I'm worried about the season. If they couldn't beat Utah, what chances do they have against Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, and FSU? Will they win on the road against South Carolina, Kentucky, or Mizzou? Do they have a chance against Arkansas at home?
Yes--exactly.
Right now I feel that the Gator team we saw out there last night WON'T beat those tougher, currently much-heralded teams you mentioned, especially the SEC squads (we ALWAYS have a rival's fighting chance against the 'Noles, no matter what).
It is in now finding ourselves perhaps not matching up well against those "lower-tier", less-well-thought-of SEC teams that is so gravely worrisome at this point.
THAT has much to do with HOW we lost the game last night--the way we let a winnable one get AWAY from us:
It was ugly from the START...The return of crucial third down penalties, missed coverages, missed tackles, poor prep, poor planning, poor execution.
We proceeded from the opening kick to BEAT OURSELVES! THAT kind of play might WELL deliver just 3 or 4 wins this season.
I dreaded Coach's postgame presser, almost passed on watching it--and in the actual event mainly wished I HAD.
All the same predictable reassurances, claims of "personal responsibility" and promises of "redoubled efforts"...Is anyone else as tired of HEARING all that as much as I am?
When do we IMPROVE? At what point do all three squads, offense defense and special teams, begin to SHOW IT ON THE FIELD??!,
We were bigger and FASTER than the other team out there last night, on EVERY squad. We outgained, SHOULD have OUTSCORED them; We did NOT because we once more reverted to the kind of fragmented, careless and ill-prepared mistake-prone NON-"team" that has managed to blow big games again and again at key moments the last few years!
I for one am thoroughly SICK of it, the whole drill.
So it should come as no surprise if, like myself, more and more FANS are getting tired of hearing the same kinds of "we'll get this FIXED" speeches again from our Coach after each such frustrating outing.
We weren't expecting "perfection", or anything even CLOSE to it coming INTO this one (game OR season)--but most of us thought "IMPROVEMENT" was a reasonable goal.
Well, a very low starting point has now been established:
It damn well BETTER improve from this point forward--DRAMATICALLY so.
And NOT just for one week...McNeese is little more than a scrimmage; Fair or not, our play versus the Vols will now be judged in the starkest light. For Billy's (as well as Graham and others') postgame comments to mean ANYTHING now we had better see pulled somehow from deep in each Coach and player's GUT the best and most determined GameDay performance they hold there.
THIS is what "the spirit of College Football" has always been about. The players deserved to share in the money being made directly and indirectly by others via their "Name and Likeness", growing fame riding on their talented performances.
But TEAM success was ALWAYS a complicated, fragile thing that was built on a combination of talent, dedication and selflessness, all brought together and somehow creatively mixed and BUILT into a winning formula by a talented Coach and staff...It takes the right ingredients, some luck and TIME. This last isn't granted in the amounts it once was--Impatient constituencies have and will continue to pay the price for their impatience: Pay it in missed opportunities and long periods of not-quite-GETTING-there...or not getting there at ALL.
Once great programs go down and do NOT RErise after all, DESPITE effort and expectation.
Sound familiar?
Well of course we are sick of it!
So we stick with Billy now--but he has to learn and grow as well HIMSELF: Find the flexibility that is required here. I agree for example with those who recommend he hire a like-minded OC: A number of confused moments last night could have been avoided entirely, yielded more successful outcomes had he had someone backing him up in that role on the sideline.
OK. I have actually managed to exhaust myself, unload all the things that were set to rolling over and through me from early in last night's game and on through the whole night:
Even my sleep was interrupted, disturbed by my Gator-fueled inner turmoil.
What can I say? You understand:
Like yourselves, I am a GATOR FAN.
Won't back down.
