We need a few more players in the secondary. We have elite WR's, we need a QB stat.
Our pass coverage is raggedy today.
Treon Harris is needed.
Right on all counts, clearly. Especially that last part, Dale. This team is going nowhere anyway--the best thing for the PROGRAM now is to get Treon in there, let him begin to prepare for his future, OUR future with him at signal caller--NEXT season. But that'll be with a new coach, and this one is still "coaching for his job", coaching for wins NOW. Damn shame. Good guy , Will Muschamp. Would have loved to have made him a permanent part of the Gator family, the "right kind of guy" except for one thing: He just wasn't ready to do the job here. Same goes for Roper, I'm afraid. Closer to being ready for HIS responsibilities, maybe could have made it the rest of the way if the D had been more up to the task of "keeping it close", but HC and OC have been fully exposed now. TERRIBLE job by both here today--and obviously in days and prep leading up to it.
I apologize for being out-of-sync with all of you still watching the game...Won't blaming you for skipping all this impatiently, and hope maybe you'll then come back to it later. I'm not even watching, not even here on my phone now that I have the means and time. I'm in a strangely calm frame-of-mind, certain of the "state of the program" even if somewhat removed from the actual performance of our team this week or the specific score right now. We just finished up here and I am posting this from my phone, sitting on chair in the dark and marshaling my thoughts. Unless I'm completely wrong and am missing/have missed a thrillingly dramatic reversal-of-fortune, complete with a total turn to dazzling competence on the part of Driskel and everyone else in the 2nd half, I feel I'm right in assuming I've seen enough to make the following declarations.
There is no excuse for this team getting WORSE between last week and now. I really think the jury is in now: This Coach (and staff as currently comprised and led) will NEVER be anything more than "talented-but-uneven", capable of having big days against over-matched opponents but seldom coming through against "the big boys"--of which we will never be a member as long as they are in charge. We have enough talent at enough positions that a really GOOD Coach could, should be winning more than its share of big games now, and cruising against the rest. With a really good QB in there and a few holes filled, I'm convinced with the right HC we could be world-beaters. And they should have been filled by now: this WR-thing for eg has gone on the whole time Muschamp has been here...when it comes to QBs and WRs, this Coach and staff have beaten the odds in how often and consistently they have gotten it WRONG! I know there may be some of you, GE'rs whose opinions I respect and value, who may still think it's not this and/or that coach's fault, that there are other factors at work here and other considerations to be taken into account, but to me it's a hard but inescapable truth: The ONLY way to greatness from here now is to move fast and hard, get someone with real talent and vision in here while we DO still have most of the pieces either hitting their prime or ready and capable of doing so, the very kind of person who can bring in and fill the few (albeit crucial) gaps somehow and pull things together even as he begins to prepare a foundation for a longer range plan, one that more reflects his own ideas and philosophy. The question of course is, WHO IS THAT GUY? Is he even out there now, someone who we can get--and can he be "gotten"? I don't know. But I know we better try.
I'm not even angry at Muschamp anymore. I see him as a sad and unfortunate "near-miss". As I say, I like the guy; he just didn't get it done, and isn't gonna get it done here. Now, I WILL be angry at J. Foley if he doesn't make the hard but necessary decision, doesn't equivocate, and gets after this NOW. Well, real soon. He "took a shot" with Muschamp, a little more of a "gamble" maybe than was warranted, but it coulda worked, I think damn near did--but "patience" isn't the answer any longer. Yeah, it risks chaos making that change again now--but "the safety of probably being pretty good NEXT year" just shouldn't BE an option for us. The cupboard isn't bare, by any means. I don't claim to know who "the right guy" is, but we get him in here, it might well surprise folks how quick we are headed in the right direction, even "back to being Florida".
