FrozenGator
(OK--I apologize for SEEMING as if I am repeating LAST week's "novel", but in the name of "catching up" FG makes a lot of points and raises a lot of issues and questions--and it occurs to me in going thru' it that a lot of it may well be stuff OTHER members and guests may have interest in, especially those who MISSED the telecast...)
First, you're spot-on re ALL the players you mention--and if you skim over the GameDay "remarks" (more like "primal therapy") here you'll find similar comments throughout: Burton IS, like, this amazing athlete who we can throw out there to do SO many things--you shut down our "normal" offense and he goes in and gives us a whole different look and set of capabilities: what a unique playmaking-weapon he is!
Driskel is simply the most promising young QB in the nation right now: He's a calm, unique talent with enormous "upside", incredible aptitude and ATTITUDE, ready, willing and able to learn and grow--and hitting his stride as a leader and efficient game-manager (exactly what this team needs from him NOW) already. Each week we have had to change and add certain aspects of offense to our game plan--and he has simply pulled it off, with calm EASE, it has seemed...last week it was a RUNNING record, this week a passing one: What will this kid be doing a YEAR from now, on a healthy, fully balanced team with experience under his and EVERYONE'S belts, a flock of playmaker-receivers and calm confidence in himself and everyone around him?
As for the team we faced, though, Clowney IS a BEAST--we ALL noted and commented on it repeatedly, how could you NOT? He was a one-man wrecking-crew out there, especially in the first half...along with the REST of their defense, he AND they palpably lost enthusiasm and "drive" for the job at hand after that first long drive we ripped through them and shoved down their throats to begin the 2nd half: We just took the ball near mid-field after the great KO-return to start the 3rd, and DROVE on them--and it was somehow "OVER" after that.
Now: Muschamp. More and more, WE ALL LOVE THAT GUY! Believe it or not (and I don't know how big a deal they made about it on the audio "feed" you got up there), but we were repeatedly SCREWED by the refs in that 1st half--or we're up at LEAST a couple of TDs more AND they're missing at least one of their FGs--I mean on their first drive, the stripes just took the ball BACK from us, assessed 30 yards in phantom penalty yards and ESCORTED them into FG-position! I'm gonna talk about this again in a more general post-game analysis here at GE later today, but for now I suggest you check out the site, Aligator Army, scroll down to the blue shaded rectangle-area containing links to "4 Stories" under the heading, "South Carolina vs. Florida", and check out the one that identifies itself as about Muschamp being HOT at the half...what you need to remember, in listening to what he's so "hot"about, has to do with those calls, ESPECIALLY ONE OF THEM: After shutting them down on 3rd down and forcing a punt from their side-of-the field, Depose fielding a short punt on-the-fly giving us GREAT field position and a chance to drive down to score again, there's a flag on the field...it turns out to be for "Interfering with the Snapper" (WHA--?!!)...no one's even HEARD of this one, let alone seen it called before...from the announcer's eventual consultation with a rulebook (and my OWN quick research online), it turns out this is a relatively recent addition to the rules, one of those (as I put it it to my fellow outraged-Gators here at the time) more "PC"-inspired "oh-no-let's-not-let-anyone-get-hit-too-hard-or-feel-any-pain" rules, to wit: "The rusher must allow 1 full second from the instant that the snapper touches the ball with intention of snapping it until he may HIT the snapper with intention of knocking him out of the way and rushing the kicker" (a rule that has a NUMBER of hazy judgment calls embedded in it to START with, obviously), and as the game-announcers themselves showed with a cut-in of the game clock running in a box beside video of the whole sequence, our rusher gave their snapper well MORE than a second, then pushed him over and rushed past--not at ALL "vicious or dangerous"--but this IDIOT striped-shirt throws this asinine flag that hands the ball BACK (plus 15 yards and a 1st down) to the Gamecocks and completely reverses the flow-of-play--at the time, it FELT like we'd had everything we'd accomplished taken away and its benefits now rested on the opposite sideline. With all the other crucial flags called (eg. shortly after that we had a BEAUTIFUL long hook-up Driskel-to-Hines taken away on a flag, too...THEN a late INT was taken away on a phantom-offsides call, yielding instead a long FG at the end-of-half that COULD have made a large difference) exclusively on us throughout the 1st half (it FELT that way, anyway), it felt like we were losing by the end of it--with a 2-score LEAD! It was kinda weird, but that "realization" didn't feel wrong, either...even the CBS-announcers seemed to get caught up in the "Spurrier-and-his-Gamecocks "/"Big light-a-fire-under-HIS-team" halftime-speech as they returned to the field, but it was OUR coach and staff who AGAIN made the necessary adjustments--and oh btw ANGRILY LIT A FIRE UNDER OUR/HIS GUYS--and NOT about those screwed up calls either, really (The "ONFIELD ADVERSITY!!!" that he suddenly blurted out--it turns out that raised-voice outburst was directed at the game-officials, who he is not SUPPOSED to "address" in that manner, but were JUST walking by behind the camera Coach was looking into, giving him an opportunity to scream that for THEIR BENEFIT ), but about going out there, cutting out the mistakes and sloppy play and putting together some steady DRIVES-for-points, which we DID...and pretty well put the game AWAY in the 3rd quarter this time.
One more Gator needs mentioning here, though, FG: Kyle Christy, our punter is having an AMAZING season, and for much of the first half he was our one shining light, in effect our star on offense--culminating in our 3rd and final TD of the half, where after kicking ANOTHER field-flipping over-5o yarder, he ran down on coverage, stripped the ball from the return-man while tackling him, then WENT AND GOT THE RECOVERY! Amazing performance.
Finally--Yes, Georgia and the "Cocktail Party" (back to being its "Unofficial Name"--again "PC"-forces at work--but that's OK: WE know what it is--and what to DO) are next in Jacksonville's Gator Bowl...I have that "superstition" thing going where I don't feel comfortable making bold, straight-on claims-to-future-victory, but I DID say this much at the end of yesterday's online "fun", and will repeat it here: I BELIEVE in this team. I now have a certain bottom-line confidence in the way the whole staff and team goes about its business--in the days leading UP to the next game, and in their performance and adjustments in the course of the game itself. When it comes to this Bulldogs-team, aside from beating handily the team that recently beat the CRAP out of THEM, I believe we match-up well against them.
I'll probably end up being wrapped up tight again as usual by Saturday, but so far, coming into the week at least, I find myself mainly calm and unperturbed regarding this game...do what we have to do, as we have figured out and DONE in every game so far, and we'll win this one too.
Whew--Sorry, FG (and anyone ELSE who followed along)--but I WANTED to respond to everything you addressed...