Happy NEW YEAR, Gators ALL!

[DRU2012]

Been a rocky year, and a continued roller coaster ride for us since the season actually ENDED: The Theme?
“Ups’n’Downs, wins and losses—but WHICH ARE WHICH???”
It seems that question has been paramount from the moment Napier was fired, Kiffen was “all but delivered—BUT…”, the team continued its onfield mediocrity in a sort of autopilot trance to the very end, and the new guy starting to win us over by DOING instead of just TALKING—though he does the latter pretty convincingly too, which we HOPE will pay dividends in this ongoing “retention drive”—bringing us back to all those “Ups’n’Downs” I mentioned.
As exemplified just in focusing on guys named “Jayden”: While circumstances led to us losing a good one on the defensive side, at the same time all the talk about RBs no longer being the “high-value”, “retain at all cost” pieces they were once envisioned to be (as in “central to build around”), to some extent that is EXACTLY how Baugh’s value has in truth evolved here: Those same “circumstances” have made his staying a potential HINGE to what the Gator offense will LOOK like in 2026…
Between the upgrades on the offensive staff and their ongoing efforts to seriously upgrade the O-line players AND play, we kept the two key WRs, all kinds of signs that there’s a plan (short, medium AND longterm) at QB (a combination of what we’ve got now and what we’ll GET in the Portal), but ideally we now KEEP the kid who has risen to the top of the SEC at RB.
The one thing I keep thinking about as I watch the CFB Playoffs is how I just haven’t seen any truly impressive offenses thus far. Defenses, yes. But if we really WERE to return to an explosive, OFFENSE-dominated Gator ethos, that could be a formula for success—a fun and exciting version!

 

[Leakfan12]

Well, it's looking good that Bama and Georgia won't win the title.

 

[DRU2012]

Yeah—except of course its having lent ammunition to all the haters out there always ready to pick up the “SEC dominance is OVER—The B1G is the superior conference now”-argument…Never mind all the continued lopsided evidence that this just isn’t SO:
Top-to-bottom, the Southeastern still whacks the Big Ten to a pulpy mess by the side of the road.
OK, between the doofus-dominated CFB committee’s choices and resulting matchups leading to fluky outcomes among a wide collection of offense-challenged squads this year, thus far it’s pretty hard to find a lot of “dominance” among this whole CROP of supposed “elite teams” that are supposed to comprise a proper “Playoff Picture” (can you believe they wanna EXPAND this format, too??!).
So far about the only somewhat “balanced” performance we’ve witnessed HAS been from a Big Ten program, Indiana—but let’s face it: Not even fellow members of their own CONFERENCE really believed in them, or even NOW truly rates Cignetti and his charges at the top of their heap longterm.
All in all, there is so much confusion and uncertainty inherent among the endless questions raised by “the current calendar”, “the new rules” governing player movement and “pay-for-play” and on and on, it could not be any LESS clear how or when those questions will be answered—let alone BY WHOM?!!
Meanwhile, all WE can do is look to ourselves and the moves this new Coach and staff make within the shifting realities of the topsy turvy universe of current college football.
(PS MY OWN personal “dread” is that somehow Miami ends up being the “last one standing” from among this weird bunch of semi finalists…Those obnoxious so’n’sos from “Spoiled Thug U” will only be all the more insufferable with a Natty—and make recruiting all the more difficult instate.)