Here is "My Rant" concerning the rest of our schedule:
"One more time..." God knows everyone out there has given their view, gone over this territory, pointed fingers, offered their suggestions, criticisms, conclusions and/or considered opinions--and, btw, most of us here at GE were on THIS one practically from the start of this year, when we saw the danger signs even BEFORE they really started to deepen, snowball and become something that the statistics and our resulting ranking only highlights and accentuates: I am talking about our 114th-(or whatever it is currently) ranked offense that has become a bewildering embarrassment, even WITH all the injury- and continuity-problems along the O-line and lack of talent and depth at WR. Having lost only 1 game, and THAT just barely to our big border-rival thanks to six, count-'em SIX turn-overs, ranked right behind them now just outside the Top-5, the story is shared equally by an UNBELIEVABLE DEFENSE and an UNWATCHABLE OFFENSE... With all that's been said already, I'm gonna take one more pass at a subject that makes us ALL "Masters of the Obvious".
Here's the thing: I defer completely to our coaches, in the case of the offense especially Pease, who I believe has control and the long term plan to make ours a dynamic offense in its own right. I don't think for a moment that I know more about ANYTHING football-related than he or anyone on the staff, and am certain they see everything that has and is happening and have sharp and subtle ideas as to what to do and how to do it...I know we are limited in many ways, but I also suspect that we haven't shown or even TRIED everything available to us (I DON'T want to second guess them--plenty of that going around already, and frankly, I don't want to find myself in THAT crowd) and though I understand and agree with the "One game at a time"-principal, I also see we've got 2 games ahead at home against teams that are inferior to us in every way: If ever there were a time to pull out and work on a revamped offense, "under game day conditions", in getting ready to go on-the-road and try to beat our 10th-ranked bitter cross-state rival at their place in the climactic game of the regular season, this would be that time.
I don't mean to be naive, unreasonable, or part of that impossible-to-please "never-enough-Gator Nation", but I would like to see an effort made to break out of our "offense-heading-south"-mold...I want to see some sort of new approach on offense, even if that means taking some risks we HAVEN'T taken in getting to where we are now. When we get to Doak, I can and will accept a defeat that involves us trying to score some points and NOT just "hold on" from the word go. Look, (opinions to the contrary) I am NOT a loud-mouthed idiot or a blind fool: I'm NOT screaming for radical change to some "echo of high-flyin' days of old"...Just a bit of a shake up in approach, some wrinkles that help to open things up, use the way teams are now playing us BASED on our conservative predictability to surprise them, knock them back on their heels.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that "shake up" has to begin now, both for the sake of introducing uncertainties into the minds of that "future opponent", and for our OWN sake, of course--Again: maybe I'm wrong, but inexperienced young players being asked to do new things with a QB and 1st team they haven't been practicing much with will have a much greater chance at success come-the-event if they've had some in-game experience with it all before then, no?
We have the good fortune of schedule and situation to deal with a "problem" in a pro-active way. We can GET "there" from "here"--best-of-all with coaches who see "here" and "there" with real clarity and have the tools, plans and drive to pull it off. THEY saw that West Virginia game last night, too: With MUCH more defense than that Mountaineers team to begin with, just a little more offense can and should get it DONE.