It is a testament to the relevance of college football’s offseason, and also perhaps the interminable length of it, that the Misery Index was bombarded for requests to return this season before the first games had been played.
Surely enough had happened off the field, whether it was Bob Stoops retiring or Ole Miss firing its coach for calling erotic services or the potpourri of wacky story lines and controversies that pop up almost every week, to give the people what they really want: A measurement of which fan bases are irrationally overreacting to events and circumstances they are emotionally invested in but ultimately can’t control.
But the Misery Index decided to stay true to its roots and remain silent on all matters of college football suffering until it actually got to see the product on the field. And nobody’s product stood out for its putridness more than Florida’s.
Sure, there were plenty of worse teams in Week 1 than the Gators in their 33-17 loss to Michigan. But that isn’t, and has never been, the point of the Misery Index.
This is about the total experience of rooting for a team, something that can only be measured within the context of what has happened before and what fans believe will happen in the future.
At some point — and it probably needs to be soon — Florida coach Jim McElwain needs to show that he knows how to coach an offense. We know he has done it successfully before at various stops along the way, but he’s failed to reproduce it at Florida, and a fan base that grew up on Steve Spurrier is getting restless waiting to see the evidence.
How can you blame them?
The Gators not only failed in pretty much every offensive category against Michigan, but their offensive line — which was supposed to be the strength of their team — got completely manhandled all game long. Florida gained 11 yards on the ground and couldn’t do much in the passing game either, with just nine first downs for the game and 192 yards of offense overall.
Though the score was closer because Michigan made some big mistakes, including a pair of pick-six interceptions, the game really wasn’t. It never felt like Florida had much of a chance.
And when it was over, all McElwain could offer was an anodyne acknowledgment that Michigan was the more imposing, physical team. “Plain and simple, take your whooping,” he said. “I’m taking it.”
The problem is, Florida’s not a “take your whooping” type of program. Well, actually they were under Ron Zook and Will Muschamp, which got both of them a quick ticket out of town. History tells us the Gators do not abide this type of football for long, and they certainly won’t abide a coach who seems to have few answers on how to fix it.
This was only one game, but it was a problematic performance for McElwain because it did not appear much progress was made in fixing the problems that plagued Florida his first two years. Nor were Florida’s problems a product of missing 10 players due to suspensions, as none of them would have been able to change the physical calculus in the game that allowed Michigan to push Florida players out of the way like trash cans on wheels. Moreover, while Michigan is a good program again under Jim Harbaugh, it’s a young team that made a lot of mistakes — and Florida didn’t even come close to taking advantage. It’s often hard to tell much from Week 1, but the Gators made it very clear they’re a long way from being relevant in the national discussion.
(Disclaimer: This isn't a ranking of worst teams, worst losses or coaches whose jobs are in the most jeopardy. This is simply a measurement of a fan base's knee-jerk reaction to what they last saw. The way in which a team won or lost, expectations vis-à-vis program trajectory and traditional inferiority complex of fan base all factor into this ranking.)
FIVE MOST MISERABLE
Florida: Ask any SEC coach if they think it would be better to eliminate divisions, and they’ll probably look at you as if you had three heads. But McElwain’s tenure at Florida makes a great argument for why they’re irrelevant. Winning the East each of his first two years technically is a tangible accomplishment for McElwain, but it has bought him exactly zero goodwill from Florida fans. After all, they know what real deal, elite-level football looks like, and the Gators haven’t delivered it.
For McElwain, referencing his division titles in a down SEC East to a fan base that consumed the Spurrier and Urban Meyer eras is no more effective than bragging to a food critic that you run the best high school cafeteria around. Even when it’s Taco Day, it’s still unsatisfying, unhealthy and likely to cause digestive problems in the near future.
Spot on!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...t-carolina-nc-state-texas-missouri/629894001/