- Oct 5, 2017
- 2,306
- 6,270
As has been the case for much of the last 15 years, the Florida-LSU game was a memorable one. This one, like the 2020 game, will be remembered by Gators fans for all of the wrong reasons. It will not be remembered for a redshirt freshman quarterback coming into the game and leading the team on for straight touchdown drives after being down multiple scores. It will be remembered as the game where this coaching staff lost most of the fan base. It will be remembered for losing to a coach who had already begun negotiating his dismissal from LSU. It will be remembered as the game we lost 49-42 to a team missing its top receivers and top cornerbacks for the second year in a row.
The first signs this game was not going to go like I would hope started Friday when arriving at Orlando International Airport there was no parking in the garages. After observing plenty of illegally parked vehicles in the garages, and consulting with a friend who knows something about the issue, we parked against a wall like many others, made a mad dash like that scene from the movie Home Alone and boarded the plane about 5 minutes before the doors closed. That is the very PC version of events that may or may not include security escorts and flight delays. As Forrest Gump would say, “that’s all I have to say about that.”
The atmosphere was good pre-game. I was offered a hot dog at a tailgate and selected one from the wrong food pan because I ended up biting into something that was not a corndog. No, corndogs were in one pan and breakfast corndogs, made of a sausage link, pancakes, and some maple syrup, were in the other. It wasn’t bad, but when you are expecting an authentic LSU corndog, it is not quite the surprise for the taste buds.
I did think it was a good sign, however, when I watched warm ups from the fence surrounding the field and ran into my old neighbor who was at the game with my dentist’s son. I also ran into several buddies from law school that I haven’t seen in person since we graduated including a former UF kicker. Wright also through the ball with my brother and other fans lined up along the wall while waiting for his warm up reps which I thought was a nice touch.
Offense
Florida began the game with decent field position after a tipped punt. They then went three and out after following Mullen’s run-run-pass play-calling. The next drive went 59 yards for a touchdown and contained some creative play-calling including a 22-yard pass from Whittemore to Jones. Dameon Pierce would again score on a beastly redzone run. Then AR came in and this drive had Wunderlich and Dan Thompson tweeting AR shouldn’t play anymore. Yea, two read options and a designed QB run to the outside with a single blocker to take on 3 defenders is a winning strategy that is all on the QB. Wunderlich later got a retweet from me on that tweet…after AR score the two-point conversion. I’m getting ahead of myself.
Florida then struggled the rest of the half, again several tweets blaming AR coming into the game and throwing off EJ’s timing (same people were praising EJ being in for Trask last year and in 2019). Both QB’s threw bad INT’s and EJ hit a Hail Mary that was an incredible play by Shorter to end the half.
The SEC’s INT leader started off the second half with a pick six that if it were a properly placed ball leading the receiver would have been a good gain. Ball placement matters. Then AR took over and took UF 75-yards in 8 plays and converted the 2-point conversion mentioned above. The play broke down, but AR found a lane to create an opportunity and seized it to bring UF within 7. After the defense’s lone second half stop, AR lead the Gators for another 75 yards, this time in 6 plays and ended the drive with a quick slant to Shorter. The Gators then exchanged TD’s for a few series before getting the ball with 3:30 left to play. Remember the first drive, how I mentioned Mullen’s run-run-pass? Florida almost failed to get a first down if not for AR’s improvisational ability. He scrambled for 6 yards to maintain the drive. Unfortunately, AR made a freshman mistake when throwing a deep ball into the wind and it ended the game for all intents and purposes. With the wind, or no wind, that ball may be a TD. Into the wind, it is a game sealing INT.
The offensive line for most of the day failed to get a consistent run game. For all the praise Hevesy took early in the season, he needs to also be spoken about the failure of the line to get consistent pushes over the last few games including Vandy and what wasn’t a good LSU run defense coming into the game. We know Pierce, Davis and Wright can be deadly in the running game, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t get them running lanes.
The receivers did well when the balls were gotten to them on time. Again, Shorter made a nice play for the Hail Mary, but also had the quick slant TD. Cope had a nice 33-yard TD from AR as well. Gamble got a lot more touches after AR got into the game and it hurt that we lost Whittemore during the game.
For the QB’s, AR showed what we have been expecting. When he is given a wider playbook, he moves the offense. He also makes some freshman mistakes. EJ has been making the same mistakes, but there is a difference between a 4th year guy and a 2nd year guy whose first offseason and pre-season was impacted by Covid. I expect some INT’s as part of his growing pains. I do not expect Jones to lead the SEC in picks. I hope the best for EJ, but as Shannon Snell tweeted, “15’s job. 15’s job. 15’s job. End of story.”
Defense
We knew Grantham was an issue. He continues to be an issue and whether I agree with it or not, will probably be an issue until at least December. It is funny, however, everyone who said late last season and in the offseason that keeping Grantham should reflect on Mullen are singing a slightly different tune right now. Although, for what it’s worth, even Steve Russell was taking shots at Grantham and allowing questioning of Mullen in his postgame show yesterday.
There are a lot of places, including on this board where you can see Grantham’s massive failure in this game to adjust, to LSU running variations of the same call and us not stopping it and other things, so I won’t bore you with too much detail.
On a positive, we held LSU to a low amount of passing yards and Elam continues to be a lockdown corner teams don’t want to throw at. Now, the passing yards is also a reflection of LSU not throwing much because they didn’t need to.
Diabate said all that needs to be said regarding the situation.
Special Teams
If we rely on walk ons or people who lost the kicking job at a lesser school, the head coach deserves to be fired from this point on. Missing XP’s is bad.
Extra Points
· Orgeron is out and Grantham isn’t, that’s bad.
· Mullen needs to quit the smartest guy in the room schtick after that one. He will lose even more of what’s left of the fan base.
· No better time for a QB switch than a bye week.
· For those who haven’t seen it, GatorCountry essentially tweeted I’m a liar after tweeting that they said the defense was “borderline elite”, I did misquote and replied my apology along with pointing out “borderline elite” and “bordering on elite” are the same thing.
· I am writing form an airport so I am not providing the usual quality, I apologize.
This will be the most interesting bye week in recent Gators history. Buckle up, it is about to be a fun ride. I will have a look at a storyline I’ve been researching coming up within the next week.
Go Gators!
The first signs this game was not going to go like I would hope started Friday when arriving at Orlando International Airport there was no parking in the garages. After observing plenty of illegally parked vehicles in the garages, and consulting with a friend who knows something about the issue, we parked against a wall like many others, made a mad dash like that scene from the movie Home Alone and boarded the plane about 5 minutes before the doors closed. That is the very PC version of events that may or may not include security escorts and flight delays. As Forrest Gump would say, “that’s all I have to say about that.”
The atmosphere was good pre-game. I was offered a hot dog at a tailgate and selected one from the wrong food pan because I ended up biting into something that was not a corndog. No, corndogs were in one pan and breakfast corndogs, made of a sausage link, pancakes, and some maple syrup, were in the other. It wasn’t bad, but when you are expecting an authentic LSU corndog, it is not quite the surprise for the taste buds.
I did think it was a good sign, however, when I watched warm ups from the fence surrounding the field and ran into my old neighbor who was at the game with my dentist’s son. I also ran into several buddies from law school that I haven’t seen in person since we graduated including a former UF kicker. Wright also through the ball with my brother and other fans lined up along the wall while waiting for his warm up reps which I thought was a nice touch.
Offense
Florida began the game with decent field position after a tipped punt. They then went three and out after following Mullen’s run-run-pass play-calling. The next drive went 59 yards for a touchdown and contained some creative play-calling including a 22-yard pass from Whittemore to Jones. Dameon Pierce would again score on a beastly redzone run. Then AR came in and this drive had Wunderlich and Dan Thompson tweeting AR shouldn’t play anymore. Yea, two read options and a designed QB run to the outside with a single blocker to take on 3 defenders is a winning strategy that is all on the QB. Wunderlich later got a retweet from me on that tweet…after AR score the two-point conversion. I’m getting ahead of myself.
Florida then struggled the rest of the half, again several tweets blaming AR coming into the game and throwing off EJ’s timing (same people were praising EJ being in for Trask last year and in 2019). Both QB’s threw bad INT’s and EJ hit a Hail Mary that was an incredible play by Shorter to end the half.
The SEC’s INT leader started off the second half with a pick six that if it were a properly placed ball leading the receiver would have been a good gain. Ball placement matters. Then AR took over and took UF 75-yards in 8 plays and converted the 2-point conversion mentioned above. The play broke down, but AR found a lane to create an opportunity and seized it to bring UF within 7. After the defense’s lone second half stop, AR lead the Gators for another 75 yards, this time in 6 plays and ended the drive with a quick slant to Shorter. The Gators then exchanged TD’s for a few series before getting the ball with 3:30 left to play. Remember the first drive, how I mentioned Mullen’s run-run-pass? Florida almost failed to get a first down if not for AR’s improvisational ability. He scrambled for 6 yards to maintain the drive. Unfortunately, AR made a freshman mistake when throwing a deep ball into the wind and it ended the game for all intents and purposes. With the wind, or no wind, that ball may be a TD. Into the wind, it is a game sealing INT.
The offensive line for most of the day failed to get a consistent run game. For all the praise Hevesy took early in the season, he needs to also be spoken about the failure of the line to get consistent pushes over the last few games including Vandy and what wasn’t a good LSU run defense coming into the game. We know Pierce, Davis and Wright can be deadly in the running game, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t get them running lanes.
The receivers did well when the balls were gotten to them on time. Again, Shorter made a nice play for the Hail Mary, but also had the quick slant TD. Cope had a nice 33-yard TD from AR as well. Gamble got a lot more touches after AR got into the game and it hurt that we lost Whittemore during the game.
For the QB’s, AR showed what we have been expecting. When he is given a wider playbook, he moves the offense. He also makes some freshman mistakes. EJ has been making the same mistakes, but there is a difference between a 4th year guy and a 2nd year guy whose first offseason and pre-season was impacted by Covid. I expect some INT’s as part of his growing pains. I do not expect Jones to lead the SEC in picks. I hope the best for EJ, but as Shannon Snell tweeted, “15’s job. 15’s job. 15’s job. End of story.”
Defense
We knew Grantham was an issue. He continues to be an issue and whether I agree with it or not, will probably be an issue until at least December. It is funny, however, everyone who said late last season and in the offseason that keeping Grantham should reflect on Mullen are singing a slightly different tune right now. Although, for what it’s worth, even Steve Russell was taking shots at Grantham and allowing questioning of Mullen in his postgame show yesterday.
There are a lot of places, including on this board where you can see Grantham’s massive failure in this game to adjust, to LSU running variations of the same call and us not stopping it and other things, so I won’t bore you with too much detail.
On a positive, we held LSU to a low amount of passing yards and Elam continues to be a lockdown corner teams don’t want to throw at. Now, the passing yards is also a reflection of LSU not throwing much because they didn’t need to.
Diabate said all that needs to be said regarding the situation.
Special Teams
If we rely on walk ons or people who lost the kicking job at a lesser school, the head coach deserves to be fired from this point on. Missing XP’s is bad.
Extra Points
· Orgeron is out and Grantham isn’t, that’s bad.
· Mullen needs to quit the smartest guy in the room schtick after that one. He will lose even more of what’s left of the fan base.
· No better time for a QB switch than a bye week.
· For those who haven’t seen it, GatorCountry essentially tweeted I’m a liar after tweeting that they said the defense was “borderline elite”, I did misquote and replied my apology along with pointing out “borderline elite” and “bordering on elite” are the same thing.
· I am writing form an airport so I am not providing the usual quality, I apologize.
This will be the most interesting bye week in recent Gators history. Buckle up, it is about to be a fun ride. I will have a look at a storyline I’ve been researching coming up within the next week.
Go Gators!
