This Is Where The Emperor Turns His Thumb Down...

[DRU2012]

Yep: Just wanted to set this apart, "make a long story short", and all that...
There are all kinds of comments to make, things to fix, flaws that CAN be dealt with etc. etc. etc.--and we all saw 'em, have voiced our opinions here or to the TV-screen or to the world-at-large in the course of that at best SHAKY display in the Swamp today, and hope that maybe that WASN'T all there was and is to this 2012 edition of the Florida Gators, BUT "The Fact Remains:"
That was a terrible, self-destructive performance out there today. Period.
That Bowling Green team was game, disciplined, patient and ready-to-play, all the things that we were NOT--but THEY didn't force that performance on us...we did it to ourselves, and allowed THEM to do the good things they were able to do. We are a much more talented team, personnel-wise, and our superior defense and our one reliable play-maker (Gilly, of course) were able to ultimately do enough to pull it out, but it is all the breakdowns that stay with me, leave that terrible taste in my mouth hours later.
This Gator team will have to make stunning changes and improve in almost every phase of the game in order to even improve on last year's outcome...Yes, "The Emperor", if he existed, would indeed turn "Thumb Down" on this team, see them put to the Sword now to avoid the pain and embarrassment of a long, slow season of mounting frustration and disappointment--but it doesn't work that way.
We may be about to go through something really difficult, a kind of "slow death" that only the worst of the haters will take any pleasure in. The fact still remains that we remain "close" to having all the raw materials, and even most of the right tools in place to fit them together and get it all running properly, to build the kind of high-powered, smooth-running machine that we have sensed we were building towards, and we can take some comfort in that...but we may be just too far away from pulling it all together, as things stand now, for this regime to be allowed to see it through. I'm sure that would be a disastrous mistake, to try to start completely over AGAIN when in truth we are so much closer than the presently floundering product would seem to indicate, but unless Muschamp & Co. can work near-miracles and get this group-of-talented-individuals working together as a TEAM, and get a good part of its problems solved and turned around steadily in large bounds game-by-game in the weeks ahead, "promise", "potential", and "the future" won't matter: it won't be just the losses that bring down this team and its staff, but the shoddy execution, embarrassing breakdowns, endless selfish penalties and painfully obvious sloppiness of play that will just become too much to bear.

 

[miltongator]

You said it better than I could have. I appreciate your verbosity.
The preparation of this team has been totally inept. That has to go to the staff.
I watched several games today and in every one I watched, the teams were better prepared than the formerly Mighty Gators.

 

[DRU2012]

I'm with you, mg--and the one thing we continue to be missing on offense, as we were last year, is a credible long range downfield threat. I still can't get over that: I waited all last season, and am STILL waiting for the one thing we see every other college football team do at least once a winning game, it seems, and that is hit the long pass over top of the opposing defense. Our one "long pass play" in this game was in fact a "pitch-catch-and-broken-tackle"
that Hammond THEN took all the way to the house. In perfect demo of your larger point, we continue to be devoid of this one staple of college football offense, the long pass to "stretch-the-field": one QB, Brisset, gets it "way out there" with ease, but cannot hit the man breaking into the clear to save his life--or at least his shot at the starting job. The other one, Driskel, is clearly the better-rounded field general, seems on the brink of really taking over, but just completely loses it every time he is called upon to execute the timing pass to the receiver coming free over the middle, whether long, short or medium pass...and I don't recall him yet even TRYING to hit the long one I'm talking about here. It's no wonder that the Bowling Green defense gave us NO respect, continued to load up "in the box" as the game went on, and damn near beat us despite our personnel being better than theirs at every position on the field.
The good news: like most "head-problems", Driskel's sudden ineptitude at a task he had long since mastered before getting to this level truly CAN be "fixed" pretty quickly--indeed, from one week to the next! He just needs to stop "over-thinking" it all, let mind, body and muscle-memory take over.
The bad news: the endless stupid penalties piling up, like the "near misses" on what SHOULD be easy interceptions instead give opposing offenses 2nd and third chances to drive the field..."3-and-outs" quickly turn into long drives; even if their offense fails to score, our defense gets tired out there instead of getting off the field for a rest.
These are just two examples of LAST year's problems having returned with a vengeance in Game 1. There was a lot of talk about these specific kinds of problems, and the work that was being done to eliminate them, in the spring and summer months of practice and hard work leading up to this season opener--and to see it all come flooding back was just the biggest let down.

 

[Leakfan12]

I think the emperor is also wearing a brown bag on his head.

 

[DRU2012]

Leakfan12
HA!