South Carolina 17, Florida 12 Postgame

[travisduncan]

The Florida Gators have not had a losing record in the SEC since 1986 and haven't had this many league losses since 1979.

The Gators finished up their SEC schedule with a win/loss record of 3-5 Saturday afternoon in Columbia. The Gators won't get a chance against another SEC team until 2012.

The Gators, in a way, lost the game in the first half where they gave up 160 yards on the ground. They also were not able to turn Red Zone trips into touchdowns.

"Three ball games and we have had our opportunities," said Will Muschamp.

"Comes back to turnovers, and critical errors especially when you have to make plays and when you're in a field goal game. We just have to execute in those situations."

The Gators had one touchdown to show for three entries into the Red Zone. Two first half fumbles didn't help the Gators gain momentum offensively. John Brantley finished with 119 yards on 13 of 21 yards passing.

One positive note was Chris Rainey who rushed for 132 yards on 17 carries following an ankle injury. But a miscommunication between him and Brantley allowed a six yard sack by Melvin Ingram and essentially helped kill the Gators last meaningful drive and chance to win the game.

The Gators did very well against the pass, allowing a season-low 84 yards Saturday afternoon but gave up 215 yards on the ground.

Up next for the Gators is Furman at home next Saturday, followed by Florida State at home Nov. 26 and then possibly a Bowl game.

 

[DRU2012]

The Coach WANTS to shoulder the responsibility, take the heat and absorb the brunt of the criticism--but he is also really down, really angry and fed up--and just plain sick-of-losing--as sick of it as any of us, from what I saw there.
He knows we should be winning these games, even with the under-manned and over-matched squad we've got right now. By his own count, that's "3 we shoulda won" of the last 4 losses--and I'm not sure which one he's leaving out: besides the 2 "No. 1's out of the SEC West", seems to me we "shoulda/woulda/coulda" won every one of our subsequent contests.
Sure sounds even worse, this season's result, when you reduce it to the particular historical stats that you did above. I guess all I ask is two things from everyone in Gator Nation now, one for today and one for tomorrow:
For now, remember that we never expected this to be more than a "transition year", at best, coming in, and that it has become more and more clear that even THAT was a complete illusion, foisted on us by the last regime AND our own blindness, misinformation and self-delusion (we were used to winning, and SO ready to believe "happy lies"). This whole season has been, on one level, a process of realization and hard-won wisdom and insight, a time of painful growth and a burning away of the lies we were told and the lies we told ourselves--an abject lesson in that Nitzchean proposition, "What does not kill me makes me stronger". It has been no less true for our team, those members who will be part of its future, which is actually part of what should give us hope, make us better next year and beyond. Our "crash-course to the future" has already begun.
As for that future, I ask you to reserve judgement, at least. Don't join the crowd jumping from one blind bandwagon of front-runners and onto the even more sense-restricted one filled with angry, hate-filled fools careening back down into the valley-of-ignorance from whence they came in the first place, back BT (Before Tebow). Give Coach Boom and Co. that minimum of 2 more years that Foley is going to give them no matter what ANYWAY--give them at LEAST that much time to gather the team they envisioned when they got here and let them show what they can begin to really accomplish with it. I believe there'll be a lot more hope AND more wins next year, exciting if uneven performances as they form up and become a team over the course of the season (as I say: NO one will want to face us by this time NEXT year), and the start of our real emergence into unrelenting success and elite status the year after that. I can't promise a National Championship by 2013, but I expect us to be right there in the thick of things by then--and to be one of the handful favored for it each year thereafter. Something worth waiting for, don't you think?

 

[miltongator]

The cupcakes at the front of the schedule gave me a false set of expectations. Now, reality has reared its ugly head like a slap in the face. In the immortal words of Dr. "Bones" McCoy", "Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor not a miracle worker!"

 

[miltongator]

But I digress.