- Jun 10, 2014
- 16,578
- 20,016
Founding Member
Hoo boy that was a good time! The Swamp was happy, the players were fired up, nobody was miserable except the opposing fans. Hasn't been that way in a little while, has it? Now before I go any further, it was just Charleston Southern. But in a game like this, you can still see some trends, even with the absurd talent gap.
The biggest and most obvious trend from last night was the resurgence of Feleipe Franks as a viable quarterback. He looked more comfortable and confident last night than any of us have ever seen. Maybe part of that was the opponent, but I think Mullen deserves a lot of credit for getting this kid to pull his head out of his ass and snap out of whatever funk he was in last year. You can blame it on Mac, laziness, arrogance, or whatever you want, but the Feleipe Franks we saw last night is a new player.
He made a couple of ridiculously nice throws into tight windows, especially the last touchdown to Jefferson and the preceding throw to Massey. Regardless of who the opponent is, a throw into a tight window is a throw into a tight window. And the moment I truly knew Franks had changed was early in the 2nd quarter. It's not a play that will show up on highlight reels, but it looked like they were trying to run a fake quick screen to the outside, then hit someone streaking up the sideline. CSU had it covered, so instead of panicking, throwing it away, or scrambling, he stayed in the pocket, worked through his progression, and hit the TE wide open across the middle of the field for a first down. To me, that was his best play of the night and a true harbinger for things to come. I really liked what Jefferson and Grimes brought to the table, too. We've got a scary bunch of receivers this year, might be fun.
The running game wasn't quite what I was hoping last night. It didn't seem to me like Scarlett or Davis were reading their blocks well, and we weren't exerting our physical dominance over them as much as I was hoping. It could be something as simple as CSU's defensive gameplan was to limit the run game and force us to pass (like literally every other team has done for years), so it was nice to see us exploit the edge with the passing game and get chunks of yards that way. We'll see what happens from here on out now that we seem to have a competent passing attack.
Defensively, we'll know more after next week. The aforementioned talent gap was almost embarrassing at times. The long run they got towards the end of the first half seemed to be the result of our defense not being lined up/still coming on the field after a substitution. Would have liked to see us call a timeout to get everything in order.
Special teams haven't looked the way they looked last night in a long time, either. Blocked kicks, great kick coverage, emotion, all things we haven't seen since the pre-Mac days.
All in all, it was an extraordinarily satisfying and fun night, even if we knew going in the result was going to be lopsided. What I really wanted to see was the team having fun, playing with heart, and not making egregious mental mistakes. Can't say I didn't get what I wanted. Go Gators, best thing about being 1-0 is the chance to go 2-0!
Oh, and Kyle Trask now has one more college football touchdown than Law. So suck it, asswipe.
The biggest and most obvious trend from last night was the resurgence of Feleipe Franks as a viable quarterback. He looked more comfortable and confident last night than any of us have ever seen. Maybe part of that was the opponent, but I think Mullen deserves a lot of credit for getting this kid to pull his head out of his ass and snap out of whatever funk he was in last year. You can blame it on Mac, laziness, arrogance, or whatever you want, but the Feleipe Franks we saw last night is a new player.
He made a couple of ridiculously nice throws into tight windows, especially the last touchdown to Jefferson and the preceding throw to Massey. Regardless of who the opponent is, a throw into a tight window is a throw into a tight window. And the moment I truly knew Franks had changed was early in the 2nd quarter. It's not a play that will show up on highlight reels, but it looked like they were trying to run a fake quick screen to the outside, then hit someone streaking up the sideline. CSU had it covered, so instead of panicking, throwing it away, or scrambling, he stayed in the pocket, worked through his progression, and hit the TE wide open across the middle of the field for a first down. To me, that was his best play of the night and a true harbinger for things to come. I really liked what Jefferson and Grimes brought to the table, too. We've got a scary bunch of receivers this year, might be fun.
The running game wasn't quite what I was hoping last night. It didn't seem to me like Scarlett or Davis were reading their blocks well, and we weren't exerting our physical dominance over them as much as I was hoping. It could be something as simple as CSU's defensive gameplan was to limit the run game and force us to pass (like literally every other team has done for years), so it was nice to see us exploit the edge with the passing game and get chunks of yards that way. We'll see what happens from here on out now that we seem to have a competent passing attack.
Defensively, we'll know more after next week. The aforementioned talent gap was almost embarrassing at times. The long run they got towards the end of the first half seemed to be the result of our defense not being lined up/still coming on the field after a substitution. Would have liked to see us call a timeout to get everything in order.
Special teams haven't looked the way they looked last night in a long time, either. Blocked kicks, great kick coverage, emotion, all things we haven't seen since the pre-Mac days.
All in all, it was an extraordinarily satisfying and fun night, even if we knew going in the result was going to be lopsided. What I really wanted to see was the team having fun, playing with heart, and not making egregious mental mistakes. Can't say I didn't get what I wanted. Go Gators, best thing about being 1-0 is the chance to go 2-0!
Oh, and Kyle Trask now has one more college football touchdown than Law. So suck it, asswipe.