"Talk of the Town": Keep the faith, Gator Fans

[O-town Gator]

In an earlier post today, I used a quote from the late Gertrude Stein: "A rose is a rose is a rose".

No matter how ugly or how close the score turned out to be, Florida won on Saturday - notice my emphasis on that word - but based on my random lurking on other Gator sites, with all the rants and accusatory fingers being pointed you would have thought the results were the same as the Ole Miss loss last year.

You know, I have to give Urban Meyer HUGE props for this win besides some of our players. When the going gets tough, the tough get going - and it takes toughness, an ability to think on one's feet and resilience for somebody to make the best of a really bad situation. In spite of the flu going around the Gator locker room, the injuries which have depleted our wide-receiver depth chart and the poor officiating by referee Penn Wagers, Coach Meyer found a way for this team to come out ahead, and we managed to come away with a victory, keep a 5-0 win streak against the Vols going, leave Lane Kiffin with egg on his face after all his pre-season trash talk as well as having prevented him from singing Rocky Top all night long like he was boasting about, and finally took the lead in this rivalry series.

Yet Gator Nation still isn't satisfied, and the meltdown still goes on.

I've seen fans pointing fingers at Steve Addazio for the way the offense performed, some fans panicking over recruiting since many prospects were in attendance in The Swamp on Saturday, know-it-alls demanding a pro-style offense, and the usual jaded attitudes over this team not having put up more points in our margin of victory.

Once again for old time's sake, we WON the game in spite of some of the bad karma, for lack of a better word, surrounding our team right now. That in itself speaks for the toughness Coach Meyer has instiiled in this team, the unity and unselfishness of our players, the strong leadership we have, and the will to win. That same attitude and spirit will help carry us through the rest of the season - I have faith in these kids in that they will overcome the present adversity and wind up even stronger going forward - how about you?

 

[JvilleJohnny]

I think in many ways this will have the same effect as the Ole Miss loss last year. A wake-up call to say that yes, the Gators can get beat. Given that the flu going around will be cleaned up quickly, I expect next week to be much better. especially for Demps, and if he plays, Deonte Thompson. The tennessee game was the Tebow show, it'll be better when the RBs and WRs start to get a rhythm. Hernandez gets his number called more. I think right now its all about rhythm, getting the offense more used to the Banzai package..(i think it should be called the Wild Blue, just sayin..).. but i think the gators will be just fine. :gator:

 

[Leakfan12]

Whose demanding the pro styled offense? Well I admit it does feeling like a loss though it was a win. Well beat UK and they have a bye week before going to Baton Rouge.

 

[O-town Gator]

Just this morning, I find out Kiffykins is shooting his mouth off again over the fact that we kept the game conservative for a reason - then he makes a cheap shot at Coach Meyer about an "excuse" that some of our players were sick with the flu, which was true - hey Lame, if you want to get reprimanded by Commissioner Slive again, be my guest. Even Tommy Tuberville at ESPN thinks that was bad form on Kiffykins' part, based on his comment during ESPNU's College Football Live show this morning.

Coach Meyer made it clear that our immediate goal this season is to get to Atlanta - and that means winning our SEC slate to defend our East division title. The BCS is on the backburner until we can get back to Atlanta, so those fretting over "style points" should get over it. With only three weeks into the season, it's still way too early to predict the final outcome of the season - and if it's meant to be, things will fall into place for the Gators to get to Pasadena. Right now it's one game at a time, and when all is said and done it's the "W" that counts - no matter how impressive or ugly getting that win may be.

Yes Johnny, there were some chinks in our armor that were exposed on Saturday, but you can count on our coaching staff to make necessary adjustments once all the game film has been reviewed. We did well with the personnel we had on hand, and there was no need to take unnecessary chances that could have been costly to us. If the sports media wasn't impressed, to hell with them as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Gretzky_99]

Yes, i saw the comments from Lame on the news.. Given the fact i live in Knoxville, i hear and see way too much of the clown. I grew up in Tampa, following the Lighting. The year we won the Cup, coach Torts favorite phrase was, Safe is death. Play to win, not just not to lose. That's what Kiffin should have done. But, he chose to run a conservative offense. When you are down, you have to make big plays, not wait around for someone else to make mistakes. He did not... I am sure Meyer is keeping a mental notebook of his comments. When we come back next year with Brantley, and he is still saddled with a slack-jaw qb, it will be game on.