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Not a Great Day For the SEC

DRU2012

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Not gonna belabor it--I mean, after OUR "Opener" in "Week 0", it's pretty damn clear it'll take a few weeks for MOST teams to hit full "Game Ready" status at kickoff. In fact, it all sorta makes me feel a LITTLE better about our own performance outta the gate against Miami: Maybe things aren't so hopeless for us after all: Certainly better to be 1-and-0 against what eventually will probably be a fairly tough squad than having dropped your opener to someone you figured to "tune up" on, a la Tennessee.
Gotta feel at least a little badly for Will Muschamp, though: It looked like he had his squad ready, in control a good part of the way--but somehow his charges stumbled and bumbled it all away to a seemingly better conditioned Tar Heels team that was just able to pick itself up in inspired fashion and take that game away in the 4th quarter. Come to think of it, didn't WE do the same thing, only MORE so to them LAST season? I guess I just hated seeing Mack Brown pull it off... I'm just not a fan of that man to begin with (as Steve Spurrier put it: " Oh, he's MISTER Football; He knows all there is to KNOW about the game--just ask him!")
Anyway, a weird and wacky opening to what may be a strange season overall ahead. For our part, it is important to somehow I think just to hunker down, play hard and careful, with patient determination over the next few weeks as we settle down and see what we got. At this point, I feel this is one year where HOW a win looks isn't the LEAST bit important. For now, all that matters is to go out there and GET the damn thing DONE. For now, "style points" should be the LEAST of our concerns.
 

DRU2012

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Honestly, I'm happy Muschomp guys lost. SCREW HIM.
I understand...I pretty well felt the same at first after he left--but I have come to think he DID try to bring an intensity, a fighting attitude here when he arrived--and hoped HARD he'd build us back a winner here after the late-Meyer/into-Addazio years. Now, the TRUTH is Muschamp sucked when it came to judging offense AND the people he had to KNOW he would be depending upon to handle that side of things--in fact he left us poorly off in far too MANY areas, not just offense but recruiting, strength & conditioning and altogether too much more by the time we gave him the gate--but all in all, I didn't despise the man by any means.
He MEANT to be a good and honored GATOR Coach.
If intensity and spirit alone were dominant, deciding factors in building a successful program, Will Muschamp might well have been one of the greats. A lot more to it all, though: Instead, he continues to run the kind of program that consistently fades when "everything" is on the line. Guess he's better off where the standards and expectations are considerably lower in the first place than they were or are back here in his defacto "hometown".
In fact, a case could be made that BOTH teams involved in last night's "battle of Carolinas" are and have been apt refuges for Coaches otherwise tired of facing the pressures, tensions and towering expectations of their previous programs' home cities...and both COACHES are much more "in their elements" now, since leaving their last jobs and landing where they are now.
In Will's case, I prefer to be thankful he is gone and wish him well, week in/week out, LONG AS HIS TEAM'S NOT PLAYING US! (On the other hand, though, I ALWAYS enjoy seeing Mack Brown LOSE.)
 

DRU2012

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Further thoughts, as this LONNNGGG college football weekend slowly sinks into the west:
No shortage of shame-ridden, "take-a-long-hard-look-in-the-MIRROR, Folks!" -outcomes as the hours and days continue to elapse. I mean, yeah, Tennessee might well take the PRIZE here for a BAD loss to what was a 2-win-last year, just-moved-up-from- FCS AND had never-BEAT-a-Power-Five team in Georgia State, but not just the loss but the WAY they managed it might have been even WORSE in the Criminoles' case:
Look, they had the game itself MOVED from an (albeit questionably rated) "neutral site" game in Jacksonville to their hometown because of the hurricane, they had it ALL going their way early on, DEFINITELY had control of the scoreboard well into the 2nd half--but somehow blew the lead and the game BY THE NUMBERS. Adjectives like "lackadaisical", "spineless", and so on more and more jumped to mind as the 3rd and 4th quarters materialized. As a Gator on an otherwise idle Saturday, it was actually pretty damn galling. ("Knew it might be a bad day when the guy-on-the-horse fell on his spear before the game!")
Toss up which coach, Pruitt or Taggert, looked/sounded more defeated in their postgame pressers.
No doubt each team will bounce back somewhat--but I STILL now look for US to beat 'em BOTH: we GOTTA have enough more in the way of talent AND heart to assert our will upon the likes of THEM. Long as we stay reasonably healthy, there should be no need for excuses.
But LOTS of "early jitters" or WHATEVER leaves enough young teams floundering outta the gate to go around out there this particular "Week One":...Much bally-hooed Mizzou for eg managed to drop a game they were IN CONTROL OF LATE to Wyoming, for goodness sakes! Not gonna crow too loudly bout THAT one though: We made them look like Champions last year ourselves when we faced them the week after the Cocktail Party: Basically continued our collapse of a week earlier--let UGA beat us TWICE, in my view... So yesterday's outcome serves to underline all that and to warn us: "Gators, your fate is in your own hands THIS time!"
Yes, we must continue to upgrade our talent-level ACROSS-THE-BOARD, in the meantime stay healthy and count on this braintrust to do the most with what it's got out there SO FAR. Easy to say, tough to sustain--and until we have the kind of reload, "next-man-up" DEPTH the elite teams have now, we'll be relying more on luck to KEEP us healthy throughout the season--at least "healthy enough" to reasonably compete--which in the inevitably rough world of major college football, is always a tough thing to count on. You're gonna need fresh guys to put out there; at every position, the less fall-off between "starter" and "step-in", the more likely the Championships. THAT'S where we need to get back to!
 

Escambia94

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Who cares? The Gators are 1-0! Clemson's QB looked just as bad as Feleipe Franks. The former Gator commit and now Ole Miss QB looked like trash. Miami cannot win a gift-wrapped game. FSU was beaten by another team wearing orange and blue. Tennessee lost. USCe lost. Georgia looked vulnerable. It's great to be a Florida Gator!
 

DRU2012

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Who cares? The Gators are 1-0! Clemson's QB looked just as bad as Feleipe Franks. The former Gator commit and now Ole Miss QB looked like trash. Miami cannot win a gift-wrapped game. FSU was beaten by another team wearing orange and blue. Tennessee lost. USCe lost. Georgia looked vulnerable. It's great to be a Florida Gator!

Can't argue with a WORD of that!
The valid rationalization that "By mid-season the media prognosticators will have forgotten the details and only remember the WIN (at MOST that maybe it was "a sloppy one")" has already come
to the fore: Hell, even I already somewhat believe it!
Doesn't change what will be required of us on the "Game Days" ahead: That of course DEFINITELY includes a competent and poised Feleipe checking down to and hitting our recievers accurately in stride. The kinds of gameplans arrayed against us will more than EVER determine how and IF our inherent strengths carry the day. "Plans WITHIN plans" are playing out from the very start of this season's Championship run: "Winning" will likely be as much a matter of properly reading and adapting to recognizeable tactical aims as matching, let alone dominating an otherwise deeper, currently more powerful program and team.
In this way, "SMARTER" may on occasion beat "STRONGER". At this point in OUR growth and presumed rise, I think we may best be counting on that. Something realistically to be aimed for, at the very least.
 

DRU2012

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As a matter of fact, with the Monday-morning silliness now pouring in from sports TV and elsewhere, I HAVE to throw a flag, or at least a literary "bucket o' water" on the college football media;
I mean, sure, there were some surprises in how a handful of SEC teams lost, and who they lost TO--but to immediately now rush to write off the whole conference as "done", their "dominant run now OVER", well, it is just stupid, ridiculous: I thought Tennessee was overrated to BEGIN with--same for Mizzou, who were suddenly being hailed as "contenders" in the SEC--which I ALSO doubted.
Now, for US at least it will all still depend on Filiepe stepping up in a way we STILL just have not seen him do with any real consistency--and not just DOING it but doing so with CONSISTENCY will be the key. We just won't really be "BACK" until we get a QB in there whom we can count on to get it done week in/week out, play in/play out. Not gonna launch further into THAT debate here--there is time and place for it elsewhere.
But we DID WIN, as you point out, E--. Looking back at the whole weekend, HEY: IT DAMN WELL COULD BE WORSE!!!
From where we are standing here and now, ALL our hopes and dreams are still intact. Sure, there are reasons to worry, bitch and moan. But the future is still to be written.
We go from here. You can BET our team and coaches are working HARD to address every damn flaw ripped open on national TV in "Week Zero"--and they had an EXTRA WEEK to do so! We can (and WILL) expect improvements across-the-board!
 

DRU2012

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Well, I've got something to say and this seems as good a time and place to say it as anywhere...
Let me preface this by apologizing in advance: I KNOW it's only been ONE GAME, in "WEEK ZERO" no less--and with all the crazy-sloppy "Week ONE" games now observed and under our belts, we should if anything be MORE cautious in assessing our OWN program's flaws, revealed weaknesses and ongoing efforts at growth in the season ahead--but I have been watching, observing, analyzing and above all THINKING about what we saw out there in "Week Zero", BEFORE everything else more or less clouded the issues vis a vis our OWN team.
Never MIND what anyone ELSE did, or what any of it did to somehow mitigate opinion and/or clarity as to how we should look at what we saw and/or what it might mean to our chances from here on. I must return to a basic point that has sat out there for goin' on TWO SEASONS now--and more than ever for the Florida Gator Offense is "the 800 pound gorilla in the room":
Filiepe Franks has GOT to GROW UP--finally grow up and LEAD THIS TEAM.
He STILL didn't show it, not enough of it anyway in our and his season debut against Miami. Lets face it: If anything, he regressed.
And it affected play. Affected continuity, poise, the smooth running of our offense on the field. Yes, he had some big moments, stepped up with a few big plays at a coupla key moments--but "flashes" are not enough. I don't WANT to have to even THINK about how the "really good ones" elsewhere (in time OR place) go about things, get it done, lead THEIR teams...
I just ask you all to consider the clear truth: Is this quarterback thus far showing anything LIKE "the whole package" of calm, skillful leadership?
'Cause that's what it will take from ANY contending team's QB-1 in order to TAKE that "next step UP". That goes DOUBLE in the SEC--and you all KNOW it!
So that is what we MUST see, from here on out. Anything less and we're at best just another "pretty good team" looking to hit double digit wins and play in a "close but no cigar" "also-ran" New Years Day bowl.
We are out for MORE than that, obviously and ultimately, right? Lets not BOTHER "sugar-coating" it.
 

DRU2012

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That's what Herbstreit said about Franks, needing to be more mature.
Yeah--I saw a snippet of that on the ESPN app, and had to laugh... Herbie and I don't always agree, but he DOES have a lot of the "inside scoop" on the Gators and anyway, it ain't hard to SEE this particular point. The good news for Franks is, "It's in his HEAD: He can FIX this, rise above!" But then again, he may NEVER manage it. That's the trouble with the stuff that's "in your head": It's the hardest stuff to deal with and get PAST. Ah well...
Meanwhile, latest polls out and WE managed to be dropped out of the Top 10 on a WIN against a much-hyped downstate rival...Don't really see what makes that win worthy of so much negative weight, but it really don't matter, in the long run. We keep winning, that all fades, is rendered irrelevant. And anyway, we probably are better OFF with a chip on our collective shoulders out there right about now, rather than some swelled view of ourselves as further along than we likely really are. I'd prefer to see us UNDERrated, UNDERestimated for now.
 

DRU2012

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...and speaking of week-to-week improvement and resulting rankings, any honest look at OUR early schedule can only lead to further expectation that even winning guarantees little in the way of appreciation OR credit. With Tenn/Martin next, followed by Kentucky at their place, Tennessee in the Swamp followed by Towson, well, as things stand, on the road against the Wildcats will be seen as the soul "test" among them, lets face it--and NOT one we'll be given a whole LOT of credit for even if we DO go back to our typical annual dominance there.
No, the first game we'll be given ANY real positive credit for winning won't come until Game 6 hosting Auburn. With and after that comes a tough stretch, the real meat of our SEC schedule--right through until we host what should be a just as weary, and by all present signs by then a bruised and battered Criminole squad; By then we will either be JUST as "frayed and disappointed", OR the proudly ROLLING "Florida Team On-the-RISE". The schedule is a tough one--but that's what a "brutal schedule" DOES for you: It tests you IN THE FIRES. Or as Nietze put it: "What does not kill me makes me stronger." THIS schedule has the makings of a "killer". But it also may be our MAKER, finally--and the same for everyone who walks through its flames and comes out the other side: proud, confident, together and sure.
 

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