The game of football hasn't changed all that much since we won our last championship. You come prepared, you make plays, you limit mistakes, you win more than you lose.
We did a lot of things right last night against a decidedly inferior opponent. That's the good news. The not so easy job is to add up the plusses and minuses, consider all the variables and determine an actual net.
I'm not ready to proclaim us fixed, not yet, but it would be ignorant not to note all the things that seemed different, better and outright positive after a 47-point blowout that featured highlights all over the field.
It's only one brick, but it's a big one.
You're right that the game of football hasn't changed much, except for the pansification of the rules. Like for example, as recently as 3-4 years ago that starting LB for Charleston Southern wouldn't have been ejected early in the 1st Quarter. And then it might've been a whole different ball game!
KIDDING! I'm kidding. Ray Lewis in his prime couldn't have helped that team much. But yeah, the fundamentals of the game haven't changed. However, when I watch highlights from back in the day, usually the athletes don't look as fast and powerful, and the action looks a little slower.
The latter was not the case when I left the TV on SECN for awhile after the game last night, and a segment came on featuring Chris Doering and some other analysts.
While they were talking about the most TD's thrown in a half by a Gator QB, since Franks threw an impressive 5 in the first half last night, they showed a highlight package of Terry Dean's 7 TD's in the first half of the 1994 season opener against New Mexico State.
Yes, the players from 24 years ago (has it really been that long?) didn't look quite as big and powerful as today's. But the action (for the Gators' part, at least) did not look any slower. In fact Dean's passes had more zip, the receivers' routes looked more precise and the overall execution looked sharper than what we saw last night. Having just finished watching the game, to me the difference was noticeable.
Did our offense look better last night that we did under Butters? I think so, but that is not the standard by which we should be measuring ourselves. I'm not necessarily saying we need to measure up to the Platinum Standard set by the Fun n' Gun of the 1990's, either. But if we want to do anything better than win the SEC East, the current Gold Standard is the play of Mr. Tua Tagovaliballoonagigawatabamalamadingdongaloa of the Bams.
Not to be a wet blanket on a rainy (where I am) Sunday morning fellas, but I'm still not sold yet on the idea of Feleipe Franks leading us back to where we really want and deserve to be. I'm still not seeing that eye-popping "it" factor. If it is there, then it will take some better competition to bring it out in him. As well as some sharper play by his surrounding cast, so that everything looks easy for Franks like it looked in 1994 for Terry Dean and last night for Tua... uhhh, let's just call him Tua T.
All that said, it clearly is indeed a new era for Gator Football, and whether it's under Franks or another QB yet to come under this promising new head coach, I have...