Who cares about the SEC East? No team from the division will be in the CFB playoff. Florida eliminated itself by failing to show up to its own homecoming game.
I do not care if Muschamp won the game. He needs to find another job in December.
Yup--whatever else any of us might have been thinking BEFORE that Missouri game, by the 2nd half of that one the dye really was cast: Will Muschamp was GONE, had to be. Nothing that happenened in Jacksonville today DESERVED to change that--and frankly, despite our "big win", overall this was nowhere CLOSE to any kind of vindication...I don't even see it as "illusion", since at various times many if not most of this team's coaching-produced ills were on display--just fewer actual untimely turnovers, that's ALL, saved us from some sort of "new OLD way" of blowing it.
Btw, bad as our overall plight, we at least are WAY past the "sudden dagger to the heart" phase, on the one hand--and anyway most of us have long since recognized and accepted the long-range "cure" (if still unsure of the prognosis until it finally comes to pass). Not shocked into sudden-bummer-reality like the folks at Ol' Miss tonight, along with the whole team, program, its future and very psyche: On what-SHOULD-have-been/WAS-until-"it"-happened "almost winning-play", their star player fumbles the ball AND breaks his leg on his way into the endzone JUST before crossing the goal line. They lose the ball, the game, AND their key player all at the end of the game, on that otherwise "story-book-hero" play. Unless this turns out to be one of those "kid comes off the bench to take them to new heights" tales, that whole program and its fans tonight will feel like its not just their "now" but their "tomorrows" that have been stolen, stripped away with sudden, capricious fatefulness. No one even to "BLAME".
On the other hand, assuming they don't collectively lose all hope and focus, despite what happened they've still got the tools, the talent, prospects AND the coaching to recover and right the ship...we've got talent, and little else at the moment.
Finally, I THINK I've finally identified one of the main things missing, the key thing this Head Coach and his various staffs have missed from Day One in Gainesville: WE have that "talent--in fact, reliance on getting potential STARS that can dominate at their positions has been a priority for this regime--but they've absolutely failed to recognize and therefore develop the other part of that equation, equally important to real success here: The true "other key factor" in bringing balance and consistent success, the growth of "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" intra-team coming together into discrete and total units--linemen (some great, some just "good at what they are asked to do") become parts of "great lines", linebackers and safeties become "great secondaries", both become parts of "great DEFENSES", and so on, throughout offense, defense, special team units, coaching staffs, recruiting efforts...and they ALL grow together to be parts of great TEAMS in great programs. Seems simple, straight forward, even an obvious cliche--but how often does it happen? How GREAT can you be when it does? Yeah, you've got to have talent and depth, but without the rest how good are you going to actually be, how successful? We're seeing the answer here now. Not very--and you can forget consistent ANYTHING except disappointment.
For all his faults and cynical compromises, for most of his time here Meyer got stars in AND understood what he had to do with them--and whether thru' luck or design, he got some of the RIGHT guys, ones who were uniquely capable and driven, each in their own way, to manage just that sort of "coming together" with their team mates FOR him. Muschamp and co. have ignored, even crushed that spirit and natural will OUT of his charges in a wrong-headed effort at control and "discipline" in the service of some image of "success' and "efficiency", one he/they envisioned and seeked to impose from "on high". This manifested as the very tightness that pervaded, continues to pervade the whole team. On its worst days we all see it in the "stumble/bumble/fumble" ineptitude that has marked so much of this team's play more and more often these past few seasons. I wouldn't even be at all surprised if it were somehow someday shown to play a part in our very propensity for serious injury as well.