Gameday in J-ville: Gators vs Bulldogs

[DRU2012]

Gonna keep it short this time. Yes, I love this game, normally: Went to every one of them all 4 of my undergrad years at UF. And we LIVED UP to its other name, "The Cocktail Party", too. In every way we could think of.
I just can't see this being any kind of "Party" for Gators, not on the field, not this year.
Yes, I KNOW how unpredictable this game in particular tends to be. But here is a "prediction" anyway, a projection if you prefer:
With the state of this Gator team and program, and especially with this Coach, his staff and even more the manner in which he and they approach strategy, tactics, and especially his apparent "ultimate aims", the only potential "surprise" outcome--as opposed to the total thrashing the media (and just about everyone ELSE) expects UGA to hang on us--would be us somehow "keeping it close" in another ugly, boringly no-offense, clumsy insult-to-"bigtime college football" that bumbles its way into the later-4th quarter, where some kind of combination of poor strategy and decision-making on the sidelines, let-down and/or bad luck on the field, culminates in us coming up short "in a close one"...
...leading to (in the EASIEST PREDICTION OF THEM ALL), our Head Coach, in his post-game presser, saying,
"I'm so proud of our players, who played so well, stayed with it and came so close..." blah blah blah...Which, once again, translates in Mac-speech as:
"My team was supposed to lose BIG, but they didn't. You can't fire ME for THAT."
HELL, I got tired of Muschamp, but not this fast--and never so angrily SICK of his phony, insincere chatter as I am already getting with this guy...
Sorry, folks. I know the above is not exactly a "positive, forward view of our chances" (LOL)--even LESS an effort to "have fun with it". I'll do better.
For now, here's my predictable "upbeat disclaimer":
Hey, I TRULY hope I am wrong, as wrong as EVERYONE but a minority of always-upbeat, never-say-die Gators who look for a sudden Reptile Uprising, where the new guys step up, the injured heal up, the budding stars RISE UP and together--offense, defense and special teams--combine for a shocking headline..."GATORS CHOMP NUMBER THREE BULLDOGS!!!"
Me, I'm gonna be looking for ways to laugh my way outta the results, no matter WHAT they turn out to be.

 

[Ufgatorfan]

Our program is a disaster from top to bottom.

 

[Ufgatorfan]

Franks still has zero improvement. Line zero improvement. Wide receivers zero improvement. Defense can’t tackle. Offensive line can’t block.

Hmmm Mac is a good coach? He’s goes to Colorado have success but all in all I think he is a horrible head coach. I don’t care how much money it costs we need to get rid of this guy. UF has plenty of money. But this idiot out.

 

[DRU2012]

Guess we all shoulda figured on the "chalk" this time, prediction-wise.
Sigh. This first few minutes has gone exactly as my "First Impression/gut-level view" thought it might go from the first.
It did.
Um, I won't even bother recounting every breakdown, large and small on every play O and D ftom the very start--and of course it has produced a 14-0 deficit 6 minutes into the game. Oof. We are already having "a bad day" even for our "low end of mediocre" standards this team as slid through, deeper and deeper into for 9 straight years.
I haven't switched away yet ONLY because once I do, today I won't be back. Oh, I'll be back, game by game for the rest of the season--but next Bulldog score...
Oops. There it is. Very next time they get the ball, first handoff--and UGA kid scampers 74 yards off tackle. TD...and I am bout to leave, guys.
I refer y'all to my late comments over on E's thread discussing our Coach's "Musschamp Clause"/buyout clause.
As for here and now--this is who we REALLY are at the moment: This is what Mac hath wrought. He DESERVES to be judged on his plan, his team not ready, and their already having thrown it in...
A brittle, unhappy and ill-prepared squad that didn't just crack, it blew apart and collapsed into little pieces at the first sharp response to their weak, less-than-half-hearted effort...
No hope on THEIR part, let alone ours watching it.
Sorry, my friends. Will check for your anger- and misery-fueled comments, rants, vents, WHATEVER later.
This one's clearly going to be "For UGA's Eyes Only". In fact, I think they should get Franks outta there, Bulldogs teeing off on him now. He can't help what's happening at this point on his BEST day. Gotta feeling that, if anything, he'll get hurt before this is over. 'course, Mac's leaving him in there--and callimg plays that he can't execute against lesser teams and that leave our supposed "QB of the future" completely exposed--and to a team that is out for "PAYBACK". But Mac's leaving him in there. I really MEANT tocturn over a new page, start making jokes, yucking it up a bit if things headed south in a hurry...But first, this weird stubborness and stupidity on our Coach's part pisses me off...and, well, despite my best intentions, the reality of this "Deep down I KNEW it!" reality just HURTS TOO MUCH.
Later, brothers...

 

[Ufgatorfan]

Listen I’m not a hateful person. I never really hated Muschamp just didn’t think he was a good head coach. I generally hate Mac. I hate his speeches, his smirks, his stupid quotes, his overall half hearted approach to this team and his freaking excuses and call for “we’ll get things fix and get better”. Well we are waiting Mac, when will you get things fixed and get better.

 

[Ufgatorfan]

For the love of god Shannon tech these guys how to tackle.

 

[Ufgatorfan]

I can’t believe I’m still watching this game.

 

[DRU2012]

Listen I’m not a hateful person. I never really hated Muschamp just didn’t think he was a good head coach. I generally hate Mac. I hate his speeches, his smirks, his stupid quotes, his overall half hearted approach to this team and his freaking excuses and call for “we’ll get things fix and get better”. Well we are waiting Mac, when will you get things fixed and get better.

I have that line from "Heartbreak Ridge" goin'round my head... To Mac:
"Don't go away mad...Just. Go. Away."

 

[DRU2012]

The team did seem to wake up, finally, once down 21 pts (pressure off now?)...Drove the field, overcoming huge mistakes along the way, got near their ten--then poor coaching, play-calling and execution blew the whole thing on a crap-series at the end kept em off the board with a missed 4th n short in the deep red zone.
This is not just the worst game from us this season (including the opener against Mich), it is the worst I've seen us play in SEVERAL seasons--and in this time against UGA in the Cocktail Party, at what was additionally what the TEAM set as "the crucial point in the season if we wanna turn it around".
Well, when we talked about "games maybe we need to lose to unmask the lies" this Coach and staff have foisted on the fans, this is EXACTLY what we got. Ouch.

 

[DRU2012]

I can’t believe I’m still watching this game.

Yeah man. Same here. I already said "Goodbye". Twice. Left it on with the sound off--and then drawn back somehow.
WON'T watch the halftime BS...And don't PLAN to follow the 2nd Half--but then again, well, might peek in, and if we happened to get CLOSE somehow...
See? Even with this Coach, this "performance", this score...I'm a FOOL for our Gators. Only by now, I feel like a sucker too.

 

[DRU2012]

One thing is certain: Bad as our offense has been for so long, we have steadily DEvolved thus far thru the Mac-coached years; This is the worst Gator offense I have ever witnessed. Period. And I watched the 1979, 0-10-1 season. 1st year with Charley Pell--but you could see what he was TRYING to do, and even with just one first-level player there were exciting plays--Collinsworth: basically the QB threw it far as he could and Chris--tall, rangy and FAST, with great hands--would run under it. Other than that, well, as students and fans we KNEW we were bad. So games were mainly relaxed social affairs, half our attention (well, maybe a BIT more) on the women, the rest "monitoring" play and noting the "promise"...Specifically, as I say, a "nugget" here and there. But we don't even have THAT now.
Who knew that the "Champion of the East 2 years in a row, first 2 seasons he's here" thing that we here KNEW was mostly an illusion, a joke that in truth signified NOTHING about our supposed "promise" as a team, was really a set up for the fans' and boosters' self-delusional over-optimism that is now helping to KEEP this self-serving manipulater of a Head Coach right where he is: A millstone hung around our whole team and program's neck.

 

[awebbf5]

Does anyone really think Mac will get fired? Because I really don't want to get my hopes up that they will. I can no longer defend this horrible coach or this joke of a quarterback.

 

[Ufgatorfan]

As bad as Franks is playing I hope they keep him in because he needs experience. He’s playing pretty bad though

 

[DRU2012]

I'm not watching anymore--turned off TV, doing laundry and waiting for baseball, of all things. Those two items taking precedence over Gator Football (and on the Saturday of the Cocktail Party!) are about as clear and strong indicators of the state of the game, program and my state-of-mind as any long and detailed rant.
Amongst all the ranting I HAVE done, upon review and consideration of same I have begun to pull a fundamental truth out of all of it: As I finally stated earlier and elsewhere here, unless/until we identify that one clear, gotta-get-HIM guy and know we "gotta get him" NOW, the "clause", the ineptitide, the frustration and all the rest don't really matter: We might as WELL give Mac that "one more year" that circumstances otherwise dictated to some. We can NOT fail the next time, and without "THAT Coach" the rest is mainly irrelevant. For a whole LOTTA reasons the extra season (sickenly, maybe even TWO) is "EXPEDIANT". Perhaps our money guys/"braintrust" have come to the same practical conclusion: Until we see and GET "Mr Right", might as WELL see if that's MacEllwaine after all, as some still offer a buttload of reasons might still be possible.
You and I don't buy it--for a BIGGER buttload of already well-documented and well-EARNED reasons why NOT--but in the final analysis, doesn't MATTER, either who's in there or why.
BUT: Just be damn ready to cut Mac loose and be fully ready, willing, and able to make the move, cut the cord and open up THE VAULT to pay for the buyout AND that OTHER GUY when the time does come.
I HATE the idea of holding my nose and trying to be patient in the meantime. But we are talking about, planning for the longterm health of our whole program, the eventual return to elite status within a relatively reasonable amount of time--as opposed to possibly not seeing it WITHIN OUR LIFETIMES. No shit. We are currently gathering speed and momentum in the opposite direction.

 

[DRU2012]

Does anyone really think Mac will get fired? Because I really don't want to get my hopes up that they will. I can no longer defend this horrible coach or this joke of a quarterback.

I have come to some personal suspicions/conclusions of my own about all this...You'll find them mainly above, and parts of my reasoning evolving in posts elsewhere in our most recent threads last day or so.
Bottomline, I DON'T think it'll happen after this season, not unless he has or eventually will do or say something that essentially "fires HIMSELF"--But more importantly, in practical, functional-but-cynical terms, IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER. It is my thinking now (and frankly, my "realistic HOPE") that WHENEVER it eventually happens, given everything it will only be whenever the "perfect fit"/"Right Guy" emerges from "out there", with us totally prepared to make the moves and spend whatever it takes to get him, will that finally happen.
Until then, we'll need to each find a way of stealing ourselves, find ways to suck it up, carry on, make it through. In a way, we'll just be openly accepting what has become more and more the case already: We hate what we're seeing--but we at least have a place to let off steam, talk about what we are having to stomach along the way: Gator Envy. That looks to be our fate for now--with the hope that eventually the turn-around and RE-rise will be all the sweeter.
Til then, all jokes, rants, complaints, insights and conspiracy-theories are welcome here among us.

 

[Ufgatorfan]

I get the feeling Mac will be gone. I think it will be mutual. I really hope all these reports are true. There coming from major networks suck as ESPN, CBS, Fox Sports, ect. Let’s pray we get this dude out of Gainesville fast.

 

[DRU2012]

I get the feeling Mac will be gone. I think it will be mutual. I really hope all these reports are true. There coming from major networks suck as ESPN, CBS, Fox Sports, ect. Let’s pray we get this dude out of Gainesville fast.

REALLY hope the "where smoke, FIRE!" thing holds here...I mean, we're not just seeing a little smoke now, we're hearing crackling, and starting to see bright flickers through the thick haze...
And btw, most promising part here is that it might BE one of those deals where it'll SOUND like "by mutual agreement" at least in public statements when it comes now--but only because that's the only way Mac'll get SOME "nice cash" and not force public exposure that'll impair his future hireability on his way out the door. All other "pluses" in such a "mutual agreement" would be ours.

 

[DRU2012]

All in all, wouldn't it be great if the most noteable and memorable part of this particular Saturday was NOT so much the nature and numbers of the day's Cocktail Party but rather the fact that it WAS the day that the Gators' "long goodbye to Coach MacEllwaine" finally and truly began?

 

[Escambia94]

Poop. That is all.

 

[miltongator]

It's semi-official....He's gone. Just letting him tell the team.