Bits & Pieces: Florida vs. Missouri

cover2

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No joy in Mudville for the second consecutive week. Sadly, I'm beginning this piece with the game still running, 3rd quarter and us down 35-10. I'd hoped not to have to do that after the last three seasons. I'm going to try and keep my emotions in check, but my first failure is to call it like it is...a complete sh!t show to this point. Can't hang it on one position group, one unit, one phase, or the coaching. It has all been bad. If this was high school I'd blame it on the festivities and not focusing on the most important part...the game against an opponent with a good QB. But this is college so I'll just blame it on not focusing enough on the game against an opponent with a good QB...and getting our sh!t pushed in for the first three quarters!

***As I write this we have inserted Trask who led us on a TD drive!***

Let's take some looks into why we've gotten our @sses kicked so thoroughly to this point:

*You've got to start with a huge factor...QB play. No kind way to put it, but Franks was just awful. Again. For as good as some of his outings have been, he has been a big flat tire on the carriage that @Captain Sasquatch described last week that has turned into a pumpkin. Other than a short TD plunge, his highlight was probably the back shoulder throw to Toney. Other than that it has been a cavalcade of inaccurate throws. Yet again, he has shown the inability to give the receivers a chance on the stretch throws down the field. Conversely, Lock demonstrated remarkable touch on the great majority of his passes from long to intermediate to short, along with the ability to change arm angles to avoid batted passes and turn them into completions. I know he is an NFL prospect and Franks is a third year Sophmore with inconsistencies (to put it lightly), but the contrast is both clear and striking. It has been in the back of my mind, concealed mostly by hope inspired by earlier improvements and successes, but fears of him having reached his ceiling and being unable to push higher look to be real. The fact that Mullen yanked him in favor of Trask may be that realization or it could just be resignation that it wasn't Feleipe's day. I guess we'll know which next week, but it hasn't been Feleipe's week for two in a row during the stretch run and a winner would find a way to perform better if he had it in him.

*The D was pretty abysmal today, so it wasn't all Franks if that was interpreted. Somewhere in the third quarter, we had given up 180+ on the ground to Mizzou. There's a big part of the outcome right there. Their OL pushed us around all game. The edge rush was negated and when we brought pressure, it was effectively picked up save a safety blitz that blew up a sweep. The LBs were just bad. Their day can be summed up with three plays: 1) Joseph fails to read and react swiftly on his scrape, gets blocked, and the Tigers run for the game's first TD; 2) Reese moves laterally three strides into the middle of the line on a play fake as the QB throws to the flank where he should have been in coverage for a nice gain; 3) Joseph blows the coverage on the TE allowing him to split the two high safeties for an easy score. Not SEC level play when we needed SEC level play. The secondary, outside of Henderson's two early breakups, got pretty well toasted. A lot of missed tackles reminiscent of the last three seasons and early on this year made a reappearance. I couldn't see some of the leadership from this unit that had been building.

*The OL was pretty much dominated where the run game was concerned. Giant step backward in this area at this point in the season. Their positive was that they gave Franks some time to throw, but we know how that turned out. One play that kind of pointed out how bad our run blocking was occurred on Scarlett's 16 yard run where RT Taylor completely failed to engage his block off tackle, but the back had a gain IN SPITE of the poor effort. A highlight among lowlights. When we can't run the ball and our passing attack is iffy at best, our chance to win falls squarely on the shoulders of the defense to pitch a shut out. Unfortunately, the D's ERA was through the roof. Against the run, the OL left me feeling that they just rolled over and took it. We can't beat mediocre teams much less good ones with this kind of effort. But should we be shocked?

*Mullen and staff have to wear this one. So much for the intense practice and the anticipated refocus. Ironically, I don't know that I can fault the play calling or defensive scheme as much as perhaps the mental preparation that was sought. Clearly there was a miscalculation by the staff from my view. I also think the leadership that Mullen has been trying to cultivate took a step backward. As previously noted, I just couldn't see it or at least enough of it to be inspiring. Still, players have to execute, but maybe there wasn't enough boot in the @ss? So Mullen's progress this year, which really shouldn't be overlooked, will be. He's under the microscope, again, with a tight focus and how he and the staff responds next week will be very important, ramped up even more with Muschamp coming in.

38-17 kick in the groin. Huge disappointment. I expected us to respond from the loss to UGA with a much better game and a much better effort. It didn't happen and there are once more questions that eclipse discernible answers. QB will be a big piece. Trask wasn't awful, but is he the answer? Is it Emery Jones time? One more shot for Franks? We'll have an anxious week to see what Mullen dials up and if he can bail enough water out our listing ship. Go Gators!

:chomp:

P/S - The Nole$ got beat, so at least we get to go home with the drunk ugly fat chick tonight instead of rubbing one out to the Farrah Fawcett poster.
 
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gardnerwebbgator

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Trask starts SC and Idaho, EJ FSU and bowl. Tell Franks he's a backup or he can leave.

CeCe Jefferson, biggest 4/5 star bust for UF in a long time.
 

Gator Fever

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i think we just need to move on from Franks with an eye to next season. If Trask loses to SC and plays poorly then just give Jones the Idaho and FSU games.
 

SwampChomp

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As we are Bowl Eligible I do not see burning EJ's redshirt.....For what a better bowl game?
I can see Trask being given an opportunity, but a start? That would depend on this week's practices.
If Frank's does start against USCe he should have a very short leash.
 

GatorJ

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Great post @cover2 . QB play was a disaster. It infected the entire team. OL couldn’t run block for **** but they did a really good job pass protecting for Franks. And then when it seemed we had a chance to catch up they just stopped pass protecting for Trask in the 4th. Every time he dropped back there were like six defenders on top of him. Disappointing to say the least.

I’m not even sure what the hell CeCe Jefferson was doing the majority of the game. He was consistently out of position.

I think VJ had one good play all game. Reese was the only LB who came to play.

We knew that the defense was playing above its head all season. MacElstain completely abandoned that side of the team in recruiting. No elite linebackers and just a few good DBs. He got a couple good DTs but we don’t have enough bodies there to drive competition. Safety is a fvking nightmare.

We do have a good amount of Rush Ends. And if we can replace Franks with somebody who can actually throw the ball (and we can actually score points) then that will make Grantham’s scheme better because he can blitz all to hell.
 

G8trwood

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As Popeye would say, I am who I am, and we are just bad. Since the bye week, it seems all our inconsistencies and deficiencies have become consistent. :(

Thank you C2, I don’t think I could have written anything nearly that objective.

I hope the coaches get control of this train before it crashes.

Go Gators
 

SavannahGator

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Great post, @cover2, as always. After we stuffed them 3 and out on their opening drive, I really thought we were in good shape. Then Dan calls 3 passes in a row, never trying to establish the running game. At that point, I just had a bad feeling.
 

gatormandan

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Great post, @cover2, as always. After we stuffed them 3 and out on their opening drive, I really thought we were in good shape. Then Dan calls 3 passes in a row, never trying to establish the running game. At that point, I just had a bad feeling.

I agree. Problem is our run blocking totally sucked balls.
 

Tunaboat

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We should be way, way better than season start this far into the schedule. But it looks like every facet of the team is regressing, the O-line cannot run block or pass protect, our RBs have nowhere to go, and didn't we have a D-line at some point? And the always forgettable Franks problem. What the hell have our coaches been doing the last 3 weeks? it seems that every single player is worse than before, which is azz-backwards from the normal progression of improvement as the year plays out. Mullen will lose Gator Nation if this horsesh@t continues. He should be hosting a coaches all-nighter tonight to figure out where the holes in this boat are and put his coaches in charge of fixing every one.
 

G8RNGA

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I think the game plan and also most of the play calling on both sides was good. The problem is execution. I watch and wonder at times if some of the players really have football IQ they are so badly out of position and should have grown so much since the LSU and MSU wins. Franks is not progressing and has hit his ceiling. DM is having a difficult time masking his inability to play the position. I came into the season wanting to see this team progress week in and week out. Instead, I’ve watched a team digress the last two games and revert back to the team we’ve watched for 8 plus years. It’s a bigger cultural change that needs to occur than what I thought.
 

Gatorbait25

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Freddie didn’t have a serious injury . That’s about the only good news we had for the day. Trask gave us a spark . I’d like to see him get a chance at a full ball game at this point . I highly doubt he is the long term answer here , but obviously Feliepe is not.
 

G8RNGA

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Freddie didn’t have a serious injury . That’s about the only good news we had for the day. Trask gave us a spark . I’d like to see him get a chance at a full ball game at this point . I highly doubt he is the long term answer here , but obviously Feliepe is not.

Agree with all. I don’t see how Trask can be worse at this point. We definitely know what we have in FF now more than ever.
 

cover2

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Great post, @cover2, as always. After we stuffed them 3 and out on their opening drive, I really thought we were in good shape. Then Dan calls 3 passes in a row, never trying to establish the running game. At that point, I just had a bad feeling.

I agree. Problem is our run blocking totally sucked balls.
Thanks guys. Maybe Dan knew? :dunno:
 

Zambo

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I picked a great day to work overtime instead of sitting at my house throwing **** at the tv.
 

Gatorbait25

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It’s really a crying shame we don’t get the ball to Kadarius Toney more . We could motion him into the backfield for a simple handoff. Even work him into the option game too. Most of those things are simple to do . Just takes time to perfect . He’s such a weapon we could use him as a decoy .
Faking a handoff one way then dumping it down to a back or TE on the backside .
 

gingerlover

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As usual spot on Cover. I think we all knew games like this would be coming this year with the roster that he had been left with. I was just hoping we would stay competitive in most games. This one was an absolute disaster. Franks has completely reverted back to who he was last year. So many plays are just left out there and as bad as our D was it didn't help that we continually went 3 and out leaving them on the field as long as we did early. At this point I say let Trask and EJ play and hope we showed enough to get some more bodies to commit before the injury and depth issues started showing themselves. I'm no longer sure we are as ahead of schedule as we thought.
 

gator1946

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My take. We had allowed ourselves to hope that Mullen was a magician and could take substandard talent and have an above standard year. Well it turns out he's not a magician. There are too many missing pieces. So we are stuck with another mediocre...bad by past Gator standards...season. And we are stuck waiting to see if Mullen can recruit and if and when he succeeds whether he can turn this once proud, listing, beat up, rust bucket around.

Wait till next year or the year after that.
 

G8RNGA

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My take. We had allowed ourselves to hope that Mullen was a magician and could take substandard talent and have an above standard year. But it turns out he's not a magician. There are too many missing pieces. So we are stuck with another mediocre, bad by past Gator standards, season. And we are stuck waiting to see if Mullen can recruit and if and when he succeeds whether he can turn this listing beat up rust bucket around.

Wait till next year or the year after that.

We saw glimpses this year. Player execution, leadership, and confidence is lacking. I would love nothing more than to see this team show up for each other. Play like a TEAM.
 

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