Thanks for providing your insights Bert - I always enjoy them. If I can play devil's advocate I'd like to address some of your points (see - it's not just you Keith!) 1) Florida's defense is on par with 'Bama's, so I suspect we will struggle. HOWEVER, we have significantly improved since the 'Bama game, so I don't think we'll be shutdown. Do you think your improvement may have to do with the fact that you've played defenses that aren't as good since the 'Bama game? Mallett is getting a lot better at finding his 3rd or 4th option quickly. But y'all are right that he's a pocket passer, and not a scrambler. If he scrambles, he'll look to run some, but mostly will try to set up outside the pocket and throw. He usually makes good decisions regarding throwing it away though. If he doesn't thow quickly he'll be meat. He's a stout kid, but QBs that aren't very mobile are usually in for long days against us, especially if they have a lot of long developing patterns. I expect we'll see a lot of slants, quick outs, and bubble screens to try and keep our offense off of the field and our linemen and linebackers off of Mallett. I hope we don't get any stupid personal fouls, but I know some of our players were pissed off at Mallett last year when he shoved some of our players on your sideline after they had made tackles. 2) Our top receiver, Joe Adams, had a minor stroke (yes, you read that right) last Monday and didn't play over the weekend. I read that - I hope the young man has a complete and quick recovery - that is just so scary for a kid that age. 3) Our second leading receiver, Jarius Wright, had a concussion on Saturday, so his status is unknown for Saturday. The hit he took wasn't as nasty as Tebow's, but as always, you don't want to rush back to the field. I think he should take the advice of Zeb's neurologist buddies and wait awhile to play - at the very least one more game. ;) 4) Our running game is finally starting to come into its own. It took a bit for our O-line, which was primarily recruited for run blocking, to get the balance worked out after working so hard on adjusting to pass block. Smith is a weapon - do you know how his hamstring is coming along? The USC transfer is a big back, but I don't think he's nearly as scary as Scott from LSU and we held him pretty much in check. 5) One of our top weapons right now is Dennis Johnson, our kick returner. He leads the SEC in average and is sixth in the nation. He's something else when he gets a lane. Should be a good matchup - our coverage teams have been very good this year - the kid from Kentucky (Locke I think) was not allowed to hurt us - and we kicked off a lot that game! 6) I don't think y'all will run wild on our defense, as they are much improved, but I know we'll struggle against y'all.
My pick: Florida 27, Arkansas 17. I'd take that in a heartbeat - My score prediction is Gators 34, Hogs 7. Good luck! Steve McKibben --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
