Florida Gameday: HERE WE GO

[DRU2012]

Geez, these Saturday night Gator games are like to kill me...not so much the game itself this time, probably, but everything leading up to it. A full day of games all over the cable-box; guess I was still so game-starved comin' in I've been bouncing around the dial since mid-morning--and by now I'm kinda fried. Certain amount of confusion/ambivalence regarding who I'm rooting for, or oughta be, is part of it I suppose: It's good for overall strength-of-schedule, and fodder for eventual decisions towards the end of the season regarding who-gets-in, for SEC-teams to win against out-of-conference opponents, but I just find it really hard to cheer FOR the Tide, the Dogs, even Mizzou...the only game where I can without conflict root for the relative underdog is in the Auburn/Arkansas game--and Auburn is starting to catch the breaks and pull away in that one after a decent challenge mounted by the Razorbacks in the first half. Oh well, as "order is restored" here generally it seems across the South, I can tell myself "it's good for us, in the long run". 1/2 an hour or so to kick-off in The Swamp, and I guess we're all just about at the same place, emotionally, no matter how we arrived here: Time to TURN THE PAGE, go and have some fun out there, boys.

 

[awebbf5]

Lets go GATORS, time to show the country who we really are and how pissed off we are. FEAR US!!!!!!!

 

[DRU2012]

@awebbf5, (laughing)
Yeah, it took a certain self-control NOT to put this up too early--just so I could be nervously raggin' on everything I was seeing in OTHER coaches and teams all day long...

 

[DRU2012]

Lets go GATORS, time to show the country who we really are and how pissed off we are. FEAR US!!!!!!!

Right on. That really IS my frame of mind too--and hopefully a burnin' thing down deep in the players' guts goin' in, too.

 

[awebbf5]

Geez, these Saturday night Gator games are like to kill me...not so much the game itself this time, probably, but everything leading up to it. A full day of games all over the cable-box; guess I was still so game-starved comin' in I've been bouncing around the dial since mid-morning--and by now I'm kinda fried. Certain amount of confusion/ambivalence regarding who I'm rooting for, or oughta be, is part of it I suppose: It's good for overall strength-of-schedule, and fodder for eventual decisions towards the end of the season regarding who-gets-in, for SEC-teams to win against out-of-conference opponents, but I just find it really hard to cheer FOR the Tide, the Dogs, even Mizzou...the only game where I can without conflict root for the relative underdog is in the Auburn/Arkansas game--and Auburn is starting to catch the breaks and pull away in that one after a decent challenge mounted by the Razorbacks in the first half. Oh well, as "order is restored" here generally it seems across the South, I can tell myself "it's good for us, in the long run". 1/2 an hour or so to kick-off in The Swamp, and I guess we're all just about at the same place, emotionally, no matter how we arrived here: Time to TURN THE PAGE, go out there and have some fun out there, boys.

I kinda wanted WV to beat bama but then thought no, I want us to be their first loss. As bad as I hate Georgia I want them to win so the acc can't talk more smack about the SEC. Auburn is the only other sec team I kinda cheer for when their not playing us, so glad to see them win. I really really wanted to see Navy pull the upset but the depth chart caught up.

 

[DRU2012]

@awebbf5,
You know what was kinda strange, tho'? Here were the Wildcats, clearly much-improved and putting an SEC-style HURTIN' on an out-of-conference opponent to open their "new era", and the stands were near-empty in the 4th quarter. "FOLKS, ya need to ENJOY this sorta thing! Stay and have some rollicking fun with your team!" You don't go blase when you "hang half-a-hunnert" and more on someone. Oh well, they don't have much practice at this I suppose...but it won't be that common an experience, especially when they get to the SEC-portion of their schedule.
(Then again, our fans haven't been the "indestructible force" at home of late either...'Course, we've been less and less a team that stirs that kind of passion, either. That MUST change--on both counts.)

 

[DRU2012]

I kinda wanted WV to beat bama but then thought no, I want us to be their first loss. As bad as I hate Georgia I want them to win so the acc can't talk more smack about the SEC. Auburn is the only other sec team I kinda cheer for when their not playing us, so glad to see them win. I really really wanted to see Navy pull the upset but the depth chart caught up.

Pretty well agree right across the board--but you see what I mean about it doin' weird things to you. I found/find myself going back and forth about the action, what I find myself cheering for then alternately catching myself/re-rationalizing. At this point, I just wanna get to OUR thing, to HELL with all the rest. Let's clear ALL the BS out of the way! GO GATORS!!!

 

[DRU2012]

(Um, I'm on ESPNU, where the game is s'posed to be starting right about now--and no Gators/Vandals. WTF?)
(Btw: May turn out to be the best thing, the ONLY thing about them I can say this, but I DO like that team-name/identity: "Vandals". No doubt promises some lame mascot, but ya gotta like that IMAGE-potential...)

 

[awebbf5]

@awebbf5,
You know what was kinda strange, tho'? Here were the Wildcats, clearly much-improved and putting an SEC-style HURTIN' on an out-of-conference opponent to open their "new era", and the stands were near-empty in the 4th quarter. "FOLKS, ya need to ENJOY this sorta thing! Stay and have some rollicking fun with your team!" You don't go blase when you "hang half-a-hunnert" and more on someone. Oh well, they don't have much practice at this I suppose...but it won't be that common an experience, especially when they get to the SEC-portion of their schedule.
(Then again, our fans haven't been the "indestructible force" at home of late either...'Course, we've been less and less a team that stirs that kind of passion, either. That MUST change--on both counts.)

As someone who has been born and raised in Kentucky and lives in Lexington right now, the Kentucky fans don't support their football team and never have. It's all about basketball, they will say that they want a good football team, but they aren't supportive of them. They looked good but it was UT Martin.

 

[DRU2012]

...I keep checking over on ESPN Goal Line, just in case...No sign of a start yet over in the Swamp--so I guess the advertised start-time was off?

 

[awebbf5]

(Um, I'm on ESPNU, where the game is s'posed to be starting right about now--and no Gators/Vandals. WTF?)
(Btw: May turn out to be the best thing, the ONLY thing about them I can say this, but I DO like that team-name/identity: "Vandals". No doubt promises some lame mascot, but ya gotta like that IMAGE-potential...)

Lightning delay

 

[DRU2012]

Lightning delay

There too? Same thing in the Auburn/Arkansas game, as I'm sure you know...OK, that explains it--damn it all

 

[awebbf5]

Wait all year and now we have to wait longer. SMH, maybe during warmup Driskel looked so good they mistaked it for Lighting

 

[DRU2012]

As someone who has been born and raised in Kentucky and lives in Lexington right now, the Kentucky fans don't support their football team and never have. It's all about basketball, they will say that they want a good football team, but they aren't supportive of them. They looked good but it was UT Martin.

Sure, and you're right, it IS "only UTMartin"--but still seems an occasion to party with your team--opening day and they bust loose like that (and btw, we HAVEN'T exactly done anything like that to ANYONE it seems of late...oh, we pulled away in those early games against lesser competition last year, but even then didn't look all THAT impressive doing it--sorta warned what could happen when things started to pile up against us...I'll TAKE an offensive "coming out party" for the new offense, at this point...May not prove all that much, and we won't get a whole lotta credit for it if/when it happens ANYWAY, but damnit, I forget what a "rainbow" long-ball even looks like by our guys, and just wanna see a will-and-a-way to DO it--repeatedly, throughout the season, it's true, but that "long road begins with a single step", and now's the time and place to start, right?)

 

[DRU2012]

Wait all year and now we have to wait longer. SMH, maybe during warmup Driskel looked so good they mistaked it for Lighting

(laughing) Speaking of JD, and also another example of "mixed interests and ambivalent reactions", you see Jacoby Brisset bring NCST back to win at the end earlier? Now, of course we can't forget the whole "missed opportunity/timing is everything" nature of his leaving after JUST losing out to Driskel for the starter-role (where many disagreed about that, too). Don't need to recount that whole thing, but it was, still is ironic how things played out: Had he stayed, he steps in early last season, maybe leads us to a MUCH better season (ANY real offense would have won some, maybe MORE than "some" of those games , we don't go into a tail spin and even the put-upon Gator D doesn't begin to lose faith), the whole season goes a different way and Jacoby is by now the incumbent, JD the challenger who backs HIM up, etc etc...Right now I'm sure he's feeling like "It's all good, worked out for the best...", but no one can tell me that NC State has the kind of mojo/potential upside of being the star signal-caller for a resurgent Florida GATOR program. No 1-point come-back win over a team you were supposed to handle easily is gonna change that.
(Hey, isn't it "great" how now a gorram "Lightening Delay" gives us time to consider/kill time rehashing this sorta stuff? Like I wasn't ALREADY antsy here, waiting all day to get this thing teed up and rollin'...)

 

[awebbf5]

(laughing) Speaking of JD, and also another example of "mixed interests and ambivalent reactions", you see Jacoby Brisset bring NCST back to win at the end earlier? Now, of course we can't forget the whole "missed opportunity/timing is everything" nature of his leaving after JUST losing out to Driskel for the starter-role (where many disagreed about that, too). Don't need to recount that whole thing, but it was, still is ironic how things played out: Had he stayed, he steps in early last season, maybe leads us to a MUCH better season (ANY real offense would have won some, maybe MORE than "some" of those games , we don't go into a tail spin and even the put-upon Gator D doesn't begin to lose faith), the whole season goes a different way and Jacoby is by now the incumbent, JD the challenger who backs HIM up, etc etc...Right now I'm sure he's feeling like "It's all good, worked out for the best...", but no one can tell me that NC State has the kind of mojo/potential upside of being the star signal-caller for a resurgent Florida GATOR program. No 1-point come-back win over a team you were supposed to handle easily is gonna change that.
(Hey, isn't it "great" how now a gorram "Lightening Delay" gives us time to consider/kill time rehashing this sorta stuff? Like I wasn't ALREADY antsy here, waiting all day to get this thing teed up and rollin'...)

I was never big on Jacoby and think maybe the best all worked out even with the bad season we had last year. The thing that scares me a little is Grier didn't win the backup and I though he was supposed to be the real deal, it's almost like is he another over hyped JD? Hopefully JD will blossom and be great with Roper running the O, if Champ lets him run this offense. But back to Grier I thought he was so good he was going to maybe compete and be in the mix for the starting job.

 

[awebbf5]

Sure, and you're right, it IS "only UTMartin"--but still seems an occasion to party with your team--opening day and they bust loose like that (and btw, we HAVEN'T exactly done anything like that to ANYONE it seems of late...oh, we pulled away in those early games against lesser competition last year, but even then didn't look all THAT impressive doing it--sorta warned what could happen when things started to pile up against us...I'll TAKE an offensive "coming out party" for the new offense, at this point...May not prove all that much, and we won't get a whole lotta credit for it if/when it happens ANYWAY, but damnit, I forget what a "rainbow" long-ball even looks like by our guys, and just wanna see a will-and-a-way to DO it--repeatedly, throughout the season, it's true, but that "long road begins with a single step", and now's the time and place to start, right?)

Lol yeah a rainbow long ball seems like its been banned for us.

 

[DRU2012]

(Occurs to me this could lead to a certain "awkwardness"...Told my girlfriend she could probably come by later, "certainly before 9pm", and have the better part of my attention, figuring the Gators would be in the 2nd half of a game well-in-hand by then...Um, that appears less and less likely here...Oh well, she knows about me and my "Gator thing", at this point)

 

[DRU2012]

Lol yeah a rainbow long ball seems like its been banned for us.

Hell, the way Muschamp has hand-cuffed our (less-than-imaginative OR adventurous) OCs last few seasons, it more or less HAS been "banned"!

 

[awebbf5]

A gator win with offense that looks like out of this world and a Oklahoma State upset would make this a great Saturday!