Seems like the Gators after getting beat the those f--king Tide in SEC title game in 2009 went downhill. Even with a top recruiting class in 2010, they can't do much. Brantley was a top QB prospect what happened?
I've been thinking (and wondering how and why) the exact same thing, man.
That certainly was the most obvious PUBLIC turning-point. You could see it coming all season though, if you'll recall: that game turned out to be the cliff we were stumbling towards--but we'd already noticed the "stumbling" part.
As far as I can figure, it was the KIND of "talent" Meyer & Co. were bringing in. A decision had been made, I believe, a kind of "deal with the devil": "Never mind about their personalities or warning signs, if they're good, if they're tearing it up in the top Florida prep leagues, especially if they're FAST, grab 'em up--Mickey will get 'em into shape, and coaching'll take care of the rest." Only then all of Meyer's longtime assistants, the guys who MADE it all work, went their separate ways--but the above "philosophy" went on, took hold, inundated the whole program with drama queens, prima donnas, and some of the most selfish head cases this side of Hollywood. Remember what precipitated that very public whipping and turning point at Atlanta against the '09 Tide: a key player getting busted just days before the game. It wasn't Tebow crying that symbolized everything that had gone wrong, that was continuing to GO wrong with our program that day (I thought THAT was OK--he really CARED that much, and I loved him all the more for it): no, it was that vacant, deer-in-the-headlights, "I-don't-have-a clue" look on Urban Meyer's face on the sidelines late in the game.
This Head Coach has MORE than "a clue", but for now he's stuck with too many of Urban's players. I said it before (in response to E'94's list of Questions in a just-posted article here on GE this Sunday morning), and I'll say it again: WE ARE A GUTLESS TEAM. The one kind of team I just can't stand to watch is one that HAS talent, but doesn't "get it done" because they are a brittle shell: all you have to do is hit 'em once, really hard, and they break...even if you can't do that, don't have their level-of-talent, you can still beat them just by tying 'em up and waiting for them to beat themselves. We are THAT kind of team.
Auburn did EVERYTHING to hand us that game yesterday--but we did even more, a LOT more, to hand it back. OK--we've got heartless, headless, GUTLESS players--and now it is time for Coach to be ruthless in clearing room for players who, as he put it, "do things the Florida Way". However, I believe it is only right he take another look at some of his own coaches, as well: start with Special Teams. The line-coaches, too. I'm not saying "fire the bums"--I don't claim to know enough about the details of those jobs OR the specific problems we're having to judge whose responsibility it is, only that there are problems there that have to do with fundamentals and basic technique.
I DO know something about leading men into tough, even deadly situations where you're on your own, where preparation, goals, mutual trust and group cohesion are paramount. Our team is breaking down in all 4 areas. You can't always pick your team, must "make do" with what you've got--and if you're not ready when it hits the fan, well, the results are predictable. We're lookin' at 'em now. At least HERE it really IS "only a game"--but one that means so very much to us all. Time to go back to basics, I mean BASICS:
Coach Will has got to put HIS team together. This is not a Hollywood movie with some guaranteed happy ending. This is NOT "The Dirty Dozen"; more like "The Heartless Hundred", or "The Aimless Eighty".
Might have to shake up the staff as well. It's not just stuff like that sudden case of "the drops" from our return guys (though I think that IS symptomatic of larger problems--just as all those snapping issues were a sign LAST year), it's the chronic problems: the missed INTs, the poor tackling technique, and the PENALTIES. No one makes the big POSITIVE play, it seems, but they sure as hell make the big NEGATIVE ones. Our drives are killed, THEIR drives are extended. We've got a lot of 5-star fools on this team, but the position coaches have got to answer for some of this too.
Thing is, to get to where he needs to get to, he'll have to make a lot of moves, some dramatic and unpopular--especially if/when we tend to keep losing the rest of this season, as I suspect we will with a concentration on getting NEXT year's team set, rather than just getting a win here or there.
As an example, I wouldn't necessarily rush Brantley back in there--not unless you've decided that NEITHER of the true freshman-QBs is likely to be our "guy-of-the-future". So far, the two are both coming up "wanting"--unless Weis sees something in one of them I haven't (entirely possible--I THINK Driskel is the better leader-on-the-field, but it's more a matter of I am sure Brisset is NOT, than anything else), they need more time to sort this out ON-THE-FIELD, in real games--BEFORE next year, if possible. We've GOT to get SOMETHING out of this season, and preparing for NEXT season is all that's really left to us.