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Facing Facts

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
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.
 

Leakfan12

VIP Member
The offense looks good though they did leave some points on the table. The defense might be the worst since 2007. I think they got the game against Texas A&M. Also, LSU since most of the team last season is gone, and Mizzo though they have given the Gators fits since joining the SEC. Georgia is the biggest concern with maybe Tennessee as well especially since Georgia beat Auburn. In short, we don't know what's going to happen in the next two months (unless someone has a crystal ball they like to tell us what's going to happen). A&M will be the big test to see if the Gators are for real or not. It looks like it's going to be a shootout.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
The offense looks good though they did leave some points on the table. The defense might be the worst since 2007. I think they got the game against Texas A&M. Also, LSU since most of the team last season is gone, and Mizzo though they have given the Gators fits since joining the SEC. Georgia is the biggest concern with maybe Tennessee as well especially since Georgia beat Auburn. In short, we don't know what's going to happen in the next two months (unless someone has a crystal ball they like to tell us what's going to happen). A&M will be the big test to see if the Gators are for real or not. It looks like it's going to be a shootout.
A “shoot out”, yes...and one where we can’t leave ANY “points on the field”!!! Between that and the yards we’re consistently giving up on FIRST down to essentially (in terms of ball-control) mediocre offenses, I can’t see us fulfilling ANY of the latest overheated expectations without more depth and consistency—especially in terms of fundamentals and execution. We are “CLOSE”—especially on offense. Our QB is a revelation, coming on strong, and the array of talented tools around him are coming into their own now AS WE WATCH.
However, the defense, though itself evolving, overall appears to have regressed with the loss of last season’s talented transfers, one way or another now having moved on. A “work in progress”, it’s hard to TELL what we’ll ultimately have there as the season goes on.
Honestly: Do y’all truly see us as firmly lodged among the elite at present? Will we BE there soon??!
Oh—and we STILL need a RUNNING GAME!!! With the current inconsistency on the ground AND on defense we are clearly vulnerable to being upset by mediocre teams. We have seen it before, all too often, I’m afraid.
Like the rest of Gator Nation, I am hugely encouraged by the blossoming of Trask and the mounting wave of growing excellence in Mullens’ offense that he seems more and more comfortable in running with greater and greater efficiency. Though we’d need BOTH to displace the likes of Alabama or Clemsen, we MUST have at least a consistent running game OR a shut-down pressure defense to knock off UGA out of there and replace them as a consistent competitor for at least an annual SHOT at a place in the Football Final Four.
Of course, as Gators, having BEEN there before (and not so long ago!), we strive for nothing less than to be where the Tide and Tigers are NOW. Given time and patience, Mullens WILL get us there...but thanks to the sputtering confusion that “circumstances” (specifically the pandemic) have produced, it has and will probably continue to slow the “building process” down.
Meanwhile, all we can do is “take it game by game”. The next one is in College Station against TAMU...and as I've made clear, for MANY reasons this one has been a growing concern, from my perspective; at this point, even after their beat-down at Bama’s hands I don’t like the “matchups” here—or rather, how we DON’T currently “match up”.
Hope I’m wrong—‘cause if I’m not, this one’s gonna get UGLY: a real “dose of truth”, a “cold splash of water” to awaken the so far happily dreaming Gator Faithful somehow fully enjoying the “experts” and their hyped-up over-estimation of our offensive explosiveness thus far.
Sorry, but “It might be “wake-up time”, sleeping beauties!”.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
My goodness. I log off the site for 24 hours and 100% of the site has gone insane! Dan Mullen let off the gas in the 3rd quarter and still beat an SEC opponent by 14 points. I call that a good day at the office.
 

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