Ok, early, but let's get this up and centralize what are starting to be a bunch of scattered-but-connected thoughts by a muttering, confident-but-restless GE-"crowd". Not exactly a marquee game here in the SEC, but it IS the night game--on ESPN-U, and had to fall thru' several sets of "hands" to end up there (Now, if it were a BASKETBALL game...).
As I've tried to at least imply elsewhere, though, this is no "let's just get out of it injury-free"-game to the kids in KY-blue and their fans--and they have had of late the coaching and (at least the start of) recruiting that will more and more give them a fighting chance. When it comes, the streak-breaker will happen as much BECAUSE it's a shock, as anything else: In other words, it'll probably come BEFORE anyone outside of Lexington really believes they have a shot.
This Wildcat team DOES have an offense, CAN score points in relative bunches--and we haven't shown WE can do that against anyone in a couple of years--not on offense, anyway. So: Run, run, run, control the clock and the game, score in the redzone after long drives and leave the rest to a fairly well-rested D.
Just one thing: The trouble with "pro-style", ball-control offense at this level (certainly as run by THIS team, so far) turns out to be just too many opportunities for mistakes, even disasters, to occur. One holding penalty is often a drive-killer. Fumbles, or picks deep in EITHER redzone, are GAME-killers (Miami, Jeff). We start seeing THAT pattern return, and look out: Bad sh*t snowballs. We're already seeing that in terms of personnel, and that has effects that immediately radiate outward...We do have depth, but it takes a few practices and games as part of a particular unit to learn, fit, excel. This is already a different team, on BOTH sides of the ball, than the one we had coming into the season...True somewhat for everyone to some degree, but we've been hit unusually hard (AGAIN)...
Meanwhile, watching these two "other young Florida programs" today, Central and South and the talent THEY'VE been able to attract, gets me thinking about things like how the scholarship limits have changed the face of the sport, how players' expectations (almost "DEMANDS", when it comes to their supposed place in the depth-chart-to-be) have changed with it, and in a few cases the obvious big one: "Why didn't WE get this guy?"
So pick a topic, an axe to grind, and let's get to it: It's a long day, I've got y'all in the upper left corner of my new larger flat-screen here while I begin to bang out a treatment that would otherwise bore the crap outta me (it's already long-since outlined--this is the "make it nice-nice, easily skimmed and followed by bean-counters" part-of-the-job) were it not for GE, Bose, Serius/XM and PIP!
As I've tried to at least imply elsewhere, though, this is no "let's just get out of it injury-free"-game to the kids in KY-blue and their fans--and they have had of late the coaching and (at least the start of) recruiting that will more and more give them a fighting chance. When it comes, the streak-breaker will happen as much BECAUSE it's a shock, as anything else: In other words, it'll probably come BEFORE anyone outside of Lexington really believes they have a shot.
This Wildcat team DOES have an offense, CAN score points in relative bunches--and we haven't shown WE can do that against anyone in a couple of years--not on offense, anyway. So: Run, run, run, control the clock and the game, score in the redzone after long drives and leave the rest to a fairly well-rested D.
Just one thing: The trouble with "pro-style", ball-control offense at this level (certainly as run by THIS team, so far) turns out to be just too many opportunities for mistakes, even disasters, to occur. One holding penalty is often a drive-killer. Fumbles, or picks deep in EITHER redzone, are GAME-killers (Miami, Jeff). We start seeing THAT pattern return, and look out: Bad sh*t snowballs. We're already seeing that in terms of personnel, and that has effects that immediately radiate outward...We do have depth, but it takes a few practices and games as part of a particular unit to learn, fit, excel. This is already a different team, on BOTH sides of the ball, than the one we had coming into the season...True somewhat for everyone to some degree, but we've been hit unusually hard (AGAIN)...
Meanwhile, watching these two "other young Florida programs" today, Central and South and the talent THEY'VE been able to attract, gets me thinking about things like how the scholarship limits have changed the face of the sport, how players' expectations (almost "DEMANDS", when it comes to their supposed place in the depth-chart-to-be) have changed with it, and in a few cases the obvious big one: "Why didn't WE get this guy?"
So pick a topic, an axe to grind, and let's get to it: It's a long day, I've got y'all in the upper left corner of my new larger flat-screen here while I begin to bang out a treatment that would otherwise bore the crap outta me (it's already long-since outlined--this is the "make it nice-nice, easily skimmed and followed by bean-counters" part-of-the-job) were it not for GE, Bose, Serius/XM and PIP!
