The final Sunday Blog of this football season comes at you after another season blew by us so fast you couldn’t time it.
1. If nothing else, Saturday night was affirmation that Florida needed to go in another direction. The inability of this coaching staff to develop an intermediate passing game was mind-boggling. Think about this — Florida ended the game with eight straight incompletions. One was flagged for pass interference to keep the drive alive temporarily, but it was another example of the issues on this offense. Whoever the next coach is will be inheriting a lot of guys who can play defense no matter who comes out, but he is going to have to develop offensive playmakers. Most importantly, he is going to have to find a quarterback. Right now, there is nobody I’d trust at that position.
2. FSU fans, I feel your pain. Every time I rip SEC officials, I get emails from Florida State fans telling me I have no idea what really bad officiating is. We’ve seen it before (2003) but the crew for the Saturday night game was so incompetent that it actually evened out. For example, if your team was called for holding on a play, it was license to hold for the next two plays.
3. Saturday could have been one of the darkest days in SEC history if not for Alabama. If you are a fan of the conference, you certainly should be rooting for the Tide against Missouri or the chances of the league getting shutout of the College Football Playoff are very good. The ACC went 4-0 against the SEC, but before that conference gets too giddy, remember that three of the wins came against teams that are 6-5, 5-7 and 6-6. And all were against the SEC East, which is college football’s version of the NFC South.
4. Which brings me to Georgia. I wonder how Bulldog fans feel today after seeing their dreams of an East championship, a trip to Atlanta and hopes of a berth in the CFP all die in less than 24 hours. I’ve never been a fan of the squib kick late in games because it almost guarantees good field position. But since everybody does it, everybody does it. Georgia certainly was burned by it against Georgia Tech. Georgia fans have to be raising furrowed brows at a coach who lost to a bad South Carolina team, a bad Florida team and Tech in one season.
