The main “fact” would seem to be that we are just not quite in that “elite group at the very top” of Major College Football yet after all. So very few are.
We MIGHT be ready to compete with those “just below” that group—a number of these latter haven’t looked a whole lot better than us so far in THEIR games, after all.
But that ignores the sad truth that must be faced—“MUST be faced” because it is staring us IN THE FACE:
Alabama far overshadows us in every way still, it seems clear. Indeed, so far it appears only Clemsen MIGHT regularly match up with them on a good day.
Our Coach and his staff will continue to improve and further develop the improving talent he continues to bring in, but they will have to bring in more of the 5-star level quality depth at virtually every position for seasons to come before there’ll be ANY hope of consistently competing with the Saban-led Tide, let alone dislodging them from their current annual position at or at least vying for the very top prize, year in year out. Dabbo and his Tigers have found a way up and IN there; for us, well, our guy has the “x’s and the o’s” more or less covered...it’s the “Jimmies and the Joes” that are still not quite there yet.
I have no doubt that he CAN and WILL achieve that, given a little more patience, time and support...but for now we are just not there—and expecting otherwise is a recipe for frustration and disappointment. Nothing more.
Next week we go on the road to face an A&M squad that just got shellacked by them—and the “realistic truth” is that it’ll be a good day for us if we can even hold our own for more than a half against them in College Station next Saturday. That’s MY expectation, anyway.
Thing is, I SAY that, but the TRUTH is that anything but at least a close WIN on our part will actually, in all likelihood, PISS ME OFF ROYALLY. Intellectually, I am TRYING to “face reality”, but emotionally I am a rabid Gator fan who dreams of, LONGS FOR our return to the Championship spotlight.
To somehow manage it “ahead of schedule”, with wit and guile to somehow boost us that last notch still lacking some of the nuts’n’bolts “the experts” normally project as necessary, would not only make it sooner but all the SWEETER, of course, as well.
So despite all my supposed “cynical realism”, the truth is that I will STILL “watch and hope”; I will protect myself with apparent “realism”, but underneath I will still hope and dream of our continued rise...
I will secretly revel in every small sign of our gains toward potential victory after all. So I apologize now for my weakness, my apparent lack of hope or positivism. For striking at people whom are doing their best with what they’ve got in a tough situation (such as our Defensive Coordinator Grantham, for example). I should (and DO) know better.
I don’t know exactly when and how, but I still believe we finally have the right head Coach, and he will eventually build and lead us to that “Promised Land”. In the mean time, this lopsided dominance, like the Pandemic itself, one way or another will eventually pass—and our Coach and his staff and a deepening foundation of talent will be the active agents of its passing. Let us endeavor to be sitting in front row seats in a full and raucous stadium when it does.
We MIGHT be ready to compete with those “just below” that group—a number of these latter haven’t looked a whole lot better than us so far in THEIR games, after all.
But that ignores the sad truth that must be faced—“MUST be faced” because it is staring us IN THE FACE:
Alabama far overshadows us in every way still, it seems clear. Indeed, so far it appears only Clemsen MIGHT regularly match up with them on a good day.
Our Coach and his staff will continue to improve and further develop the improving talent he continues to bring in, but they will have to bring in more of the 5-star level quality depth at virtually every position for seasons to come before there’ll be ANY hope of consistently competing with the Saban-led Tide, let alone dislodging them from their current annual position at or at least vying for the very top prize, year in year out. Dabbo and his Tigers have found a way up and IN there; for us, well, our guy has the “x’s and the o’s” more or less covered...it’s the “Jimmies and the Joes” that are still not quite there yet.
I have no doubt that he CAN and WILL achieve that, given a little more patience, time and support...but for now we are just not there—and expecting otherwise is a recipe for frustration and disappointment. Nothing more.
Next week we go on the road to face an A&M squad that just got shellacked by them—and the “realistic truth” is that it’ll be a good day for us if we can even hold our own for more than a half against them in College Station next Saturday. That’s MY expectation, anyway.
Thing is, I SAY that, but the TRUTH is that anything but at least a close WIN on our part will actually, in all likelihood, PISS ME OFF ROYALLY. Intellectually, I am TRYING to “face reality”, but emotionally I am a rabid Gator fan who dreams of, LONGS FOR our return to the Championship spotlight.
To somehow manage it “ahead of schedule”, with wit and guile to somehow boost us that last notch still lacking some of the nuts’n’bolts “the experts” normally project as necessary, would not only make it sooner but all the SWEETER, of course, as well.
So despite all my supposed “cynical realism”, the truth is that I will STILL “watch and hope”; I will protect myself with apparent “realism”, but underneath I will still hope and dream of our continued rise...
I will secretly revel in every small sign of our gains toward potential victory after all. So I apologize now for my weakness, my apparent lack of hope or positivism. For striking at people whom are doing their best with what they’ve got in a tough situation (such as our Defensive Coordinator Grantham, for example). I should (and DO) know better.
I don’t know exactly when and how, but I still believe we finally have the right head Coach, and he will eventually build and lead us to that “Promised Land”. In the mean time, this lopsided dominance, like the Pandemic itself, one way or another will eventually pass—and our Coach and his staff and a deepening foundation of talent will be the active agents of its passing. Let us endeavor to be sitting in front row seats in a full and raucous stadium when it does.