Death, taxes, and Florida beating Tennessee

[Captain Sasquatch]

Alex had his postgame thoughts thread, so I wasn't going to post one of my own, but I gotta keep up the tradition.

1. How the f*ck did we win that game?

2. Glad WM swallowed his pride and went with the change at QB. Lord knows I like Driskel, but he's just completely shot mentally. It's been said other places, but the offensive performance the first 3 quarters wasn't totally his fault, but he had a big hand in it. However, dropped balls, some missed blocks, poor effort by D-Rob on more than one occasion, at least one 3rd down when we called a screen and JD had no one to throw to....it was a total team lack of execution on offense.

3. Harris did a nice job. Had a great touch pass to Jones on the wheel route, and had a few good runs. Had one bad throw that was almost picked, but other than that, held it together nicely for the offense and got us enough points to win. It was very apparent that the new blood behind center really re-energized the team, and that's what matters most. However, its really important that we temper our expectations for Treon. Remember, he's still a true freshman, and he probably doesn't have a full grasp on the playbook yet. He's probably going to make some bad mistakes this year. Just don't get down on him when he does. Hopefully he can bring us some more wins.

4. Holy defense! Such a huge improvement from the Alabama debacle. Tabor is the real deal with a happy meal. Neal continues to make big plays at the right time. VH3 doesn't get many passes thrown his way, but he finally got himself a pick. Maye is still the weak link in the secondary, though. Pass rush was a little inconsistent, but it's hard to argue with the 6-7 sacks they had, many of them on 3rd down. Front 7 dominated as expected, and UT still can't run the ball on us. Even if UT doesn't have the greatest offense, they still rolled up on the road at UGA. But our boys cleaned up the mental errors and played up to their potential. I said all along that mental errors are much easier to correct than physical errors, and they definitely corrected them. Looking forward to seeing these young guys play the next few years!

5. SEC East still looks very winnable. Defense seems to have gotten their act together, and if the offense can get some momentum going with Harris at QB, we might just make it to Atlanta.

6. How the F*CK did we win that game??

 

[gardnerwebbgator]

The East is right there on a platter. Every conference game we have left is winnable, with the toughest being UGA.

 

[NavetG8r]

Good post Sas. We won because of outstanding defense, and an energized offense once the young gun entered the huddle. He wasn't asked to do a lot, but he did what he needed to do to get the offense rolling and believing in themselves again.

 

[RocketCityGator]

Good point about tempering our expectations for Harris. He WILL make freshman mistakes. My biggest concern is do we have the coaching to develop offensive players?

 

[T REX]

Ugly wins are always better than any loss. Harris has moxie. JD is unfortunately, broken.

 

[GatorJB]

Excellent post and agree with everything that was said.


Driskel wasn't awful yesterday, and 2 of his 3 ints were not his fault; however, it is obvious that the players do not have confidence in him since they all started playing better once Harris went in.

 

[TN G8tr]

Very good points and post. I too think that JD is mentally spent. He may have the tools physically but there's just something missing from the mental part to the execution.

 

[ATXGator]

I think one big difference will be Treon's ability to run. He is quicker than Jeff and therefore can make the cuts that Jeff seems not to make

 

[Gatorfool]

Not a snowball chance in hell does Driskel complete that swing pass to Jones out of the backfield

 

[t-gator]

I think roper did a good job of not asking Harris to do to much. He called simple plays and put the kid in a situation that he could succeed in.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

Very good points and post. I too think that JD is mentally spent. He may have the tools physically but there's just something missing from the mental part to the execution.

Yeah I don't know how he got to the point where he is now. Because in 2012, even when he wasn't playing well, he still looked sure of himself out there (with the exception of the UGA game). But this year, he's looked more and more lost as each game has gone by. His mind is an absolute wasteland at this point, it's sad. I wish there was something someone could do to snap him out of it, but it's probably too late.

 

[-THE DUDE-]

Yeah I don't know how he got to the point where he is now. Because in 2012, even when he wasn't playing well, he still looked sure of himself out there (with the exception of the UGA game). But this year, he's looked more and more lost as each game has gone by. His mind is an absolute wasteland at this point, it's sad. I wish there was something someone could do to snap him out of it, but it's probably too late.

and probably the saddest thing of it all is (to me at least) he looked almost relieved to be out of that game. The team looked so excited that he was out of there that i begin to believe that the drops are a complete lack of faith in the direction of the offense with him...a complete lack of belief that he'll lead them down the field. Not to say that will completely fix the drops but i think everyone was far more pumped to have that change in offense that they'll pick up their play. May not result in points but at this point we need any glimmer of hope we can get.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

and probably the saddest thing of it all is (to me at least) he looked almost relieved to be out of that game. The team looked so excited that he was out of there that i begin to believe that the drops are a complete lack of faith in the direction of the offense with him...a complete lack of belief that he'll lead them down the field. Not to say that will completely fix the drops but i think everyone was far more pumped to have that change in offense that they'll pick up their play. May not result in points but at this point we need any glimmer of hope we can get.

Agreed. I said after Bama that JD should start with a short leash against UT, and that's more or less what happened. The leash should have been a hell of a lot shorter, but WM finally got the message that we weren't going to score a point if he didn't pull Driskel. Sad to watch, but at least we won, which is all that matters.

 

[-THE DUDE-]

Agreed. I said after Bama that JD should start with a short leash against UT, and that's more or less what happened. The leash should have been a hell of a lot shorter, but WM finally got the message that we weren't going to score a point if he didn't pull Driskel. Sad to watch, but at least we won, which is all that matters.

exactly what i said...bye week gave us the perfect opportunity to get TH ready in case our offense wasn't clicking...and now a home game against a reeling LSU team might be the perfect time to get him a start and see what happens.

 

[Okeechobee Joe]

The SEC East is weak and can be had if someone will step up and take it. And future opponent LSU is smelling worse than corndogs right now. I thought Tennessee would beat us this time. They had played Georgia close in Athens. Tennessee's confidence was building. Quarterback Jason Worley was supposed to be coming into his own. The freshman running back, Jalen Hurd, was supposed to be something special. In their minds they knew they could compete with, if not beat, Florida. I mean the stage was set for a Vol victory with the checkerboard stands and a full house at Neyland. Tennessee thought, no knew, they were going to win this time.

With Driskel we were going nowhere fast. But the team did not quit. If the team was quitting on Muschamp, they would have thrown in the towel. I think we would have lost, and maybe even lost decidedly. But our defense stuffed the run and intercepted a couple of Worley's passes. We did not commit a lot of stupid penalties like we do sometimes, and which a team will commit that doesn't have its head in the game. We tackled better and did not just try to strip the ball, but actually wrapped up the ball carriers and tackled. And when Treon Harris came in, you saw how the team as whole just seemed to pick it up a notch.

For all the bad vibes that came out of the Alabama game, we were still in it score wise, if not emotionally, at the end of three quarters. If we had had Blake Sims at QB and Alabama had had Jeff Driskel at QB, I wonder what the result of that game would have been -- just exchanging those two players

 

[TheDouglas78]

We won because Tennesse is a bad team. Tennesse offense did a very good job of shooting themselves in the foot everytime they started to get things going. Treon had a better grasp of the running game against Tennesse than he did against EMU. The offense got a spark with Harris. I agree on tempering expectations. Putting Harris in doesn't correct the dropped passes and Tennesse also exposed some problems along the offensive line.

 

[VulcanAlex]

Excellent post and agree with everything that was said.


Driskel wasn't awful yesterday, and 2 of his 3 ints were not his fault; however, it is obvious that the players do not have confidence in him since they all started playing better once Harris went in.

Well perhaps not so obvious, but I do wonder what the game tape will tell about his choices. I like an easy throw that gets some yards over a difficult well covered one. If other alternatives were there either the QB or the play caller needs to improve. I see others find wide open backs in the flat or over the middle for good gains time and time again, and see us almost never do so.

 

[NCOGator]

With all the talk about Harris, did anyone notice that we actually had a pass rush? I know that bUTtchug has a poor O-line but six sacks and three coming from Brian Cox JR. That was an awesome game for him and our D-Line I hope we can continue it to help out our weak secondary.

 

[NCOGator]

I know a lot of you don’t read the Gainesville Sun (and I also know a lot of you just say that), but are you a little pissed off that none of the so called "experts" over there picked bUTtchug to win? Yeah I get it after the loss against Bama I was a little nervous, but like the title of the tread says "Death, Taxes, and beating Tennessee" It is what we do! Hell they haven't beat us in 10 years, so to quote Caddyshack, "Well I got that going for me." I think they should be on suspension from picking this week.

 

[TheDouglas78]

With all the talk about Harris, did anyone notice that we actually had a pass rush? I know that bUTtchug has a poor O-line but six sacks and three coming from Brian Cox JR. That was an awesome game for him and our D-Line I hope we can continue it to help out our weak secondary.

Best part of the game, other than actually winning it. Brian Cox Jr. was playing a man's game Saturday, and I hope it continues.