Week 5/ 2: #3 38 Florida Gators, South Carolina Gamecocks 24 10/3

[DRU2012]

What to say? We just can’t get out of our own way!
All they had to do was settle down, play them even the rest of the way...but no: They let them back in this one. This time it is the OFFENSE that is giving away points. I really don’t like this.

 

[DRU2012]

So: It is up to our DEFENSE to pull this out now. I hate it, but in a way it is fitting: Here’s a chance to show we HAVE one after all. C’mon, Grantham. Call up some PRESSURE, dude!

 

[DRU2012]

Has this been a disappointingly close one, or what?!!

 

[DRU2012]

Let’s face it: This is the second poorly called defensive game by an ill-prepared Grantham-directed squad in two games. Neither he NOR his charges have been ready for either of these games. So much for “dialing up pressure”: I guess it’s up to Mullens to bring in quality transfers in order for the defensive coordinator to look good. The best we can hope for now is to squeak by here at the end. They seem content to “hold on by our fingernails”.

 

[DRU2012]

Finally—a properly timed blitz.

 

[DRU2012]

I am really losing faith in Grantham as a superior defensive “mastermind”.
This is embarrassing.

 

[Escambia94]

Gators win!

 

[DRU2012]

Well, we basically “squeaked by at the end”...the score looks better than our performance really was.
We DID pick it up on defense as the afternoon wore on today—but Grantham’s boys were helped as much by Gamecock ineptitude as anything else; when they executed, we couldn’t even stop a MUSCHAMP offense—that last phrase the equivalent of a swipe at a defense if there ever WAS one.

 

[DRU2012]

@Escambia94,
I am now officially DREADING next week in College Station.
How do YOU feel about it?

 

[Escambia94]

My takeaways:

• The offense can name a score if it wants.
• The defense is atrocious.
• Mullen and Johnson went conservative in the second half and still beat an SEC opponent by 14 points. In 2018 the Gators only defeated one SEC opponent by 14 points. In 2019 they defeated 4 SEC opponents by 14. In 2020 they have defeated 2 of 2 SEC opponents by 14.

 

[DRU2012]

I WAS afraid we’d LOSE Grantham after this season... Now maybe I should worry that we WON’T! Lol.
Just kidding, of course; but unless things get a whole lot better a whole lot quicker on that side of the ball, we may not have to worry about that for another season or two after all...and I’d rather we had THAT concern rather than all those “same old things” that lesser programs are having to face.
But here’s a point worth noting ALONG WITH our slumping D:
WE NEED A RUNNING GAME NOW!!!
I know we’ve got some weapons coming in, and I GET that we seem to be capable of “scoring at will”—but with a reliable running game NOW, our defensive struggles would be both less obvious and less troublesome. I know all the rationalizations over-heated Gator fans currently trade in when it comes to this subject, but the fact remains we still have generally too much talent on this defensive squad not to at least be able to hold our own, “rise to the occasion” a little more strongly and more OFTEN than we’ve done so far—even WITH a big lead. And THAT’S just to elbow our way solidly into that 2nd-tier, “close-but-no-cigar” patsy for the Alabamas and Clemsens up-top come playoff-time.
Replacing UGA etc in that role is NOT “Good enough”! Not for us...except maybe as a one-season, transitional (grudging) reality—and I only concede THAT much because I now fear it is the best we’ll be looking at for THIS season, soon enough...
But for Gators (and thankfully, by all the signs, for Dan Mullens himself) ONLY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS WILL ULTIMATELY DO.

 

[DRU2012]

(Thing is, did we EVER beat Jimbo while he was Coaching at FSU? For some reason, I don’t recall—but it FEELS like we never DID...That’s part of what is bothering me about this matchup now, I suppose. And they DO have talent over there, and should be building depth by now too. Would really like to see him under achieve and get run out of there...
In short, I am more emotionally invested in this “potential-rivalry” than I realized until I saw they and Arkansas (with whom we now ALSO have a sore point with, thanks to the emotional Franks having not only gone over to them, but apparently having ascended to their captain and a leadership role, by all reports now the “emotional HEART” of their team) had replaced our former out-of-conference games on the 2020 post-Covid schedule. Clearly neither are “patsy-games” any longer: In truth, we are favored and MUST WIN BOTH just to “stay IN” the running for any kind of “successful season” now.

 

[Leakfan12]

(Thing is, did we EVER beat Jimbo while he was Coaching at FSU? For some reason, I don’t recall—but it FEELS like we never DID...That’s part of what is bothering me about this matchup now, I suppose. And they DO have talent over there, and should be building depth by now too. Would really like to see him under achieve and get run out of there...
In short, I am more emotionally invested in this “potential-rivalry” than I realized until I saw they and Arkansas (with whom we now ALSO have a sore point with, thanks to the emotional Franks having not only gone over to them, but apparently having ascended to their captain and a leadership role, by all reports now the “emotional HEART” of their team) had replaced our former out-of-conference games on the 2020 post-Covid schedule. Clearly neither are “patsy-games” any longer: In truth, we are favored and MUST WIN BOTH just to “stay IN” the running for any kind of “successful season” now.

The Gators won the 2012 game.

 

[DRU2012]

The Gators won the 2012 game.

Thankyou.
Still: As far as the “media experts” are concerned THIS one’s a sort of “marker” as to how far each program has come in their respective “plans” since their prospective “saviors” arrived the same year...
Personally, I already tend to agree with the general sentiment that Mullens has his Gator squad WELL on their way—and that the strange currents and vagaries of this whole “Covid season” make any conclusions questionable at best, while there had already been enough evidence before now for TAMU fans to at least BEGIN to question whether they were indeed “getting what they paid for” from Jimbo and staff this far. But that isn’t likely to mitigate the immediate OVERreaction—positively toward Fisher’s program, negatively toward Mullens’, if our defense doesn’t look a WHOLE lot better come Saturday. In short, the loser of this game will be judged FAR over-harshly in the event of that loss, I think.