Bits & Pieces: Florida vs South Carolina

[Zambo]

@Zambo how'd your bleaching go?

Too early to tell.

 

[gatormandan]

Great win but man o man who is not excited about Wilson? Dude is gonna be something special.

 

[Gator by the Sea]

Blocked FG.

Indeed, it wasn’t perfect, but it was improvement.

We were having to punt on 4th regardless

Yes, but the punt gave us a free kick…no chance of getting blocked.

 

[Detroitgator]

Mertz has been fantastic. Sure he’s left some plays out there which all QBs do, but I couldn’t fathom him playing this well.

To the surprise of everybody, Billy and co may be better talent evaluators than me. Hard pill to swallow.

Around here, that’s “phantom”, buddy… get it right!

 

[Sec14Gator]

I think Cover’s tone her is 100% on target. There were a number of positives, including a road win, comeback, and more downfield passes.

The win was a relief after not feeling like we would pull it off, but this game did not demonstrate some definitive turnaround or that game management is fixed or that Mertz and Billy have completely changed the offense.

Mertz may throw the worst fade in college football, which does have the advantage of drawing PI at the highest rate in football too as the defender can’t contemplate that much of an under throw. His signs of hesitation down field are also still there even with it occurring more this game. The long Jackson catch should have been thrown 1-2 seconds earlier and he was hesitant and we almost missed a guy 5-10 yards open absent an amazing catch. The last drive was his best in regards to throwing on time and down field all season.

The clock management at the end with SC having all 3 timeouts was disappointing. It wasn’t Cristobal level bad, but the immediate kneel down with running no clock other than 1 second on first down before figuring out we needed to run time off was coaching malpractice. We should be able to divide 20 by 4 for $7 million and not be in a position where a face mask or horse collar penalty could lose us the game.

Mertz did get it upfield more though and the fourth quarter showed that maybe we should be giving him more route combos over the middle third of the field. That was good to see. Even the tipped ball to Wilson was a decent pass.

The running wasn’t as bad as the stats suggest. On designed runs, ETN, MJ and Wilson had 109 yards on 23 carries. Not amazing but not awful either. But, this was more like the Utah game where they stacked the line and we chose to throw when that was the right decision.

And, though I think Mertz has not been doing very well this season, this was by far his best game, he is obviously a very tough guy, and most importantly, he has done good job all season protecting the ball.

I thought we’d be 7-0 and winning ugly up to this point just based on talent discrepancy. Yesterday may be the best team we have faced this season. I think they beat UK and may have beat the version of Utah we played to start the season.

 

[Concrete Helmet]

Just being a little picky here today but while I know why he did the safety, I don't believe it was necessary.
We were having to punt on 4th regardless and because SC had all 3 timeouts, it only made a diff of about 10 seconds.
Our D would have been fine to close out the game.

We would have been punting from the endzone instead of a free kick without risking a bad snap or punter under duress shanking or getting it blocked....

 

[GatorJ]

Agree. I always felt he was going to be great. It was the name that just jumped off the page to me. Glad others are starting to come around.

I’m talking about in the last couple weeks. Not at the beginning of the season. Everybody was apprehensive at the beginning of the season.

 

[Zambo]

We would have been punting from the endzone instead of a free kick without risking a bad snap or punter under duress shanking or getting it blocked....

Exactly. Why is this so hard to phantom?

 

[MJMGator]

Exactly. Why is this so hard to phantom?

 

[Sec14Gator]

Look at Scott Stricklin’s zoned out, shocked yet relieved, “what a stressful last few hours” face in the back. Pretty much sums up what we’ve been saying about his career being tied to BN. Dude was fried.

This was part of my concerns during and afterf this game. In the in-game interview, Billy seemed thrilled to be in a tight game as though that is right where we needed to be to beat them. Same at the end. He was celebrating like we won the SEC championship.

Maybe it is a good sign that he knew the import of losing this game and it was such a huge moment to not have his season end in game 7 for all practical purposes for what he wants to build. I hope that was it (though that doesn’t explain his in-game attitude of this is where we expected to be, happy we are even in it at that point view, which seemed to even surprise the sideline reporter who expected some greater concern over our performance to that point). It seemed, moreso, like he instead thought this is the way you win and was thrilled with the performance.

The big concern I have had with Billy is he thinks winning close a lot is a championship strategy. History shows that’s not true. 1-3 games a season, sure. But champions typically blow out most teams while their fans complain when they only win by 20.

 

[Bushmaster]

This team is incredibly young. 11 freshmen have started every game. We had more freshmen play than any other team in the country. He has had to completely turn over the roster. And as good as these players are, this year’s class is insane.

It takes a little bit of time to get these young players to understand how to practice right. And how to be prepared. The talent sometimes explodes on the film but mistakes show up a lot as well.

We’ve seen this all the time with young teams.

Lagway coming in next year is going to be huge. And if we can get Ryan Montgomery for the class after, we will be set at quarterback for the next six years.

This game is a good game for recruiting.

 

[GatorJ]

This game is a good game for recruiting.

Yeah, we had a lot of good responses from recruits after this game. The most important response was probably from Jordan Seaton.

I put it in the recruiting thread, but when Lagway was asked, who is the one recruit that he wants more than anybody else, you would think he would say 5* WR Jeremiah Smith. Or 5* athletic freak DL LJ McCray.

He said, 5* OT Jordan Seaton. He needs him to protect him.

 

[jdh5484]

Look at Scott Stricklin’s zoned out, shocked yet relieved, “what a stressful last few hours” face in the back. Pretty much sums up what we’ve been saying about his career being tied to BN. Dude was fried.

He's stoned.

 

[jdh5484]

Too early to tell.

Ask your neighbor to take a look.

 

[G8trwood]

Strick’s face says “I don’t understand football “

 

[soflagator]

He's stoned.

I zoomed in on him and you may be right.

 

[gatorev12]

Just being a little picky here today but while I know why he did the safety, I don't believe it was necessary.
We were having to punt on 4th regardless and because SC had all 3 timeouts, it only made a diff of about 10 seconds.
Our D would have been fine to close out the game.

Indeed, what could possibly go wrong?
Our special teams have been nothing short of flawless this year, especially on the road...

 

[oxrageous]

This was part of my concerns during and afterf this game. In the in-game interview, Billy seemed thrilled to be in a tight game as though that is right where we needed to be to beat them. Same at the end. He was celebrating like we won the SEC championship.

Maybe it is a good sign that he knew the import of losing this game and it was such a huge moment to not have his season end in game 7 for all practical purposes for what he wants to build. I hope that was it (though that doesn’t explain his in-game attitude of this is where we expected to be, happy we are even in it at that point view, which seemed to even surprise the sideline reporter who expected some greater concern over our performance to that point). It seemed, moreso, like he instead thought this is the way you win and was thrilled with the performance.

The big concern I have had with Billy is he thinks winning close a lot is a championship strategy. History shows that’s not true. 1-3 games a season, sure. But champions typically blow out most teams while their fans complain when they only win by 20.

So now Billy enjoys winning close more than winning big? Based on being happy after that win? I'm not sure how you people come up with the crap you do.

God forbid our coach celebrate with a team full of freshman after a come-from-behind SEC victory on the road.

 

[oxrageous]

Donkey sent me his thoughts on the win:

That last pass was a work of art. Watch it again. We have something going on to the left (off screen), maybe levels or sluggo or something, Mertz pumps to them moving the safety then hits Ricky on that post (actually a corner post combo if memory serves) where the safety used to be. Sweetness.

It was 400 yards passing but I don't love the sideways/air raid/Mumme stuff that is a 4 yard pass route on 3rd and 12. Lets hope Billy realizes that 12-ish yard passes are still easy tosses and where the money is. Not bombs away but those safe medium tosses behind the LBs (which also means less pick 6 and less of LBs wiping out our crossers on the short passes).

Boardinghim is the next beast. Keep him in slot or tight covered by a LB and he will eat. I dont like the plays when he is wide and covered by a corner though. He isnt Kyle Pitts just yet.

That beautiful fade over Ricky's shoulder was fantastic too. Looked like vintage SOS for one play. Id love to see more of it. This was literally our base play under SOS.

Winning beats losing. Lets hope this changes our coach's thought processes some and gives our kids some confidence.

 

[GatorJ]

It looks like ETN’s upper body injury is an AC Joint shoulder sprain. It’s reason why he sometimes ran out of bounds and was avoiding contact a little bit.

They’re hoping the bye week will give him time to heal.

We will need both running backs to have any shot against Georgia. Hopefully Egauken is heathy for that one. Because I don’t think we can win without him at center.