- Oct 5, 2017
- 2,315
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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.
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!
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.
- 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.
- EJ overthrow open deep route 1. No TD on this drive.
- EJ overthrow open deep route 2. No TD on this drive.
- EJ overthrow open deep route 3. No TD on this drive.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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!