Aw, this is exactly what I dreaded: Even a week later, with a big hurricane bearing down on the SE coast and a fresh slate of interesting games, the media fools at ESPN and elsewhere are STILL all over the place with UK and "The Streak" vs UF--not even with the facts of everything weird that occurred for it to happen this time, but JUST with it having finally HAPPENED at ALL--so that WE have to turn it down or change channels to escape stupid bits of unfunny supposed "comedy"...like an ESPN analyst being dangled out the window of a dorm to "force" him to publicly retract his earlier prediction of a Florida win, and so on; only Tebow is given the extra time, which he seizes, to make his point about what happened on the Gator side and that they have "the right Coach now" in Mullens, and a bright future in Gainesville. It was obviously gonna GO this way with lazy, facile "journalism" so often expedient, even encouraged in the disposable world of broadcast television--but it is absolutely THE WORST from the POV of Gator fans.
They are by now just SLAMMING us in the most dismissive terms as far as us AND FSU's current AND longterm prospects as once dominant programs whose huge fan bases have high expectations--I mean, talk about your "self-fulfilling prophecies"! Their loud proclamations of where we are supposedly at already, and the way they cover what ensues from here (which short term may well be more-of-same, "get worse before it gets better" in terms of record and rebuilding), warns of worse, more negative and dismissive coverage (in fact much LESS coverage) overall is what we can expect now. Only the fact of Tebow keeps us "out there" for now...I don't even wanna TALK about (let alone really focus on) how things will get and STAY if we keep losing, looking bad. It could happen, with our schedule and our remaining questionmark-veterans in the lockerroom starting to bail on the program, look ahead to their imagined draft rankings and pending move to Sunday play (those guys and that attitude has been and continues to be a big part of our ongoing difficulties, disappointments and letdowns in the first place, btw), well, it could all ACCELERATE downhill from here after all.
But we'll deal with that if/when it actually HAPPENS. For now, for US it really is "day-by-day, game-by-game". That's how our Coaches and lockerroom leaders (do we HAVE any of those anymore?!!) HAVE to approach things now, get the rest of the team pulling TOGETHER towards too, rest of the way.
As for this game right in front of us NOW, while there are a LOT of obvious "MUST DO's for us coming in, we start with the ones WE definitely have control over ourselves: (1) Defense...Gotta keep the score down, obviously--and we DO have the talent to match up against their passing offense, IF they are healthy enough to be and stay out there, frustrate QB and receivers throughout the game, and (2) The Gator RUNNING GAME must be asserted, given a chance to take control: WTF was going on LAST week? I like that Franks seems to HAVE THE arm and skills to sling it araound, can deliver when it's there and/or we really NEED it, but last Sat against UK the gameplan didn't appear to even include consideration of our "multi-headed monster's" potential to both wear a defense down and set them UP for later-in-game benefits, eventual payoff; Does not, DID not seem like Mullens' cerebral approach to using what you've got, stick to a game plan (at least long enough to see if it has merit before casting it aside--last week it looked like the RBs either WEREN'T in the plan, which seems ridiculous, or somehow never got going and never gotten BACK to), and that seemed, SEEMS strange.
Hey: A coaching-staff can "have a bad game" too, right?
All in all, this one will tell US a lot indeed.
