Weirdness Cubed

[DRU2012]

That's the way I'd characterize our season in particular, after 3 weeks; And really, similarly, for the whole of NCAA College Football 2018 thus far: Week by week now, the "weirdness" has been building. In a manner described in mathematical terms as "geometric" or "logarythmic"--week by week increasing in rising multiples of its own baseline strangeness-of-performance and outcome. There appear just TWO standard assertions of order and regularity emerging:
(1) That practically ANYONE might win any particular game each week, and that ultimately one, just ONE team and program will live up to its "prohibitive favorite" status and continue to dominate...
(2) That ALABAMA will make it into and through the playoffs undefeated, to be National Champion once more.
In the case of our Florida Gators, the uncertainty manifests in the extreme. Looking ahead is futile: Between OUR OWN injuries, inconcistencies, and various ongoing unknowns, and those of our opponents--all changing, in both directions, each week--it is just impossible to accurately anticipate how we'll do against that WEEK'S opponent, let alone ahead, into and through the rest of our schedule.
So it is we find ourselves facing Tennessee in Knoxville next Saturday--and I won't even hazard a qualified GUESS as to how we'll fare, let alone the final score. I EXPECT Mullens and his staff to have us in the right frame of body, mind and emotional state--for us to come in composed, ready to perform well; so that IF we can rise above and make it OVER AND THROUGH the initial onslought of a Vols team riding the crazed support of that Rocky Top crowd, we should at least keep it close, acquit ourselves well and have a chance to still be in it at the end. That's about as optimistically "positive" as I can manage now: I (secretely) HOPE for more than that, and (in spite of everything I've seen so far and am saying here) will be frustrated and disappointed if we ARE close, in position to win, and don't.
There. I said it--even though I know, for all the reasons I outline (see and believe) above that it amounts to SETTING OURSELVES UP for "frustration and disappointment"! But we are Gator fans: It's what we DO.
A "New Day" is coming for our program. But it isn't here yet. There are bound to be setbacks and severe disappointments, between here and there.
In the meantime, we "ride the ride": Live the ups and downs, the joy and pain of all that is hidden, unexpected, sudden, and unpredictable--everything that drives us in either direction, all in turn colliding with that of the efforts and destinies of those we play, year in/year out facing a schedule especially chaotic in our league.
No one is just gonna lay down for us: Every ONE of them is trying to get better too--and beating US is still, always WILL be a "BIG DEAL".
But as for that, hell with it: Wouldn't have it any other way. Among the goals and overall attitudes I KNOW our Head Coach aims to instill in every player, as individuals, a team, a PROGRAM thru and thru, is one of, "It doesn't MATTER: WE simply aim to get better...Bring it! Give us what you got; We'll beat you because WE are strong, tough, ready, prepared and determined--If it comes down to a confrontation of who's got more and stronger of that and more, then "NO EXCUSES!!! That is EXACTLY who we have been/ARE TRYING TO BE!"
We are not there yet. But part of getting there is to constantly test yourself, see and know what's required, what's still missing. We'll TAKE "luck" and "flukes", ANY of the fun'n'crazy stuff that can sometimes come, help us win--but we don't wanna be a team that needs and relies on it. Rather we are planning and building to be a team that, week in, week out, puts itself in the best pisition to win--in the meantime do everything possible to learn, grow, and in the process, build a habit of winning. So yes, even though there'll likely be no Championships for us THIS season, there are winners and losers--and we still want to WIN!

 

[DRU2012]

Watching the replay of CSU-game here Sunday night, btw...and we'll need to keep an eye on Franks' performance early in the next one. You KNOW Mullens will be: The QB looked flat early again--I mean, between his questionable judgment and poor timing with receivers, the offense flailing to capitalize on field position opportunities handed to them by defense and special teams. SHOULDA had passing TDs on both early possessions, but thanks mainly to late- and/or under-thrown long balls to receivers breaking open in the endzone, came away with 3-pointers both times instead. COULD have begun the kind of change-the-outcome swings in attitude and momentum that feeds the underdog on the road, like the week before against UK, but fortunately I am aware that in truth the D and special teams CONTINUE to set us up, give Franks and our offense a chance to sharpen up, get their feet under them and eventually score TOUCHDOWNS, take control of the game. But that wasn't at all the seeming situation at the end of the first quarter: It LOOKED as if they may well have "taken our best shot", cooled out the Swamp crowd and begun driving the field.
Didn't go that way, obviously--we finally began to reap benefits in the 2nd qtr from establishing the running game in the first.
Easy to forget many of the details, what actually made a difference at the time...
Aside from the continued, even growing and EXPANDING problems with injuries on defense, on offense questions about Franks' composure and readiness at the start of games, one more COACHING-related issue might be raised: I KNOW we have some "playmakers" over there on offense...Can we get them more involved? We see these kids here and there, flashes of their potential, for example in sudden improvised scampers for first downs. Swane, Toney--Like to see these guys more often involved in plays designed to get them into the open field to "do their thing"...NOT that they needed it here in this one (which is a GOOD thing in terms of keeping certain potential "weapons" more "secret" ones)--but sooner or later, we will. And on D we're still missing slews of tackles.
Remember: this Rams team had just come back from down 27-9 in the 2nd half to Arkansas the prev week; they then come out in the 3rd qtr down similarly to us, and drive field to get back in it (or at least look like they're about to)...Our last and best/most important defender Chauncey Gardner gets knocked off the field, the CSU throws a nice long TD to the receiver whose route takes him right to the space created by Chauncy's exit. One more thing to keep an eye on, going forward, will be health in the secondary in general--and Gardner's health in PARTICULAR. (Hey, E--: Any word on the prospects for who we're getting back when, on defense???)
We're "early in the 3rd qtr, simply traded a possession each after they got that one TD.
The replay now jumps to the 3rd-to-4th qtr change, the crowd and team TOGETHER singing Tom Petty--and I KNOW it's all pretty much fun for us from here. Even after that "Pick-6" is taken away, you could somehow tell: We weren't especially bummed...Every Gator squad seemed confident, like, "If they don't score, don't worry, WE will!" Special Teams especially sharp, difference makers in this one. Blocks, run backs--you don't lose the games where they get BOTH.
Defense got in on it as well. Eventually Mullens will have us "a TOTAL team", from which point on our fate will truly be in our own hands--and week to week we will be very difficult to beat. We'll look like this against most teams, most games, week i, week out--and THAT will be fun to watch. As THIS one was/IS in the 4th qtr.
Gonna just settle back now. here and enjoy the rest.
It gets pretty tough, even nasty, from here in the weeks ahead: The Vols in Knoxville, then "the Mullens Bowl" against HIS old (and very talented, thanks to him vastly improved over their pre-Mullens standard), and beyond that even Vandy is clearly improved--had raised ITS standard of play and overall expectations in the SEC even BEFORE almost beating highly rated Notre Dame (as usual "OVERrated Notre Dame? Another discussion entirely) on Saturday in a game they prob SHOULDA won (their own mistakes and failures at key points late lost that game)...Gettin' into the meat of a typical SEC schedule now. You can't HAVE "off day" in our league!

 

[Escambia94]

I am not sure if this is weirdness or just the natural evolution of the SEC dominating college football. The SEC actually has 4 of the top quarterbacks in the country on top-10 teams! Tagovailoa, Fromm, Burrows, and Stidham at Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and Auburn also happen to be QBs on teams with top-10 defenses! Ohio State and Clemson happen to be built like SEC teams, but with the advantage of not playing SEC schedules. What this means is that those teams are grabbing all the victories, all the 5-star athletes, all the top transfers, and all the strongest linemen. Right behind those teams we have aTm, Mississippi State, and even Missouri as teams that can beat any non-SEC team in a bowl game. The rest of the 120+ teams are left fighting for scraps.

What does this mean for Florida? We have to be patient like Clemson and slowly build ourselves up. It took Dan Mullen almost a decade to build Mississippi State into the dangerous program that he handed off to Joe Moorhead. It took Dabo Swinney about as long to turn Clemson into a perennial national championship caliber team. Dan Mullen could repeat his empire building from Mississippi State using Sunshine State athletes and have his own version of Dabo Swinney's success.