Bits & Pieces: Florida vs. Kentucky

Turk182

Founding Member
Just don't care anymore
Jun 14, 2014
1,290
663
Founding Member
No one said anything about Chip Kelly. I guess I'll just chalk up the next 10 years to the rebuilding effort because it certainly isn't happening with Mullen, although most of you would have banked on it.

Your constant "Me against the World" crap is getting old. Many, if not most of us were not overjoyed with the Mullen hire but once he's hired, he's our coach, that's the sad truth. You seem to be ate up with the need to be the only person who see's the problem and lump everyone else into the "enemy" camp.

The team sucked, the coaches sucked and many of the fans sucked, that's the take away from this crappy game!
 

Theologator

Enchanter
Lifetime Member
Aug 11, 2015
8,248
15,806
Personally, I felt like we didn't rush the ball to set up the pass nearly enough at the outset, but maybe what they knew about the OL influenced that decision?:chomp:

Kentucky spread out their WRs to keep us from loading the box, and it worked. We spread out our WRs to keep Kentucky from loading the box, and we got 2-3 yards.

So many deficiencies, but the DL is the starting point for me. You can’t give up 300 yards rushing and win games. We got bailed out by 2 TO’s in the first half, forced just 4 punts, allowed 9/13 3rd down conversions. We didn’t control the middle, couldn’t “set the edge”, couldn’t contain the QB’s runs.

Which is backward from most of the last 9 years.

The OL is second. No need to restate the missed assignments and adjustments.

Did these guys get all happy and content after Charleston Southern and waltz in expecting KY to roll over to the mighty Gators? Did they not recall that this was KYs Super Bowl, THE game that they’d circled all offseason? Snell said after the game they had “shocked the world.” No, you just beat a team that didn’t respect you and doesn’t yet understand “relentless effort” or effort in general.

I’m curious to see how they respond.
 

TN G8tr

Founding Member
The "Original" TN G8tr
Lifetime Member
Jun 14, 2014
7,371
9,022
Founding Member
Cover, good as always. I feel that you are pretty much taking the same approach or not as surprised as I am. Now, with that said, I was all about the good feeling, last week's win, and watching a fun game last week. The main reason that I am just numb, but not burning my couch is deep down I knew we still have issues. Many know that this was a 6-6 to 8-4 type team and we just got reminded of that. Maybe even worse. We all have stated the obvious:

Defense might take a step back this year
OL suspect
Franks, 'nuff said and on and on

This pretty much summed up alot of what we all thought and deep down knew. Just its confirmed, again. Surely I don't know everything Mullen is dealing with but certainly not time to go and jump off the ledge, yet. Sure there is a lot to be placed on Mullen and at that same time he knew the shyt storm he was inheriting. So it's time to see if he can fix this thing. Not so sure anyone, Frost or definitely not Kelly could have done any better last night. Some credit has to be given to UK as well. They played with a mission. I listened to Tim Tebow on the Finebaum show on Friday and he put it very well and it was hard to hear. He told PF, that if Kentucky was going to have an opportunity to be UF, "the time was now and they'd better get it done, as this was their best chance". Just had that weird feeling and he was right.

We now know pretty much what we have. Get the young guys and Emory Jones going. Time to start playing for the future.
 

GBHOR

Its Not Awful
Lifetime Member
Oct 21, 2014
1,745
1,894
Like cover2 said, sack up. This was never going to be a great year. Watch for progression throughout the year - that’s whats important.
I saw regression last night, maybe I'm getting old but I don't remember tackling being that bad....
 

ATXGator

Founding Member
Austin Gator
Lifetime Member
Jun 14, 2014
5,126
4,524
Founding Member
We are lucky if we win 4 games this year. I am going to go with a Mullen pumper take:

1. One off season of strength and conditioning doesn't fix the problem - these other teams have been doing real work for years... not months

2. Talent is an issue - OL, DL, LB... this is a complete rebuild of this team.. 3 year project minimum

3. QB is a problem - no surprise here, but we don't have a competent QB... Franks has moments, but so many missed open WRs

Non Mullen Pumper Take

1. That was NOT relentless effort

2. Defense tackled horrible last week and this week... needs to get fixed

3. I don't want to hear about the refs...UF has gotten their share of calls over the 31 games

Overall... we are lucky to win 4 games this year... I am not sure we win a SEC game. I just hope the recruits stick with us.
 

Gator by the Sea

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
Mar 9, 2017
1,124
2,521
Overall... we are lucky to win 4 games this year... I am not sure we win a SEC game. I just hope the recruits stick with us.

Sadly, with this level of OL play and with Franks being the best we have (at this point) at QB, the only “sure” win on the remaining schedule is Idaho.

Hopefully we can muster some wins in the “toss up” games (Tenn, Vandy,USC, heck even Colorado State at this point) to get 6-7 wins this year. After that, it’s like Spurrier said last night: it’s all about recruiting.
 

SCColaGator

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2016
511
807
I think the drop in recruiting talent has caught up to us. There was a lot of panic it seemed like in our boys. A lot of boys expecting to lose.
 

G8trwood

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
Nov 29, 2015
4,084
6,040
So many deficiencies it is hard to know where to start. Franks looked good at first, but once he lost the emotional high, his passes were errant fast balls and his presnap reads completely wrong. Wow O line, done with them. Fastest back in 5yds should start. There is no blocking to pick holes. Turn on the boosters. WR blocking was okay.

For me, I always thought of UF more as a school with elite D as opposed to offense. Being physically man handled by kitty kat paws is an all time low. Scheme be damned, everyone was getting beat one on one. How many missed tackles and then showboating if you finally made one. We do not have any, I mean zero, leaders in the front 7.

So are we just soft and weak, don’t try or all this we haven’t recruited in 5 years is really true.

Probably all of the above. Sad and true that this will be a long season. Time for a lot of self reflection and self assessment.

Go Gators
 

stephenPE

Senior Member
Lifetime Member
Jul 20, 2014
20,384
15,394
Some of you have an eternal beacon of optimism, hope and blind faith that I pity you.
When you take away a man's eternal hope, blind faith and optimism all you have left is a Vol\commodore\MSU\UK\USCe\ fan. We have been to the mountain top and watched our rivals\enemies cower before us. When you reach the top it makes the bottom seem so much worse. Some have said _________burned our beloved empire to the ground with arrogance and frugality. Maybe. Maybe there is parity below the five star communities and we are now fighting to rise above this level. Hungry? UK was a starving beast who's players would become INSTANTLY famous and lauded by their big fan base with a win on Fla Field. THEY were playing for something real and tangible. Our boys were just trying to dig themselves out of this decade long hole of mediocrity and despair. Maybe Mullen is the wrong guy. His short time here may all some EXPERTS need to believe that. He is my coach and these are my players. Gonna support their asses until they aint ours anymore. Then support the next in line. It is what I do. Cannot speak for anyone else.
 

leogator

Well-Known Member
May 5, 2018
3,097
2,683
*High point in the game was the 99 yard drive. It wasn't smooth, but the ending was beautiful.
---------------------

Franks went into Driskel mode on that drive its just KY decided not to take advantage of what he was trying to give them.
They were in prevent and he almost had two picks.
 

stephenPE

Senior Member
Lifetime Member
Jul 20, 2014
20,384
15,394
I saw regression last night, maybe I'm getting old but I don't remember tackling being that bad....
Nebraska 96 I saw more missed tackles on one play in that game than most of this game. But that was a prison team that never should have
played in a bowl.
 

AlexDaGator

Founding Member
The Hammer of Thor
Lifetime Member
Jun 19, 2014
12,698
31,625
Founding Member
I said before the game I expected a score of 21-20 or 17-20.

I did expect us to win though. It should have been worse than it was. Franks hit Kentucky DBs in the hands several times and was fortunate they dropped them.

Most of us were overreacting to game one. We’re probably overreacting to this one a bit too although this is a lot closer to what we are than what we saw last week.

Some sober takes:

This IS a better coached team than last year. Less confusion on O for sure. Last year’s delay and procedure penalties were constant. We’re getting the plays in on time. We can’t complain that they aren’t trying to stretch the D by taking deep shots.

The special teams coaching is waaaay better than last year.

Franks IS better. He’s feeling the rush, moving better in the pocket, he’s more of a leader. He’s still not a touch passer, and he’s inaccurate. There are things coaching can fix in a QB. Unfortunately, accuracy seems to be something a QB has or doesn’t have. Franks don’t got it.

Scarlett has shown me nothing this season. Maybe it’s rust but he’s not running as well as Perine or Davis.

Raymond can’t catch.

The OL...sigh. It’s not like we’re rolling out a bunch of true freshmen and a D2 transfer. We have size, experience, even some depth. And they suck. We KNOW Hevesy can coach. He can’t put in what God left out but I’d like to see progress to the level of their ability.

I don’t have much nice to say about the D or Grantham. I really hope Wilson’s injury isn’t an ACL but that’s what it looked like. We’ve got a couple of big run-stoppers at DT and they didn’t clog the middle at all. Others have mentioned the tackling problems. We’ve had this for years and this CAN be improved by coaching. Unfortunately, we have a short defensive bench without a lot of talent on it and that makes coaching a lot harder.

Big picture? We are who we thought we were. Everybody is disappointed because you let last week get your hopes up. We knew D wasn’t going to be good. We were hoping for improvements in special team coaching and in offensive coaching. We’ve got better receivers and a deeper RB corps. We lack overall talent. We have bad LBs and a bad OL. We don’t have a QB. We are who we thought we were.

Alex.
 

leogator

Well-Known Member
May 5, 2018
3,097
2,683
I fully agree with defense being the main culprit for us losing. They got manhandled, albeit with a lot of holding calls.
Offensive line also got manhandled but I thought that they did a decent job in pass protection. I would definitely bring in replacements for Ivey and Johnson. Stone Forsythe and Heggie should be playing.

Franks reverted to his old self, locking in on receivers, throwing uncatchable bullets. Where was the Franks of the CSU game with the beautiful arcs for passes? 17/38, 2 TDs, 1 Int, 2 near ints, one fumble, QBR of 48.2 or something. He ran 11 times for 44 yds. That's way too many for a non DT QB. You saw what a DT quarterback looks like in Terry Wilson. We recruited him out of JUCO and he would have been a great for us.

Like a lot of others, I did not see the relentless effort we were promised.
 

78

Founding Member
Dazed and Confused
Lifetime Member
Jun 9, 2014
19,745
27,635
Founding Member
I'm searching all the hospitals in Lake Tahoe for NV.
 

leogator

Well-Known Member
May 5, 2018
3,097
2,683
I was going to look at all the offensive plays to see where the play went wrong or right but I am just numb and I don't have the energy. I will let somebody else do it.
 

Lake Gator

SUBMARINERS GO DEEPER
Lifetime Member
Feb 13, 2016
2,681
3,332
After reading a couple of threads, I think we'll start out with a joke to lighten the mood a little. Here goes...What did Bennie Snell say to the Florida defense when he ran into them at the bar in Club Park Avenue? "Excuse me guys, but may I push your stool in?"

:rimshot:

Bad joke, but you get the point. Snell ran for 175. He's a good back, but I couldn't believe just how many missed tackles we had. I was hoping we had that leftover habit repaired, but apparently not. I was not quite as surprised that the OL stunk, unfortunately. You won't win many when the opponent dominates both lines of scrimmage. Big story of the game as far as I'm concerned, but let's talk about some of the moving parts:

*Franks was not consistent tonight and it would be easy to say he either regressed from the first game or he just fooled us against an over matched opponent. Maybe a little of both. Though he wasn't real sharp, he was better when the game was close and made some good decisions and good reads and throws in the first half. I didn't think he handled the pressure when behind with the clock ticking. To be fair, the OL didn't make his job any easier. The missed opportunity on the two point conversion attempt was a text book case of Franks making his mind up to throw back across the formation, which we scored against CSU with, and completely missing a wide open Davis...on the side he rolled to! He may be better, but there's still work to be done, especially with composure.

*Poster boy for our OL woes is Martez Ivey. Tackle body; Guard feet. Poor Fred Johnson is a close second. But really they all seem to play with cement shoes and look confused on their assignments frequently. The SEC Network commentator made a good point on the step-gap responsibility that remains backside that wasn't fulfilled. Got to at least be able to get a punch and slow the guy up a step. Ground Hog Day.

*The entire D was not good. It starts with the DL, who simply got manhandled the majority of the game (when they weren't being held; a lot of no calls IMO). Our LBs aren't good, but they're really not good when the DL can't protect them. Henderson looked like our best cover guy in the secondary and I can't say much bad about Chauncey, but we gave up two TD's that certainly should have been better covered IMO. First one was a young guy that got caught peeking at the QB when he should have been in the receiver's jersey with him. The second I thought the safety had plenty of time to read the route and adjust, but it never happened. Losing Wilson will definitely hurt. Even though they did have a couple of good stops, the entire D better grow up in a hurry.

*I've alluded to what I believe were several missed holding calls by the officials, so you can read that as I'm not impressed with their performance. I won't say "we was robbed," but they didn't help matters. The homer in me also says as close as the field goal attempt was, it was hard for me to see justification in the no good call. I guess I understand the rule change that the ball must be inside the upright when it crosses, but I'm not agreeing with it tonight. Could have made a difference, particularly if Franks would have seen Davis! Moot point I guess.

*High point in the game was the 99 yard drive. It wasn't smooth, but the ending was beautiful.

*Freddy Swain was announced as the player of the game. Toney looked good. Franks, again, wasn't consistent with all his throws, but we had some drops. Cleveland had some stone hands tonight.

*I'm sure Mullen (and the staff) will be raked over the coals and surely they deserve some criticism. Personally, I felt like we didn't rush the ball to set up the pass nearly enough at the outset, but maybe what they knew about the OL influenced that decision? Poor tackling has to fall in the coach's lap. Illegal substitution penalty after the time out was inexcusable. I'm sure there are more. But if you didn't think that there was going to be some of what was on display tonight from this roster, you were kidding yourself. The fact that we saw it this early was a kindling point. The fact that UK was better than they have been, got pretty good play from their QB, Snell, and didn't shoot themselves in the foot like last year had a bearing on the outcome.

Back to the drawing board and another week of *****in' in store. Got to find away to get more wins on the LOS. For as much as the average fans these days want to focus on the skill positions and the need for entertainment, the game is still usually won or lost at the line. I believe tonight helped remind us of that. Still a lot of football to be played, but it's got to get better in all phases as we move forward. Go Gators!

:chomp:
C2, First time posting in a while. Good to read your usual insightful take. With all the off season talk about Coach Savage's S&C program, last nite showed there's more work to b done in that area.
 

lizardbreath

Well-Known Member
Nov 5, 2016
3,341
6,323
Like cover2 said, sack up. This was never going to be a great year. Watch for progression throughout the year - that’s whats important.

Yeah, the tough talk from the steely-eyed "realists" gets old fast - especially when they throw in the towel and start crying like babies when "reality" rears it's ugly head like it did last night. I'm readjusting my expectations, just like a lot of people this morning, but anybody who actually "expected" 10 wins, or a championship season with this roster and this coaching staff is delusional. That having been said, the following points seem to be worth making:

1. We got our asses handed to us on both lines of scrimmage - like duh. Plenty of blame to go around for everyone, but Johnson and Ivey are seniors playing like low-end 3 star freshmen. They should be benched in favor of any younger player with a pulse. Go ahead and bite the bullet now and start the process of bringing someone else along, during what is obviously the first of at least two rebuilding seasons. All this talk about how "great" our defensive front seven is was just plain silly. The LBs are journeymen at best and the interior line is "about" average. The secondary is thin, young and talks more than it tackles. Grantham better get it together fast or he'll rapidly become DM's Nuss, and DM won't be dancing around on the sidelines for long if the ineptitude we saw last night continues.

2. Franks doesn't look as bad as he did last year, but he's so far behind the curve that even with some evidence of improvement, he is still a long-term project and a near-term liability. Obviously, my enthusiastic response to his performance last week was premature - to say the least. Apparently, the staff thinks he's the best option at this point and that speaks volumes about our situation at QB.

3. Like virtually everyone on the board, I was somewhere between distinctly disappointed and severely pissed when DM was hired. Law donkey is correct - he is what his resume says he is. My hope is that he can at least make some headway in the struggle to get this program back on its feet. Any illusions that he can do it quickly or easily can now be laid to rest. I don't know if there is a "best case scenario" beyond modest improvement and a glimmer of hope for the future. And even that small hope may well be in vain. But giving up after the first bloody nose damn sure ain't the answer. We have no choice but to play the cards we've got and get on with trying to put the program back together.

4. Kentucky is doing what we need to do. At this point, they are physically stronger, more talented at several positions, and clearly better coached than we have been at any point in the last several years. They didn't get there over night and neither will we. As I've said before, there is considerable doubt the DM will ever be more than a transitional coach - taking us from utter calamity to some semblance of respectability. But one thing is for sure, the coming couple of seasons will not be for the sunshine patriots or the faint at heart. Anyone who can't brace himself for the ride should probably check out now. Go Gators!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Help Users

You haven't joined any rooms.

    Forum statistics

    Threads
    31,642
    Messages
    1,615,448
    Members
    1,642
    Latest member
    fishermb