Game Day Thread: Florida Gators vs. Ohio State Buckeyes 1/2/12

[DRU2012]

Keep in mind that the majority of fans just want video game scoring. They think defense is boring, or if the score is 9 to 6 that both teams suck, rather than assuming these are two NFL caliber defenses squashing two college offenses. They assume that a perfect college football game score is 55 to 53, not 9 to 6.

I read somewhere that the main reason Weis had to leave Florida was the heat and humidity...health reasons. I thought about that for a second and realized that the article was onto something. Weis liked sitting in the booth because he could avoid that 90 degree, 90% humidity swamp in the air conditioning, but his young players needed that on field interaction. Hmmmm.

Compare that to the other coaches. There is a video on Gator Vision of the coaches suited up playing against one another in drills! The DB coach lined up against the WR coach, and the OL coach played king of the hill against the DL coach. It was fun to watch, and illustrated the interaction that Weis could not give.

The Weis offense still might work at Florida. That offense is actually the Ernhardt Perkins "New England" Offense. Many teams use it. I estimate that one fourth of the NFL uses that same offense, just with different type of players. Weis had to fit Demps and Rainey into the offense, but was stubborn about using them at the same time. I would bet that mixing Demps and Joyer or Rainey and Burton or Gillislee would have worked better.

I'll tell you this, E-, and with no irony (well hardly any): the staff taking YOUR approach would have given us a MUCH better shot at success on offense this past season than Weis' bland foolishness (and the idea that he was distracted and unhappy with being a fat man sweating it out in the Florida heat is just frustratingly STUPID enough to ring true); in fact, your thoughts elsewhere regarding a kind of hybrid pro/Spread style-of-play was probably exactly the kind of thing our personnel dictated here in 2011.
Oh well, spilt milk and all that...where do we go from here? In point-of-fact, this area-of-concern is exactly why Coach has to go ahead and pull the trigger on his choice for OC ASAP now: FUTURE personnel, as in who we bring in in this and following recruiting classes, will be influenced by AND itself influence the finer details of what kind of offense we'll be running here the next few years. Given who we've already got and the direction we're already headed, all the more reason that OC needs to have a certain amount of flexibility to go with a long term vision of what he wants the Gator "look" to be on offense in seasons ahead.
Of course you're right about the "instant gratification" of and fascination with video-game-like pinball-scoring being what the fan-at-large wanting nowadays--especially where they don't have a specific rooting interest. We can't worry about them, though. I want us to be ABLE to hit the long one here and there, where it's open and/or when we can set a defense up for it, but the ability to burn clock, drive and score enough for our superior defense to control the line-of-scrimmage and the clock is what has, does and will continue to win championships. Right?

 

[Escambia94]

Be sure to check out this video here. I think I want an OC that can be like the coaches in the video. Check out Aubrey Hill (WR coach, Florida '91-'94) as he takes on Travaris Robinson (DB coach, Auburn '99-'02) and Bryant Young (DL coach, Notre Dame '90-'93) as he takes on Derek Lewis (TE coach, OL assistant, Texas '95-'98). In the video, check out who is chucking the ball down the field--Brian White (RB coach, interim OC, QB at Harvard '85-'86).

The good news is that Brian White has stated that he is okay with remaining at Florida as RB coach, or in whatever role Will Muschamp needs him. I hope that whomever Muschamp hires as OC will be active and hands-on like the rest of the coaches. I did not realize this before seeing that video and reading an article on Weis that Cheeseburger Charlie really did not fit in like the other coaches. Muschamp probably will look for someone in the New England coaching tree if he likes that particular offense, although I would argue that with two soon-to-be sophomore QBs, it will not be too difficult for those two to learn the nomenclature for a different style of pro style offense.

 

[DRU2012]

Yup--I'd been told about some of this, and the chemistry among (MOST of) the coaches...I have nothing against Brian White as our RBs-coach--only that he accomplished practically NOTHING with a month "standing in" as OC...he just doesn't deserve that job, no WAY.
BTW, watching that latest "Defense-What's DEfense?"-fiasco in the Orange Bowl-at-Bland-Corporate Stadium last night only further underlines all the points we've been discussing here about what the public wants versus where WE'RE headed. I WILL say this: as far as what we've been doing and what we've got on that side of the ball RIGHT NOW, I'd take EITHER of those offenses on our team right this second--something I NEVER have had cause to even CONSIDER before, let alone say out loud. It still amazes me in the most dumbfounded way how Urban Meyer-and-Co. managed to whiff so badly, so OFTEN on receivers the last 2 or 3 years they were here--and now we're left with THIS collection of mainly stone-handed STIFFS; at FLORIDA, coming off 2 National Championships in 3 years and one SEC-Championship Game away from a 3rd in 4, with Tim Tebow just leaving and (as far as the experts and everyone else was concerned) SET at QB, and they couldn't do better than THAT?!! Then, for some obscure reasons that still elude me, similar to his stubborness with his use of our personnel at RB, Weis relegates the best of them to either special teams and mostly 3rd-string status as WRs (as with Dunbar and Debose), or WORSE (as with Hines, who hardly SNIFFED the field this past season, but showed flashes of real talent snaring difficult passes--the only kind Bradley threw a lot of the time, it seemed--when he DID get out there, mostly late in games). Those three, the ones we DIDN'T see much of, are our only current hopes at WR. Similarly, we MAY have some talent at TE, as well--certainly we've got some talented athletes concentrating on that role now...still, there should be NO reason that we can't get some long-limbed catch-everything-and-fly-to-the-endzone type-of-WRs here at UF, even now.

 

[Escambia94]

Hey...enough bashing of Brantley. He throws a very catchable ball! Ask our opposing defensive backs! (I kid, I kid!)

Brian White gets a pass as long as he fits the new OC. In some ways, we do not want the OC to bring an entourage of RB and WR coaches, because that invites instability when the OC becomes someone else's HC in a few years. Besides, White did make some changes for the bowl game that hint that he is an okay RB coach.

 

[DRU2012]

Hey...enough bashing of Brantley. He throws a very catchable ball! Ask our opposing defensive backs! (I kid, I kid!)

Brian White gets a pass as long as he fits the new OC. In some ways, we do not want the OC to bring an entourage of RB and WR coaches, because that invites instability when the OC becomes someone else's HC in a few years. Besides, White did make some changes for the bowl game that hint that he is an okay RB coach.

Ok, Ok--I won't bash either ONE of them from here on in--White, 'cause he's here, loyal and your point about his work with the RBs is well-taken, or Brantley, 'cause he's gone and at this point, who cares? Gotta move on...
Imagine what even just a COUPLE of good receivers could do for whichever of our young QBs (hopefully) seizes the starting role--say, one at TE and one at WR; that, and efficient use of our RBs (and, oh, maybe a bit of a surprise in one of them really blossoming into something?) could add up to enough offense to complement our rising "D"--and make next year the kind of "on our way"-type of season we were all hoping this PAST one might be, coming in.
Won't go any further down THAT road, though, for the time being...like you, E-, I learned my lesson last year: We can HOPE, we can even have our secret dreams and fantasies, but we better be hard and realistic when it comes to a clear-eyed view of this Gator team and its future. The only practical approach that is acceptable now, it seems to me, is "I'll believe it when I SEE it." I'm sorry, but that is where I am trying to keep the bulk of my emotions and outlook regarding this team, at least for now.