Official Game Thread: Week 7, #7 Florida Gators 28, #5 LSU 42 9/12/19

[DRU2012]

I know it does not feel like it, but this is a respectable loss. The Gators probably will gain more respect in this loss than they did in the Auburn victory.

I don’t buy it...That’s only meaningful if you really give a damn what NON-Gators say they think of us!
No: I have about the same level of appreciation for a “respectable loss” as I do for a “moral victory”!...
Frankly, I do not accept the idea of EITHER.

 

[DRU2012]

Look, the “Gator Standard” is for CHAMPIONSHIPS...Mullens has said as much HIMSELF: “I understood upon COMING here that there was a strict and simple level of expectation: WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS!”
Yes, understand THIS, my friends—Championships ALONE were the one, simple bottomline expectation—and little in the way of alternative would be acceptably settled for now or the future...Now, we ARE progressing, overall we ARE getting better : Last season we wouldn't have even been IN this one (though it is interesting that THEY improved so much in a year as well--remember: last season we BEAT them! )--let alone go toe-to-toe with them right into the 4th quarter! All in all, I have never been surer of the rightness of our growing talent, our Coach and/or our cause!

 

[DRU2012]

Just about to head home—where I figured to lay in with one last acknowledgement of “not good enough”...No: That wasn’t, ISN’T just some “Acceptable Loss” as far as we are concerned: In fact, this is all about a sad, unacceptable outcome in a performance that somehow amounts to “an acceptable Gator loss” here and now that we are somehow supposed to “feel PROUD of???” I don’t THINK so. It hurts--and it OUGHT to : There should NEVER come a day that we are ANYTHING but angry at a loss...Now, we can be proud of this team in defeat--THERE we can agree--but "WE WON'T BACK DOWN!"--Remember? We go home, lick our wounds", and come out working, getting ready to fight HARDER STILL, TOMORROW.
Last season we got smacked in the mouth by UGA—then proceeded to KEEP ON GETTING BEAT the next week against Mizzou! That ain’t gonna happen this coming week against the “Fightin’ Muschumps”, at least it damn well BETTER not...We END any potential “skid” right here and now: We HAVE “grown” as a team and will be neither intimidated nor further beaten down by a Gamecocks team that is most assuredly NOT our equal. I expect us to hang at LEAST that 2 TD margin back on THEM next Saturday—wouldn’t surprise me at all if it were bigger...
In fact, I recommend the best CURE for a team that just let itself down: Go out and drum a squad coached by one of OUR former Coaches, just really leave no doubt who the superior squad is. Just about the time they get a big win and think that maybe they’re something after all, we come along and “re-educate ‘em”!!! THAT’S my prescription for treatment NEXT week, Gators.

 

[DRU2012]

Back home late, with a drink and some “last thoughts”:
This was our high water mark for the season; now our goals and expectations must be pared down to match the realities of what is left on the table.
Now, there’s been a lotta talk about what’s still “out there in front of us”, even the stated idea that “EVERYTHING is still in front of us!”...to which I can only point out that while the IDEA of “assorted possibilities” has been and continues to BE noted, acknowledged and even ENJOYED in process throughout the remainder of our schedule and BEYOND, these all simply amount to “CONSOLATION PRIZES”.
While we may still achieve a certain amount, more than LAST year and potentially some necessary progression on our way to building towards our eventual return to acknowledged “General Greatness” and our place in the College Football Elite, we weren’t there to start this season (and we KNEW IT!), and at this point have only proven the point...It can be debated whether that proof came earlier, later or just about on schedule—but the main point is, we have WORK to do and progress to make, folks!
Any doubt has been removed, and any surprise in truth is the result of a certain amount of self-delusion before now.
So let’s suck it up, look at things as dispassionately as possible—and begin to engender a climate of positive change as we now RETURN to the matter of the building of a Champion in Gainesville, OK? It is what we ALL WANT, after all.

 

[Escambia94]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/secnetwork/status/1183207507482861568?s=21
[/TWEET]

 

[Escambia94]

 

[Escambia94]

View attachment 466

 

[DRU2012]

Ok ok all very nice—but Trevor Lawrence it is widely acknowledged is in the process of proving he is human after all, engaged as he is in what amounts to “a pretty good season for a young QB—but nonetheless undoubtedly ‘young’ “ ...and the fact that Kyle Trask has stats that are just behind HIS, while interesting, doesn’t make any particular argument that I can grasp. Kyle has done an OUTSTANDING job stepping up and IN for us—We have been incredibly fortunate to have him, of all young players, there and ready on this particular Coach’s team at this particular time and place! In general, WHATEVER we have shown as a team and offense since Filiepe went down has been the result of that combo, Mullens and Trask, and the ride we’re all on is courtesy of their chemistry.
The LAST thing I want is to see some rift develop within the team regarding the relative merits of which QB when—and if there is anything I want less, it is to somehow precipitate such in any way...SO: I ask EVERYONE to TRUST OUR COACH. He isn’t called “The Quarterback Whisperer” for nothing; Dan Mullens has (as they say) FORGOTTEN more offense than I ever knew, so Whattaya say we entrust whatever moves and decisions he makes with regard to who starts there TO HIM?
PERIOD.
OK?

 

[Escambia94]

Kyle Trask also has the #3 passer rating in SEC:

1. Joe Burrow 218.1 (#1 in FBS)
2. Tua Tagovailoa 214.3 (#3 in FBS, behind Jalen Hurts)
3. Kyle Trask 162.8 (#15 in FBS)
4. Jake Fromm 158.2
5. Kelly Bryant 158.2

 

[DRU2012]

Kyle Trask also has the #3 passer rating in SEC:

1. Joe Burrow 218.1 (#1 in FBS)
2. Tua Tagovailoa 214.3 (#3 in FBS, behind Jalen Hurts)
3. Kyle Trask 162.8 (#15 in FBS)
4. Jake Fromm 158.2
5. Kelly Bryant 158.2

Admittedly with some trepidation, I finally managed to review the game tape for the LSU game...and I gotta admit:
Even WITH my strong feelings regarding NOT believing in “moral victories” or “heartening losses”, SOMEHOW, I don’t even KNOW “how”, I DID come away overall with a better feeling about this Gator squad than I had going INTO the game (and, by extension, must now concede that yes, this was a LOSS that leaves me more confident about the current state of the program than I felt before watching it). The best I can come up with as explanation is that we came in dinged up, were quickly down MORE of our top defenders—but kept plugging, kept driving, kept the pressure on the other team (a much better team than I or anyone else who saw them in games against the likes of North Carolina and others earlier in the season had any reason to think they were)...No, we play OUR game, get fully healthy for the stretch run, and hey: This is a pivotal game that is within our grasp and comfort zone...win, and we may just be able to sweep right into the SEC title game!