Facilities According to Mac

[BMF]

"Primed" may be a bit strong. If we take off our orange & blue glasses and try to look at this dispassionately, 2016 looks like this:

* We have three gimmies. (I had to look up WTF are the Presbyterian Blue Hose.)
* Assume we win all six games against "regular-strength" SEC teams. Although two of those, GA and @Ark, are pre-season top 25.
* To get 10 wins, that leaves us needing to beat one Top 10 team in three opportunities ... @Tenn (pre-season #10), LSU at home (#6), or @FSU (#4).

That certainly sounds do-able if we have arrived as a solid Top 10 team ourselves, but is a stretch if our youth and lack of depth in some areas gets exposed by injuries.

We *should* win 9. Ten would be a slightly exceeding expectations, just based on rankings. Eleven requires beating two (pre-season) Top Ten teams, at least one the road.

(But twelve regular season wins would be A-Okay by me.)

When we go to overtime vs. a 3-9 Florida Atlantic team, I wouldn't say we have three "gimmies" on our schedule. Sure, I'll say Presbyterian is....but the other two are Division 1 football teams that likely give 3-9 Florida Atlantic as much of a game as we did....

 

[TheDouglas78]

When we go to overtime vs. a 3-9 Florida Atlantic team, I wouldn't say we have three "gimmies" on our schedule. Sure, I'll say Presbyterian is....but the other two are Division 1 football teams that likely give 3-9 Florida Atlantic as much of a game as we did....

Hopefully this season we won't be putting out the offensive line we did against FAU. When one of your linemen can't lift his arm and is your starter I don't care who the D1 team is your in trouble.

 

[BMF]

Hopefully this season we won't be putting out the offensive line we did against FAU. When one of your linemen can't lift his arm and is your starter I don't care who the D1 team is your in trouble.

Agree....but let's look back at the last 5 years of "gimmies": we lost to Ga Southern, Jacksonville State gave us all we wanted, The Citadel hung tough, Vandy beat us, Kentucky took us to double overtime, Kentucky & Vandy were won by a combined 7 points (last year), Louisiana-Monroe came a blocked punt from an upset, and a few others.... So, like I said, "gimmies" aren't what they used to be (until we prove we have an offense).

 

[TheDouglas78]

Agree....but let's look back at the last 5 years of "gimmies": we lost to Ga Southern, Jacksonville State gave us all we wanted, The Citadel hung tough, Vandy beat us, Kentucky took us to double overtime, Kentucky & Vandy were won by a combined 7 points (last year), Louisiana-Monroe came a blocked punt from an upset, and a few others.... So, like I said, "gimmies" aren't what they used to be (until we prove we have an offense).

Again look at the oline and staff that we have brought out the last 5 years. Spurrier had a few bad "gimmies" as well. The games should still be "gimmies", but we have to prove it again.

 

[BMF]

Again look at the oline and staff that we have brought out the last 5 years. Spurrier had a few bad "gimmies" as well. The games should still be "gimmies", but we have to prove it again.

Totally agree. It's hurt our development as well. We should be winning these games by 35+ points and ALL of our backups should be playing.

2 of our first 3 are against "gimmies" (and hell, Kentucky used to be a gimmie...especially when Meyer & Spurrier were around). We should win those two games by 30 or more and I hope whoever is the back up gets at least 20 passing attempts (combined) in those two games. If we don't win those games easily it could be another 100+ ranked offense for us (but I suspect we'll see a solid offense in those two gimmies)....and hopefully we put up 30+ on Kentucky (in regulation!).

 

[TheDouglas78]

Totally agree. It's hurt our development as well. We should be winning these games by 35+ points and ALL of our backups should be playing.

2 of our first 3 are against "gimmies" (and hell, Kentucky used to be a gimmie...especially when Meyer & Spurrier were around). We should win those two games by 30 or more and I hope whoever is the back up gets at least 20 passing attempts (combined) in those two games. If we don't win those games easily it could be another 100+ ranked offense for us (but I suspect we'll see a solid offense in those two gimmies)....and hopefully we put up 30+ on Kentucky (in regulation!).

The most important thing you said is what I bolded, it has hurt our development since the 2009 season. Since then the backups haven't gotten the reps they need, so they are less prepared, and our starters are more exposed to injury.

 

[rogdochar]

The most important thing you said is what I bolded, it has hurt our development since the 2009 season. Since then the backups haven't gotten the reps they need, so they are less prepared, and our starters are more exposed to injury.

Plus, a boost to total team enthusiasm & recruiting that back-ups playing becomes. Go Gators.

 

[t-gator]

Hopefully this season we won't be putting out the offensive line we did against FAU. When one of your linemen can't lift his arm and is your starter I don't care who the D1 team is your in trouble.

The offensive line wasn't great but it wasn't the main issue. The qb play sucked the life out of the entire team.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

Agree....but let's look back at the last 5 years of "gimmies": we lost to Ga Southern, Jacksonville State gave us all we wanted, The Citadel hung tough, Vandy beat us, Kentucky took us to double overtime, Kentucky & Vandy were won by a combined 7 points (last year), Louisiana-Monroe came a blocked punt from an upset, and a few others.... So, like I said, "gimmies" aren't what they used to be (until we prove we have an offense).

I'll give you all these except Jacksonville St. and Citadel. JSU didn't even score on us and the last time we played The Citadel was in '08 and we beat them like 700-12. Maybe you're thinking of Furman?

 

[BMF]

I'll give you all these except Jacksonville St. and Citadel. JSU didn't even score on us and the last time we played The Citadel was in '08 and we beat them like 700-12. Maybe you're thinking of Furman?

Yes, Furman. The Jax State game was 23-0....but the point is that it wasn't a blowout and our starters were in that game well into the 4th quarter. In that season we beat Bowling Green 27-14; another game we should have won by 30+, but instead had our starters in well into the 4th quarter. In 2015, we went tot he wire w/ ECU (they finished w/ a losing record). Point is we have had far too many close games against these so-called "gimmies" over the last 6 years. That needs to stop...

 

[Jenny On The Railroad]

For the "all sports" guys we should keep Foley.....For the profit generating sports perhaps we should hire a football and basketball Director....Of course his salary should also be split proportionately with the new guy also....

I read somewhere, UF is placed pretty high in net profit compared to other schools.. This probably keeps a lot of people happy. with him. We were much much lower on facilities, etc. list., things that impress recruits. Looks to me like part of Foley's strategy was spend less to produce a higher net profit than others. I think UF was # 3. Looks like Mac convinced him it had started producing diminished returns, and time to take a different approach

 

[CGgater]

The offensive line wasn't great but it wasn't the main issue. The qb play sucked the life out of the entire team.

I'd give equal blame to both QB and OL.

 

[TheDouglas78]

The offensive line wasn't great but it wasn't the main issue. The qb play sucked the life out of the entire team.

I don't think any D1 quarterback who was playing a pro style offense would have been more than marginally better than the line play against FAU. Now against FSU and Alabama the line play was better. That's not to say Harris's play was any good, just the play in that FAU game was horrid.