I went through my old posts here. Here is my summary:
2010 - JB4 will emerge from TT's shadow, Janoris will be a shutdown, Rainey and Demps will explode. Instead, JB4 struggled, Rainey was stupid, Demps was quiet. We barely squeaked by Penn State in the bowl game.
2011 - Muschamp and Weis will resurrect the program. They will hide our capabilities early then explode on Alabama and we will survive The Gauntlet. That did not happen. Even without JB4 being hurt, we were awful in all phases of the game. I have no idea his that defense was ranked in the top 10. For the first time in 30 years I did not have fun watching college football.
2012 - Muschamp will bring in some offensive coordinator that will have sophomores and freshmen again that are built for pro style, and some athletes that may or may not adapt. We have no idea what we have in Brissett and Driskel. Both seem all Gator and and that is good enough for me. Still, we have no receivers. Debose, Hammond were quiet. Reed and Burton were injured or inconsistent. We cannot name any other star players.
You're braver than I, Gator...I KNOW how wrong most of MY old posts concerning this season were; I remember them in general outline, if not in detail, all too well--and though I didn't expect miracles, I sure saw this year as a constructive period of "reloading", and preparing for our resurgence NEXT year. The actual projections seem now from a distant, "more innocent" time. I don't have to recount for anyone here all the unforeseen circumstances, injuries, events and betrayals that have become like a series of combination punches to the body and head, but by now I think we can ALL be forgiven for "getting it wrong".
Hell, I'll be happy if we're only ONE year behind where I thought we were at this point LAST year, ya know? If Muschamp can get us into position to begin to at least COMPETE for SEC-mastery and the BCS-games by the 2013 season, he'll have done a remarkable job. I wonder if even THAT will satisfy the already mounting hysteria and knee-jerk blame-games coming from certain quarters (mainly on the public blogs) of Gator Nation.
Should coach Boom go for a OC with a pro-style offense or different like the spread.
Well, he HAS been clear and consistent in his stated aims in this regard: when he talks about a "pro-style offense", he is talking about one that has "power in the middle". Like his defense, he envisions a tough front line and at least ONE exceptional RB who is big and fast and can both slip tackles and get around the corner, AND go through the narrowest of holes-in-the-middle, breaking tackles and getting extra yards on his own.
Though I WAS a little leery of the sudden change from the Spread (and, to be fair, a bit sad to see it, and it's potential to role up bunches of points when it IS rolling, abandoned at UF), now that they have bitten-the-bullet and begun the shift over to the necessary personnel, I am excited and hopeful at the eventual results. It sure would be a satisfying relief (and CHANGE!) to see us able to wear teams down, move the ball in the redzone, control the clock and still have an efficient passing game when we CHOOSE to throw the ball. As counterpoint to an awesome, aggressively relentless defense, when both are working properly and at their best, we could be a formidable opponent to ANYONE. It's just a matter of getting there--and after this last year or so, we dare not assume or count on ANYTHING.
