Some thoughts with the benefit of a night's sleep and some distance from the game:
First, the game itself: aside from stupid penalties and allowing an inexplicable conversion on a 4th and 14, I thought the defense looked very good - and we were short bodies in the secondary. With Tabor and Dawson back - assuming Dawson's injury isn't serious - and some of the youngsters that looked good, I think the defense will continue to improve with a chance to be very good. Anzalone was all over the field, and Zuniga came out of nowhere and played very well. CeCe and Brantley will pick things up.
The offense is another story. Putrid is the word that comes to mind when thinking about what I saw, especially within the context of who the opponent was. I wish the passing game was much more vertical. It seems like the passing game is geared to 5-8 yard crossing patterns with some tight-end digs/drags across the middle. Why do we not stretch the field more? I suspect it is because of LDR's middling arm strength and that our OL probably can't pass protect routes that require 7 step drops and time to develop. Regardless, that offense looked absolutely awful both from the player performance perspective and schematically. And worse, unlike the defense, it is hard to see a ton of improvement with the personnel we have. Special teams have become a strength and it was fun watching Eddy.
Now, the state of the program. I agree with Ox - we are no longer elite and haven't been for a long time. I will confess that Mac was my first choice among the "realistic" options available at the time and I was both surprised and ecstatic when Foley paid his buyout and hired him. Based on what I've seen so far, I am dealing with a lot of buyer's remorse. While logically I think we all knew digging out from under the previous doosh's reign of incompetence would take some time,
it is a lack of progress both on the field, on the recruiting trail and in terms of regaining any semblance of swagger I find disquieting. We just aren't the Gators anymore. How is it that the HBC came in in 1990 with no QB, the top RB leaving early, a suspect roster and in his first game he hung 50 on a Big 8 opponent? And in year 2 of Mac, we're lucky to eke out 24 points against the worst team in 1A. Add to that either his snark during press events, or his rambling, non-responsive and heavily cliched non-answers to questions, and his schtick is already wearing thin on me. Let's face it - were it not for the Grier-Callaway miracle against the Chuggers last year, the noise in the system would probably be deafening by now. I know, he won 10 games and took us to Atlanta last year, and we're only one game into the new season. But last year was an outlier with regard to how terrible the East was and this season has not started well.
I still remain hopeful Mac can turn this around, but my doubts are growing.
I'm truly growing sick of the everything's just fine crowd. You wimps have been saying that since the end of last decade. You sound like volunqueers. Spurrier set the bar too high and its not possible to ever have that success again and that's the problem? Alabama, Ohio state, clemson, hell even fsu all just called, they said you're all morons.
We are who we are, the truth is I don't even care that much anymore, didn't even really get upset last night, I'm used to it after nearly a decade of embarrassment and mediocrity. Had people texting me all pissed off and I just laughed because it's the new norm and not worth really getting emotional over. But for the love of god, dont piss on peoples shoes and then swear its raining.
The state of the program isnt good, recruiting is not good, the reputation we used to have is gone and the product on the field isn't doing anything but enforcing that fact. If you're completely comfortable being an afterthought and bragging about our university's academic standing great, but dont sit around and act like those that are dissapointed in the current state of affairs are out of line.
And Durty nailed this ^
