Gator Game Day: 10/04/14 At Vols

[DRU2012]

I'm glad my prediction was right. #Whew

Treon has to grow for us to have chance in the east. I believe he will be fun.

Oh yeah--you actually DID call it pretty close to on-the-NOSE, Dale!
Here's the thing, though--and again, I hope that I AM wrong about this, too, but I figure it's no better than 50/50 whether Treon starts next game. I said it theoretically speaking back before he actually got in there, to the idea that "even if Harris were to get in there and pull this out...", that unless Driskel was injured again I thought our Head Coach would have JD back starting the next week. The way he re-inserted him at the end for the run-out, his comments right after the game, well, he's done nothing to make me think he ISN'T gonna go with Driskel. He's at least trying to figure out if he CAN, at this point, knows he couldn't say he would right now regardless, but is already "paving the way". I figure that no matter what, ANYTHING Muschamp does now, anything he decides to do has to pass through the filter of "how do I keep this job?"-consideration. That, and the fact that he's a hard-headed guy, stubborn and proud, all argue that being cornered, being right, and winning have all become jumbled together, linked together to become the epoxy that has him pretty well attached to "his QB", Jeff Driskel, in HIS mind and heart. Will take a flexibility AND clear-eyed practical realism he hasn't shown so far to get him over to "Treon's my/OUR best hope now". That or some sort of ultimatum from J. Foley or something--and that seems even LESS likely. Is Foley as "attached/wedded" to Muschamp as Coach is to Driskel, each in his own head? I just don't know. Will have to judge by actual events as they play out, I guess.

 

[DRU2012]

What this tells us is one of two things:

• The Gators respond better to Treon Harris for whatever reason, hence he is a locker room leader and on-field leader.
• Treon Harris is every bit as good as the hype, and responds well to game pressure.

Now the question is what will happen if he is inserted as the starter, or if he regresses in practice and Driskel gets put back in as starter?

This much we can say with confidence, I figure:
Rather have the "kid" with fire and grace-under-pressure in there than ANY great practice-quarterback with ALL the experience there is. Only blind stubbornness and pride would make a Coach see it any other way.

 

[DRU2012]

The Gators almost fumbled the victory formation! What the [INSERT EXPLETIVE HERE].

Worst victory/non-loss ever, but it is a W.

Yes. It IS a W.
As I said at the outset, before kick-off, though, against Tennessee, after our previous two performances and outcomes in SEC-play, "barely eking out victory at the end" after messing up all over the field the better part of the game won't help Will Muschamp's overall case for being retained. And this time they looked worse than against UK on offense, at least until Treon came in...and he (Muschamp) almost waited too long to get THAT done: Remember when he finally had him up and throwing on the sideline after a seemingly disastrous THIRD INT--and STILL didn't put him in for two more possessions? AS I said at the time, we should have at the very least been fully prepared for this possibility, of Jeff Driskel not performing well, after the first two SEC games, especially after a bye-week to take time, add "wrinkles" and maybe get our "#2" up to a "#1A"? And regardless of prep leading up to the game, everything SCREAMED "get Harris in there" after that 1st half performance by the whole offense, especially Driskel. Yes, it "wasn't all Jeff's fault"--others performed poorly as well (including his developing "go to" guy, Robinson, who had except for one catch finally a very bad day--something that is gonna happen to a young player at a skill position sometimes...Good thing was he shook it all off, kept at it and eventually came through on one of those "someone's gotta go GET one of these Driskel bad-balls"), but that doesn't change the fact that DRISKEL HAS NEVER LOOKED VERY GOOD this season--he stunk it up passing even for most of the first half of the first game, against EASTERN MICHIGAN, finally came thru' with "relatively decent"-but-not-spectacular stats against one of the most overmatched and inferior defenses we're ever gonna play. And in that one Treon Harris came in and lit things UP like they hadn't been "lit up" in YEARS. Here, it fell to Treon to replace him late and put up TEN POINTS, fewest points in a Gator win in DECADES, and a tired but game defense to make it stick. But we only still had that chance because Tennessee IS still so young and inconsistent.
"10-9". Against a still-growing up, not-quite-fully-formed Volunteer squad. The defense played up to its potential, finally, the whole game. The only "surprise" was Treon's: He didn't just take control, he was COOL about it all the whole way. You know he was "executing a set of plays called by Roper", running that 1st-string offense like he'd always been there, snapping through hand-offs and reads and making the plays that needed to be made. The offense came alive around him--you couldn't miss that. It won't all be clear sailing, we know that--CAN'T be against SEC defenses--and he IS still a "just-got-here" true-freshman QB, 19 yrs old and somehow already WAY ahead of where anyone expects him, or anyone else at his age and experience-level is expected to be. He COULD be a really good one, that's no big stretch at this point. I'm not so sure he doesn't start from 1st game on, we aren't at a different place (maybe still 2-and-1, maybe not--but looking considerably better to us AND "the world" than this "underdog at Neyland" Gator team looked, STILL looks without Treon) than we are now: Still a question mark, hard to gauge even with Treon starting, even with the win.
Muscham sits him again, means he's circled the wagons and decided, "We win my way, or we go DOWN my way...", and asks, demands his team to side with him--either way shut up and do their jobs. Not wise management; look for the howl for his head to swell ever higher, even with the by-a-hair win.
Harris IS named starter and the most it does is just pass the same concern and "reserved judgment" (for those who still HAVE "reserved judgment") on for another week. Without Harris, this is a loss, a BAD loss to an inferior team we shouldn't have been underdog to in the first place. WITH Harris, a ray of light has burst thru'. Is Muschamp smart or desperate enough to realize he HAS to RIDE it, or at least try?

 

[DRU2012]

Watching these other games, especially the SEC games, I don't see how we beat ANY of the "upper tier" teams WITHOUT Treon and the wholesale change in attitude and potential he brings to a seemingly transformed offense--and beating those teams (Georgia, LSU, the 'Noles) will still require fewer let-downs and stupid mistakes, not to mention better preparation and MUCH better "adjustments" in-game. We look more like the teams that are getting STOMPED by the good ones, keeping with 'em for a half or so maybe, getting slowly worn down--then getting clobbered again in the 2nd half, like at Tuscaloosa.
Painful: Until "The Change" late in the third qrtr, we looked like one of the lower-tier teams in the SEC--and even that "re-charge", exciting and encouraging as it was, WAS against TENNESSEE. Know what I mean?

 

[Escambia94]

I can only hope that he is telling everyone that Driskel is starting, so that LSU will plan a game against the wrong QB. If Driskel starts against LSU, then I hope Harris gets inserted before Driskel throws a third interception.

 

[DRU2012]

I can only hope that he is telling everyone that Driskel is starting, so that LSU will plan a game against the wrong QB. If Driskel starts against LSU, then I hope Harris gets inserted before Driskel throws a third interception.

Aw, man--I'm with you (we be drinkin' SERIOUSLY at this point, no? These are takn as long as they are to bang out 'cause I gotta do a LOT of proofing...ha ha, 100-proofing!)--but look at how we grasp at any litlle thread-of-a-hope to give us a reason to HAVE hope now. We don't expect to win ANYTHING "real" at this point, just maybe a GAME pr tweo here and there we don't LOOK like we could or should win to anyone else.
Our biggest "last hope" for this year is that Harris gets in there and gives us all a look at "the future of Gator Football"--and that's a LOT top put on this kid's head right now. I'd rather NOT do that, now that I see what he could be eventually, but I can't help myself, either: We NEED something, someONE to help us believe again, give us (and btw, some potential "next Head Coach") a reason to think that future might be bright, and not so far away.

 

[DRU2012]

I'm at a bar with a bunch of women now (OSU-alumni and friends who meet each week together here--my girlfriend's one their "crowd", my first time actually hangin' with them), lots of football on multiple screens, but no sound over the din of, well, you get the picture...Anyway, DON'T have the gator-radio, really, can't hear it on my phone over everything else here, so I have a big Q:
Anyone know the latest on the Jones-injury? I figure that is key. Treon's gonna need him--He is a "settling influence", and will play a big part in how Roper "mixes it up but keeps a balance running/passing". If Treon doesn't start, it's not like JD's gonna suddenly get good, no matter WHAT this Coach thinks, so I figure he'll be in there sooner or later. Next game is Arkansas, no? We NEED Jones. We need the best we got at EVERY position out there. Especially on offense: I wanna see Treon Harris with time, protected, and a strong, steady running game to go with his arm and poise--and he's even a better runner than JD (JD's one steady strong point), faster and more "tricky". The option with Jones in there and Harris running it becomes all the more effective--and opens up the passing game for a kid who can DO something with it. First time I've felt we could hit "the long one" at any time in YEARS.
So what's with the Jones-injury???

 

[DRU2012]

This is Suzy and u need to let Drew give Tess + rest of US more attention. He's spndng too much time peckng on this phn sted of drinkn and watchn COWBOY football

 

[DRU2012]

Um, sorry. (Guess I'll have to tuck this close, pick my moments here for awhile...)

 

[DRU2012]

Btw--did I refer to our record as "2-and-1" earlier? Guess I meant just our SEC-record...Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it. Would have at least SOUNDED better if we had had that first game and a "4-and-1" now.
But fact is, actual events and performance tells the true tale--and we don't have ANY right to call ourselves "underrated" at the moment. Man, just thinking about all that actually seems to sober me right up again.
What's wrong with me? Surrounded by cute women (including my stone-FOX girlfriend--gotta cover my ass in case the phone gets swiped again: Serves you right for looking, dear), laughing, cheering jeering and having FUN--and I keep "coming back down to earth". OK, let it go, DRU. Talk to y'all later...
(but I STILL wanna a report on that Jones injury, ASAP, anyone has it--won't likely be in front of a flat screen I can LISTEN to Football Saturday or something on anytime soon...But even I have seen the Ol Miss defeat of Alabama...Only rubs our faces in everything we are NOT right now, though, when it SHOULD have been pure joy...For some reaon, the MSU defeat of A&M has been more satisfying here today--maybe 'cause all these girls were so joyously happy about it too?)

 

[DRU2012]

Here's FANTASY LAND, before I go:
What if this were after the TIDE game, and it was US who beat 'em, Harris coming in and getting us that 10-9 victory?
Whole different picture, right?
Yeah. Like I said, "Fantasy Land". Let's go eat our way up "Gumball Mountain"...

 

[DRU2012]

One more thing--Sorry, but I actually heard this one by SEC commentator in the BATHROOM (the TV, no sh*t, TV in the bathroom!, NOT the "SEC Commentator" in the bathroom...hmm, guess that "No sh*t" ain't necessarily proper syntax either...GEEZ, I am stupid-drunk):
"To the question of whether Driskel will sit now, back up Treon Harris next week, Muschamp saying 'We'll have to take a look this week and evaluate...' "
What is to "Evaluate"??? You don't need to know much about football to SEE the difference in how that offense looked once Harris got in there--never mind the last 4-6 quarters or so of Driskel's actual performance out there. Looked like SH*T til "The Change". Whole offense suddenly comes alive under that much less experienced young true-freshman. Give him the ball now, NOT "in a few days" if at all, get him reps with the first team all week: Give him, the team, US all a chance to be more than they've been up 'til late in the third of this one when he finally got in there. And btw (down to a whisper):
"Hey Will...Roper is great with QBs, loves the long ball, and Treon can actually THROW it."
We know how little you value it, but it counts as 7 points--4 MORE than the 3 that FG you got so pumped about will get you...and even faster, easier when you get it right against a team that isn't even taking the threat of it seriously now--which is just about everyone at this point with Driskel in there!

 

[DRU2012]

PS READ "SB NATION'S" GREAT GAME-REVIEW, HEADLINED "FLORIDA 10 TENNESSEE 9--GATORS REACH POINT OF NO RETURN"
It's just great, completely right on. Short but sweet. Well, slightly sour--but just right.
Really good opening statement, starting point for US in our post-game post mortems--but maybe Sunday. Later, anyway.
(Good essay Q if this were an exam, too: The headline, then, "Discuss".
Can't help it--the game, the booze, the "colorful hoopla" complete with (only SLIGHTLY-) aging ACTUAL CHEERLEADERS stuffed into their old outfits from college jumping around together, leading the crowd of (mostly) women fans here--it really IS a lotta fun, and all takes me back...These girls do it right, I have to hand it to 'em. No wonder girlfriend tries to make it here whenever she's here in town and has time on fall Saturdays. She's not even an OSU-alumnus--went to Brin Marr, fer cryin out loud--but DID have a coupla cousins go and actually play there...and says she WANTED to go, but her SERIOUSLY upscale 'rents would have none of it, made sure it was gonna be the "Harvard of Private Women's Liberal Arts Colleges" up in Philly...Why am I going on here? Sorry, lose ANY sense of self-censorship or TMI when I drink "enough")

(NOTE: The OTHER "SB NATION" Column, entitled "3 Things We Learned About The Florida Gators", is probably just as true--but stings, really--BECAUSE it's true. All true. Funny, too. 'Cause we ARE pretty much a joke now, another stumbling, bumbling, fumbling SEC East team--certainly our games against OTHER bad SEC East teams best laughed at than taken seriously as "Big Wins", especially by US. We have fallen as far as Tennessee now, and THEY'RE at least on the way back. It could well get worse for us, before it (eventually, with a new coach and bite-the-bullet changeover) gets better. Read it too, though. Don't always like their bratty "take" but these are fair and accurate, along with being entertaining--and sometimes it's good to just see it all said, by some of our own, get it OUT there...)

 

[DRU2012]

(Wild here; Anyone outside the Texas/Oklahoma corridor see this game?...Slip in quick one here amongst all the fun THIS crowd is having--it DOES remind me of undergrad years--back in 1979, as a matter of fact, when we always had fun cause it was already hopeless---THAT is the only way a GATOR can relax enough to "just party" in-game--when we're WAY ahead late, of course (but even that doesn't happen til the 4th with a BIG lead), and when, for that one terrible-but-FUN year, when it became clear it just didn't MATTER...)
Watching the UK/S.Car. game on corner-screen (only one turned that way, it seems, but so what)...UK at least giving GCs a game, came back and tied it here in the 2nd qrtr, even with all their blunders and bad penalties. Can't tell if it's just that way in the SEC this season, EVERYONE "up'n'down", week-to-week, but I guess it shows that (1) UK isn't that bad after all this year, and/or (2) The Gamecocks, like everyone else in our league are quite capable of booting away their own chances, having trouble getting out of their own way...
Oh, what we could have DONE this year with even a MEDIOCRE offense, instead of one of the worst in the Championship division (led so far by simply one of the most disappointingly UNDER-achievers I've ever seen at QB...I mean, Muschamp should be fired just for getting so stubbornly bent on staying with him, apparently no matter WHAT he does). Getting rid of Muschamp is becoming almost as easy a decision as sitting Driskel--and yet THAT may still not be done either. Well, he attached himself to a loser (sorry--but that's literally what JD IS, when it counts), so I can't, won't feel badly when this Head Coach loses his job because of it (though it's just one of a SLEW of practical, demonstrated reasons why he should--certainly at the end of the season).
UK's just hit one long to take the lead. That's how you win in this league, how an underdog upsets, or a good team beats the HELL out of a lesser-one even on a day they're playing JUST as sloppily (like the Tide beat us last wknd, right?). We have a QB can hit the long ball, we KILL UK early, and maybe take control in the 1st half against Alabama, get a 2 score lead then shorten the game and change the way the whole 2nd half is played (it wasn't that the Tide looked so great--they DIDN'T in the first half, played as sloppily as we did). How does Muschamp CONTINUE to ignore how everyone wins in this league.? It's like that flukey 2nd year, when we had good D and no O but somehow kept winning close ones, was a curse that we're still living under. Even the SEC color-commentator guys inadvertently said it, one saying about the 10-9 win, "That's how Muschamp LIKES to win--get a lead late and hold it with his defense in a close, low-scoring affair..." Well, that's what happened--but did he actually WATCH the game?!! Didn't exactly follow Muschamp's script (or anyone else's--unless you're writing one of those "Kid comes in and saves the day" hero-sports-stories for young boys). Yeah, he had it PLANNED that way all along, right?
Meanwhile, Auburn destroying LSU. We can beat one--but may have real trouble against "the other Alabama team". They appear to be the one consistent team, and gaining steam. Never know this year though--and if Treon gets in there, gets some game experience under his belt, and we get/stay healthy, and...well, there I go: "Hopin' " again...GOTTA cut that out. I mean, just because we MIGHT have a decent QB about to get in there and turn things up a notch or two doesn't change anything else about this mess. Or does it?

 

[DRU2012]

Yeah, I know no one's here, reading this stuff now--but I have my own thoughts about all this, everyone's got that fun party-buzz going and I can sit back, sorta half-watch, half-play, and a little of this here and there...
...and I figure some of you will read some of this later, and respond. Maybe start a new Thread? Naw, not now...too much picky stuff for me right now. Barely managing this tap tap bs...OK gang: Guess I really will call it a night unless/until phone "bongs" to tell me someone's actually got something to say about it all.

 

[DRU2012]

Oh, and "GO GATORS!" Helluva win, Treon. Good game, D.

 

[Escambia94]

Well then. Thank you, Treon Harris for allegedly assaulting a girl and allegedly shattering the hopes and dreams of the Gator Nation. Even if you are innocent, you, sir, are a dumbass for placing yourself in this situation. If you are guilty, then I hope you enjoy your one year of junior college and subsequent transfer to Auburn or North Alabama.

 

[DRU2012]

Well then. Thank you, Treon Harris for allegedly assaulting a girl and allegedly shattering the hopes and dreams of the Gator Nation. Even if you are innocent, you, sir, are a dumbass for placing yourself in this situation. If you are guilty, then I hope you enjoy your one year of junior college and subsequent transfer to Auburn or North Alabama.

Yup. At the very least, as I commented in passing on the "Really, guys?" thread, this had to be just about the dumbest, no, worse than "dumb", stupid-to-the-point-of-self-destructiveness that takes you, your life, career and all of us down in flames WITH you kind-of-thing I've encountered in sometime--in terms of timing, maybe unparalleled. And that's if it was just some drunken "misunderstanding", mostly verbal, and NOT "something worse"--which would be reprehensible and impossible to ignore or defend in any way, let alone "sweep under the rug".
(PS ,@Escambia94, I thought it was North Alabama, THEN Auburn...or is it, Blinn College, then...aw frig it.)

 

[miltongator]

This was on MSNsports:
I can’t overstate how stupid this story is: Two Florida Gators, Skyler Mornhinweg and Gerald Willis III, got into a fight outside the football stadium on Monday evening reportedly because a pair of Mornhinweg’s cleats had gone missing and were found in Willis III’s locker. This news comes a day after the much more serious story of freshman quarterback Treon Harris being suspended indefinitely while he’s investigated on accusations of sexual assault. Florida has seen better days.

 

[DRU2012]

This was on MSNsports:
I can’t overstate how stupid this story is: Two Florida Gators, Skyler Mornhinweg and Gerald Willis III, got into a fight outside the football stadium on Monday evening reportedly because a pair of Mornhinweg’s cleats had gone missing and were found in Willis III’s locker. This news comes a day after the much more serious story of freshman quarterback Treon Harris being suspended indefinitely while he’s investigated on accusations of sexual assault. Florida has seen better days.

Yeah man--I was actually referring to BOTH of these stories in my comments here and on the other threads since Monday, but of course the Harris story is the much larger one (for OH so many reasons)...Actually heard about THIS one (the "Case of the Missing Cleats") from my friend who's on the scene in the athletic dept. at UF, calling me just completely "fed up" himself, warning me early Monday about "a stupid, STUPID story, all too true, that will be hitting the media by later today", the police somehow getting wind of it and showing up within minutes of it happening (some hazy questions about THAT, too--hassles break out between players all the time, especially on sinking programs, but the COPS don't show up, certainly never get CALLED, which is what they claimed).
The main point here is actually the one I just "slipped by" there: What else can you call it now, how else can we be described but as "a sinking program"? It ain't NONE of it "an anomaly" now. I don't see how even J. Foley can wiggle out of it at this point--maybe this even gives him his "honorable out" with any promises he may have made to Muschamp along the way. Regardless, I don't see how anything but a "Gators Win Out"-story from here 'til the end of the season can save our soon-to-be-former Head Coach now. Since that falls into the "NEH-va HAH-pen!" category, gotta figure in his heart-of-hearts even Will knows what's coming. Maybe he just let's it all fly now, facing a real all-or-nothing-and-little-chance-of-"all" reality, and Roper at least gets to open things up wildly? Naw, I don't believe it either--but it was worth a moment or two of dreaming up SOME little fun scenario. Not as if we're gonna get it anywhere else. Not from THIS team.