Halfway

[awebbf5]

We are halfway through the season and I have to say being a gator fan in Kentucky hurt, but couldn't be more proud of this team.

We were short Reese and CeCe for UK and came out like we didn't have to compete to win, but other than that I'm so proud of our guys and our team. That game was a wake up call.

Now we will go into vandy and if we compete like we can we should leave
6-1.

The o so needed bye week to prepare for the cocktail party and get our guys healthy. Even if we lose to Georgia, hopefully we play tough and hard, we still are very much on track for a 10-2 season. Before the season I was hoping for 8-4 in our first year under Mullen, but can anyone else believe we might end up 10-2?

We have matched last years win total already and still have plenty of ball left to play. To our team and our coaching staff I'm so proud of the fight and hard nose playing minus the UK game that you all have given us.

Sit tight boys the halfway part is here and the finish should be very fun!!!!!

 

[Leakfan12]

I think 10-2 is possible (though Vandy could be a trap game).

 

[DRU2012]

We are halfway through the season and I have to say being a gator fan in Kentucky hurt, but couldn't be more proud of this team.

We were short Reese and CeCe for UK and came out like we didn't have to compete to win, but other than that I'm so proud of our guys and our team. That game was a wake up call.

Now we will go into vandy and if we compete like we can we should leave
6-1.

The o so needed bye week to prepare for the cocktail party and get our guys healthy. Even if we lose to Georgia, hopefully we play tough and hard, we still are very much on track for a 10-2 season. Before the season I was hoping for 8-4 in our first year under Mullen, but can anyone else believe we might end up 10-2?

We have matched last years win total already and still have plenty of ball left to play. To our team and our coaching staff I'm so proud of the fight and hard nose playing minus the UK game that you all have given us.

Sit tight boys the halfway part is here and the finish should be very fun!!!!!

I think 10-2 is possible (though Vandy could be a trap game).

That's pretty well the range of realistic possible outcomes to this season now: we'll be in the post-season, and depending on how we hunker down and finish, how high a profile we'll manage will be determined by how many wins we do end up achieving. Just forget what the so called "experts" have to say about it, now that we are suddenly "subject for bs speculation" once again...All ya gotta do is look at the new rankings to see it: After all that, they somehow have LSU still ranked 1 spot above US? Stupidity, squared!
Actually, I'm NOT so worried about the PLAYERS buying into any of the hype; I mean, sure, it was easier having the media helping put a CHIP on their shoulders, but one of the (many MANY) things I really LIKE about our Head Coach is being able to relax in the certainty that he GETS all that, RECOGNIZES the pitfalls and will be out in FRONT of them now. No, it is more the fans that need to not get carried away, neither expect nor overdramatize how far we have truly come. ENJOY the steps taken, lessons learned and progress made thus far this season, sure--but only for its own sake, what it tells us, and even more so what the players themselves can take from it, that their hard work, sacrifice and growing trust in their coaches has brought so far and continues to reaffirm. Links in a chain: this is FAR from a "finished product" in any way.
A strong "finish" (to this season--bringing us to a "partway point" in the larger long road back still ahead): A good bowl, an impressive showing, a hugely important recruiting cycle--then onward and UPward once more: You're right--and as I've been saying everywhere I can, every chance I get--"This IS the FUN PART"!!! Bumps and all, we are moving forward--and gathering speed as we go!

 

[DRU2012]

Oh--and unless we revert to "old form" and get lazy, somehow believe that ANYONE will just LIE DOWN now in facing The Mighty Gators (but between the new staff, the changed feeling and philosophy around our program, and much of the arrogant entitlement cleared from our locker room, I really feel there is much less danger of that happening now), I am ready to say with a certain amount of calm optimism that long as we came outta this last one fairly healthy (for eg. Still waiting to see who we lost and who we get back; Chauncey was back in the 4th after getting his knee awkwardly flexed, but Joseph WASN'T back after getting severely roughed up for the THIRD time in that final quarter--all on defense, where we can least afford it), we will go out and return to that more efficient scoring offense we had begun to show earlier in the year. For Vandy I think Mullens will have a gameplan that plays to Franks' developing strengths and helps to ensure we score more runs on THEM than they can on US. Maybe (hopefully) a LOT more.

 

[Escambia94]

I have consistently stated on this forum and my other ones that Dan Mullen could take a 4-7/ 4-8 team and get them to 10-2 or 9-3. I have been mocked on my other forum for arguing that not only was Mullen the best choice, but also Stricklin's only serious choice.

This team had okay talent under McDeathThreats, but it lacked good coaching, locker room discipline, and overall leadership to use that talent. Mullen and his staff bring all of that back to Gainesville. Halfway through the season it is easy to see that Mullen has done more with 60+ of the same players recruited for another system. This team is not yet built to regularly take down teams like Georgia and Alabama, but this team at least has the ability to challenge those teams.

 

[DRU2012]

...and just WAIT until we HAVE those players! That's why I am so sold on our future, why I keep saying, "Here comes the fun part..." The rest of THIS season is about "what's our true starting point?". Next year we take the East, challenge Bama for the SEC, begin to SCARE people.
2020. Nice symbolism in that numbered year. We will begin to truly come into our own, the "thin spots" will begin to disappear, the "keep running in fresh sets" approach will be extended throughout the team, and we will just wear folks OUT. Pull away in the 2nd half, even when you have a good team and play us close in the FIRST.
But meanwhile, let's do our best to ENJOY the tough road we are on GETTING there--all the more to better APPRECIATE the satisfaction later of "GETTING there".