I just watched the 3rd quarter of Saturday's loss, having basically bailed in pain for most of the second half save to monitor the ongoing score as the 4th approached.
I have to say, somewhat belatedly, that these players DIDN'T, for the most part, BAIL ON THEMSELVES! They really did seem to respond to whatever Billy said in the lockeroom at halftime, down 28-3 (and you KNOW he did challenge them; We knew that long before his own subsequent public comments along those lines).
These kids had every reason to just mail it in and get outta J-ville...and from what we've seen from them collectively at times on BOTH sides of the line-of-scrimage so far this season, that WAS their likely inclination.
But not this time. Coach spoke to them, heart-to-heart, and though they didn't pull any miracles, they sure as hell dug down deep and made a game of it. There are no "moral victories", but there ARE "inescapable signs of life and hope"--and this short-handed, short-talented (and under-achieving at THAT!) bunch showed at the very least that they had pride, heart--and more moxie than they've mostly managed up til now.
We HAVE the right guy at Head Coach now, and he and his much-expanded, hand-picked staff DO have this program on a whole new track, a good one I think, that will (eventually) yield big dividends.
The further events of the last coupla days post game are just the first public symptoms (eg. the Cox suspension) of the difficulties that "road ahead" will present.
I myself, along with others here and elsewhere are presently using expressions like "addition by subtraction", "worse before it gets better" and the like.
Bear with them. This won't be easy--More than ever we are coming face to face with the realities of all the above implies, all we always were going to have to negotiate, suffer through when we accepted our situation and DEMANDED that the administration powers-that-be finally found and hired someone likely to take this project that was by now the long-floundering Florida Football Program and did a wholesale rebuild, somehow took us BACK to "Elite Status": To challenge for Championships once more.
I really think they managed to GET THE RIGHT GUY. Now let's let him work: Let us give him the room and trust to do things his way.
Success was never going to be instantaneous; there were and ARE too many factors and details affecting how we got here, and where we need to GO, for that. But there WILL be "signs", signs of progress, moments of promise and hope.
There are already some--small, even incremental-to-the-point-of-infintesimal though they may be.
This season will not be bringing us much in the way of triumphant progress...We must lower our expectations for now, take what we get, look for the best in whatever time and competition brings us the rest of the way.
For the moment perhaps we are once again "The Sleeping Giant" in our own minds at least:
WE know who we are, where we're going.
Let us see ourselves as BILLY saw and SEES us, envisioned us as what we were and could be AGAIN when he took the job!
I have to say, somewhat belatedly, that these players DIDN'T, for the most part, BAIL ON THEMSELVES! They really did seem to respond to whatever Billy said in the lockeroom at halftime, down 28-3 (and you KNOW he did challenge them; We knew that long before his own subsequent public comments along those lines).
These kids had every reason to just mail it in and get outta J-ville...and from what we've seen from them collectively at times on BOTH sides of the line-of-scrimage so far this season, that WAS their likely inclination.
But not this time. Coach spoke to them, heart-to-heart, and though they didn't pull any miracles, they sure as hell dug down deep and made a game of it. There are no "moral victories", but there ARE "inescapable signs of life and hope"--and this short-handed, short-talented (and under-achieving at THAT!) bunch showed at the very least that they had pride, heart--and more moxie than they've mostly managed up til now.
We HAVE the right guy at Head Coach now, and he and his much-expanded, hand-picked staff DO have this program on a whole new track, a good one I think, that will (eventually) yield big dividends.
The further events of the last coupla days post game are just the first public symptoms (eg. the Cox suspension) of the difficulties that "road ahead" will present.
I myself, along with others here and elsewhere are presently using expressions like "addition by subtraction", "worse before it gets better" and the like.
Bear with them. This won't be easy--More than ever we are coming face to face with the realities of all the above implies, all we always were going to have to negotiate, suffer through when we accepted our situation and DEMANDED that the administration powers-that-be finally found and hired someone likely to take this project that was by now the long-floundering Florida Football Program and did a wholesale rebuild, somehow took us BACK to "Elite Status": To challenge for Championships once more.
I really think they managed to GET THE RIGHT GUY. Now let's let him work: Let us give him the room and trust to do things his way.
Success was never going to be instantaneous; there were and ARE too many factors and details affecting how we got here, and where we need to GO, for that. But there WILL be "signs", signs of progress, moments of promise and hope.
There are already some--small, even incremental-to-the-point-of-infintesimal though they may be.
This season will not be bringing us much in the way of triumphant progress...We must lower our expectations for now, take what we get, look for the best in whatever time and competition brings us the rest of the way.
For the moment perhaps we are once again "The Sleeping Giant" in our own minds at least:
WE know who we are, where we're going.
Let us see ourselves as BILLY saw and SEES us, envisioned us as what we were and could be AGAIN when he took the job!
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