Good thoughts Mary! I think one of the things we forget is that this is supposed to be a rebuilding year. In years past, we would be tickled to have a 14 point win over Tennessee at Knoxville.
The problem is that we measure everything on the field right now with how it contributes to our national championship run when our first goal should be to win the game. Yes we did not cover the spread. So what? My Pick'em score takes a hit. Life goes on. We could be ND. (Who ever heard of going for a fake kick in OT?!? Jerry P.S. Florida is not the only team with disciplinary problems. This morning the third Pittsburg player since July was arrested for assaulting a man who was trying to stop the player from breaking a series of car windows and mirrors as he walked down the street. BTW, the other two arrests were for a hit and run DUI and from a player throwing a man through a glass window. I will take most of our players petty issues-underage drinking, throwing a sandwich at a rude clerk, etc. (not Rainey which I consider very serious.) From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mary Weigly Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2010 4:17 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [gatortalk] Expectations and stuff I wasn't sure where to jump in with the long thread about the game, so I'm starting a new one. It's late, so I'm just noting my thoughts, and then going to bed -- where I will dream happy Gator dreams. 1) Draw plays with Jeff Demps make me want to scream. He cannot run between the tackles unless our OL is blowing open holes, which they are not doing. Also, he will be a bruised mess by the end of the season if he keeps getting 26 carries a game. I wish we would do a better job of getting him the ball quickly and with room to motor. 2) Brantley's inexperience is showing. He got sacked when he could have stepped up in the pocket to avoid it. This can be coached. He also misses wide open receivers. This will improve with game experience (and film studies too). Still, he makes incredibly accurate throws on 3rd down. Real live game experience can't be coached. He'll be fine. 3) Mike Pouncey had one obviously bad snap and a few (I only really noticed 2, but wasn't watching closely) others that were a little off the mark. The announcers made a HUGE deal about one 1st-period snap being "A BAD SNAP!!", when it was only slightly outside Brantley's left knee and Brantley had no problem handling it. I did pay attention to center shotgun snaps in other games I watched today, and I saw LOTS of snaps off the mark -- and the QBs had no problem handling the snaps. The ball is delivered to the QB's right hip or left hip or at his knees or near his throat and the QB deals with it. To my obviously-ignorant eye (yes, I am being sarcastic), center snaps are a bit erratic and this is a normal part of the game. However, because Mike's first game as center was so obviously bad, he is being subjected to microscopic examination and being criticized for snaps that don't even bear mentioning in other games where the center doesn't have "Gators" written on his helmet. I loved the halftime interview with Coach Meyer where the CBS sideline reporter mentioned "the continuing problems with center snaps" and was that the reason for the struggles on offense. Meyer chuckled at the question and said, "if that was the only problem, we could fix that, but it's a bunch of problems." 4) I've been in Neyland Stadium at a couple of awful Gator losses, and I am very happy to get out of there with a 14-point win. 5) I remember all the whining and second-guessing we did about play-calling when Spurrier was our coach. 6) Urban Meyer had to run a crazy offense at Utah. He doesn't at UF, and he has said so. Meyer is a percentage guy. If we are leading by X number of points in the 3rd quarter with Y number of minutes left in the game and the wind blowing from Z direction at AA mph, he will know the exact percentage of times you will win. He prefers a conservative offense, although he will open things up when he thinks it's necessary -- witness the fake punt when momentum was shifting to UTn. It's all about controlling the game, for him. We're going to see more of this conservative stuff that makes many Gators crazy to watch. 7) I don't think it's "wrong" to be disappointed with this team's performance, but I do think it's unrealistic. Yes, we have lots of juniors and seniors who have experience in Meyer's system, but looking to that fact to justify an expectation of a "top 5-10" performance is flawed in two respects. First, we are bemoaning offensive performance, and you just don't get the kind of player rotation on offense that you do on defense. Our defense really has two sets of starters, because we constantly rotate players -- even in the secondary. On offense, that doesn't happen, with the exception of the skill players, and even then there will be favorite targets at WR, for example. So, although lots of our offensive people are juniors and seniors, they don't have the game experience that the new "starters" on defense have. Second, couple the lack of game experience with the fact that this particular composition of players HAVE NOT PLAYED TOGETHER AS T.H.E. OFFENSE. I happen to believe that much of our offensive offensiveness is the result of our patchwork OL; this is first game that our planned starting line has actually played together in a game. Football is a much more sophisticated game than many fans appreciate. If I am playing right guard, and I have not played with this center in a real game or the other guard or the tackles, and I'm wondering if everyone will be doing their job AND if I'll get my assignment right, and I can't hear because all those people wearing UFO are making so much noise, how well will I be playing? 100%? 80%? With a game of "emotion" and "momentum" and all the intangibles that make one DE turn a split second before the OT can adjust, how the hell can I, as a fan watching from the stands or in front of my television, know why my team isn't dominating the other team, even though they "should"? 8) Yeah, we pay our coaches lots of money, and we have great talent on our team, and we have great facilities, and we have everything that "should" equate to perfection on the field. BUT, the tired cliche is: "the ball is shaped weird, and it bounces funny." Meaning: the game is unpredictable. This is a game that "X and O" books are written about. We hire and pay top dollar to coaches who seem to have figured out the game and can win national championships. And then we are disappointed and whine and cry when our team doesn't perform to our expectations and run the plays we think should be run and win by more points than they win by. Well, you know what? This game is played by 18-21-year-old KIDS, in loud and emotional environments, officiated by imperfect humans, with game momentum affected by TV timeouts, and using a "ball" that bounces funny. If ANYONE could control this environment and perfect play-calling and predict what all the players will do all the time, we would see perfect seasons by the same teams every year. It doesn't happen, and it can't be done. When I recall the games that I enjoyed the most, the games are the ones where unpredictable and unexpected things happened. The upsets, the timeout that was called before the UGA TD, the Kerwin-for-2, the 14-9 win over FSU, 52-20... I just create unneeded stress for myself when I worry that a 14-point win didn't look good. I don't recall ever seeing a "perfect" game -- which would be when exactly what *I* wanted happened when and how I wanted it to happen. I'm happy when we win... AT UTn... by 14 points -- and I was nervous until "take a knee" time. But this is just my opinion... it works for me. Go Gators! Mary -- 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 -- 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
