The Offense

Okay, enough of being a homer. Let’s face it – Florida is somewhat fortunate to be 7-1 with an offense that sometimes lacks cohesion, and absolutely lucky to be ranked 4th in the BCS under those circumstances. Every week it’s something different; sometimes the scheme is good but the execution is not there, other times the execution is pretty good but the scheme is puzzling at best. In the case of the Georgia game, both execution and scheme were bad.

In some ways, it seems like the coaches get stuck up on things that are good in theory rather than focusing on what goes on in the games. For instance, they are very big on getting players “touches.” I’ve always hated that term because it subtly implies that a player will excel simply by placing his hands on the ball. Just get this guy X number of touches per game, and things will be great. A case in point was the one play the coaches ran for Jarred Fayson on Saturday. He came in on one play and had a pass underthrown to him, as if the coaches suddenly thought “Oh no, we need to get Fayson a couple of touches this game,” and threw him in to catch a screen. He then disappeared for the rest of the game.

I prefer more of a basketball style approach – find the open man, and feed the hot hand. Just run good plays and let the fourth-year starter at quarterback decide who gets the ball. It’s like Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen are micromanaging the offense rather than letting it flow. There’s more to it than throwing either the occasion deep bomb to placate the fans and sideways screen passes. Georgia played a lot of zone, and as anyone who knows football well knows, you attack the zone with someone, usually the tight end, going over the middle. Andre Caldwell got his 40-yard touchdown doing just that. Why they didn’t “feed the hot hand” by going back over the middle in the 10 – 15 yard range is beyond me.

Part of micromanaging also is overthinking things. According to a quote from Meyer in today’s Alligator, it took DeShawn Wynn getting in Meyer’s face in the third quarter in order to get him carries. Urban said that did change his mind. Why he decided in the first place that a guy who ran for more than 100 yards on Tennessee was not fit for carries against Georgia raises plenty questions. Meyer spent some of his post game comments talking about how displeased he is with the drop back passing game since Chris Leak doesn’t get enough protection. I would think that using Wynn early to open up the pass would be a good way to buy Leak more time. I’m not advocating the Auburn game offense of Wynn up the middle nearly ever down, but Wynn is a better option between the tackles than Percy Harvin is (and yes, they did run Harvin up the middle in the first quarter). It’s about balance.

Now, part of the offensive struggles may have had to do with Leak and his not-concussion/headache/whatever it was that plagued him from late in the second quarter. Urban said Leak used three unnecessary timeouts after getting a particularly bad hit. It also seemed that some of the penalties could have come from miscommunications dealing with that. I don’t know, but I do know that the penalties need to stop. They kill momentum and disrupt the offensive game plan. Turning third-and-shorts into third-and-longs has been a specialty for the Gators this year, and they will not beat Auburn or Arkansas in the SEC title game if they get penalized as much in that game as they have all season.

One interesting thing I gathered from the morning and midday talk shows today is that there is somewhat of a Tim Tebow backlash starting up. I never thought I’d even get a hint of that this year, but it’s starting. I think his key fumble that led to a Georgia touchdown and his general ineffectiveness (aside from a couple of plays) has reminded people that he is fact a freshman and that he is not Superman. The St. Timothy image I talked about early in the season is fading. Some complain that using Tebow disrupts Leak’s rhythm and that the switching of quarterbacks leads to some of the false start penalties. They decide that for those reasons, Tebow may be better off left on the bench, almost that he’s more trouble than he’s worth now that defenses know that he’s going to run off-tackle left nearly every time.

I think that’s a fascinating development. Even the hits for this site from people searching for Tebow’s name have fallen off and nearly disappeared in the past three days. I think people are realizing that Tebow cannot yet run the offense, that trying to run two different offenses concurrently won’t always work, and that Chris Leak really is the best option for winning this year after all. Now, all it probably will take is a 30-yard run against Vanderbilt for the Tebow madness to start again, but for now there are at least a few fans who are deciding that picking Chris Leak as the quarterback and sticking with him is the best option for success.

It also may be that, just like with Leak and th booing nonsense earlier in the season, that they are not upset with Tebow as much as they are with the coaching staff. The coaches definitely deserve some criticism after that game since Georgia is clearly rebuilding this year and Florida can be an elite team when it wants to be. That game should not have been close. I wonder if the players slipped back into a Zook-era trademark move of relaxing when they get a big lead. Not only is the Meyer regime trying to get by with players recruited for a different scheme, it also has to deal with the culture of complacency that grew up in Ron Zook’s three years. Losses were bad and “not acceptable,” but there were never any consequences really, since they were “getting better and better every week.”

Do not get me wrong here, I am not blaming Ron Zook for anything. His direct influence doesn’t pass the limits of Champagne, Illinois these days. However, even Steve Spurrier in his last couple of years tended to whine a lot more than he did when he first started. I do question the mental toughness of Florida football, and that includes the fans too. We were all spoiled in the ’90s, and it seemed like Florida could do whatever it wanted to simply by showing up. The Tennessee loss in 2001 ended for good any thought of that since Spurrier owned Phil Fulmer, the SEC East was on the line, and Florida still lost.

This year, a lot of good fortune and bad turnovers by opponents in critical times has propelled Florida to where it is now. As I mentioned before, Florida has yet to put together a full game, but neither has any of UF’s opponents. Auburn’s second half was the best half of football played against the Gators, and if not for two uncharacteristic and costly turnovers by Chris Leak late, it still might not have been enough to beat the Gators. There is something about this team that is a double-edged sword – it keeps them from playing sharply, but also keeps the opponents from doing so either.

In the end, the Gator defense has been winning the games week in and week out. The front seven has been excellent in stopping the run outside of the Auburn game, and the secondary has getting a lot of big plays (once again, except for the Auburn game) while letting the smaller plays go. Reggie Nelson in particular has saved the secondary many times, at least when the coaches don’t have him playing 30 yards off of the line of scrimmage (just like in – get this – the Auburn game). Florida has the luxury of playing around with all sorts of things on offense since the defense has been so adept at keeping opponents out of the end zone. They haven’t been perfect, but they’ve been tremendous.

So what about this week? It’s just Vandy right? Well, Vanderbilt beat Georgia and has been very well-coached under Bobby Johnson. Using well-coached and Vanderbilt is not a common occurrence, so that should tell you something. Sure, Jay Cutler is gone, but there were plenty of other guys besides Cutler working to take Florida to double overtime in a game that Florida very well could have lost in regulation if not for a suspect celebration penalty on the Commodores. Florida has better size, speed, and talent all over the field, so the Gators should absolutely win.

As we know, though, Vandy doesn’t make things easy for anyone. They played Michigan to a closer final score than Notre Dame did. Florida should win, but it won’t be a cakewalk.

10:46 pm Saturday night

I’m a happy Gator tonight.

It was not the prettiest or the most satisfying win today, but anytime you can return from Jacksonville with a win, you take it. It was a clear, windy day with a slight chill in the air. By the end, just about all Florida fans were wearing jackets or sweatshirts of some kind. The final score, 21-14, did not really reflect how the game went. It’s hard for a score to reflect a game like that.

The Gators were in full control in the first half, finishing with a 14 point lead at halftime. It should have been a larger lead, but Florida kept killing its own drives with penalties, dropped passes, and other execution problems. Both teams played sloppily, which seems to be a hallmark of Gator games this year. Neither team in any of their games has been particularly sharp. I can’t remember the last time a season has been like that.

Anyway, Florida came out and got a touchdown right away to go up 21-0, and it seemed like the game had been put away. Florida’s side of the stadium was rocking, Georgia’s was demoralized, and it seemed an insurmountable lead with a shaky freshman quarterback trying to run the Bulldogs’ offense.

Then a funny thing happened. Florida couldn’t put drives together anymore. The secondary playing so far off of the receivers allowed Matt Stafford to get in a rhythm and comfort zone. Tim Tebow, to the utter shock and disbelief of Florida fans (most of whom refuse to admit that he is just a freshman) fumbled, and then it was a game again.

Fortunately, Florida’s defense tightened up, Florida got a couple of first downs (one only because of a Georgia facemask penalty), and then they were able to take a couple of knees and run the clock out. Shortly after it went final, the public address announcer (who, along with the scoreboard operator, had a really bad game) announced that Oregon State had held on to beat USC. It was a win for Florida, and any win is a good win, but it was not terribly satisfying.

For the second straight week, Florida did not score an offensive point in the second half. Today, the Chris Hetland missed two field goals in UF’s only scoring opportunities after halftime. Urban Meyer definitely adjusted the offense to get Percy Harvin, Andre Caldwell, and Tim Tebow in the game, and all three had mixed results. Caldwell played the best of the three though. The offense did become predictable in a way, and it showed in the second half. He went too far the other way with the offense, and they definitely underused DeShawn Wynn.

There’s give and take with everything, and it’s hard to complain too much when you leave with a win. The intensity for the game was lower than normal before the game, with Georgia fans not giving their team much of a chance. There were plenty of Bulldogs who left before or at halftime as there were small but noticeable amounts of teal in the red and black across the way. Once Georgia got some things going in the second half, they definitely woke up and started to believe until Florida polished off the game in the end.

This was not a typical Florida – Georgia game, but few things are ever normal at this game. The important thing is that UF survived and won, moving to 7-1 overall, 5-1 in the SEC, and to about 7th or 8th in the polls. This was especially important with Southern Cal losing. Florida still needs more help in the national title picture, but they still control the SEC. Now, it’s time to go up to Nashville and take care of Vandy. It won’t be a cakewalk though, as our vanquished opponents today could have told us.

10:35 pm Friday night

Well, it’s the night before the big [BEVERAGE REDACTED] party, and we’re safe and sound at the River House. It has started to rain, and it is forecast to continue through tomorrow morning but finish by game time. I’m the only one still up, and the light of my laptop screen is the only in the house right now. It’s so dark out, it’s amazing. You never notice light pollution as much until you’re completely away from it.

The local channel 4 news talked about the Sideline Student Safety Zones, which are an excellent idea for a game like this one. They’re first aid/general aid stations for people who are lost or have had too much to drink (or too many cheeseburgers, if you ask Charlie Weis). They’ve even made it so that underage students who are intoxicated can come and get aid without fear of legal repercussions. With each of the past two years having alcohol-related deaths, it’s a very good idea.

Tomorrow morning we’re going to breakfast at a small Southern place in Georgia for breakfast before heading into the game. The game plan is, as always, to park at the convention center and take the shuttle in to the stadium. It’s apparently a great place to get out of the city and back north up here. There’s really nothing else to add, and I don’t want to keep anyone up with my light pollution here, plus the screen is attracting some little bugs that got in, with it being the only light source.

Tomorrow is going to be a good day.

Florida – Georgia Preview

I could not bring myself to write about the Gators yesterday after the piece I posted in the morning. The subject matter is so heavy that I just couldn’t do it.

This year’s Florida – Georgia game is much like those of the past couple of years. One of the teams is playing noticeably lower than expectations, so the game is not getting that much of the national spotlight. I mean, even GameDay is skipping it to cover the Fulmer vs. Spurrier angle in the Tennessee – South Carolina game.

This is still the Florida – Georgia game however, and it means an awful lot to an awful lot of people. The current generation of students does not regard the Bulldogs with the same high level of emotion that most of the alumni do. Since I was 5 years old, Florida has only lost to Georgia twice. The only losses came in 2004, during the same week that Ron Zook got fired, and in 1997, after Florida lost a lot of player to the NFL draft. I don’t remember Vince Dooley and the Dawgs owning Florida.

The game certainly has enough tradition though. It is one of only three neutral site, regular season games that occurs annually along with Oklahoma – Texas and Army – Navy. It even has its own hall of fame. While I will always prefer to watch football in the Swamp more than any other stadium, the atmosphere in Jacksonville is definitely something special.

So what about this year’s game? It seems pretty cut and dry that Florida will win this year. If you ask any UGA fan right now they’ll probably tell you that. I just spent the last day or so in Tampa on another office visit/interview, and one of the people there told me that some Georgia students he knew didn’t even bother trying to get tickets because they think it is a foregone conclusion that they’ll lose. Florida has been playing much, much better over the course of the season, the Gators get all their players back healthy now, and Georgia lost to Vandy and should have lost to Mississippi State.

Some people, most notably Brady Ackerman, have been saying that Gators shouldn’t get overconfident because it’s Georgia and they’ve seen too many things happen in this game over the years to automatically pick Florida easily winning. Well, over the past 16 years, we’ve seen all sorts of things, and it took a coach being fired and a game played so poorly it is sometimes called The Fumble Bowl for Florida to lose. UF has been the best team in the SEC, and they won. Georgia has been the best team in the SEC, and Florida still won. Florida has started a freshman quarterback and still won. Florida has such a psychological edge in this game, it’s hard to understate it.

I think Georgia will probably come out and do something different from what they have done all year and get a surprise touchdown early, since Florida always seems to find a way to fall behind early. Still, Georgia is outmanned in this game, and it will be a significant surprise if Florida loses. Matthew Stafford has done nothing this year to suggest that he can beat a top-five team, and he’ll be under pressure all game from Florida’s defensive line. We will see more of Percy Harvin, Jarred Fayson, and Tim Tebow than we have in recent weeks though, and all three have the ability to add the exciting icing to the already substantial cake of the senior leadership on offense. I also expect Chris Leak to throw for more than 200 yards for the first time since the Kentucky game (yes, it’s been that long).

Urban Meyer is 19-2 when he has had more than a week to prepare for a game. He is undefeated in the state of Florida. As an ESPN.com headline for the game went not too long ago: Death, Taxes, and Florida over Georgia. It’ll be closer than it should be since it’s the Florida – Georgia game, but Florida wins 27 – 10.

One additional note – I’ll be staying north of Jacksonville this weekend in a house my aunt and uncle built less than a mile from the St. Mary’s River. It doesn’t really have Internet access, and maybe not even cable (I haven’t been up there in a while thanks to marching band), so there will be no GameDay column tomorrow. I’m sure you all will survive.

Danny Rolling Dead

Those three haunting words headlined the Alligator, the student newspaper, this morning. It finished several days of coverage. For people outside of Gainesville or the UF community, that may not mean much. Around here though, they’re loaded with emotion.

Danny Rolling was a drifter from Louisiana who brutally murdered 5 Florida students in the Fall of 1990. There victims were four females and one male, a former football player. The town plunged into fear an panic. Firearms merchants saw their stocks bought up like they were water and canned goods before a hurricane. People answered their doors with baseball bats or guns in hand.

Rolling originally was arrested for robbing a Winn Dixie grocery store in Ocala, and it was months before he was linked to the Gainesville murders. It is a sad, tragic story, and it left scars that still have not healed. The city of Gainesville had been irrevocably changed.

In Fall of 1990, I was a 5-year-old living in Orlando, so I know nothing of what that time was like. I heard parts of the story over the years, but it was not until I came up here to Gainesville that I understood how big of an impact those murders had on this town. I’ve talked to many people who were here, and their tones change. They shake their heads and subconsciously bristle just at hearing the name “Danny Rolling.” It is something I will never be able to fully understand, since I was not here to experience it.

There were a few protesters in Starke at his execution, but far fewer than normal. Even the student editorials, that in my 3 and a half years have always been anti-death penalty, advocated death for him. He killed for no reason. Some of the victims were just in their first weekend at college, not even having had class yet. They did not know Danny Rolling, and he did not know or care who they were. He did not take their money or possessions. He came, he raped and murdered, and he left. In the time since, he has not once shown remorse either.
At 6:11 pm, on Wednesday, October 25 2006, Danny Rolling stopped breathing. At 6:13, he was pronounced dead. He may be gone now, but his memory will linger in Gainesville for many, many years to come.

So Far This Year

Urban Meyer said yesterday that while watching the games this Saturday, he realized that what won teams games was playmakers making plays. This “revelation” of sorts means that Florida will be putting more spread back into the offense rather than a lot of the up-the-middle stuff that they had gotten into the habit of doing this year.

This is good. I have been saying that the “we’ve got to out-tough teams” mindset, while useful, is not what will win games for Florida. Last year, they had to take some of the spread parts out of the offense and go with a  more power scheme since the playmakers were out injured or playing hurt. This year, there’s more playmakers on the team, and none have had serious injuries. It was appropriate to get more conservative then, it is appropriate to get more aggressive now. The two leading rushers for Florida against Auburn were Percy Harvin and Andre Caldwell, and it was frustrating to me at least watching the Gators go away from that kind of play as the game wore on.

 *  *  *

So a lot of people did mid-season report cards, and I didn’t. Partly, it was because I was exceedingly busy at the halfway point, and partly because it didn’t make sense to do it at that point for a number of reasons. It didn’t occur during an off week, and also it was still inside the three-week run of SEC West teams.

The offensive line has been good, but not spectacular. It has led the way for multiple games with a 100-yard rusher, but it was as big a factor in the second-half letdown at Auburn as any unit on the team. The running backs all complement each other when all are healthy. The receivers have been inconsistent in that you don’t know who’s going to step up in a particular game out of the lot of them, but so far someone has in every game except Auburn (note the common thread throughout this). As far as the quarterbacks, I think I’ve beaten that horse enough over the past weeks that I don’t need to rehash it all again right now. The offense gets a B+, since sometimes it was the coaches going too conservative that held them back.

The defense has been great for the most part. The defensive line was hampered by not having Marcus Thomas for three games, but it otherwise has been one of the strongest positions on the field. The linebackers have been great too, though as many have pointed out, they over-pursued everything at Auburn. The coaches have them blitz too much which hampers their effectiveness, but I don’t hold that against them. The secondary has been a paradox. They give up too many yards, and can’t make enough stops. When opposing teams convert on third and more than two, more often than not it’s on a quick screen or slant because the cornerbacks are lined up 5 to 10 yards off the line. I understand that the coaches put them there, but they have too because only Reggie Nelson is a top-tier player back there. If you take away the some of the rather fortunate interceptions they’ve been getting, Florida is not 6-1. Overall they get a B as well, but I don’t know how it can improve that without taking more risks and getting more timely stops.

The special teams has been a mixed bag. At first they couldn’t get convert an extra point on a regular basis, and it took until Game 7 to get a field goal (for a variety of reasons, some not their fault). The return coverage had been decent until Auburn, and the return game still has not scored a touchdown in years. I give them a C, but that may be somewhat generous. There is a lot of room for improvement here.

I may be a bit harsh, but I would give only two teams in the country an A on offense, and that’s Ohio State and West Virginia. I may seem odd that a consensus top-ten team would be B, B, and C on its assessment, but that’s the truth. And, this year, that’s all it takes to be a top-ten team. This Florida team is good compared to a lot of other teams this year, but the 1996 Florida team would destroy this one. The 2006 Florida secondary is too weak, and the offense is too inconsistent.

Still, all they have to do is beat three teams that are inferior to them and they go to Atlanta for the first time since 2000. That’s a good feeling.

Saturday Wrapup

Without a Gator game, I found that I didn’t pay as close attention to football today as I thought I would. I guess even I fell victim to the big-game fatigue that the team seemed to in the second half of last week’s game at Auburn. I’m not saying it was nice to have a week off, since I will always prefer to have a Gator game than not to have one, but not having the stress of playing an elite team was nice for a change. So, here’s a few quick hits on the games I thought were interesting today.

–Nebraska really needed to beat Texas today. This was their perfect chance: the weather conditions could best be described as “ghastly,” it was Colt McCoy’s first game outside the state of Texas, the crowd was unbelievably hyped up, and it was their chance to make a big statement, much like Alabama against Florida last year. You just can’t fumble the ball that late in the game. It would have been nice to see Texas fall since the Longhorns’ schedule is pretty weak from here on out.

As a side note, after the game was over, the crowd chanted “Go Big Red!” in appreciation of the team’s effort. Now, I know that most Gator fans (myself included) hate Nebraska for the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, but I think a lot of Gator fans could learn a good lesson from that example.

–Georgia is in serious trouble. A week after losing their homecoming game to Vandy, the Dawgs nearly blew it against Mississippi State at home as well. I suppose now would be a bad time to tell UGA fans that Urban Meyer-coached teams usually play their best coming out of bye weeks and that Meyer has never lost a game played in the state of Florida…

–South Carolina took care of business against Vandy by a more convincing margin than I thought they would. Of course, Vandy trailed by only 4 until six minutes to go in the third quarter before SC scored to widen the margin. The Gamecocks then put another touchdown up in the fourth quarter to make it look more impressive. That’s a typical Vandy game as any. The final score looks pretty good, but you never felt confortable until that last touchdown in the fourth quarter to know that you’ve put it away.

–Notre Dame just is not impressing this year. The Irish won’t lose to UNC or any of the three service academies (unless Air Force brings the same game it did at Tennessee), but they should lose to USC, who was idle today. Incidentally, USC has a great chance to lose to…

–Cal, who nearly got embarassed by Washington today. It’s be one thing if Isaiah Stanback was healthy, but he definitely was out. Ty Willingham has done a great job with UW, which makes you wonder what happened at Notre Dame. Maybe the Fighting Irish fans never really accepted him and pushed him out too early, or maybe the Pac 10 can make any above average coach look like a legend. Heck, it makes Pete Carroll look like a genius, and he was a blithering idiot in the NFL with the Patriots.

–Now that everyone has cooled off on Garrett Wolfe, maybe it’s time for Boise State’s Ian Johnson to be the minor conference guy in the Heisman chatter. He leads the nation with 18 rushing touchdowns, and he’s the best offensive player on a team that’s almost a lock to finish undefeated. He’s projected right now to have more than 1700 yards at the end of the season, so that counts for something too, right? Then again, Darren Sproles rushed for 1900+ yards his senior year at Kansas State and destroyed Oklahoma himself in the Big XII title game, but didn’t even come within striking distance of winning the stiff-armed statue.

–Clemson dispatched Georgia Tech 31-7. Yawn. Was that really worth skipping Texas – Nebraska for, College GameDay? Or were you picking games by weather reports? Also, it seems every week there is an even bigger Borat sign where ever they go. Are people really that amused by a guy talking in a fake accent who ignores all social conventions? Because if they are, then why did The Laidies Man bomb? Not that I liked that movie (it was awful), but I’m just asking.

–Tennessee, despite being the better team by far, nearly blew it against Bama. Sometimes, there really is nothing new under the sun. Today also featured the first touchdown in the series since 2004.

–Miami came thisclose to losing to Duke today. Nothing could have topped that. Yes, Miami was without 13 players who were suspended, but the 2001 Miami team probably could have taken its scout team and beat Duke by two touchdowns. This is one of the great what-could-have-been games, and also fitting punishment to Miami for it’s lenient punishment to its players for last week. People keep calling that a joke, but there’s nothing funny about it.

–Finally, BC beat FSU despite the Seminoles wearing their all-new black uniforms, which looked pretty good as far as FSU uniforms go. Florida has had alternate black uniforms for basketball for years, and the bookstore has been selling black football jerseys that inexplicably have no blue on them at all. In any event, FSU is 4-3 and 2-3 in the ACC. Ten years ago, those would sound preposterous, but anything’s possible at this point as long as Jeff Bowden is running the offense. FSU’s leading rusher for the game? Drew Weatherford, with 10 yards.

Upon Further Review

I intentionally took a few days off of writing this, mainly because there’s not a lot to talk about in Gator country right now. Football has an off week, basketball hasn’t started yet, and it’s far too early for the recruiting nonsense to get ramped up yet.

Most Gator fans I heard on Monday had things in the right perspective. Just about anyone will take a 6-1 start to the season, and keep in mind even Steve Spurrier only coached a team to an undefeated regular season once in his 12 years. Urban Meyer was probably not going to coach this team to an undefeated regular season in year 2 like he did at Utah simply because the SEC is so much better than the Mountain West. I never thought I’d ever have to defend a 6-1 start to a season, but here I am anyway.

I will say that it could have been possible to run the table if the off week was a week earlier. If Florida had last week off to get DeShawn Wynn and Percy Harvin to 100%, to give the coaches more chances to dissect Auburn’s schemes, and to give everyone else a physical and mental break, then things may have turned out a lot differently last Saturday.

The dearth of talking points has led to a lot of idle talk though, and the people who will never like Chris Leak no matter what are coming out of the woodwork and making noise again. The people who won’t accept anything other than Steve Spurrier’s offense specifically also are making their way to the surface and complaining as well.

Some of the Leak criticisms are completely valid. Heath Cline talked today about how inconsistent he is – on one play he’ll stand in the pocket and deal with the pressure or throw a block upfield, and the next he’s running around scared or falling down. Or, in the case of Saturday, throwing off his back foot or freezing while trying to figure out if he wants to throw it to Tate Casey or not. Cline also mentioned how Leak has brought a lot of the criticism on himself by proclaiming before his freshman year that he would not get a girlfriend until he won a national title, or before this year talking about throwing 50 touchdown passes. Some may take that as arrogance, though Chris is about as humble as they come.

There’s a lot of factors why some people don’t like him. There’s the ones I mentioned above. He also lacks a defining moment. His only really big fourth quarter comeback was against Kentucky, though Tennessee this year was a gutty win. People don’t know how to react to that. The LSU win in 2003, his two Georgia wins, and the FSU win in 2004 were all games where Florida led for most of the game. There’s no Doering’s Got a Touchdown, 52-20, Run Fred Run, or any other defining attributes to him. Rex Grossman didn’t either, and he lost his two biggest games in 2001, but he gets a pass because he finished second in the Heisman (and should have won it) and he stayed for Ron Zook’s first year when he didn’t have to.

Perhaps that’s another thing – Leak symbolizes in some people’s minds, for better or worse and fair or not, the maddening inconsistency of the Zook years. They win when they shouldn’t, but don’t know how to handle success. There’s no reason why in 2003 they should beat the eventual national champions on the road and then lose to Ole Miss to lose the chance to play in the SEC title game. This year’s team won at Tennessee, which is looking more and more impressive as the year progresses, and beat what is still a very good LSU team. The expectations rose, and what Zook called the noise in the system and what Meyer calls the Florida Nonsense ratcheted up. The result? A second half meltdown on the road in a winnable game. Last year, the meltdown came at South Carolina. This set of older players do not know how to handle success.

Part of that may be the lack of killer instinct of the Zook regime having seeped into them. I know that Leak has not been helped by having three different offensive coordinators, the third of which liking to run an offense that is not best suited for him. There are so many things that come into play, and it’s impossible to pinpoint one or two or ten things as the cause. It may simply come down to a fumbled snap on a punt leading to a momentum shift that a hostile crowd would not allow to change.

Urban Meyer has a track record showing that he does know how to handle success, though you wouldn’t know it by what some people are saying. One person sounded exasperated talking about the offense today, complaining of it sputtering – having a good drive followed by several punts. He didn’t come out and say it, though he almost did and definitely wanted to, but his point was, “Will this offense ever stop sputtering and dominate the league?” He got to “ever” before stopping himself, but that was all that you needed to hear.

“Will they ever…?” questions are asked after 6 to 8 years of a coach when plenty of his own recruiting classes have come and gone and nothing changes. “Will the ever…?” questions are fair for, say, UNC’s John Bunting at this point, but not Urban Meyer. He’s been to more BCS bowls than Florida has since 2002. He has an undefeated season to his credit, including the bowl, which while it happened in a non-BCS conference, non-BCS conference teams don’t go undefeated regularly. He only has one real complete recruiting class here, with the one prior to this year’s being the transition between Zook and Meyer. We won’t know how well his and Dan Mullen’s preferred offensive scheme will work until they get all their kind of players.

It’s not easy to step back and look at these things with a cool head. It doesn’t make for spicy sports talk radio, nor does it drive thousands of blog hits a day (trust me, I know). It’s just frustrating to me how Gator fans are creating an impossible situation. The coaches foster it by saying things like, “Losing is unacceptable at the University of Florida,” but that’s motivational coachspeak. Yes, it is the fans’ job to be loud, be passionate, and buy everything there is with a Gator head logo on it. Yes, part of this is that the people who always have complained this way are getting more opportunities to be heard between multiple local sports talk radio stations and online message boards. However, it wasn’t that long ago that Florida had trouble winning 9 games a season and missed going to a January bowl.

The program is clearly on the rise. Will it net a national title this year? Probably not. Was it ever going to win one this year? Probably not. Will just winning the SEC East be enough for some people? Probably not. If the team goes undefeated and wins by 20 points a game, there will always be people wanting to know why they couldn’t win by 30 a game. I just hope that the vocal minority among the fan base gets over itself, readjusts its perspective, and can find a way to enjoy this team.

The Gators are 6-1, and they has some spectacular playmakers on the team. I can’t wait for Georgia weekend.

*  *  *

However bad some people think things are at Florida, they’re worse at Miami. Everyone by now has seen the FIU-UM fight, and everyone has drawn their own conclusions about it. I have been waiting to hear what the final punishments are, and as most would probably agree, I think that FIU got it right and Miami got it wrong. A single game for stomping on people with cleats is ridiculous.

I will give Brandon Meriweather and Anthony Reddick credit for coming out with apologies that sound sincere. UM President Donna Shalala however says that she is not willing to “throw any student under the bus” after the melee in order to save face.

The aftermath of that fight has nothing to do with saving face. There’s nothing left to save after one player swung his helmet around like a weapon and another stomped on opponents while the Comcast color commentator cheers them on, followed by a celebration afterward where the players jumped up and down on the sideline holding their helmets in the air while the coaches were trying to get their attention to talk to them. All of the progress of the Butch Davis years in image restoration is gone. Kellen Winslow II’s “I’m a soldier!” monologue was a warning sign, and the post-Peach Bowl fight and the stomping on Louisville’s cardinal logo only added to it. Everything culminated on Saturday.

The worst part was not Shalala’s defense of her players, despite their actions being indefensible. The worst was that she said that she intentionally didn’t look at any video of the fight since that would make her mad and she needed a cool head to dole out the punishment. When was the last time you heard of a judge or jury refusing to hear evidence because it would make them angry? How are you supposed to know what happened if you don’t look at the video? It’s impossible to pick everything that transpired in one viewing, especially the first time when you’re in shock that it’s actually happening in front of your eyes. She says that the school now has a zero-tolerance policy for fighting, but who knows whether it will get enforced. Miami has no credibility anymore.

Some have tried to explain the fight by saying that FIU and Miami are only 9 miles apart, but I can’t remember FAMU ever getting into a fight with FSU. Another popular takeaway from it is that FIU could afford to dole out harsh penalties since it’s not going to a bowl and Miami needs the money. Well, Miami is a small private school, and it gets everything it needs from its private school tuition rates. True, the school rarely sells out home football and basketball games, but the amount of merchandise it sells makes up for that. Besides, this is a university, not a minor league football organization.

I don’t think Larry Coker will survive the year. Mediocrity on the field is one thing, but disciplinary problems are something else entirely. There were a lot of reasons that Florida fired Ron Zook, but embarassing incidents off the field played as big a role as any besides the Mississippi State loss. UF thinks it has a good discipline guy in Meyer, but some are raising questions over the Dee Webb/Kenneth Tookes incident over the summer and Marcus Thomas’ early reinstatement from his suspension. Miami under Coker however keeps regressing every year, and he doesn’t have firm control over the program. No one appears to, not Coker, AD Paul Dee, or least of all Donna Shalala.

To borrow a phrase from Heath Cline, the Miami program needs to be fumigated. Maybe that means hiring Butch Davis again, maybe that means hiring Tom Coughlin after he is probably fired by the Giants sometime after the year. The leadership at the school needs to find someone who will rid the program of its deleterious culture of “Defending the U” and who will teach them not just to win, but act with class and walk away from unnecessary fights.

Miami has no business wasting its time fighting some I-A peon like FIU, yet now such a brawl is an indelible mark on the school’s history. Will the leadership at the university make the bold moves necessary to enact real change? If the statements coming out of there the past couple of days are an indication, then the answer is no.

*  *  *

There won’t be any more updates until Saturday as I am going to Atlanta for the next two days for an office visit and interview with Deloitte’s IT group. In the meantime, fill your time with College Football Resource (thanks for the link!) and EDSBS.

The First Bitter Pill

Well, the dream of an undefeated season has evaporated on the plains of Auburn. It was just that – a dream. Urban has already said it’s not a goal. I will admit that I got caught up in that dream as the season progressed, and why not? The team was winning, it was immense fun, and it was easy to do.

The warning signs were all there. I’ve already gone over all of the reasons why Florida is not a national title contender. Many of those things came to haunt them in the second half. First, I’ll go over the issues in the game, then the positives to take away.

1. Everything worked on offense in the first half. It may seem counterintuitive to even list this as an issue, much less first. However, the Gators’ secret to being a great second half team was to make better adjustments than the other team. Well, since everything worked, Auburn had a better chance at making adjustments than Florida did. Auburn obviously made the right ones at halftime, and Florida couldn’t adjust on the fly in the second half. It was the receivers running the ball to the outside that was most effective, but Florida didn’t stick to that enough to score.
2. Turnovers. Florida made theirs at bad times, and Auburn’s didn’t end up hurting them. I do want to say that Chris Leak’s fumble was a fumble since the defender hit the ball out of his hand, so that was not a case of being robbed by the refs. In fact, there were a few non-calls in Florida’s favor, like when Joe Cohen hit Brandon Cox’s helmet with his helmet and then with his arm. Leak did not have his best game, and Florida never got a big play from the secondary. Reggie Nelson and Ryan Smith have bailed out the team several times with big interceptions, but they never came this time.
3. The lack of big stops. Florida has rarely been able to get big stops all year, except when it’s a Nelson or Smith interception. The defense did not get any big stops this game either. Florida ran only 45 offensive plays this game, and that was a byproduct of the defense being on the field all the time. Auburn dominated time of possession, and they used the new clock rules that Tommy Tuberville pushed for and got in the offseason to their advantage.

I think part of this was that Florida simply got tired in the second half. Auburn had plenty of energy after practically taking last week off and then sleepwalking through the first half of tonight’s game. The schedule at last took its toll. I thought that at the beginning of the year (like most people did) that this was the game that Florida had a better than 50% chance at losing. That turned out to be prescient.

So where do they go from here? Well, back to Gainesville to get some rest for one. They’ve got to be emotionally and physically spent after this loss. There are some things to build on though.

1. Everything on offense worked in the first half. They really did look good, although Auburn was not playing with real fire or emotion at the time. The turning point was the blocked punt, where it seemed after that, Florida played on offense to avoid punting, not to gain yards. It’s kind of like the difference between playing not to lose versus playing to win. They got tight, and Auburn had finally loosened up. Still, a healthy Percy Harvin made a big difference. For the record, the last time Harvin got the ball was on the first possession of the second half. Either his ankle got to him or the coaches decided to lean on the seniors after that. Either way, they must keep Harvin involved all game long.
2. Auburn’s offense scored only 9 points. Yes, Auburn did not score an offensive touchdown. They got 2 points on the safety, 7 on the blocked punt, and 6 on the last play. The defense script of bend but don’t break did work as normal, and in that respect, it should have been 17-9. Florida’s sloppy offense and special teams really did them in. I still hold that the defense needed to make big stops if nothing else but for momentum purposes, since UF did nothing to turn the tide of Auburn’s second half momentum. The defense had 5 sacks in the first half, but none in the second. If they could have gotten some more crucial sacks or some of those timely interceptions, Florida wins the game. They didn’t come up with the big plays, but they did hold Auburn’s offense to under 10 points. I know Urban Meyer will take that every time.
3. There’s a lot of footall yet to be played. The biggest game in this four game gauntlet is still what it was in the beginning: Georgia. Originally it was to make sure Florida stays ahead of them in the standings and hold the tiebreaker over them, but Georgia’s losses to Tennessee an Vandy (!) make that less of a concern. The big issue now is not losing another conference game, since I’m not sure that Tennessee will lose another conference game themselves. The goal for the year was getting to Atlanta, and the Gators are still on track to do so and they still control their destiny.

This one is going to weigh on Gator fans’ minds for a while. Auburn was playing to save their season, and they certainly did in the second half. However, if Florida ends up 11-1 at the end of the season, and gets revenge in the SEC title game, it’ll be non-stop what ifs for the month going into bowl season. What if the Tigers had blocked the punt? What if Leak had thrown underneath to Cornelius Ingram instead of underthrowing Andre Caldwell for the pick? What if Tebow had played more? (For the record, I think it wouldn’t have mattered the way Auburn’s defense played in the second half, although the offense could have used that spark of enthusiasm.)

Regardless, what’s done is done. This is no time to get ahead of ourselves and demand answers as to why UF is not going undefeated. It was a near impossibility with the schedule, and we knew this going into the season. I still hold that it’s quite possible that no one goes undefeated, although at this point I’d say that no one is beating Ohio State. Florida is still in the driver’s seat in the SEC East, though not as comfortably so than it was five hours ago. Going undefeated is really hard, and as Tuberville said two weeks ago, nearly impossible in the SEC.

Florida has not been to Atlanta in early December since 2000. This is the goal. It has always been the goal, and Florida can still accomplish it without help from other teams. If you told any Gator fan that Florida would go 6-1 to start the year, I think all but the most irrational would take it. I’ll still take it even today. Now, the focus switches getting fully healthy and ready to face Georgia.

Florida – Auburn Preview

I’m been procrastinating as long as I could, but it’s time to write this.

One the one hand, a lot of things are lining up for Auburn. It is a night home game for them, and they had College GameDay there this morning which always gets the fans fired up. They are coming off a loss to Arkansas, and good teams (like Auburn is) rarely lose two games in a row. In addition, Florida traditionally has never played well at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn is essentially playing for its season here, since with a loss it’d be unlikely for them to get to a BCS game and they’d need Arkansas to lose three conference games to go to Atlanta. Plus, Arkansas beat them with size and brute strength, and that’s not how Florida generally wins games.

Florida, on the other hand, has a lot going for it. UF has won eight in a row, and has already won a big night game in Knoxville in front of probably a louder crowd, and quite possibly against a better team. Chris Leak is as steady as they come, and he’s won games in Baton Rouge, Knoxville, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee before. The Gators are coming off of a big win against LSU, and the two quarterback system is really gelling into something special. The defense has bent in every which way, but it hasn’t broken and now with a full week of practice with Marcus Thomas back on the defensive line will only make them better. The offense also gets DeShawn Wynn back and Percy Harvin should be about 100%.
Now the bad. Auburn has been listless the past two games, nearly losing to South Carolina and getting demolished by the Pigs. Brandon Cox is really beat up, and Kenny Irons has been merely average in big games this year. If UF punter Eric Wilbur does as well as he did against LSU, then Auburn will be faced with long fields and the proposition of going 70 to 80 yards on the Florida defense. The Tigers’ defense has had serious issues stopping the run lately, and now they face a healthy Wynn and they’ll also have to deal with Harvin and Tim Tebow busting out of the backfield for potentially big plays.
Florida’s biggest problem, besides history saying that they’ll struggle at Auburn, is what Urban Meyer calls the Florida Nonsense. It’s all of the buzz and the press about the team. There were dozens of stories about Tebow’s touchdowns, how Florida might run the table, how they are in the national title race, and how they might not be in the top two when the BCS standings come out. Well, Florida definitely will not be in the top two if it listens and starts getting a big head. The Gators are at their highest ranking since anyone on the team came to this school. Also, Florida has yet to put a full game together with bad penalties, sloppy play, untimely turnovers, and unfortunate timeouts marring their play.

I will not be surprised whichever team wins. I am going to pick Florida though, and not just because I’m a homer. The offense has been getting better, and with a healthy Harvin it will get even better. Remember after UCF when people were comparing him to Reggie Bush? He’s not Reggie Bush, but he’s a big play threat every time he touches the ball. Wynn is not as fast at the Arkansas backs, but if he is healthy and ready to go he could punish the Tigers’ defense. Auburn also does not have the corners to cover all of Florida’s receivers. It’s hard to describe just how much of an advantage UF has when comparing receivers.

Auburn having lackluster wideouts also mitigates the Gators’ biggest weakness on defense – the secondary. Reggie Nelson and Ryan Smith have been great and good, but they still give up too many passing yards. Basically though, if you stop Kenny Irons you stop Auburn and Florida’s front seven (plus Tony Joiner blitzing most likely) will get to both Irons and Cox in the backfield.

I expect this will be somewhere between the Tenenssee game and the LSU game. I don’t think it will take a 4th quarter comeback, but the Gators won’t put it away early in the second half either. Still, I’m feeling something in the 24 – 16 range. We shall see.

One last thing – I’ve referred to Auburn as the WarPlainsTigers because they have three nicknames: the Tigers, the War Eagle(s?), and the Plainsmen. Alabama fans give all sorts of reasons why, but they have issues themselves somehow making the Crimson Tide into an elephant. The Plainsmen is the vestigial one of the three, rarely coming up as far as I can tell. Auburn fans yell “War Eagle!” to each other instead of something like “Go Gators!” and they have an eagle fly to the 50 before every game. Finally, the Tigers are what they generally go by to everyone else. I don’t get it exactly, but I’m sure there’s convoluted stories behind them all.