Gator Bites, Week 13: Florida Gators vs Georgia Southern Eagles

[GatorChomp]

I got banned from another Gator board for even asking this question.

Georgia Southern runs that funky triple option Offense that is difficult to prepare for in one week and you know they'll be fired up at the prospect of getting the biggest win in their school's history. As for us....how motivated will we be? We are one dimensional on Offense and if we show up flat in what is sure to be a half empty Swamp, I could see it happening unfortunately.

 

[roblou56]

Exactly, not to mention the guy was coach of the year last year and not that far from the BCS NCG.

 

[Escambia94]

I got banned from another Gator board for even asking this question.

Georgia Southern runs that funky triple option Offense that is difficult to prepare for in one week and you know they'll be fired up at the prospect of getting the biggest win in their school's history. As for us....how motivated will we be? We are one dimensional on Offense and if we show up flat in what is sure to be a half empty Swamp, I could see it happening unfortunately.

You will not get banned here for having an opinion, just keep the discussion intelligible. I hate going into forums with extremely bad grammar (some errors are okay), and absurd remarks that have little basis in reality.

The triple option problem is no joke. The Gators have been gashed by strong running teams a lot this year, at least since the loss of Dominique Easley. The Paul Johnson triple option, believe it or not, is very similar to the Urban Attack that the Gators ran from 2005-2010--a veer run from a spread or spread-like formation. Georgia Southern is transitioning from FCS to FBS after a few FCS championships, so yes, they are looking to make a statement against the Gators. They have a 244-pound fullback, who often gets the short yardage options. The Gators need to be prepared for this.

 

[DRU2012]

My point (and tied in with both my cynicism and my FEAR) is that we'll likely find too much "reassurance in a WIN"--a win that we should STILL get with some ease in the 2nd half--those are some dedicated, angry and talented studs still on our defense at least, and I figure we WILL put this one away eventually...It's just that (1) It's not something that we should get all that excited about, (2) It really changes NOTHING about what a lot of us KNOW are factors and elements that have been CLEARLY stripped bare for ALL to view as far as our weaknesses courtesy of stubborness, inflexibility and failure at the top of our program, and finally (3) There'll be those among the fans who buy INTO the predictable "positive spin" put on a win by the folks under maximum scrutiny and pressure (mainly Foley, Muschamp and Pease)--and they cannot be allowed to get away with that, should it come to pass...
Now, a loss, far from impossible or all that shocking, for all the reasons mentioned by everyone here (including myself) might DESERVE a firing or two perhaps long overdue--but if it hasn't happened by NOW, judging by that putrid offense ALONE ain't likely now--at least not 'til AFTER the season, if at ALL, at this point. Our (socalled) "braintrust", Foley included, whether fighting for their own job(s) or trying to preserve others', is clearly just trying (perhaps "hoping, praying, hanging-on-by-the-fingernails") to make it through and past the end of THIS season and into the next one--which far as THEY'RE concerned begins (if not the day after the FSU game, then) NSD in February at the LATEST.

 

[Escambia94]

Put it this way: as long as Will Muschamp does not get arrested, he will be our coach next year. Not my decision or anyone else's but Jeremy Foley's, and Mr. Foley is not basing his decision on wins or losses. The season was officially declared a loss when Mr. Foley and Bernie Machen publicly announced support of the embattled Coach Muschamp. I say "embattled", because there are Bull Gators and miscellaneous political powers that have indeed expressed a desire to cut Muschamp. The big decision makers (Foley and Machen, not the fans or even Bull Gators) have made up their mind.

That being said, if you had asked me after the Vanderbilt game I would have been on the FireWillMuschamp.com bandwagon. Now I am saying that I neither support nor decry the foregone conclusion that Coach Muschamp is returning in 2014, but that I have accepted the inevitable:

• The 2013 Florida Gators could not overcome 25 injuries to key players.
• The 2010-2013 recruiting classes lacked the depth and hidden star power to overcome injuries.
• We have no idea since Week 3 of whether the offense has improved or not due to key injuries to players that the offense was built around in spring, summer, and fall practices. The offense was trending as the #85 ranked offense under Driskel, which is an improvement. It trended as #5 for Murphy's wins. Once Murphy was injured in the LSU game, the offense trended at #105. Can we blame the coach?
• No coach on earth could have done better with the Gators' schedule coupled with injuries. There is a good argument that Coach Orgeron did it with USCw, especially with the upset over #5 Stanford, but keep in in mind that although they have just as many injuries with a smaller roster, they did not lose their #1 QB, RB, WR, DT, LT, and RG like Florida. By the way, USCw's #3 DB was Gator once, and would have filled some of our backup roles.

 

[DRU2012]

@Escambia,
..a grudging "maybe, BUT..."--I now am fairly certain you are right about Foley and his support/protection of our Head Coach, I TOO "accept" the fact of it, at least, agree about how badly the injuries (in their unreal, even darkly absurd number and consistent severity) made any kind of success, anything other than the overall outcomes we've gotten, unlikely at best (though the game-to-game reality of it had us in games we really COULD have won, SHOULD have won our share of, had the coaching staff been more inventive, maybe "cut loose" in their thinking and creativity--but were and are incapable of that, it now seems clear), and can even envision a scenario where we come back froim ALL of this in amazingly quick and dramatic "overnight" (as in "the very next season") fashion--but this last ONLY with a change, and this time the RIGHT one, at OC!
Trouble is, a lot of the last is problematical for a number of reasons, most revolving around Muschamp's stubbornness and outright BLINDNESS when it comes to the importance, necessary imagination and creativity (every BIT as much as you place on your DEfense, Will!) and nuts'n'bolts practical running of a properly efficient scoring offense in any success he or US will ever achieve while he is here. I just don't know that ANY of that will change, how far Foley's "protection" extends and/or the Head Coach's stubborness is being worn away by abject failure THEY can blame on injuries to the exclusion of all other reason or explanation. Keep Pease, and this hard-headed idea that "We just need to be about the 40th or so best offense..."--and even YOU kinda seem to have bought into this E-, I was surprised and saddened to note above--"...and we can GET THIS DONE!" It's a self-limiting, even self-DESTRUCTIVE pipe dream, my friends. A complete self-delusion that dooms us to at the very best also-ran status in the SEC. Period. Change it, or we go pretty well nowhere a whole lot further, I mean, nowhere we EXPECT this program to go, our standards and dreams steadily sinking and shrinking until this regime is a bad memory that takes 3, 4 or 5 seasons in order to recover from.

 

[Escambia94]

@DRU2012 I do not recall stating that I *want* to keep Brent Pease, but I *think* we should keep him one more year on probation unless one of the OCs I suggested in the other thread becomes available.

It is hard to put any of our coaches on trial given the injuries...except ST coach Jeff Choate. Special teams has no injuries! Why the heck is our former Ray Guy contending punter shanking punts and struggling for 39 yards? Why is the backup punter barely managing 40 yards? Why is the walk-on kicker barely doing better than the two or three scholarship kickers? Why are we 0-4 in ST trick plays?

Back to the topic of Georgia Southern. They run a triple option because it suits the personnel they have. The Gators are using second teamers that are former recruits for the spread option, as well as freshmen first teamers recruited for a pro style offense--Coach Pease's offense. I have no idea what the ideal offense for that mix is, at least not for Saturday. If Pease sucks at calling plays, is Joker Phillips better? Phillips did call plays in an SEC schedule as Kentucky OC and HC using equivalent skill players.

No matter who calls the plays we do not have the players to bring back the Fun N Gun or create a new version of the Boise offense. Driskel is the only QB on scholarship with the arm strength to execute a revamped FnG, and he is injured. Morhinweg did not strike me as Kellen Moore style QB for a Boise offense. If I were OC this weekend I would run the read option mixed with power I and wildcat to Taylor (true wildcat without a QB).

 

[DRU2012]

@Escambia94,
It wasn't that you wanted to keep him, E- (I actually agreed with most of your comments/analysis here, or at least am "on the same page")...It was this idea that we just need a mediocre offense now--I mean, I've said as much myself re a particular game or point IN that game, and at this point it would have helped mitigate our now relatively poor record for the season, BUT: I am SO concerned that our expectations and resulting standards have been and continue to be so subtly and steadily eroded that even you can make that kind of compromise, without even really noticing (check the body of the preceding comment/analysis, it's there)...Well, it's a reality that we have to note and FIGHT, in my view. Would like to think you DIDN'T really mean it in any long-term sense, but words signify attitudes and trends, they have POWER to ratify and "enshrine" a particular POV or growing "consensus", and WE CAN NOT LET THAT HAPPEN HERE.
(Oh, and I cannot just go along with that "Only Driskel can throw the ball..." assertion--Fact is, we just don't KNOW what Mornigweg can do...and didn't find all that much out about Murphy before he was hurt (but what we DID learn was that he "surprisingly" could get it done--no surprise to the defenses that faced his scout teams in practice, I hear!), but what we DID see looked great after "1/2 a season of a cloud of dust"--Hell, let's face it: Driskel does have an arm--but his accuracy is like a Pick-Three lottery ticket: Every now and then, his throws, like a favorite number, do hit...OK, overstating it, but you KNOW what I'm saying: Unless JD improves dramatically in accuracy and timing with his receivers, he needs to be displaced by a young hot-arm ASAP, give EVERYONE, who we've got and whomever we can GET, a serious look starting in the coming off-season--like, (for eg.) soon as "The New Kid" gets into camp?
I don't even care if we have some growing pains, with him or someone else, long as the signs are there that he's got "it" to go with a big arm and a good head and all kinds of upside--It's another sign of how little emphasis this HC places on offense, not to mention how little he KNOWS about it, that there was so little hopeful alternative after Driskel went down to begin with.)

 

[DRU2012]

...So, if we can just score that 2 TDs that appear to be our limit (not unrelated to the fact that it's all our Head Coach and his OC seem to be shooting for on any given Saturday), maybe we can get a WIN tomorrow...(just making fun of myself, guys--I know I get too wrapped up in this...)
Hey, our D could get one or two as well, they're DUE--make it look like a "Big Win"...'Course, as I've said, that'd only mean a big "push" from certain quarters 'bout how "proud these guys are", how "they never stopped fighting or believing in themselves", etc.--and I wanna say this ahead of time, just in case:
"HEY!!! We KNEW that already, dipshits! It's not our guys that we doubt, their talent OR commitment, IT'S Y'ALL! YOU are and have been keeping them from 'all they could be'--Once we started losing guys and games, why DIDN'T you modify your plans and open things up, make it a little 'crazy and fun' for them AND us??! If you're playing it all tight and 'clamp-down-conservative' now, with so little to lose and so much being lost in every area-of-concern and consideration of 'what-we-aim-to-be', setting things up for the future, What the hell MORE can we expect NEXT season, EVER, with that 'No-Start/No-Fun-Offense'???!!!"

 

[awebbf5]

 

[awebbf5]

Gator Chomp the good thing about this board is I can post things like this and probably won't get banned, opinions here can be expressed, I think Dru may have a grin on his face when he see's these.
Did I mention I hate you Muschamp!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Escambia94]

@awebbf5 This is America. You are allowed to express your opinion. Once we fire the guy, who do you want as his replacement? There are no hot shot up-and-comers on the market.

@DRU2012 The offense is what it is, given the 2nd stringers we have playing as 1st string. Next year we have no excuse for a #100 ranked offense. It had better be a top 50 offense at least.

 

[Escambia94]

Back to the game. .. The anticipated attendance is 70k, mainly due to the popularity of today's Mr. Two Bits, Wes Chandler, and the recent return of many local military coming off deployment.

 

[awebbf5]

@awebbf5 This is America. You are allowed to express your opinion. Once we fire the guy, who do you want as his replacement? There are no hot shot up-and-comers on the market.

@DRU2012 The offense is what it is, given the 2nd stringers we have playing as 1st string. Next year we have no excuse for a #100 ranked offense. It had better be a top 50 offense at least.

At this point I would take Zook back.

 

[miltongator]

Picks from The Alligator.....against the spread

 

[awebbf5]

Swamp looks empty

 

[awebbf5]

Anyone else watching this mess besides me?

 

[miltongator]

Thankfully not on the tube here.

 

[miltongator]

Can't even punt the ball. We are totally pitiful.

 

[awebbf5]

Can't even punt the ball. We are totally pitiful.

10-7 at the half this is a joke.