OUCH! (Gators Banged Up BIGTIME in B-Bowl)

[DRU2012]

Just getting word in of rather high number of moderate-to-serious injuries for us in our Bowl game earlier today. Still haven't seen more than short stretches of game itself, so many of you may well have had a more complete view of this than me already, but aside from Treon's knee and shoulder (both of which I have only unofficial version that neither "looks serious", but he'll be going in for a "precautionary MRI" at Shands in the morning--anyone hears more, please share it with us), bulk of problems coming on defense, where we lost several starters in the secondary during game. With Ball and a couple of others already not playing due to injuries of varying severity, it looks like an unhappily largish portion of that defense will likely be rehabbing this Spring instead of fully a part of development, play and experience in the new system. With us losing one or two of our very best to the pros as well, well, we GOTTA hope things don't turn out to be as bad as they appear to be right now. Brantley and a couple of other linebackers messed up their knees. We HAD some depth there, it seemed, but not anymore, not at the moment. Damn! That WAS the side of the ball that looked to stay pretty solid, talent- AND depth-wise. There was some hope that healthy we might even be able to run fresh legs in all game, especially in the secondary; now we'll have to see. As things stand tonight, well, that E.Car QB just threw for 427 yds on us: With that short-D , we made another "pretty good quarterback" look like a Heisman candidate, at least on the stat-sheet. That just won't do.
Meanwhile, back on offense, still trying to find out more about Treon, and Adam Lane, who ran so well up until that helmet-on-ball fumble in the 2nd half, hurt his shoulder on the same play. He played on but was hurting, and is described as "got a banged up shoulder that will need some looking at"--and with Matt Jones leaving, it'll be him and Taylor back there. He hadn't had hardly any game time before today, and we're gonna need him next season; it'd be a good thing for him to be ready come spring.
Haven't gotten the impression (by the little of it I've watched so far OR by what anyone else has said) that it was a particularly "dirty" game, and beyond that, let's face it: Football's a rough game for EVERYONE, but the Gator squads of the last few years have seemed to have been especially "injury-prone", whatever that really means. Once again, can't help but at least wonder, in our hearts-of-hearts, "What the HELL is going ON?!!" I mean, I don't wanna point fingers at the strength-and-conditioning coaches, or anyone in particular, but short periods of such "outbreaks", flurries of injuries at one position or over a short stretch of time is one thing--but this sort of thing has been a steady problem all over the field for us for several YEARS now. Aw, hell, I don't know who or what to blame, even what I'm saying really...I just don't get it, and damn well wanna see it STOP.
(PS Officially "gone" now, as of final gun: Driskel to somewhere, Jones, Fowler & Humphries to the pros, and "new and notable" among the coaches, T. Robinson to join Muschamp at Auburn...re this last, there are those who worry about a "fall off" in recruiting S. Fla., but it's at LEAST a "break even" with Randy Fowler as far as recruiting--and I figure a net win when you figure in actual coaching.)

 

[Escambia94]

Not to defend or excuse ECU amassing all those yards, but that was the #1 QB-WR combination in NCAA history that Florida just faced and they ran 101 plays. For comparison, high tempo Oregon only tab 81 plays to FSU's 87 (Florida ran 71, which is still higher than the national average of 65).

Also in the CFP I have noticed that referees are heavily favoring offense in their calls, and I think it was downward directed in order to make this new CFP bowl format more successful. This new format just made Nike a bazillion dollars. ESPN, will invest $7.3 billion in CFP through 2026 -- $600 million per year to manage the product, similar to the NCAA’s March Madness.

In short, there is a lot of money for the CFP executives and the Power 5 executives that needs to be protected by letting offense be more exciting.

The injury tally seemed to be on par for a Muschamp team, which is probably why Coach Mac found a new S&C coach. You will see a difference next year with that unheralded hire.

 

[DRU2012]

Not to defend or excuse ECU amassing all those yards, but that was the #1 QB-WR combination in NCAA history that Florida just faced and they ran 101 plays. For comparison, high tempo Oregon only tab 81 plays to FSU's 87 (Florida ran 71, which is still higher than the national average of 65).

Also in the CFP I have noticed that referees are heavily favoring offense in their calls, and I think it was downward directed in order to make this new CFP bowl format more successful. This new format just made Nike a bazillion dollars. ESPN, will invest $7.3 billion in CFP through 2026 -- $600 million per year to manage the product, similar to the NCAA’s March Madness.

In short, there is a lot of money for the CFP executives and the Power 5 executives that needs to be protected by letting offense be more exciting.

The injury tally seemed to be on par for a Muschamp team, which is probably why Coach Mac found a new S&C coach. You will see a difference next year with that unheralded hire.

Man, I hope you're right about that last point (more on that in a moment).
As soon as you raised the cash-factor I got it, though--one more (HUGE) reason to build at least a decent, go-for-it offense to go with the "defense wins championships" ethos that seemed to blot out all else in the mind and plans that Muschamp and his various OCs (clearly hired to mainly SUPPORT that defense, after all). Under him, we were never even trying to do anything more than "get just enough points and shorten the game for our defense to win". In addition to being a loser's attitude to START with in modern major college football, it is a mark of how truly putrid and disorganized those offenses were, in order to lose late so often with the talent we had on the other side of the ball. No great advertisement for their coaching skill over there either, btw.
Hadn't had much inclination to really consider the rest, with my general unhappiness, frustration and disappointment with how this season and our place in the CFP's inaugural go-round turned out, let alone analyze it in the kind of depth you (typically) did here, E-. Now that I read and think it through with you though, I see what you mean: With our new Coach, the staff he's putting together, and the guys we have looking like they're about to blossom on offense (Treon, of course, Taylor, and Adam Lane now too, just for starters), we add a coupla WRs and some experience and depth on the line and maybe find ourselves catching the wave instead of swimming against it, as we've been doing under Muschamp and Co.
Now, about "Strength & Conditioning": We had two highly-touted S&C coaches in a row--and by coincidence or failure, one after the other they presided over the longest and worst stretch of serious and season-affecting injuries I have witnessed as a Gator. I just don't believe it IS all "coincidence", bad luck anymore. I don't know WHAT it is, what has to change, a few large and/or plethora of little things, and I don't CARE if or to what extent fortune plays its part--I only know that IT MUST CHANGE, and we gotta keep searching, making changes until it does. Then we go with that guy's program all the way, stick with it whether we understand it or not, as long as it works. And by "works" I mean of course that whoever presides over a program that gets and keeps us healthy, low on the number and severity of injuries, with minimal come-back times for the inevitable stuff that does happen, he's our guy. If there'll be those who say it's all luck, some sort of "statistical anomaly", that such an individual just "happens to be in the right place at the right time" when the numbers finally turn our way, I DON'T CARE! In this case, at least, call me superstitious: Whatever works.

(PS Word coming in tonight (Sunday) that we're getting Kirk Callahan in from UCF as our d-backs coach...He's a really good one, further filling out what is looking like a hot, creative young staff all around.)

 

[Escambia94]

One thing that the SEC needs to realize is that in order to win the national championship in the new playoff format, it will need to change the way it approaches the four phases of the football season: conference regular season, out of conference regular season, conference championships, and college playoffs. Conference games and the conference championship are the most important games, but out of conference games will become more important than before. We will need to schedule more games with the Michigans and West Virginias of the world and fewer games with directional schools. In the college playoffs SEC teams can no longer depend on defense to control the games, because the referees are not going to make the defensive calls.

I just added Kirk Callahan to the list. He was with the Gator coaching staff from 2010 to 2011, despite being a UCF grad.

 

[DRU2012]

@Escambia94,
I think your analysis is (as usual) pretty astute, E-. Still not sure if scheduling tough, big time nonconference opponents will turn out to look all that "smart" in certain years, like if that turned out to be your only loss--but it probably could turn out to be "necessary", at least in other years if you AREN'T undefeated, long as there are gonna be only 4 teams in the Playoff at any rate. Unless they win 'em all (in our case for example with the ongoing effort on to knock down the SEC's image--not helped by the East's regular season records OR the West's Bowl let-downs this time), even a major college program that hasn't been there lately (sound familiar?) may find itself wishing it had at least one or two "big wins" out-of-conference to grab the last spot.
Then again (in the much-maligned "I Told You So" Dept.), there is already growing talk (supposedly even among those in the Decision Committee's pool-of-members--they got squeezed between "old-guard power", down-to-the-wire competition and especially the TCU challenge this time around, caught pants-down in public) of expanding the format to 8 teams after the current contract elapses. The media loves the idea--especially ESPN, which went "all in" financially for the whole CFB slate in its current form, but there's huge money and interest in the move already, and long as it keeps making more and more $ that's bound to spread and deepen. It is being discussed as "more like a football version of March Madness" in terms of stretching it out in time, money and national interest. I've always thought that it was inevitable--just maybe not this quickly.