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Official Game Thread, Week 9: Florida Gators 17, Georgia Bulldogs 36 10/27/2018
- Thread starter Escambia94
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Understand this: ANYTHING but a crazy last-minute pull-it-out win by us will be framed (oh! AN ALMOST ACCURATE LONG PASS IS DROPPED, due to PI) as "Bulldogs back in hunt, Gators game but not quite ready"--and though that is far ftom anything LIKE "the whole story", it won't be THAT far from accurate if things turn out that way. The only thing is, THAT version pretty well ignores the degree to which Franks' limitations are what has held us back here...
But we DO get enough traction to get it back within a TD: You can SEE how Mullen is playing it now--and his team DOES HAVE GUTS AND HEART. He will ask only a little extra from Franks now--not to win it himself but to help us keep it close and get in position to MAYBE score the last points to WIN this after everything.
And because this team, banged up, down, tired and thin EVERYWHERE, DOES have that guts and heart, well, it ISN'T "impossible"--just "unlikely". HAVE to stop them here and now, though.
But we DO get enough traction to get it back within a TD: You can SEE how Mullen is playing it now--and his team DOES HAVE GUTS AND HEART. He will ask only a little extra from Franks now--not to win it himself but to help us keep it close and get in position to MAYBE score the last points to WIN this after everything.
And because this team, banged up, down, tired and thin EVERYWHERE, DOES have that guts and heart, well, it ISN'T "impossible"--just "unlikely". HAVE to stop them here and now, though.
Jeremiah Moon with the batted pass.
Can NOT let them score ANYTHING more, though. Not if we want a shot to win it late.
God, a pick-6 would turn it ALL around now...Damn! First down. Key drive here. Amazing we still even have a beating heart by now...
Well. DBU is not DBU without two of its starting CBs.
I'm afraid even a FG kills us now.
But if they throw, try for the dagger to the heart, its an opportunity: A pick could be just the opening we need: I doubted we could win WITHOUT the takeaway edge--and now it has come down to exactly what I said: Either tge D wins it for us, or Franks has to complet a coupla long bombs.
Game. This time for sure. Our D just got tired, then beat. 2nd string cover guy couldn't keep up on crucial play--doomed as soon as rush didn't get to From.
Well, get ready for "Franks Futility Time".
But if they throw, try for the dagger to the heart, its an opportunity: A pick could be just the opening we need: I doubted we could win WITHOUT the takeaway edge--and now it has come down to exactly what I said: Either tge D wins it for us, or Franks has to complet a coupla long bombs.
Game. This time for sure. Our D just got tired, then beat. 2nd string cover guy couldn't keep up on crucial play--doomed as soon as rush didn't get to From.
Well, get ready for "Franks Futility Time".
The good news is that the Gators do not have to get their butts kicked by Alabama in the SEC championship game.
Franks has 85 yards passing. Too late to try jump starting the pass game.
Aaaaaand the Gators have given up on offense.
That is the sign that they need to change QBs.
DBU just got beat by a QB with average speed.
Final thoughts:
- Feleipe Franks peaked against Vanderbilt
- Emory Jones throws a nice ball
- DBU needs Henderson at cornerback
- At least we do not have to watch the Gators get smashed by Alabama
awebbf5
VIP Member
Before the season I said if we went 8-4 I would be ecstatic, we have a chance to be 10-2. Georgia knows were coming and that we will be even better next year.
My "End of game/End of THAT kind of season" Opus:
You know, these are the kind of losses I hate the most--the "woulda shoulda coulda" ones. And in this game, of all of them.
I am gonna say this before I go--and I'm NOT gonna take it back later, in a "less angry and frustrated frame of mind/emotion":
If this game solidifies Mullen's determination that Franks isn't anything more than a "placeholder", the "stopgap guy" for his first season as our Head Coach but nothing MORE than that--in other words, that he'll do to get us to "promising", keep the fans interested and our profile high enough to at least NOT DAMAGE all-important recruiting, but that he HAS to turn-the-page and look to the future there: then FINE: This will all be worth it in the now hopefully-not-TOO-distant-future.
We'll be beating up on these Bulldogs soon enough; we're NOT that far off NOW--and that's with a banjo-armed QB!
(Sigh--getting outta hand at the end here...more than ever will LOOK like a bad beat down, BUT
Look, my friends. WE know what we saw out there today. With the way things went from early on, everything that happened to us on BOTH sides of the ball, and in the end, having to rely on THIS QB to somehow get it done out there, well, NEVER MIND WHAT "THEY" WILL BE SAYING, how this will all be described.
This PROGRAM is ok--BETTER than "OK": it is, in all the important ways save ONE, well on its way "BACK" to where it needs to be--and that will only continue... continue to improve, continue to grow stronger and deeper up and down the roster...Now we GOTTA address that "one way", and even there, with all his limitations Franks DID "improve" this season over last in EVERY WAY, thanks to our Head Coach. Even today--we were NOT outplayed as much as beat ourselves early--then fought our way back on heart and guts alone, which might NOT have brought eventual "collapse" out there (on the field AND scoreboard)--IF we had a fitting QB in there... That's right: Thin as we were/are, losing our other cover guy, and losing the BALL repeatedly at critical points in the game, we STILL stayed in this one for 3 quarters plus--even took the LEAD there for a moment (ironic lol)--But when they took it right back, we, and more importantly our offensive-minded Head Coach faced the reality that our ONLY possible answer(s) inevitably came down (as was always the case) to requiring this starting QB to repeatedly do exactly the kinds of things (as in make the kinds of THROWS) he just can't DO with any kind of consistency. Coach TRIED to hide it, scheme his way around it, but our defense, hurt and tired and the QB back to throwing only dink n dunkers for quick "3-and-outers", well, a "close one into the 4th" got away from us QUICK.
SO, GATORS EVERYWHERE:
It will inevitably, likely be a bit of a rough ride at first ("Tua"s come few and far between), he'll have growing pains no matter HOW long you wait to put him in there, but at SOME point we'll just have to accept Coach Dan's judgment in this regard, and no doubt we'll get a rather trying period of demostrating the "risk/reward" ratio involved with turning a talented-but-inexperienced young Freshman QB loose out there. Now, though I'm TEMPTED to favor starting that "process"/"experiment" (choose one--and only Mullen can really judge) soon, in truth I KNOW there are a number of different factors to weigh and consider here:
We must try and finish strong, if possible even still win out and gain one of the "formerly-New-Year's-Day" (but still high profile) Bowls--for the sake of the fans AND (more important still) recruiting--and even a paricularly "promising in practice" Jones no doubt still leaves Franks as our best chance to do that...And truth is, he CAN do it, I think: Give us enough that, with Mullen's continued guidance and game design, beat those left on our schedule after this; toughest game likely South Carolina, and if we can get back some guys from injury, stay cool and come out strong early from here on out, we COULD get to 10 wins with Franks out there...
So here's MY (albeit amateur, everybody's-got-an-opinion, they're just like assholes that way) offering:
Keep Franks starting rest of the string, TRY for 10 and 2 and a big Bowl--then see if you can plan for and train up Jones for his first big start--in the BOWL game. All kinds of value and progress possible in doing so...It may SOUND "ungrateful" and "unfair", but NO ONE can just use Bowl games as simply a "reward for play and accomplishment during the season past" anymore. It is first, a chance to keep practicing another almost 6 weeks, coaching and evaluating your team and talent; it is further opportunity for publicizing your program, keeping them high in the minds of potential recruits--ON TV during the holidays, ETC, for goodness sakes!; and it is, if you need it, a chance to begin both evaluating and CHANGING things, beginning a new direction early as possible, if that is necessary--and Mullen (hopefully us right along with him) KNOW that is exactly the case here. I know it isn't the ONLY consideration, and I certainly don't know what he is thinking about all that, what his priorities and/or criteria are here and now--but if we DO get to that "major Bowl" a headstart on NEXT SEASON will be invaluable--and unless circumstances were to allow or even force such a consideration earlier, THAT might be Mullen's first practical chance to do so.
For now, though, gotta somehow put this one behind us, as we did Kentucky (and when it comes to sucking it up, ignoring the "beat down just past" and/or any OTHER unpleasantries and pulling ourselves back together, look to ourselves and each other and GO OUT THERE, WORK HARD, GET IT DONE--Well, that kind of "heart and guts" I now know we DO have--like this program HASN'T had in a long time). That being the case, given all of the above and what is still left for us to accomplish and play for, I see how we HAVE to keep Franks in there for now: Our Coach keeps working with him, keeps him on an emotional "even keel", and tries to see, recognize and USE the (albeit few--but THERE) strides taken, plays made by him even THIS game--and see to this whole squad finishing the season strongly. In addition to everything else I've argued here above, Coach Mullen has talked a lot each week about "learning how to win" and "the habit of winning"--and there have been both positve lessons AND clear warnings BOTH in what happened out there today. Unlike his predecessors, whose negative reactions and resulting frustrations bled into the lockeroom and onto the practice field somehow--and eventually led to a PATTERN of losing that built and multiplied into "LOSING STREAKS" to END their last seasons, we count on THIS Coach to somehow shake things up, take it another way--UP instead of DOWN. Now, I doubt that'll mean the demotion of Franks--for all the reasons above, not yet, not now. We still have SEASON to finish strongly, as I say.
But sooner or later, one way or another, that is coming, now for certain on its way at SOME point--because it HAS to.
You know, these are the kind of losses I hate the most--the "woulda shoulda coulda" ones. And in this game, of all of them.
I am gonna say this before I go--and I'm NOT gonna take it back later, in a "less angry and frustrated frame of mind/emotion":
If this game solidifies Mullen's determination that Franks isn't anything more than a "placeholder", the "stopgap guy" for his first season as our Head Coach but nothing MORE than that--in other words, that he'll do to get us to "promising", keep the fans interested and our profile high enough to at least NOT DAMAGE all-important recruiting, but that he HAS to turn-the-page and look to the future there: then FINE: This will all be worth it in the now hopefully-not-TOO-distant-future.
We'll be beating up on these Bulldogs soon enough; we're NOT that far off NOW--and that's with a banjo-armed QB!
(Sigh--getting outta hand at the end here...more than ever will LOOK like a bad beat down, BUT
Look, my friends. WE know what we saw out there today. With the way things went from early on, everything that happened to us on BOTH sides of the ball, and in the end, having to rely on THIS QB to somehow get it done out there, well, NEVER MIND WHAT "THEY" WILL BE SAYING, how this will all be described.
This PROGRAM is ok--BETTER than "OK": it is, in all the important ways save ONE, well on its way "BACK" to where it needs to be--and that will only continue... continue to improve, continue to grow stronger and deeper up and down the roster...Now we GOTTA address that "one way", and even there, with all his limitations Franks DID "improve" this season over last in EVERY WAY, thanks to our Head Coach. Even today--we were NOT outplayed as much as beat ourselves early--then fought our way back on heart and guts alone, which might NOT have brought eventual "collapse" out there (on the field AND scoreboard)--IF we had a fitting QB in there... That's right: Thin as we were/are, losing our other cover guy, and losing the BALL repeatedly at critical points in the game, we STILL stayed in this one for 3 quarters plus--even took the LEAD there for a moment (ironic lol)--But when they took it right back, we, and more importantly our offensive-minded Head Coach faced the reality that our ONLY possible answer(s) inevitably came down (as was always the case) to requiring this starting QB to repeatedly do exactly the kinds of things (as in make the kinds of THROWS) he just can't DO with any kind of consistency. Coach TRIED to hide it, scheme his way around it, but our defense, hurt and tired and the QB back to throwing only dink n dunkers for quick "3-and-outers", well, a "close one into the 4th" got away from us QUICK.
SO, GATORS EVERYWHERE:
It will inevitably, likely be a bit of a rough ride at first ("Tua"s come few and far between), he'll have growing pains no matter HOW long you wait to put him in there, but at SOME point we'll just have to accept Coach Dan's judgment in this regard, and no doubt we'll get a rather trying period of demostrating the "risk/reward" ratio involved with turning a talented-but-inexperienced young Freshman QB loose out there. Now, though I'm TEMPTED to favor starting that "process"/"experiment" (choose one--and only Mullen can really judge) soon, in truth I KNOW there are a number of different factors to weigh and consider here:
We must try and finish strong, if possible even still win out and gain one of the "formerly-New-Year's-Day" (but still high profile) Bowls--for the sake of the fans AND (more important still) recruiting--and even a paricularly "promising in practice" Jones no doubt still leaves Franks as our best chance to do that...And truth is, he CAN do it, I think: Give us enough that, with Mullen's continued guidance and game design, beat those left on our schedule after this; toughest game likely South Carolina, and if we can get back some guys from injury, stay cool and come out strong early from here on out, we COULD get to 10 wins with Franks out there...
So here's MY (albeit amateur, everybody's-got-an-opinion, they're just like assholes that way) offering:
Keep Franks starting rest of the string, TRY for 10 and 2 and a big Bowl--then see if you can plan for and train up Jones for his first big start--in the BOWL game. All kinds of value and progress possible in doing so...It may SOUND "ungrateful" and "unfair", but NO ONE can just use Bowl games as simply a "reward for play and accomplishment during the season past" anymore. It is first, a chance to keep practicing another almost 6 weeks, coaching and evaluating your team and talent; it is further opportunity for publicizing your program, keeping them high in the minds of potential recruits--ON TV during the holidays, ETC, for goodness sakes!; and it is, if you need it, a chance to begin both evaluating and CHANGING things, beginning a new direction early as possible, if that is necessary--and Mullen (hopefully us right along with him) KNOW that is exactly the case here. I know it isn't the ONLY consideration, and I certainly don't know what he is thinking about all that, what his priorities and/or criteria are here and now--but if we DO get to that "major Bowl" a headstart on NEXT SEASON will be invaluable--and unless circumstances were to allow or even force such a consideration earlier, THAT might be Mullen's first practical chance to do so.
For now, though, gotta somehow put this one behind us, as we did Kentucky (and when it comes to sucking it up, ignoring the "beat down just past" and/or any OTHER unpleasantries and pulling ourselves back together, look to ourselves and each other and GO OUT THERE, WORK HARD, GET IT DONE--Well, that kind of "heart and guts" I now know we DO have--like this program HASN'T had in a long time). That being the case, given all of the above and what is still left for us to accomplish and play for, I see how we HAVE to keep Franks in there for now: Our Coach keeps working with him, keeps him on an emotional "even keel", and tries to see, recognize and USE the (albeit few--but THERE) strides taken, plays made by him even THIS game--and see to this whole squad finishing the season strongly. In addition to everything else I've argued here above, Coach Mullen has talked a lot each week about "learning how to win" and "the habit of winning"--and there have been both positve lessons AND clear warnings BOTH in what happened out there today. Unlike his predecessors, whose negative reactions and resulting frustrations bled into the lockeroom and onto the practice field somehow--and eventually led to a PATTERN of losing that built and multiplied into "LOSING STREAKS" to END their last seasons, we count on THIS Coach to somehow shake things up, take it another way--UP instead of DOWN. Now, I doubt that'll mean the demotion of Franks--for all the reasons above, not yet, not now. We still have SEASON to finish strongly, as I say.
But sooner or later, one way or another, that is coming, now for certain on its way at SOME point--because it HAS to.
Not sure of ALL the nuances of that comment, distracted by frustration and disappointment as I am right now--but I burst out laughing when I read it, so I got ENOUGH. Thankyou.
Yes...said as much in general elsewhere about this whole season--but well-timed, as always, E--. You are helping my "quick philosophical recovery" program here--and again, for THAT I thank you--BIG time.
Agreed, score will say diff (and y'all don't even wanna WATCH the CFB shows coming week!), but fact is we even had a CHANCE here today--thin, unready, under-talented and poorly-officiated-to-death as we were (Btw--I myself was GLAD to see Coach Dan get pissed about that over there; Trust me, it registered with his players...Again, unlike his direct predecessors, it wasn't so much he was mad as the fact that he CARED--and had their backs): We will be BEATING them repeatedly for YEARS, mark my words...and neither we, certainly, and I think MULLEN himself will forget how they kept pouring on the points once they had this one late in the 4th. My attitude is the same: "OK. That is FINE...Let's find out how secure YOUR job is after 4 or 5 years of being on the end of bigger shellackings than this one...See how YOUR fans feel about years of futile trips to beautiful Jacksonville...")
Oh--you mean THEIR QB...(lol)...We ALSO were beaten by HAVING a QB with (what in today's major college game is) a LESS-than-"average" ARM; YEAH, it's STRONG, but is as far as accuracy about as consistent as the proverbial "blind sniper"!
Responses to your "final thoughts":
--Noting that Fillipe wasn't required to throw it long against Vandy; MISSED BADLY the coupla times they called and tried to execute it--one a typical way OVERthrow to a way open streaking-for-a-TD WR, the other a way UNDERTHROWN almost (prob SHOULDA been) intercepted pass to another WR breaking into clear.
--Your comments in past (rightly) noted how little we actually know FACTUALLY about Emory's actual skills; only one way to find out, see for ourselves: We HEAR they are considerable, and the few glimpses show promise, so...: When, where, HOW do we know when to get him in there, give him a chance to learn and grow into the role, give us (and more important, give the COACH) a chance to see and know for sure. At the moment, he is our only real chance to complete our path to "elite offense"...Of course, along with all the other considerations I mentioned earlier, I'm sure Coach Dan would RATHER wait until he had a coupla "Bookend MONSTERS" on the O-line... With protection for Jones and holes for our multi-headed running game, can you imagine what he might dream up, game by game?!!
--We need ALL our injured back on Defense--just to be "thin" again...Talk about "doing it with smoke and mirrors"--more like "heart and guts" has Grantham somehow been able to hold back the flood as well and often as his D repeatedly has this season...Hope he stays at least a coupla more seasons (for now he's Mullen's "Charlie Strong").
-- As I projected, now WE can possibly be the guys who finish strong, go 10-2 and to a "Big Bowl" and then face that choice: Reward Franks (and the fans) with a shot at ending the year with a big win and finishing ranked somewhere in the Top 10, OR begin the "JONES ERA" preparing him to START in that one, with an eye towards what we got and how much work will be ahead in turning the FUTURE over to the young redshirt freshman.
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