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A Gator alum talks about current team
- Thread starter Leakfan12
- Start date
miltongator
Gator Fan
The offense (if you could call it that) is in a shambles. LDR is looking like a deer in the headlights while providing absolutely no spark. To be sure, it's not all on him, but he seems to be a QB who would be average with a decent running game and some blocking. Neither of which are present on this team. Probably too early, but I can feel the warmth of Mac's seat increasing and will only continue the trend as it looks like we probably lose the next 3.
Will read the link with interest, but wanted to note a coupla things that are clearly on ALL our minds this Sunday morning in early November:
(1) With an offense that continues to get WEAKER, year by year, we are NOT progressing as a program.
The reasons are many, the consequences are on display with relentlessly depressing clarity each week, and now it begins to appear that wholesale change in coaching is yielding little change on the field. Even a complete flip from a DEFENSIVE "mind" to an OFFENSIVE "specialist" has brought zero apparent functional difference.
(2) A large part of the above rotten reality has to do with the "same old same old" procession of mediocrities at QB--Young guys who somehow "looked so good as prep stars" not looking at ALL ready as starters here--and not improving from there...
But we've somehow done it in PAIRS, time and again, no matter what road we've taken to end up there--and, like with changing Head Coaches and their staffs, NOTHING HAS CHANGED ON SATURDAYS.
The list over the years since post-Tebow's senior season is getting longer, but essentially nothing has really changed from Brantley/Brisset, thru Treon Harris and assorted 3rd-raters, to this season's DelRio/Appleby. That whole still-unclear fiasco that was the "Grier interlude" probably caused as much emotional damage as practical to whatever plans that "might have been". SOMETHING or things happened behind-the-scenes there after that, and though it may BE that it WAS all-Grier, his insecurities/emotional state and the advice he got and listened to from family that most influenced him leaving entirely--but sure seems our Head Coach was pretty damn PASSIVE in his response, like he thought that maybe it WAS "for the best", at least "ok"--exactly as if he figured he had all the answers and alternatives he needed on the way.
Um, well, if that's what you really thought, Mac, you ARE making the same mistakes, taking the same mis-steps, walking into the same trap of self-delusion as the last SEVEN YEARS OF POOR COACHING DECISIONS that put and continues to keep us here.
Though he wasn't in the same class as the 5 or 6 young stars currently gracing the rosters of the SEC-West and ACC teams they chose to go to, Grier showed at least SOME signs of becoming that "game manager"--the very thing the team-apologists now annually tell us they are aiming for while we supposedly play for time. Until it all blew up, sure looked like Grier had enough "upside", enough of the physical tools and calm poise to be that "game mgr", at the worst.
Now, from what I gather, what they are hoping for in that case is a guy who can carry us thru the 2 or 3 seasons we supposedly would then need until one of the untried freshmen--or even harder to count on, some mythical "5-star-to come" who is currently an unknown 9th-grader in Clearwater or Liberty City--still to step , grow up, fill out and dazzle our fine recruiting staff, who in turn of course are the first to recognize their talent and natural leadership qualities, and thereby elicit, along with level-headed parental wisdom, their mutual gratitide and loyalty?
Who among us, based on what's ensued up til now, thinks there's much if ANY chance THAT'S gonna happen? Since the late Meyer-era, some of the past and current qbs we've missed on were on our radar but not high enough on each others' priority-list (theirs OR ours) during the 2 years leading up to their NSDs. Some (too many!) we didn't even go after: somehow, our variously-staffed "braintrusts" over those years, encompassing by now THREE DIFFERENT Head Coaches and their staffs, managed to whiff on the handful of TRUE "can't miss 5-stars" even when we DID know about them, and meanwhile convinced themselves that the latest "skinny, good-in-practice-and-neighborhood-game"-level kid, or "might-make-a-good-WR-at-major-college-level" prospect, one or the other again and again, would be there. Meanwhile all these different "professionals" somehow REPEATEDLY fail to recognize the difference between true talent to be grabbed and nurtured and "big fish in small pond" mistakes...This last we've ended up watching again and again, all the same waiting for the latest product this dysfunctional process who MIGHT function as "placeholder", one of those very "game managers" we keep hearing about who will allow the offense to do well enough until the next Dazzling Star is found and emplaced.
That can work out--Cris Leak, into Tebow, for prime example. Before that, Spurrier managed it in his own unique "all-MY-way" to bring us from the depths of probation to annual SEC dominance, and finally on to a National Championship (with essentially a very efficient "game manager" in Wuerful)--did it all in basically the same amount of time we have now been floundering since that terrible SEC Championship week in '09, Meyer's subsequent "Drama ", flip flop, and everything since...Meyer/Addazio, Muschamp/Weiss/succession of chumps and their practice-squad QBs sold to US as "next big thing"...
Now its Mac/Nussmeier, and I don't GET IT: Our Head Coach is himself a proven builder and master of Offense-growth, strategy and tactics. He knows what the genuine article looks like, by all accounts and evidence had already accomplished it from nowhere-to-success in different ways at each of his previous stops. That's why he was chosen, ultimately.
But no. The farce continues. Does HE not get it? Ours is not a patient or forgiving fan base in times of difficulty. After 7 years and all that's happened and NOT happened, there'll BE no "long term" after 3 yrs of miniscule (if any) progress in our ineptitude on offense, not for him--and that's what next year will look like by mid-season unless changes are made, DRASTIC ones, NOW.
Only a miraculous grandslam of a recruiting haul (including 5-star O-linemen AND defensive placements for the inevitable coming losses to the pros, all in addition to at least one 5-star qb who DOES pan out from the start) might buy this staff anything more time now, and I see no way to be certain even of THAT happening--let alone being noted and acknowledged far and wide enough to do the job.
So there it is, Coach Mac:
Bite the bullet, begin "next season and beyond" now, in full rebuild-mode like you just GOT here, never mind how and why it's come this--or "play it safe" and be anything BUT, in the end.
'Cause for you, "the end" is on the horizon, down the road we're travelling now.
The offense lacks explosive athletes, depth in key areas, and creativity in game planning.
Under Urban Meyer with Dan Mullen, we had all three components and we won two national titles (and we had strong defense and special teams). Without Dan Mullen, we lost creativity, but still had enough of the other components to win the SEC East.
Under Will Muschamp, we lost all three components. Enough said.
Under Jim McElwain with Doug Nussmeier, I am not sure what we have.
The coaches really have to recruit explosive players as well as depth over the next few months. They can show their creativity right now and start winning over the fans, because the fans appear to be frustrated with Gator football. The frustration has not yet translated into lost revenue, but I think it will hit the UF pocketbook in the next two years unless the offense becomes fun to watch again.
Under Urban Meyer with Dan Mullen, we had all three components and we won two national titles (and we had strong defense and special teams). Without Dan Mullen, we lost creativity, but still had enough of the other components to win the SEC East.
Under Will Muschamp, we lost all three components. Enough said.
Under Jim McElwain with Doug Nussmeier, I am not sure what we have.
The coaches really have to recruit explosive players as well as depth over the next few months. They can show their creativity right now and start winning over the fans, because the fans appear to be frustrated with Gator football. The frustration has not yet translated into lost revenue, but I think it will hit the UF pocketbook in the next two years unless the offense becomes fun to watch again.
@Escambia94,
Well, I "liked" the above because I completely "agree" with your insights and analysis--ie. STRONG agreement, but NONE of us "like" what it means, where we're headed without real improvement, right?There will have to be a massive turn around from here...It will require more, much more than "a few pickups and some fine tuning". I like Mac, but like you, I just don't know, all in all, what we've got here--on the sidelines OR the field.
Our D has remained our strength, obviously, and it seems that though we will need to bolster its depth no matter what, we've got some young guys behind the stars on that side of the ball who may well add up to less fall-off than I feared was inevitable.
Injuries have clouded some issues here at the end, but we saw enough before that to judge the lack of progress so far on the O-side though. A killer-class of recruits, needs addressed all over (especially the lines--especially ESPECIALLY the O-line) would go a long way towards calming the rising concern--but no matter what the arena, clear results that all can see in the overall product has to come regardless, and soon.
You sure hit the mark on those partular "3 areas of concern/factors missing or lost", E.
And the most jarring (and frankly, baffling) one is "imaginative". Wasn't that one of the big PLUSES that Coach Mac was hired for--his knowledge, imagination and previous success in bringing all that to bear at his previous stops? What exactly IS Nussmeyer's intended role? At what point does our "experienced, offensive-minded Head Coach" judge it a bad job, step in, "exert influence", at the very least. 'Cause we gotta hope he hasn't done so thus far:
What we've seen damn well better NOT reflect his hands-on "best effort". It's hard enough understanding how and why he'd have let it come this far...Again, personel (and lack thereof) on that side of the ball, plus ensuing injuries to those, tells much of the story, but we're about at the end of how far that explanation can carry him.
There has been time to identify not just "needs" but do the legwork and build the network, pipes and bridges that will begin to carry a steadily growing flow, eventually torrent of talent to the Florida program.
We've seen it done here before--and not so long ago. No excuses: That's the guy who we were looking for, expect Mac to be--and if we begin to suspect he is NOT, then we are RIGHT to start thinking about, planning to make another change, FIND THAT PERSON. 'Cause that's what is required; that's what it will take. No matter how long, or how many backtracked restarts it means we have to go through, before we are back on top to stay.
Well, I "liked" the above because I completely "agree" with your insights and analysis--ie. STRONG agreement, but NONE of us "like" what it means, where we're headed without real improvement, right?There will have to be a massive turn around from here...It will require more, much more than "a few pickups and some fine tuning". I like Mac, but like you, I just don't know, all in all, what we've got here--on the sidelines OR the field.
Our D has remained our strength, obviously, and it seems that though we will need to bolster its depth no matter what, we've got some young guys behind the stars on that side of the ball who may well add up to less fall-off than I feared was inevitable.
Injuries have clouded some issues here at the end, but we saw enough before that to judge the lack of progress so far on the O-side though. A killer-class of recruits, needs addressed all over (especially the lines--especially ESPECIALLY the O-line) would go a long way towards calming the rising concern--but no matter what the arena, clear results that all can see in the overall product has to come regardless, and soon.
You sure hit the mark on those partular "3 areas of concern/factors missing or lost", E.
And the most jarring (and frankly, baffling) one is "imaginative". Wasn't that one of the big PLUSES that Coach Mac was hired for--his knowledge, imagination and previous success in bringing all that to bear at his previous stops? What exactly IS Nussmeyer's intended role? At what point does our "experienced, offensive-minded Head Coach" judge it a bad job, step in, "exert influence", at the very least. 'Cause we gotta hope he hasn't done so thus far:
What we've seen damn well better NOT reflect his hands-on "best effort". It's hard enough understanding how and why he'd have let it come this far...Again, personel (and lack thereof) on that side of the ball, plus ensuing injuries to those, tells much of the story, but we're about at the end of how far that explanation can carry him.
There has been time to identify not just "needs" but do the legwork and build the network, pipes and bridges that will begin to carry a steadily growing flow, eventually torrent of talent to the Florida program.
We've seen it done here before--and not so long ago. No excuses: That's the guy who we were looking for, expect Mac to be--and if we begin to suspect he is NOT, then we are RIGHT to start thinking about, planning to make another change, FIND THAT PERSON. 'Cause that's what is required; that's what it will take. No matter how long, or how many backtracked restarts it means we have to go through, before we are back on top to stay.
