- Oct 5, 2017
- 2,328
- 6,329
Sorry to be late to the party, didn't get home until late last night and got up and took my mother to EPCOT for her birthday.
Saturday was the first and last time in a long time we will see a Halloween (or within days of Halloween) game in Gainesville. Well, unless the people who want to get the WLOCP moved out of Jacksonville have their way. Many fun costumes in Gainesville and I admit I even got into the act wearing an inflatable costume wear it looked I was riding an alligator. According to my wife, I was visible on some of the shots of kicks in the North Endzone. Heck, I still think Mizzou's missed kick was because the kicker could not take his eyes off of my croc.
Boy, was this game exciting. Our defense looked fast and aggressive, there was a brawl, Kyle Trask set an SEC record, and Toney is what you would call a bad man. We wore blue helmets for the first time since the 60's and live I didn't think as much about it, but seeing some broadcast views, we definitely looked a lot like Ole Miss, which had been pointed out earlier in the week, but it really did the trick seeing it at work.
I'll say this about the brawl, I don't care. In fact, I think it may have further lit a fire under this team. I also think it may be putting further pressure on SEC officiating. Saw a tweet that there is an SEC's player safety concerns.
Offense
They moved the ball well. Trask had 128 yards in the first two drives. How many times from 2010-2017 did we see entire games with that amount of passing yards? Trask did get a pick 6, but that is less on him and more on the o-line in my opinion. If they don't allow Trask to be hit while throwing the chance of that going back for 6 is slim to none. Trask continues to improve and set a SEC record for TD passes in 4 games. Not bad for an offense we know our head coach would rather be run first.
With that said, our line did a more than adequate job last night. We had 6 players average 4+ yards per carry and that includes Kyle Trask. I believe after the brawl Mullen challenged the team to out physical Mizzou and we punked that defense. Kyle freaking Trask had 43 yards rushing on the first drive of the second half alone. I can say the answering of the bell by OL. We also saw a lot more rotation on the line with Braun and Gouraige getting time in the first half. I believe in some of the prior games this season we only saw 5 guys playing the entire game so I am glad to see some youth get meaningful experience and developing some depth while playing well.
We had some drops and a phantom offensive PI call, but the receiving game did well. Plenty of nice catch and runs. 5 players with 30 or more yard catches. 2 of those players were Davis and Pierce, which was encouraging to see the catching out of the backfield starting to come around. This will add one more thing for opposing defenses to keep their eyes on going forward.
What is there to say about Kadarius Toney? Two of his TD's you could freeze frame and if you didn't know the ending, you would swear he wouldn't score. Toney is a special kind of magic. His other TD looked like the old Spurrier days, a receiver open without a DB close going in for a score. He averaged 7.7 ypc and 15 yards per reception. Many have recognized the development of Toney as a key to this year's offense and I don't think that position can be understated. A guy who can do it all just draws attention for players like Pitts, Grimes (when he isn't dropping the ball), Copeland, Pierce and Davis to exploit. It's nice to see an offense that let's opposing defenses pick their poison.
This offense is averaging over 40 points a game in SEC play. I can't complain about that.
Defense
Coming into the game there was plenty of rightful concern about whether or not Florida's defense would be able to stop Rountree and Mizzou. This defense more than exceeded expectations as the expectation seemed to be that we would get one stop at most. This defense didn't give up a single point until they were literally playing walk-on DB's like Moorer. And I must admit, I pulled a Verne Lundquist as he first called Happy Gilmore's name, "who the hell is Moorer?" but that was in reaction to him doing something we have seen much of this season from Florida DB's, batting down the ball.
Going into the game, after the news broke about the DB's missing the game due to Covid, there were two mindsets:
The defensive line who did not have a good time so far this season did a phenomenal job last night. They got plenty of penetration The number that best exemplifies this in my mind is allowing only 40 yards rushing. Plenty of people were nervous about what Rountree would do to us and again, I think that concern was valid. He averaged 2.6 ypc. That is fantastic improvement for this team. I think, simplifying it to say that Kyree Campbell's return is what did it is both true, but not deep enough. Campbell's return, mixed with forcing other linemen to play in their proper position did wonders. Cox, not being moved to SDE, was allowed to cause havoc at the Buck position. I also want to give him a shout out about setting the edge on a number of plays. He failed to do that at A&M due to some over aggression and one time allowed a TD run on 4th down. This small, but major improvement is what I expect from a former 5-star recruit.
This defense did what it needed to do and exceeded expectations for how we thought they would do. I can't be happier with this performance.
Quick Hits
It is Florida-Georgia week. Georgia's offense hasn't looked good, but then again it didn't before Jacksonville last year. Our offense looks like one of the best in Florida history and the numbers back that up. Georgia keeps losing players. You have to build off the Mizzou game and show no mercy and make no excuses. I know IAKOW lamented about UGA not being at full strength, but I remember them not caring about that in '17. If our defense plays half as good as they did last night, we should be in great shape. Be out for blood.
Go Gators!
Saturday was the first and last time in a long time we will see a Halloween (or within days of Halloween) game in Gainesville. Well, unless the people who want to get the WLOCP moved out of Jacksonville have their way. Many fun costumes in Gainesville and I admit I even got into the act wearing an inflatable costume wear it looked I was riding an alligator. According to my wife, I was visible on some of the shots of kicks in the North Endzone. Heck, I still think Mizzou's missed kick was because the kicker could not take his eyes off of my croc.
Boy, was this game exciting. Our defense looked fast and aggressive, there was a brawl, Kyle Trask set an SEC record, and Toney is what you would call a bad man. We wore blue helmets for the first time since the 60's and live I didn't think as much about it, but seeing some broadcast views, we definitely looked a lot like Ole Miss, which had been pointed out earlier in the week, but it really did the trick seeing it at work.
I'll say this about the brawl, I don't care. In fact, I think it may have further lit a fire under this team. I also think it may be putting further pressure on SEC officiating. Saw a tweet that there is an SEC's player safety concerns.
Offense
They moved the ball well. Trask had 128 yards in the first two drives. How many times from 2010-2017 did we see entire games with that amount of passing yards? Trask did get a pick 6, but that is less on him and more on the o-line in my opinion. If they don't allow Trask to be hit while throwing the chance of that going back for 6 is slim to none. Trask continues to improve and set a SEC record for TD passes in 4 games. Not bad for an offense we know our head coach would rather be run first.
With that said, our line did a more than adequate job last night. We had 6 players average 4+ yards per carry and that includes Kyle Trask. I believe after the brawl Mullen challenged the team to out physical Mizzou and we punked that defense. Kyle freaking Trask had 43 yards rushing on the first drive of the second half alone. I can say the answering of the bell by OL. We also saw a lot more rotation on the line with Braun and Gouraige getting time in the first half. I believe in some of the prior games this season we only saw 5 guys playing the entire game so I am glad to see some youth get meaningful experience and developing some depth while playing well.
We had some drops and a phantom offensive PI call, but the receiving game did well. Plenty of nice catch and runs. 5 players with 30 or more yard catches. 2 of those players were Davis and Pierce, which was encouraging to see the catching out of the backfield starting to come around. This will add one more thing for opposing defenses to keep their eyes on going forward.
What is there to say about Kadarius Toney? Two of his TD's you could freeze frame and if you didn't know the ending, you would swear he wouldn't score. Toney is a special kind of magic. His other TD looked like the old Spurrier days, a receiver open without a DB close going in for a score. He averaged 7.7 ypc and 15 yards per reception. Many have recognized the development of Toney as a key to this year's offense and I don't think that position can be understated. A guy who can do it all just draws attention for players like Pitts, Grimes (when he isn't dropping the ball), Copeland, Pierce and Davis to exploit. It's nice to see an offense that let's opposing defenses pick their poison.
This offense is averaging over 40 points a game in SEC play. I can't complain about that.
Defense
Coming into the game there was plenty of rightful concern about whether or not Florida's defense would be able to stop Rountree and Mizzou. This defense more than exceeded expectations as the expectation seemed to be that we would get one stop at most. This defense didn't give up a single point until they were literally playing walk-on DB's like Moorer. And I must admit, I pulled a Verne Lundquist as he first called Happy Gilmore's name, "who the hell is Moorer?" but that was in reaction to him doing something we have seen much of this season from Florida DB's, batting down the ball.
Going into the game, after the news broke about the DB's missing the game due to Covid, there were two mindsets:
- Meh. Now we are guaranteed to see what the young DB's can do and we don't have to see if Grantham will actually bench Stiner.
- OMG we have no depth! I miss my Stiner on the back end! The world is ending!
The defensive line who did not have a good time so far this season did a phenomenal job last night. They got plenty of penetration The number that best exemplifies this in my mind is allowing only 40 yards rushing. Plenty of people were nervous about what Rountree would do to us and again, I think that concern was valid. He averaged 2.6 ypc. That is fantastic improvement for this team. I think, simplifying it to say that Kyree Campbell's return is what did it is both true, but not deep enough. Campbell's return, mixed with forcing other linemen to play in their proper position did wonders. Cox, not being moved to SDE, was allowed to cause havoc at the Buck position. I also want to give him a shout out about setting the edge on a number of plays. He failed to do that at A&M due to some over aggression and one time allowed a TD run on 4th down. This small, but major improvement is what I expect from a former 5-star recruit.
This defense did what it needed to do and exceeded expectations for how we thought they would do. I can't be happier with this performance.
Quick Hits
- We know how I felt about Davis after A&M, but I thought it was nice we went to him early on.
- Mullen doing the post-game in Darth Vader costume is awesome
- Crowd hasn't been as loud through either home game this year as it was after Mullen walked back out of the tunnel to fire up the crowd
- Still not a fan of putting AR or EJ in during meaningful time when we are moving the ball as it throws off the offensive rhythm. I'm not saying the false start is AR's fault, but when a line and center are used to one cadence I can see another one throwing them off potentially.
- Well, my pre-season not being surprised if LSU finishes 4-6 comment is aging well while my prediction that the Egg Bowl would be for 3-4 in the West after week one is not. Though to be fair, Ole Miss might have had a shot at #3 or 4 if it weren't for that blown Auburn call.
- Boston College disappointed me, but Michigan State did not. Go Sparty!
- After watching Franklin start 0-2 at Penn State and seeing he hasn't won much of value in his time in Happy Valley, perhaps we dodged a bullet in not getting him to replace Muschamp.
It is Florida-Georgia week. Georgia's offense hasn't looked good, but then again it didn't before Jacksonville last year. Our offense looks like one of the best in Florida history and the numbers back that up. Georgia keeps losing players. You have to build off the Mizzou game and show no mercy and make no excuses. I know IAKOW lamented about UGA not being at full strength, but I remember them not caring about that in '17. If our defense plays half as good as they did last night, we should be in great shape. Be out for blood.
Go Gators!
