown at Tennessee. If the Tennessee game does not restore some hope in the Gator Nation, then expect Muschamp to be fired at the end of the season.

Some key things to note:

• Jeremy Foley has too much respect for Will Muschamp to fire him mid-season unless he commits a crime.
• Jeremy Foley is not only looking at victories as a metric of success, but ticket sales, donor support, and overall profit of the program.
• There are no major coaches on the market right now or at the end of the season. Charlie Strong will be at UTx for a few years. Steve Spurrier is not coming back to Gainesville. Art Briles is not leaving the state of Texas. Chris Peterson is not coming anywhere east of Pac-12 country. Neither of the Gruden brothers have any interest in coaching snot-nosed college kids. Mark Dantonio is the only name on the market that makes sense, but he is a defensive coach, like Muschamp.

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So, you're saying that we'll have to endure yet another season with this staff? I will always be a Gator, but......if this staff hangs around for the rest of this year AND next, I will have to alleviate the frustration and grief in some manner. At this point, I can't imagine not watching the Gators play on Saturdays, but it could come to that. I'm too frustrated and demoralized to even think about it.

miltongator said:

So, you're saying that we'll have to endure yet another season with this staff? I will always be a Gator, but......if this staff hangs around for the rest of this year AND next, I will have to alleviate the frustration and grief in some manner. At this point, I can't imagine not watching the Gators play on Saturdays, but it could come to that. I'm too frustrated and demoralized to even think about it.

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Get ready for a long, frustrating season, mg, 'cause I'm afraid that only some kind of 5 or 6 game stinkarama gets Willchamp fired before season's end. I'm trying to armor myself too. I've already reached the "consciously no longer that emotionally invested"-stage--tho' I really resent even having to go there this early on. Essentially cheated out of this season practically from the OPENING Kick Off of Game One...Let's face it: We can already be sure that (the k o in the cancelled 1st game) was the year's high-point.

DRU2012 said:

Get ready for a long, frustrating season, mg, 'cause I'm afraid that only some kind of 5 or 6 game stinkarama gets Willchamp fired before season's end. I'm trying to armor myself too. I've already reached the "consciously not longer that emotionally invested"-stage--tho' I really resent even having to go there this early on. Essentially cheated out of this season practically from the OPENING Kick Off of Game One...Let's face it: We can already be sure that (the k o in the cancelled 1st game) was the year's high-point.

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Sad, but true.

I just feel defeated already. The ky game was exciting I will probably see another one when I go to vandy, kinda glad the wlocp trip got cancelled. The season already feels like last year. To kill a snake you cut the head off. Just sayin

@awbbf5,
Yeah, man--ya just have to look at it from the "hang with fellow Gators", support/cheer for our team (not THEIR fault, they fight on for us, etc.) POV, and MAYBE enjoy a small taste of what "winning" feels like--don't wanna forget that taste entirely, like the last how ever many games last season and however many we're sure to lose from here on out THIS time. And when we do lose, even against a team that we should steamroll (maybe ESPECIALLY when we lose against such a team--and we will, count on it, perhaps several times), we now truly CAN tell ourselves, "Well, there can be no doubt, no wriggling out of the change that now must be on its way..."
Really: At this point, I'm more worried that things'll turn out just "good enough" to maybe we DON'T make the change. I'm that disgusted with where we are and where we're headed, at the choices made and blind stubbornness displayed by this Head Coach. Mad at myself, too--at buying into his rationales, even making excuses for all the things I could see weren't working, even frustrated the HELL out of me each season since he got here. Not that it would have changed anything had I started screaming for his head immediately--or that I didn't have plenty of company who liked him and kept waiting for him to take us somewhere. I even came into this season thinking, "Maybe if he'd had Roper here from the start...", as if the failures at OC were almost solely responsible for our continued decline.
But it's the very fact that it seems clear we HAVE good-to-great players, that even Muschamp himself claimed "this is the deepest, most talented group since I got here by far", that in the end condemns him. It also requires we not forget to appreciate and somehow continue to support and welcome the good ones who stay, work and try hard--and HOPE they are many, ready to stand with us: stay and not lose hope themselves. This will be an even tougher road for them.

Escambia94 said:

I will foolishly hang on to some hope that Will Muschamp will ignite this team into success starting with a beatdown at Tennessee. If the Tennessee game does not restore some hope in the Gator Nation, then expect Muschamp to be fired at the end of the season.

Some key things to note:

• Jeremy Foley has too much respect for Will Muschamp to fire him mid-season unless he commits a crime.
• Jeremy Foley is not only looking at victories as a metric of success, but ticket sales, donor support, and overall profit of the program.
• There are no major coaches on the market right now or at the end of the season. Charlie Strong will be at UTx for a few years. Steve Spurrier is not coming back to Gainesville. Art Briles is not leaving the state of Texas. Chris Peterson is not coming anywhere east of Pac-12 country. Neither of the Gruden brothers have any interest in coaching snot-nosed college kids. Mark Dantonio is the only name on the market that makes sense, but he is a defensive coach, like Muschamp.

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So it would seem on first look--even after several looks...But there is THIS:
We have as much money as ANYONE, more than most. An amazing campus, the very best facilities--and despite the whining bs of the haters, what any more-than-pre-conceived and/or cursory consideration makes obvious is among the most rabid, loyal and supportive fan bases in college football--Huge, too: It ain't called Gator NATION for nuthin'. Now is the time to break open the Mutant Giant Boar (as opposed to "Piggy") Bank, press every button, call in every back-room favor, deal and debt, decide on who we want and NEED, then pull out all the stops and GO GET HIM.
It is that time.
(And the fact that it probably won't, can't happen 'til the end of the season only means we HAVE time--to figure it out and go thru' whatever Byzantine arrangements have to be made in order TO "Get it done".)

We may have a lot of money, but which coach and coaching staff can swoop right in and turn this around in a year? The closest one I can think of is Mark Dantonio of Michigan State. Back in 2005 there was a dearth of young, talented coaches that could assemble good coaching staffs. In 2015 this will not be the case.

Will Muschamp will be a good head coach one day. UF is a tough assignment for a first-time head coach. I can be patient with him, because he has fixed some of the underlying problems that got out of control under Zook and Meyer--the locker room issues and off-season criminal behavior. He cannot fix the marijuana problem, but he has handled it well. The stellar recruits and depth will come, but those rarely, if ever, come in year 1-4 of a coaching assignment. Success in years 1-4 usually come due to a steady changeover from one coach to another where only a few coaches swap out. Florida swapped out 90% of its coaching staff between Meyer and Muschamp, and had several years of issues that are just now being ironed out. Firing Muschamp now will be bad unless we retain 90% of the coaching staff and just swap out the head coach--assuming the head coach is the problem. I am not convinced that Muschamp is the problem. I will give him this year to prove that he belongs in the coaching seat in 2015.

Losing to Alabama sucked, but we were not expected to win, nor did we need that win as much as we need wins in the SEC East. If Muschamp fails us in SEC East games over the next several weeks, then I will join you in the "fire Muschamp" bandwagon.

Sorry, E-, but I'm past, WAY past your admittedly "reasonable" projections...the patient needs major surgery--and though it will require time and planning, there is no longer an unlimited amount of either left for any kind of "optimistic prognosis", even if we "get it ALL right" this time.
As I referred to above, I already made the very same arguments and excuses for our HC along the way--was making them right into the 2nd half of the UK game, in fact. Briefly, paragraph by paragraph in your response:
Yes, it's a tough road at a tough time. I don't have answers right off hand, and want to hear everyone's ideas--there don't appear to be easy or obvious ones. That's EXACTLY why I place the whole "Who are we?!!"/"We've got money, power, all the essentials AND intangibles, time to DO something with them!" issue front and center now. No use making excuses in advance: "What can we DO?", not "Why we can't do this or that..."
I don't know if Will Muschamp will ever be "a good Head Coach one day"--He just didn't get the job done here and now--and I would have "bet the house" he could and would when he got here. We were all there, I followed and understood, STILL see and understand what was and wasn't within his control. So I'm not pointing fingers, bemoaning the choice or rehashing what went wrong at this point: Doesn't matter, from a practical, forward-looking POV. All that "MATTERS" for us now is where we go next, and what we do to head there.
(Interestingly enough, btw, and tied in with not only your point but the whole pending debate about "who's out there" is the job facing Charlie Strong here in Austin, and how his approach seems an even more drastic version of Muschamp's attitude and methods regarding reestablishing responsibility and discipline, hopefully "self-discipline" on the part of his players and the team he is trying to restore/rebuild...Another DEFENSIVE-specialist taking the "high/hard road"--and as the guy mentioned most often in "if only", "can't do it now" and "what might have been" terms, it's possible to imagine EITHER scenario: That it would have gone the same in any case (and may well still, for him here), or MAYBE that BOTH programs, thru' timing and circumstance, got it wrong, that each man was more suited for, "natural fits" at the OTHER school, Will at UT and Charlie at UF. We'll never know...but that TOO is part of my point here: IT DOESN'T MATTER now. We gotta deal how things are, what's ahead of us. And I'm NOT convinced that there just isn't a "right move" out there; haven't heard one yet, not even close--but that's why it's time to think in terms of who and what would be the best for us--THEN worrry about if and how to get it done. "No matter what it takes" has to be the catch-phrase, once we get there though.)
As for the last paragraph there, well, I have heard too many versions of that , more and more often as Will Muschamp's tenure has ground on...Never said it myself until now, and here is how I'd put it:
If we were to come close to winning-out, win the games against less-talented teams easily and take, say, all but ONE of the remaining "rival games" against supposed "powerhouse" teams (LSU, Georgia, and FSU), lose one of 'em in a close, hard-fought battle, well, I suppose that would constitute "pulling us back from the brink"--and suggest that I, along with many others, had panicked, "freaked" too soon. Thing is, I don't think it'll take very long to break THAT set of conditions, do you? Meanwhile, I think we all agree that any change wasn't coming anytime soon ("soon" being the next 5 or 6 games, or perhaps more likely not at ALL mid-season--for all the reasons you give, and more.
Sorry, man. I totally respect your views and opinion, your intelligent and rational analysis in general--but I just am further along the "bummer curve" I think this time than you.
I STILL really hope that it is ME that has to back off, ultimately concede my "loss of faith". But by now I HAVE to be where I am, begin to accept and turn-the-page. Hoping for better, wishing it were otherwise is just too painful, a kind of "slow-death" I can't, won't live with. We all care about our team and program that much--and that's what I have to do to carry on: Turn my back on what has been and (I think) is coming, and look to where we can one day be, and focus on what we need to do to get there. That's MY way, ironically I guess, of "Looking ahead with hope".

E I agree with your logic, but I still think he will be out. I do not see us winning the SEC east unless drastic changes are made.

Dale J. Rodriguez said:

E I agree with your logic, but I still think he will be out. I do not see us winning the SEC east unless drastic changes are made.

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Yeah, when you just simply put it that way, "winning the SEC East" seems like an absurdly distant possibility. Feels like SEASONS, not "days", since I still harbored that hope myself. Idea that "it is still in our own hands", while true, appears to have about the same likelihood as a long pass from Driskel to anyone-but-Robinson (1) accurately hitting the receiver in-stride, and/or (2) that player actually holding onto the ball when it counts. So what "drastic changes" do YOU envision changing that, Dale? I mean it: Setting aside "what's most likely to happen" or get done for practical/realistic reasons, what do you envision, no matter how difficult, unexpected or off-the-wall, that would change your outlook as to our chances at such a quick-change reversal-of-fortune for this team?