Gator Bites, Week 5: #20 Florida Gators vs Kentucky Wildcats

[Escambia94]

7:00 P.M. from Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington KY 40502 on ESPNU, WatchESPN, Sirius 94, XM 200.

#19 Florida Gators (2-1, 1-0 SEC).
VS.
Kentucky Wildcats (1-2, 0-0 SEC)

Line: Gators 13 (45) Wildcats

Florida has not lost to Kentucky since an injury and NCAA sanction year of 1986. The Gators look to keep alive the longest winning streak against an opponent.

 

[awebbf5]

Can't wait, ten minute drive from my apartment. I'll be in the fourth row. I will try to get some good pics and post them.

 

[DRU2012]

Sorry--for me it's just hard to get cranked about this one under the BEST of circumstances--and what we have here in Gatorland is anything BUT "best of circumstances"...I just can't keep the sinking feeling in my gut from dominating my whole outlook re the rest of this season. Again, I feel like the ONLY "positive" way of approaching the balance of this schedule is to look at it as "preseason to 2014", begin to build toward THAT team and year's "Great Expectations".
(If I'm like a "broken record" on this issue, it's a mark of how strongly I feel, how sure I am that I am right.)

 

[awebbf5]

I'm excited to see how Tyler does with a week of preparation and knowing he will be the starter. The Easley injury won't kill us Saturday but against LSU, Georgia, FSU, and South Carolina it will be a big difference.

 

[Escambia94]

I am sure this will be a close game, unless Tyler Murphy engineers a blowout. More than likely, the Gators will run 90% so the defense can rest now that they lack Easley.

 

[DRU2012]

I am sure this will be a close game, unless Tyler Murphy engineers a blowout. More than likely, the Gators will run 90% so the defense can rest now that they lack Easley.

I'm excited to see how Tyler does with a week of preparation and knowing he will be the starter. The Easley injury won't kill us Saturday but against LSU, Georgia, FSU, and South Carolina it will be a big difference.

OK: Here (above) are the two main points well-stated: We should beat Ky again (that "upset alert"--always out there and ESPECIALLY possible this time, in Lexington, as we weaken and fill holes and the Wildcats begin to finally improve--notwithstanding) this week, though maybe not as soundly as might have been the case with a full-deck...I think we just have too much of a running game, and hence too much left of a then well-rested D, to NOT pull away in the 2nd half....The only way we lose this one is thru' lots of errors, miscues, penalties and (above all) give-aways--SOUND FAMILIAR? Yeah, it's how we've mainly looked on offense this season--though that began to improve the moment Driskel was hurt, sad to say...Murphy plays mistake-free, we execute, and this one will be in the win-column.
However, aweb ticks off the games I now feel we have only small chances of winning--for all the reasons alluded to here and elsewhere. One way or another, I'm seeing a 7-and-5, at BEST an 8-and-4 season in the offing now--and 6-and-6 isn't out-of-the-question (!). I know I'm hammering on this every chance I get now, but that's because of this very situation, and how sure I am that we now face exactly the above reality...
Here's my point about changing our whole approach to the season NOW: Make it a kind of "pre-season/prep" for 2014. Bring in ALL our young QBs (yes, including Grier), seeing who's got "IT", and giving him learning/seasoning/growth time, readying him for next year, while we sort out EVERYTHING ELSE on a once-again woeful offense. Two things we MUST know before we get to "NEXT YEAR": Do we have a "real QB", and does our OC have a creative, imaginative plan for that offense--and/or any idea on how to implement it on a game-by-game basis?

 

[Dale J. Rodriguez]

I am looking forward to this game, but I am really sad that Domnique is gone for the season.

 

[NaffGutts]

i think we blow them out, 38 - 0

murphy can move our offense, and more importantly, mitigate mistakes and capitalize on opportunity. our defense shut down Tenn because Murphy kept our offense moving, thus letting the D rest and not have the pressure of the game on their backs like they are used to. this will be Murphy's confidence building game, and I think he will do awesome. this will also be D. Cummings step-up game. Losing Easley hurt, but not so much in the physical aspect in my opinion. His motivation and emotion he brought to our line was pure passion for beating people up, if we look for him on the sideline, and find another leader on the trench, then our D will not falter one bit.

I think Gator Nation is in for a shock Saturday, hope you guys are ready, it's been well deserved.

 

[DRU2012]

Can't really call ANY kind of win over Ky "a shock", man...Dig your enthusiasm AND positive attitude, but it'll be against "the big boys", LSU, SC, UGA that will tell the REAL story--and where the Easley loss will be clearly displayed. I hope I'm wrong, am underestimating this team, its depth, its "moxy", AND its staff, but I'm afraid the chickens will eventually come home to roost: It's death by a thousand (not so minor) cuts, and it will add up.
(PS If I DO turn out to be mistaken, I will freely, openly and VERY HAPPILY admit it here publicly, and revel in all the ways I didn't "believe"--but I just have too little faith left in any of those expected "strengths" to do anything but steal myself for the coming hard road.)

 

[DRU2012]

...I DO have one request in the event that I am right, though:
If things DO turn bad in the coming weeks, I ask that instead of wringing our hands in post mortems over "what went wrong" or "who is to blame", we here at GE turn our attention to what we can do to maximize what's left of this season to prepare for NEXT--and/or if that is even the way to go, as I am proposing. It'll be weeks before we'll know for sure, but if/when the time comes, I WILL remind and revisit these same questions and proposals. For now, though, I'll back off and let it be...Deal?

 

[Escambia94]

I am not betting any money, so I call it 45-10, Gators. I know that it will probably be 14-13, but I want to have some fun for once.

 

[NaffGutts]

@DRU2012

the shock I'm referring to, is the performance that Murphy puts on. Even though it's Kentucky, he needs this game for confidence. In no way is beating Kentucky a shock, but our Offense will be efficient, and our Defense will still be lights out.

I just hope Brent Pease lets Murphy be Murphy.

 

[DRU2012]

@DRU2012

the shock I'm referring to, is the performance that Murphy puts on. Even though it's Kentucky, he needs this game for confidence. In no way is beating Kentucky a shock, but our Offense will be efficient, and our Defense will still be lights out.

I just hope Brent Pease lets Murphy be Murphy.

Good way of putting it--of course, we're still in the process of learning exactly who that is as well...Hell, I was gonna say that's true for the coaches too, but it may WELL be true for Murphy himself!
(Oh--and I didn't mean that comment above as any kind of disparaging remark, NG--I figure you, like all of us, can't regard anything but a LOSS to Ky as any kind of "shock"...I am more making sure that we all (1) Regard THAT "shock", an eventual beyond-all-comprehension loss after 20-something or THIRTY-something straight, for a LOT of reasons--this time, a team with personel-questions on BOTH sides of the ball, going INTO Lexington against a group that, thanx to recruiting and coaching, ain't really "the Mildcats" anymore--is by now at least within the realm of "possible", and (2) We have WAY too many problems of our own to approach ANY SEC contest with anything but a tough determination--something our Head Coach stresses, thankfully (SPECIALIZES in)--but these are kids, hopefully but not always young men, who get caught up in what they hear away from the field and locker room, and aren't always ready to play, or take their opponent seriously, until absorbing a few "shocks" of their own on gameday...THEN it's a matter of responding, and that doesn't always happen in time. I've been as frustrated by and concerned with the sloppiness of execution and play, especially our continued propensity for big, dumb penalties on crucial plays, as anything else we've been discussing...)
"Master of the Obvious"? Perhaps, but the truth (as I see it) is that we probably WILL win this one going away in the 2nd half, after some sloppy play and bumbling self-induced tension early in the first--and in turn only continuing what I believe is the self-delusional idea that we are still on track for a Championship season...But I do understand that we play it all that way 'til reality itself smacks us in the face. "Fake it 'til you make it"--It does work, more often than I used to think (Yeah, I'm more a "half-empty" kinda guy, after all--big surprise, right?), "in REAL life"--but at some point you WILL have to back it up, to make it "real". Not sure we can, --but then again, theory goes the longer we can go without it beating us, the less vulnerable we ARE.

 

[totenkopf13]

Pease should open it up and let's see what Tyler can do. They should win this game, but I hope that they turn him lose. I would like to see what the type of leadership skills he has when charged with running the offense knowing it's his going forward this year.

No need for the mundane.

 

[DRU2012]

@totenkopf13,
Right ON...Couldn't have PUT it better, more clearly or succinctly: Yeah. No need at ALL.

 

[DRU2012]

Btw--Gotta get this out there, for better or worse:
Does everyone else feel that "dread of the first 7-to-10 minutes" of this (and really, every) game now? I almost fully EXPECT a bumbling, mistake, drop and penalty-ridden Chinese fire-drill of a performance from our offense going into each game and continuing well into the first quarter. "How many points do we spot THIS team?" Not necessarily a big deal against Kentucky, certainly recoverable/erasable--but even keeping my promise not to dwell on what I think is up-the-road, these dreadful early-game "pratfall revues" are hard to face...Baby steps: I just wanna see Murphy calmly move the chains without some big f-up; Now, if he were to actually suddenly pull up and launch one long on a planned QB run-fake & throw, even if it didn't WORK it'd be a sign that, as tk put it above, Pease was opening things up for him--and will pay dividends now and later.

 

[DRU2012]

Nice drive...and Murphy does look smooth and confident. Pretty well GOT "Wish One" on that drive.
Now, this D has GOT to NOT be the weak link here--I SAID that this KY team can move the ball, and they're doing it--in large chunks. They are NOT gonna throw it away, either: Not their style unless we MAKE them throw. Stop them here on 2nd and 8 and the balance...

 

[DRU2012]

See, here's where and HOW we miss Easley--both as signal caller AND "presence" on-the-field, both physically and psychologically...Yes, this is still a formidable defense, but Easley is actually one of those rare guys who is like an extra player out there, an invisible "plus one". Still, we did "bend" but hold...SH*T!!! Fooled on the FAKE!!! Coaching let down there...and what we should have (and CAN) expect more of. That one's on Muschamp and his special team's coaches.

 

[totenkopf13]

Iron balls. Damn.

 

[Dale J. Rodriguez]

We have to settle down. We will be fine.

 

[DRU2012]

What are y'all doin', sittin' on yer hands, waitin' to see what happens? BULLETIN: Our offense seems to be doing exactly what the coaches' gameplan demanded--but the DEFENSE and special teams (and the coaches behind THEM) are not holding their own so far. Now, the question that occurs to ME of course is, "Is thisreally a good offensive gameplan going in?" It's the one I expected, all the way, but though it suits our meetings with one of "the big boys", where you WANT to seriously shorten the game, here against KY it's the "loser's thinking"--gives 'em too much room to play us even (while meanwhile we just screwed up a first-and-ten at the 16 and turned it with penalty and blocking screw up into a long FG attempt), a team we should, and (judging by how our offense is moving the ball, when not backing u) WOULD have been (kicker misses his third of the year--try the other guy, Will!) running up the score on by now, forthe first time this year--and maybe all LAST year too, feels like.
So: as I've just hilariously un-multitasked, we come out tied with a team we've well way outplayed--THIS is how you "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory...and we BETTER shut this running game down pronto if we wanna take control of this. I do NOT like what I'm seeing now (--almost blocked, but "almost" ain't a play OR a statistic...)
Well, I guess it's "an improvement" that we're not in the hole--but tell me you are confident that we'll bury this Wildcat team anytime soon. They are playing us even, and we are at their place--With every possession, they are FEELING it, more and more. BIG RUN by jones...and AGAIN he's tackled by our own player, like last week. WTF???!!! What was DUNBAR thinking? We better score after THAT! I thought I'd seen it all LAST week when it happened--but that was when a blocker clipped the heel of an exhausted lineman with a long runback--THIS time the guy had beaten everyone and broken open (There We GO!!! NICE throw, Murphy to Burton!)...OK, NOW it's a bit of a joke--but TWO WEEKS IN A ROW!