That faint moan from the shadows under the pier is me (and all the other Gators out there) calling out in weakness and pain after stumbling over the edge, hoping for a little help from our brothers-in-arms after being left for dead. It wasn't some bully that left us like this tonight--nope, like the last time, we wrecked ourselves engaging in self-destructive behavior, and failing once again to change our ways.
OK, enough with the abstract mixed metaphors: we brought this entirely on ourselves, the former regime in the players it stuck us with, and the resulting team in its complete lack of heart, self-discipline and bumbling, selfish style-of-play: We SHOULD be every bit as angry as frustrated, hurt and disappointed at all the damn fool mistakes we made to give this game away. The most confusingly baffling part of the whole debacle is how we made ALL the by-now "same old mistakes" throughout to make certain we lost, and in so doing confirm our status of "bad team".
There can be no doubt of that now, any more than there should be any debate about how we move on from here: clear away the "dead wood" as fast as we can and get in a completely different type of player at every position possible ASAP. Coach Boom and Co. are already headed that way. Instead of "little fast guys who are highly-rated by the experts", we'll be going after (and, by all the signs, GETTING) "big, strong, UNSTOPPABLE guys who WE like and think highly of". It has become all too clear the problem isn't just at running back either: we've been exposed as relatively small, weak and fragile along the lines also.
Then there's that lack-of-heart everywhere as well, exemplified in both our receivers AND defenders. Between drops, failures to go up and get it and the like, the former do NOTHING to help their quarterback, while the latter show a similar lack of fight even when they are there and in position to make the play. These are just specific examples of the overall gutlessness endemic to this collection of individuals, so ready and quick to give up, freelance and shrug off their own culpability. There's more, so much more I could say about it, but what would be the point? The only one I can think of is the one already made: we have too many problems that coaching, and even time-for-healing (time that we no longer have, in ANY event) can't cure. We need to make wholesale changes in the fundamental nature of this team--the very changes that our Head Coach and his staff have already begun.
In the meantime, we DO still have certain practical goals out there that will maximize our time, efforts and future plans. We must continue to work hard to identify the "good ones" we already have, after all: we'll need them as "cadre" among all the new young talent that will be pouring in this spring and summer. As Coach Boom has put it, they'll be looking to identify "our guys, the ones who do things The Florida Way"--something he has definite parameters for and feelings about, it seems, and will become clear in who and what they are and what they DO, rather than a bunch of empty words, and is quietly but firmly and extensively applying not only in the recruiting process, from what I gather, but clearly in the behind-the-scenes manner in which he handles the many "experts' favorites" scooped up back in that "No. 1 Recruiting Class": 4- and 5-stars who were "highly regarded" but have turned out not to measure up, whether on the field, in the locker room or the classroom, or (more likely) some combination of all three. Some folks have really been worrying about this, but not I: again, considering what the "best of 'em" have wrought out there in games the last season-and-a-half or so, gotta look at it as making room for more of "our kind of guys" instead.
Finally, there's that bowl-game thing: we need to win at least 2 more games so that we get invited to one, preferably (and, given that we are still Florida, likely) to one on New Year's Day. This is of course so that we can avail ourselves of the extra 5 weeks of practice for and eventual benefits of (in money, exposure, and, most of all, the continued intensive work as a team) a game against another talented, well-regarded program--otherwise forbidden without those minimum 6 wins. Being active and in the sports news right up until just before the "crazy season" leading up to National Signing Day is no small thing either. Once THAT is accomplished we can turn more of our attention to things that help us begin to get ready for NEXT year, but until we hit 6 wins (and GEEZ, it sticks in my craw to even have to TALK about that as a "problem", let alone find it a genuine concern) we have to make winning ANY WAY WE CAN an absolute priority now.
OK, enough with the abstract mixed metaphors: we brought this entirely on ourselves, the former regime in the players it stuck us with, and the resulting team in its complete lack of heart, self-discipline and bumbling, selfish style-of-play: We SHOULD be every bit as angry as frustrated, hurt and disappointed at all the damn fool mistakes we made to give this game away. The most confusingly baffling part of the whole debacle is how we made ALL the by-now "same old mistakes" throughout to make certain we lost, and in so doing confirm our status of "bad team".
There can be no doubt of that now, any more than there should be any debate about how we move on from here: clear away the "dead wood" as fast as we can and get in a completely different type of player at every position possible ASAP. Coach Boom and Co. are already headed that way. Instead of "little fast guys who are highly-rated by the experts", we'll be going after (and, by all the signs, GETTING) "big, strong, UNSTOPPABLE guys who WE like and think highly of". It has become all too clear the problem isn't just at running back either: we've been exposed as relatively small, weak and fragile along the lines also.
Then there's that lack-of-heart everywhere as well, exemplified in both our receivers AND defenders. Between drops, failures to go up and get it and the like, the former do NOTHING to help their quarterback, while the latter show a similar lack of fight even when they are there and in position to make the play. These are just specific examples of the overall gutlessness endemic to this collection of individuals, so ready and quick to give up, freelance and shrug off their own culpability. There's more, so much more I could say about it, but what would be the point? The only one I can think of is the one already made: we have too many problems that coaching, and even time-for-healing (time that we no longer have, in ANY event) can't cure. We need to make wholesale changes in the fundamental nature of this team--the very changes that our Head Coach and his staff have already begun.
In the meantime, we DO still have certain practical goals out there that will maximize our time, efforts and future plans. We must continue to work hard to identify the "good ones" we already have, after all: we'll need them as "cadre" among all the new young talent that will be pouring in this spring and summer. As Coach Boom has put it, they'll be looking to identify "our guys, the ones who do things The Florida Way"--something he has definite parameters for and feelings about, it seems, and will become clear in who and what they are and what they DO, rather than a bunch of empty words, and is quietly but firmly and extensively applying not only in the recruiting process, from what I gather, but clearly in the behind-the-scenes manner in which he handles the many "experts' favorites" scooped up back in that "No. 1 Recruiting Class": 4- and 5-stars who were "highly regarded" but have turned out not to measure up, whether on the field, in the locker room or the classroom, or (more likely) some combination of all three. Some folks have really been worrying about this, but not I: again, considering what the "best of 'em" have wrought out there in games the last season-and-a-half or so, gotta look at it as making room for more of "our kind of guys" instead.
Finally, there's that bowl-game thing: we need to win at least 2 more games so that we get invited to one, preferably (and, given that we are still Florida, likely) to one on New Year's Day. This is of course so that we can avail ourselves of the extra 5 weeks of practice for and eventual benefits of (in money, exposure, and, most of all, the continued intensive work as a team) a game against another talented, well-regarded program--otherwise forbidden without those minimum 6 wins. Being active and in the sports news right up until just before the "crazy season" leading up to National Signing Day is no small thing either. Once THAT is accomplished we can turn more of our attention to things that help us begin to get ready for NEXT year, but until we hit 6 wins (and GEEZ, it sticks in my craw to even have to TALK about that as a "problem", let alone find it a genuine concern) we have to make winning ANY WAY WE CAN an absolute priority now.
