"Hold it against him"? No. But this is a "win now" team, conference and sport at this level, and we can only judge empirically. John Brantley came in with a certain shining rep and some nice displays in practice and non-stress situations...then we got a whole season to evaluate him. I don't need to recount the specifics; suffice to say that far from impressing, he never came through ONCE. Neither skills nor grace-under-pressure were on display. Yes, the circumstances were less than ideal, but he never gave a HINT of rising above the difficulties. No trace of leadership, of inspiration within himself or to his teammates. In short: he had his chance, and MORE, and blew it.
By the time we got to that turning point late in the first half against SOW, Brantley should have been riding the bench, 3rd string--it was just one more sign of Meyer's lack of attention and/or involvement, and Addazio's bankrupt "imagination" that JB was given the opportunity to inevitably turn a close game into a route, sent in to throw that INT at the crucial moment in the red zone after Reed had taken control, given us hope and driven the O down the field. After the previous 11 games, after watching #12 regress through it all, and looking putrid against SC in particular the game before, was anyone BUT Addazio (or Meyer, if he was even paying attention--it was WEIRD watching him on the sidelines as the season progressed, don't y'all think?) really surprised by the result? Angry, yes, frustrated, absolutely, but the only real "surprise" was that they put him in there then, thinking that was the move to make there.
I mention all of this, recount a small portion of the long, painful experience that was the 2010 Gator football season, in order to remind you of the context within which many of us have come to be less than enamored of or hopeful for a future with John Brantley in charge of our offense.
