Truth Takes: Gasparilla Bowl

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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Merry Christmas everyone.

That game was everything it should have been in some areas and then showed why 0 coaches should be retained in others. There were actually some good things. Plenty of bad, but that's been the season.

This game was decided by 7 plays by UF. I know you may want to throw in others, but this game is different with just these 7. In no particular order.

  1. Rick Wells dropping that pass on third down. Won't kill him for turning around/falling as these receivers are used to underthrows. If it's caught we score on the drive and with how things went, potentially go up multiple scores early.
  2. EJ overthrow open deep route 1. No TD on this drive.
  3. EJ overthrow open deep route 2. No TD on this drive.
  4. EJ overthrow open deep route 3. No TD on this drive.
  5. Gamble dropping 3rd down pass on the outside when ball got to his hands. Would've got us down to the 15 with 26 seconds and a timeout. Valuable points we could have had. Potentially up by 8 at the half and it is a different ball game/mindset for both teams.
  6. Failing to recover the kickoff off the UCF player. I mean, you get the ball at the 40. The momentum probably gets us points. Also, UCF doesn't get the ball at the 40 and score a touchdown on that drive.
  7. Burney's dropped INT in the endzone. UCF doesn't score the go ahead TD and momentum swings back to UF. Perhaps UF can keep the running game going at this point.
Spare me the difficulty of the catches in 1 and 5, both hit our guys in the hands and not in a only the fingertips sort of way. Both were catchable and should have been caught by a University of Florida player.

Offense
Many, including myself, had been saying to people and on the Twitter machine that you need to ride Pierce like Spurrier rode Fred Taylor in the Citrus Bowl. Greg Knox, McGee, and Billy G, to no one's shock, are not Steve Spurrier. When the question was asked about predictions by someone on Twitter my response was "how many pass attempts do we have?" 25 or less we could win. We had 37 as a team and several more that became scrambles or sacks.

Let's start the game by passing the ball with a guy who was benched in the last game for 3 straight INT's and then hitting a defender in the numbers (on the back of the jersey) on his last pass. Why bring your best offensive weapon onto the field for the first drive? Then when he is on the field on 3rd and 1 you predictably call a way for the QB to run it which of course comes up short.

We did see the rare play action run though last night. In the first quarter, after several great runs by Pierce on his second drive, we faked to him in the middle and then had EJ running with Gamble pulling outside left across the formation for a big gain. No, I don't believe it was an option for two primary reasons. One, how quickly EJ "makes the read" and two, though the design failure wouldn't shock me if it was an option, Gamble is in front of Pierce if he were even an option on this play during the fake. I will choose to believe we executed a play action run rather than there was a massive design flaw, EJ read it more quickly than he ever does, read it wrong (ok, that isn't surprising), and the wrong read worked for over 10 yards.

The running game averaged 6.8 yards per carry. The OL was poor in pass blocking, but when they haven't been for a good portion of the last few seasons. So, of course we try to throw all night. I have been a critic of Nape's not so special offensive track record, but I do believe he would have ran it against UCF all night.

The passing game was sad. Even perfect Whittemore threw a bad one and now has an incompletion to his name. He should've had a TD, but we scored one on that drive so it is more forgivable. I'd love EJ to stay and learn slot. I don't think anywhere else takes him as a QB. He's a good teammate and seems to try hard, but the QB talent isn't there.

I believe the offense let the defense down. If they take advantage and go up multiple scores, this is a different ball game. Instead, too many wasted drives allowed UCF to stick around. And as we see all the time in college football, if you allow the smaller school to stick around, they can find ways to pull it out.

Defense
Overall, I was impressed with the defense outside of a few plays. UCF was going to hit a big pass during the night, it is what they do. That's one reason that it is not on my list of 7 plays. In fact, if the endzone pick happens, they don't feel like taking a shot after a major 3 and out and a chance to go up by multiple scores.

The defense, is where I think playing in the bowl game helped the most. No, it wasn't glorious and letting a receiver put up Percy Harvin like numbers is not great, but outside of a handful of plays they were doing quite well until Hopper's ejection. UCF only had 266 yards before that, but put up 170 yards after that including three drives of at least 50 yards.

Marshall played well. Lots of young DT's (though Big Dez didn't get much from what I could tell) got time and that experience will benefit us going forward. I'd much rather them have their first significant action now against UCF as opposed to beginning with Utah next season. Cox played pretty well and the team had 10 tackles for loss. Plenty of other young guys got time. The best though, had to be the Hopper/Wingo combination. With a better scheme and LB coach these two are going to be a dangerous pair. Probably at least Davis/Anzalone level, if not more.

Was it perfect? No. Did I expect a defense who gave up 52 to Samford to shut down UCF? No. But did I see what I wanted to from some guys and did we get valuable reps to build on for the future? Yes. Did we get glimpses of hope? Yes. That's what I hoped to see in Tampa from the defense.




Anyways, another season is in the books. It wasn't what we wanted or expected, because very few realistically expected a losing season. However, still many memories to be had including the Swamp coming alive for the Bama games in ways it hasn't in years. I will address that and my 10-2 season prediction some of you have had fun with me about in a end of year/way too early next year Takes coming soon. Thank you everyone who takes the time to read and comment. Hopefully the title wasn't too cute, the article too self-serving, and all that other jazz that makes me laugh.

Seriously, thank you for giving me an outlet for my thoughts. From my family and I to you and yours, have a Merry Christmas/Kwanzaa/belated Chanukah/Holiday Season and Go Gators!

:chomp:
 

chferg

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Aug 5, 2014
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Merry Christmas.

However you could have just summed it up with "This game was a culmination of Mullens effort here at UF"...

Thank God it's over
 

CU-UF

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Truth, we sucked this year. Lack of discipline, poor special teams play, too many turnovers and not enough big plays when needed. That is all, not sad to see this season over.
 

Mr2Bits

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I’m just disappointed with the coaching staff. EJ could have easily broken the single-season INT record had they just kept AR on the pine all season.
 

Joegator96

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Merry Christmas and thanks for taking the time to write up these exploits. I appreciate how you can turn a lump of coal into a nugget of hope, Santa would like an elf like you.

An interesting nugget was shared by one of the announcers last night that this is the earliest UF has participated in a bowl game since 1980 and another fun fact it was the first in State loss to a UF opponent not named FSU or Miami since 1928. With that I will make another mimosa
 

rogdochar

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Thanks, Truth ... for all season long.
As a team, we slog along -- too slow.
EJ gives the opposing defenders multiple advantages. He can only hit receivers that turn flush to him. Those aren't really routes.
EJ brings a slowness that we can not keep up with.? :confused: ... but that all defenses handle well. We've got bog-feet and bog-brains.
This whole season has been tiring to watch.
UCF put us out of our misery redux.
Mullen is a curse even in exile. The idea that he's gotten rich off destroying Gator Pride disgusts me.
Thank you again, Truth.
 

BMF

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EJ is a good kid, but a terrible QB. It's going to be interesting to see where he goes - can you imagine being a coach at another school saying, "Yes! Let's take EJ! He'll be our starter next year!"??? No, you can't - unless you're a retard. Agree that he needs to change positions wherever he lands, even if it's a 1AA team like BCC.
 

gingerlover

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EJ is a good Gator, but this is like when Driskell transferred. It was needed. He missed two wide open TDs by deciding before the snap he was going to one player and only one player regardless of coverage that we didn’t get points on. Gamble played horrible last night as well and cost us at least one more score.
 

Mr2Bits

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Last night just emphatically proved half the team and every coach needs to go. Starting players that already quit on the team is something I hope to never see again, not sure any other competent adult would have started Jones and Copeland!

**** this staff and good riddance!
 

Double Gator Dad

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Merry Christmas.

However you could have just summed it up with "This game was a culmination of Mullens effort here at UF"...

Thank God it's over

Agreed

This game can serve as a microcosm of the Mullen era in every way. Everything Truth shared as the reasons for the loss are the attributes of the sloppy, undisciplined play that hunchback became infamous for at UF.

I still can’t believe Scottie gave him a raise and extension this past summer.
Good riddance a$$hole!!!
 

Bullag8r

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EJ is a good kid, but a terrible QB. It's going to be interesting to see where he goes - can you imagine being a coach at another school saying, "Yes! Let's take EJ! He'll be our starter next year!"??? No, you can't - unless you're a retard. Agree that he needs to change positions wherever he lands, even if it's a 1AA team like BCC.

I bet he could be a decent baseball player :lol3:
 

lizardbreath

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Thank you for your time and effort on this fine perspective piece. The content, as always, is great. I not only agree with your takes, but I also take heart in your optimism. I think that the new HC/staff will likely do a strong job in most, if not every phase of the game. You and C2 in particular, are part of what makes this board unlike any other. Merry Christmas, Mozel tov and Happy Newyear to you and yours.
 

MJMGator

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It was about what I expected. Way more talent but undisciplined, sh*tty game plan and lousy play from our QB. Why would we expect anything other than that?
 

I Have No Friends :(

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Bad QB play is a team killer. There's a reason the QB is referred to as the on-field general. 38.88% completion rate on top of an awful game plan (thanks Mullen leftovers) will get you what we saw last night every time. With better coaching, a new QB, and a renewed sense of pride in being a Gator, this team can win 10 games next year. Coach Sling Blade and his staff will have their work cut out for them, but I saw a lot of guys out there last night who want better for themselves and their teammates. I can't wait for next year.
 

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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EJ is a good kid, but a terrible QB. It's going to be interesting to see where he goes - can you imagine being a coach at another school saying, "Yes! Let's take EJ! He'll be our starter next year!"??? No, you can't - unless you're a retard. Agree that he needs to change positions wherever he lands, even if it's a 1AA team like BCC.

Exactly why I would love for him to stay and develop that talent at slot receiver since we seem to lack some speed and shiftiness at receiver. It’s not like he’s Franks and shushed the crowd. Not many dislike him beyond anything that involves him under center
 

Ancient Reptile

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Exactly why I would love for him to stay and develop that talent at slot receiver since we seem to lack some speed and shiftiness at receiver. It’s not like he’s Franks and shushed the crowd. Not many dislike him beyond anything that involves him under center
Makes so much sense, but even Tebow wouldn't give up QB until he was too old for it to matter.
 

GatorFL

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I was at the game last night. I concur with everything you said and have a question about the officiating. There seemed to be several errant calls and non calls and the guy operating the Jumbotrons did not bother to show a replay. Was it as bad as it looked?
 

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