- Oct 5, 2017
- 2,216
- 5,888
Before I begin, I hope Cover2 feels better. I know it's not Bits & Pieces, but here is something for you guys.
It’s that time of year again, SEC football is here, and Gator fans think of the joys of Peyton Manning’s success against Florida. Gator fans wear blue and remember legends like Alex Brown, Jabar Gaffney and his incredible TD catch, Tim Tebow’s coming out party, Tyler Murphy saving the game, Muschamp happy for all the disappointed people, 4th and 14, Heave to Cleve, wearing blue helmets with Gators script and now await what wonders might be before us. It’s football time in Tenne…It’s The Swamp, Where Only Gators Get Out Alive. And now we talk about 20 years of dominance over Tennessee in the Swamp.
Saturday night wasn’t perfect, but damn was it fun.
Before the game I knew the Swamp would be rocking because in the first “Go Gators!” chant, even before all the seats that would be full were filled, you could feel the loudness. That is not something I’ve really felt for a while.
The Gators firing out of the gate, even though it didn’t end in points at least brought the crowd into the game in a way a 3 and out to begin wouldn’t. The first defensive series was a mess, some of that to be expected, but the more important thing was the follow up.
Trevor Etienne is our best offensive weapon and Saturday night proved it. Down 7-0, Etienne burst through the line, made a few guys miss with a simple, but effective cut, withstood a should shot by a safety, and then outran everyone to the endzone for a 62-yard TD run. It wasn’t just the fact we responded to a TD with a TD, it was that it was an electric and explosive TD. One that brought some who might’ve already slipped into the “here we go again” mindset back into the game.
The crowd would go on to feast on the atmosphere (despite another special teams miscue) and the electricity led to a three and out. Then lead to the Gators getting Joe Milton’s first INT at UT when Banks was held, but Big Dez Watson nailed Milton mid throw and the ball landed in the hands of Devin Moore would returned it 39-yards. The half ended with it being 26-7.
When we went down 7-0, I had the 2006 National Title game in my mind. At halftime, I spoke with the guy whose family has had seats next to my family for decades and he said, “I’ve been here before and it hasn’t ended well, so I’m still holding my breath”. Truthfully, the game that popped into my head at halftime was the 2016 game at Neyland, which I was there for.
The difference between that game at Neyland and this year’s game? It was in the Swamp. It is that simple. In 2016, UF went 3 and out and then UT scored, Neyland came alive like Frampton, and the comeback was on. This year, UT scores, UF goes 3 and out, but there wasn’t a Neyland blowing wind into the sails of the Tennessee offense. No, there were 90,000 Gators creating headwinds pushing back on UT and feeding the UF defense with energy.
For the offense, as I said, Trevor Etienne is our best offensive weapon. I’d argue he needs 60% of the carries with Montrell bringing the change up. Etienne had 172 on 23 carries. Even if you take out the long TD run, he had 5 ypc. Johnson had 12 carries for 23 yards. Granted, he had a nice TD run (and a nice run after catch on a receiving TD) that helped a lower average. Please don’t misread this as a knock on Montrell, but more of a statement of who should be the 1 in the 1-2 punch. Etienne found holes and cut back lanes when his main route was bottled and I think when the line is doing well, he will continue to get better and better.
Mertz had his best performance as a Gator even if the yardage wasn’t his highest. For the first time, over half his completions were down the field (10 of his 19 completions). He made some amazing throws to the sideline including one that had a tremendous catch by Jackson. He ran for a key first down early. These things show up in the fact he had his highest QBR of the season with 91.6. I know he got injured in his hands so he was limited later in the game (I think we still could have helped him better, but we aren’t discussing that today).
Make no mistake though, the biggest winners of this game are Austin Armstrong and this UF defense. After the refrain I saw until mid-February of “you can’t expect a defense to jump in year one of a coordinator”, well, I present to you this Gator defense. A defense with a ton of fresh faces, including a number of true freshmen contributing. AA and helper Brandon Spikes have been big for this team.
Were they perfect? No. Did they do more than enough to win? Very much so. They pressured Milton all night, for the most part gave him tight windows like I wanted and shut down a potent Tennessee run game. The run defense is something we’ve not seen in years. There were times, even in the best Grantham times, where we were decent to good against the pass but couldn’t stop a running game. We’ve now slowed both Utah and UT. 3.3 yards per carry against a UT run game that was top 5 in the Nation (and was high last year before we get into their SOS so far this season).
In all seriousness, has a single player grown more from 2022 to 2023 more than Scooby Williams? That guy seems like he is everywhere and is a problem. I thought he’d improve, but this guy is beyond my expectations coming into the year. Jordan Castell made some errors as a true freshman in the game, but also lead the team in tackles, had a nice pass break up and looks to have great upside for the future.
For special teams, well, we need someone who can make this unit special and something I think that needs to be addressed in the off-season. There are issues every week and every week it is a different issue.
Beating Tennessee is always a great thing. I have been steady in saying this season I’m not going to overreact positively or negatively to one game. I think it’s asinine to say fire the coach after Utah and I think those I’m seeing elsewhere say all questions have been answered and all problems solved are the other side of the same coin. There are a lot of positives. There is also realization that this UT defense was 127th in pass defense last year and gave up 260 yards passing to Austin Peay last week as I said in the preview.
I said this game might be a springboard to a good or bad trajectory. With a win that springboard should be on a good trajectory. That will be tested in Lexington and in in Columbia, both Columbia’s. We’ve beat Tennessee, now beat the teams we should, Kentucky, Vandy, Mizzou, Arkansas and Carolina. As of right now, that Jacksonville date looks possible with how Carolina played, especially before Wells went down. That LSU game, if the defense can play like it did overall in week 1 and against UT, we might have a better shot than initially thought. And that is the power of winning.
We’ve taken step 1, now let’s see step 2.
Also, the new LED lights, really did put on a show last night. I can say for certain that at least one recruit, a lifelong Nole fan (and his mother), were blown away last night by the loudness, We Are the Boys, and Won’t Back Down. The phrases were “It was f***ing awesome” and “I’m not sure I can look at [their Seminole co-workers]”. When you give the fans reason to believe, they will give you an atmosphere unlike anything else. When you get that atmosphere unlike anything else, it impresses those we want to join. Give the fans reason to believe and the entire job becomes easier.
Go Gators!
Also, see some atmosphere from last night.
It’s that time of year again, SEC football is here, and Gator fans think of the joys of Peyton Manning’s success against Florida. Gator fans wear blue and remember legends like Alex Brown, Jabar Gaffney and his incredible TD catch, Tim Tebow’s coming out party, Tyler Murphy saving the game, Muschamp happy for all the disappointed people, 4th and 14, Heave to Cleve, wearing blue helmets with Gators script and now await what wonders might be before us. It’s football time in Tenne…It’s The Swamp, Where Only Gators Get Out Alive. And now we talk about 20 years of dominance over Tennessee in the Swamp.
Saturday night wasn’t perfect, but damn was it fun.
Before the game I knew the Swamp would be rocking because in the first “Go Gators!” chant, even before all the seats that would be full were filled, you could feel the loudness. That is not something I’ve really felt for a while.
The Gators firing out of the gate, even though it didn’t end in points at least brought the crowd into the game in a way a 3 and out to begin wouldn’t. The first defensive series was a mess, some of that to be expected, but the more important thing was the follow up.
Trevor Etienne is our best offensive weapon and Saturday night proved it. Down 7-0, Etienne burst through the line, made a few guys miss with a simple, but effective cut, withstood a should shot by a safety, and then outran everyone to the endzone for a 62-yard TD run. It wasn’t just the fact we responded to a TD with a TD, it was that it was an electric and explosive TD. One that brought some who might’ve already slipped into the “here we go again” mindset back into the game.
The crowd would go on to feast on the atmosphere (despite another special teams miscue) and the electricity led to a three and out. Then lead to the Gators getting Joe Milton’s first INT at UT when Banks was held, but Big Dez Watson nailed Milton mid throw and the ball landed in the hands of Devin Moore would returned it 39-yards. The half ended with it being 26-7.
When we went down 7-0, I had the 2006 National Title game in my mind. At halftime, I spoke with the guy whose family has had seats next to my family for decades and he said, “I’ve been here before and it hasn’t ended well, so I’m still holding my breath”. Truthfully, the game that popped into my head at halftime was the 2016 game at Neyland, which I was there for.
The difference between that game at Neyland and this year’s game? It was in the Swamp. It is that simple. In 2016, UF went 3 and out and then UT scored, Neyland came alive like Frampton, and the comeback was on. This year, UT scores, UF goes 3 and out, but there wasn’t a Neyland blowing wind into the sails of the Tennessee offense. No, there were 90,000 Gators creating headwinds pushing back on UT and feeding the UF defense with energy.
For the offense, as I said, Trevor Etienne is our best offensive weapon. I’d argue he needs 60% of the carries with Montrell bringing the change up. Etienne had 172 on 23 carries. Even if you take out the long TD run, he had 5 ypc. Johnson had 12 carries for 23 yards. Granted, he had a nice TD run (and a nice run after catch on a receiving TD) that helped a lower average. Please don’t misread this as a knock on Montrell, but more of a statement of who should be the 1 in the 1-2 punch. Etienne found holes and cut back lanes when his main route was bottled and I think when the line is doing well, he will continue to get better and better.
Mertz had his best performance as a Gator even if the yardage wasn’t his highest. For the first time, over half his completions were down the field (10 of his 19 completions). He made some amazing throws to the sideline including one that had a tremendous catch by Jackson. He ran for a key first down early. These things show up in the fact he had his highest QBR of the season with 91.6. I know he got injured in his hands so he was limited later in the game (I think we still could have helped him better, but we aren’t discussing that today).
Make no mistake though, the biggest winners of this game are Austin Armstrong and this UF defense. After the refrain I saw until mid-February of “you can’t expect a defense to jump in year one of a coordinator”, well, I present to you this Gator defense. A defense with a ton of fresh faces, including a number of true freshmen contributing. AA and helper Brandon Spikes have been big for this team.
Were they perfect? No. Did they do more than enough to win? Very much so. They pressured Milton all night, for the most part gave him tight windows like I wanted and shut down a potent Tennessee run game. The run defense is something we’ve not seen in years. There were times, even in the best Grantham times, where we were decent to good against the pass but couldn’t stop a running game. We’ve now slowed both Utah and UT. 3.3 yards per carry against a UT run game that was top 5 in the Nation (and was high last year before we get into their SOS so far this season).
In all seriousness, has a single player grown more from 2022 to 2023 more than Scooby Williams? That guy seems like he is everywhere and is a problem. I thought he’d improve, but this guy is beyond my expectations coming into the year. Jordan Castell made some errors as a true freshman in the game, but also lead the team in tackles, had a nice pass break up and looks to have great upside for the future.
For special teams, well, we need someone who can make this unit special and something I think that needs to be addressed in the off-season. There are issues every week and every week it is a different issue.
Beating Tennessee is always a great thing. I have been steady in saying this season I’m not going to overreact positively or negatively to one game. I think it’s asinine to say fire the coach after Utah and I think those I’m seeing elsewhere say all questions have been answered and all problems solved are the other side of the same coin. There are a lot of positives. There is also realization that this UT defense was 127th in pass defense last year and gave up 260 yards passing to Austin Peay last week as I said in the preview.
I said this game might be a springboard to a good or bad trajectory. With a win that springboard should be on a good trajectory. That will be tested in Lexington and in in Columbia, both Columbia’s. We’ve beat Tennessee, now beat the teams we should, Kentucky, Vandy, Mizzou, Arkansas and Carolina. As of right now, that Jacksonville date looks possible with how Carolina played, especially before Wells went down. That LSU game, if the defense can play like it did overall in week 1 and against UT, we might have a better shot than initially thought. And that is the power of winning.
We’ve taken step 1, now let’s see step 2.
Also, the new LED lights, really did put on a show last night. I can say for certain that at least one recruit, a lifelong Nole fan (and his mother), were blown away last night by the loudness, We Are the Boys, and Won’t Back Down. The phrases were “It was f***ing awesome” and “I’m not sure I can look at [their Seminole co-workers]”. When you give the fans reason to believe, they will give you an atmosphere unlike anything else. When you get that atmosphere unlike anything else, it impresses those we want to join. Give the fans reason to believe and the entire job becomes easier.
Go Gators!
Also, see some atmosphere from last night.
Haha what a clown show UT is.
