Official Game Thread Week 3: #18 Florida Gators 31, USF Bulls 28 9/17/2022

[DRU2012]

Just got an excited call from a friend up north--tipped me we had the lead again...so I made the mistake of tuning back IN--only to see them blow another key 3rd down play giving them a first at midfield late. We are gonna let them score again anyway. Have tuned away now...Shouldn't have gone against my oath to not watch again til the end.
Tell you what: I will only tune back if and when you TELL me to, and then only because we somehow have put ourselves in position to actually WIN this at the end FOR REAL!
OK?

 

[Escambia94]

USF is not going for the FG. They are going for the TD.

 

[DRU2012]

Did they just score?

 

[DRU2012]

Don't wanna jinx them if it hasn't HAPPENED yet.

 

[DRU2012]

I just FEEL like this is gonna be a big bummer.
Time has GOTFA be running out now.
Only a turnover of some kind will save us.
Think about it:
If not for that INT to close out UTAH we'd be 0-and-3!

 

[DRU2012]

I don't believe it: Gators find a WAY.

 

[Escambia94]

Holy. ****. The Gators are the losers with more points. I am happy for the Gators, but this is not the formula for success next week or the weeks after.

 

[Leakfan12]

I'm not liking the Gators' chances in Knoxville.

 

[DRU2012]

This one won't win us any admirers--and we don't DESERVE any.
Boy, are we ever a "young, sloppy and inexperienced" team, program and staff.
And that "STAFF" has a WHOLE lot to learn AND build on.

Holy. ****. The Gators are the losers with more points. I am happy for the Gators, but this is not the formula for success next week or the weeks after.

You got THAT right. "LOSERS WITH MORE POINTS" indeed.
Understand COX made the difference on D down the stretch...but we definitely missed V Miller the whole WAY! We gotta get him back to stop ANYONE consistently--ESPECIALLY against the run.

 

[Leakfan12]

Also, I better stop making predictions.

 

[Escambia94]

Also, I better stop making predictions.

I predict a lot of drinking and a lot of remote controls flying across the room.

 

[DRU2012]

I'm not liking the Gators' chances in Knoxville.

Me neither, bra'.
But perhaps it'll FEEL less painful than the way we had to SUFFER THROUGH THIS "WIN"...
E--'s line about being "The loser with more points" is a good, accurate summation.
We are a LONG way from being "BACK"--and I'M afraid that next week's game in Knoxville will trend towards demoing how the Vols are further along that road presently than WE are.
Certainly THEY will be consciously out to show that. WE should probably take a lesson from USF, their approach and mindset in the way they came in ready and with A PLAN for matching up with (and grabbing the OPPORTUNITY to BEAT) us here in our place tonight: If WE can catch thd Vols "knowing they are better" and "expecting to WIN", find and plan to exploit our strengths vs. THEIR WEAKNESSES, we might be able to give THEM the same kinds of problems. But that'll be on our Staff and TEAM to figure out, buckle down and transform ourselves accordingly.
Based on what we just saw, it's hard to envision that happening, however.

 

[DRU2012]

Also, I better stop making predictions.

WE ALL'd be better off refraining in that regard.

 

[DRU2012]

The way so MANY games have gone strangely--NEAR upsets and a few actual OUTRIGHT ones--so far this early-season, we may not be as stiffly "punished" by the polls OR the public as we probably deserve--BUT DO NOT BE FOOLED:
We are NOT a very good team as of yet--just one key injury here or there, the accumulation of sloppiness, inexperience and "the same old errors" is bound to keep biting us on our collective rearends...
We just aren't very good--and I don't see that changing in any dramatic way before the late season. And THAT won't happen at ALL without a LOT of painful beatdown experience between here and there. Our staff must identify and ACCEPT the current team's strengths and identity, and meanwhile the PLAYERS will have to "learn and GROW" NEW "strengths", EXPAND that "identity" as time goes on.

 

[DRU2012]

Another thing: Anyone else seeing a seeming "fall-off" in SEC "superiority of play" so far this season as the end of the first month approaches? And NOT just from a few "less surprising directions" (like Penn St. and the B1G), but from the likes of SOUTH FLORIDA, for crying out loud! It ISN'T just us, it seems, eithet.. Here's HOPING it is just a "temporary anomaly", but the great "spreading/leveling of talent" that the changed rules, portals, and new opportunities spurred ON by NIL and the "sharing of wealth" that has and will continue to redistribute that talent further and further afield will only CONTINUE to affect the relative results.
We simply don't KNOW yet how far and how STRONG its effects will be over time.

 

[DRU2012]

My last point for now here:
It is necessary for us to "retrench", to shrink our standards and expectations for this Gator team for the moment. We have a rough and tough season ahead GETTING to about the point we were HOPING to be at coming INTO this season.
This will be a "successful season" IF we were to get there in the course of THIS one!
We were I now think a full YEAR from being where we NEED to be in order to compete with truly "ELITE SEC-LEVEL TEAMS" at and FOR those coming "PLAYOFF-LEVEL TEAMS" soon to be "ALL THAT MATTERS" to "MAJOR-LEVEL PROGRAMS" as the Late Season approaches.
It remains to be SEEN how all this actually plays out in what we (somewhat laughingly) refer to as "The REAL WORLD".

 

[Leakfan12]

Another thing: Anyone else seeing a seeming "fall-off" in SEC "superiority of play" so far this season as the end of the first month approaches? And NOT just from a few "less surprising directions" (like Penn St. and the B1G), but from the likes of SOUTH FLORIDA, for crying out loud! It ISN'T just us, it seems. Here's HOPING it is just a "temporary anomaly", but the great "spreading/leveling of talent" that the changed rules, portals, and new opportunities spurred ON by NIL and the "sharing of wealth" that has and will continue to redistribute that talent further and further afield will only CONTINUE to affect the relative results.
We simply don't KNOW yet how far and how STRONG its effects will be over time.

With the exception of Georgia, Tennessee, and to some extent Bama and Kentucky, I do agree. Yes, Bama and Georgia are in the top two but how long will that last? OK at least for Bama, they have road games against Arkansas, Tennessee, and Ole Miss and that's not counting the SEC title game if they win the west. Georgia might repeat for the playoffs possibly the national championship, I don't see them losing even against Kentucky on the road or the SEC West team (more than likely Bama). Can anyone beat Georgia?

 

[DRU2012]

@Leakfan12,
Who can beat UGA?
As things stand right now, "NOT US!".
(By the way, Lf, were you watching the postgame on the SEC Network while working through the whole "Week 3 GameDay Thread"?
I am digging your after-game "personal replay" of "Gator Envy" here, regardless...After your mentioning your "approach" last week, and recognizing it here and now, I am finding it THIS time a kind of RELIEF--a sort of REVISION of what was so frustrating the FIRST time through.
It's less FRUSTRATING this "2nd time through", now KNOWING we win, for SURE.
THIS time it is more "relaxed" a "RETURN" and reassurance:
Maybe we AREN'T THAT "terrible" after all!
But for the most part I am just mainly just getting myself more comfortable with our weaknesses and inconsistencies now.
But that was and IS altogether NECESSARY, I think. We are just going to have to absorb and ACCEPT that now, and go ON.)
Lookong at and realistically assessing the true "current state of the program, CLEARLY it turns out to be a bigger (and unfortunately likely a LONGER) job ahead rebuilding, even MORE so returning to anything LIKE "ELITE Status" anytime soon, wouldn't y'all say?
I THOUGHT I came in with a hard and clear-eyed assessment of our ongoing "REBUILD".
UM, no.
We are just across-the-board "NOT VERY GOOD" yet! And I don't know that we can GET "there" from "here" now THIS season.

 

[Escambia94]

There are now 3 teams without a passing touchdown:
- Florida
- USF
- Hawaii

 

[DRU2012]

(HELL with it...I'm going back to BED!)