Truth Takes USF at Florida 2022

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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Better late than never, it's been a busy day, my apologies, but better than last Sunday when the air conditioning went out.

There's no better way of saying this other than this performance by most of the team was unacceptable. This is not a good USF team, it was a team that struggled with Howard. I will give them this, and this is something I spoke about in the offseason, they have a power 5 champion QB. Again, the performance was unacceptable. You cannot give up almost 300 yards rushing to any team, much less this USF team. I can accept a Utah team who returns 8 starters and is a power 5 champion whose identity is that run in the first game in the scheme. I don't like it, but I can see that and understand it. I can be happy with turning a defensive game around at the 11 minute mark in the 2nd quarter against Kentucky. What I cannot accept or understand is letting a team with an offense ranked in the 90's put up over 400 yards.

Believe it or not, there were some good things, but there were plenty of bad. Let's start by taking a look at the highlights, which I know are few, but worth looking at what was good. Starting on offense, in the first half we scored on each full drive. I'm not counting the "drive" where we took a knee to go to the half. One of those drives lasted all of three plays because Montrell Johnson took it 62 yards to the house. All the running backs played well and finished with over 5 yards per carry. Whittemore, Shorter, and Zip all had big catches. AR began 8/10 and one of those incompletions was a good throwaway after Zanders whiffed on a block allowing a defender in his face pretty quickly. Big Dez also played well and continues to come along. Our CB's continue to play well over all w/ Kimber leading the way this week with a pick six after allowing the big TD pass last week.

Now for the rough parts and lets begin with the offense. Let's start with AR. He started 8/10, but finished 2/8 with 2 INT's of the 6 incompletions. The first INT he failed to recognized a LB playing a robber. Then he checked into a goal line pass that he threw poorly potentially giving the game away at that moment. Officially, he had 7 runs for 24 yards. However, in reviewing the film and play by play he only had 6 runs, but the play by play credits him for a 1 yard run that was actually a 1 yard loss by Wright. I bring that up because once again we limited the running ability of AR. His first 4 carries were scrambles. One of which he terribly ran out of bounds rather than throwing the ball away for a sack. The other two were a run that didn't go for much and a read option that did little as well. I counted maybe 2 other read options. Either AR is hurt or we are coaching scared. His run game helps build confidence and it also causes defenses to have to worry about something else. Not running him shouldn't be an option. The second half was pretty bad. Just like Kentucky, without the two INT's we probably win comfortably...well defense was more of an issue this week.

I can't comment on the RB rotation issue because when three guys are going over 5 ypc it is hard to say anyone shouldn't be playing. I do think Wright should slide down in priority though. Johnson didn't get more than 3 carries (4 if you count one cancelled by an offsides penalty) before the 4th quarter, but that was simply the victim of the first INT and lack of drives due to the defense not getting off of the field. Outside of the 62-yard TD, he averaged over 8 ypc. Etienne averaged 7 ypc, but kind of weighed down by the 3-yard TD run. Something I found interesting in my re-watch was Richie Leonard coming in for White on the first two drives of the second half. Outside of a long scramble by Richardson, we didn't run well with him and he had a false start that hurt the second drive he was in. If we score on that first drive after the half and go up 31-13 it would've been a different game. Just like the Kentucky game, we are not capitalizing on key drives that would force the opposing offense's hand.

On defense, I'm not sure whether it's personnel, scheme, a combination thereof, etc. Our 3 man DL, which included some play by Big Dez at end, overall did well. However, the second level was not as good. One example is USF's big 4th down conversion early in the game. Battie for USF ran for 51 yards on 4th and 1 by getting a pitch to the outside. On the play OLB/Buck/Jack Ryland-Powell crashed down instead of holding the edge and Battie got outside of him. Trey Dean III was on the outside as well originally, but pre-snap moved to the inside as if he was designed to show blitz at the last minute. Either that or he went into business for himself and it should be addressed. Some of the ILB issues come down to the loss of Ventrell Miller and his leadership and communication. In his stead Amari Burney had to try to be the leader and I'm not sure that is a role he is comfortable with. With the absence of Miller true freshman Shemar James and RS freshman Scooby Williams both got plenty of reps. Unfortunately, at times the young players would fall victim to misdirection and over pursuing. James had a great first drive, but in other drives took himself out of the play and the same could be said for Williams. If there is a silver lining here, it is that these guys are getting valuable reps that will help them out as they develop into the linebackers of the future.

Speaking of Burney, he can both do great things and be incredibly frustrating. He had a great tipped pass, but also was part of a linebacking unit that allowed almost 300 yards rushing to a bad USF team. Tre'vez Johnson also was a mixed bag. He had a major interception late in the game to assist the Gators in taking the lead, but on a big 3rd and long late in the game played terrible coverage that allowed a 20-yard gain. His pick reminded me of Donovan Stiner's pick against Auburn in 2019, where the ball happened to go where he was standing, but he did make a nice enough play to get the pick.

With all of this said, coaching decisions do need to be looked at. One would be playing soft coverage, especially late. We had shown earlier in the game that if we played tight Bohanon would have a hard time completing passes. Several times late we played 10ish yards off at the corner and they ran quick and smart routes to take advantage. Also, last week, we saw adjustments that shut down the pass by 11:00 left in the 2nd quarter. We never seemed to successfully adjust to the run at all against USF. Something has to give. Maybe it is playing more 4 down lineman. Maybe it is playing more Big Dez and McClellan at DT together. We have to try something.

Offensively, why we do jet sweeps (2) and other outside plays to the short side of the field I have no idea. We did hand the ball off to the long side on an outside run once, a TD to Wright. As I have harped on for years, you do 5, 6, 7 plays to the short side (literally over 10% of the 48 plays) doesn't give you space and gives the defense the 12th defender known as the sideline. Speaking of jet sweeps, why they go to Hendo and not the speedy Pearsall is beyond me. I know I'm not saying anything revolutionary there. I am also confused why it didn't seem like we ran a lot of flood passing concepts like we did against Utah, where we were successful. And again, not running AR more (if he is healthy) is just simplifying the defenses job.

I also want to talk timeouts for a minute. I have no patience for poor timeout usage. We remember Mac doing it in 2017 against UT and how the Heave to Cleve only saved him from an extra boatload of critique. When the other team has a bad snap with 34 seconds left and now has to rush to 3rd and 20 with only 1 timeout left, make them use the timeout. Or make them run the play while they are still mentally recovering from the bad snap and trying to get everything organized in a rush because the clock is ticking. Or wait until they are about to snap and have had another 10+ seconds bleed off the clock if you really believe there's a reason to. Then when you tackle them in bounds, either make them use their last timeout or rush their kicker onto the field and rush the kick due to the clock winding down. We can't hope for the low percentage miss or the lower percentage holder dropping the ball play to save us.

For those who might argue we were trying to save the last 20 seconds for if we got the ball back, why would we lean on the passing game with how the last quarter had gone and hope for a field goal range drive in 23 seconds (at most) with no timeouts. Maybe I'm off base, maybe there is something I'm missing. I don't know.

The visit from USF might be the biggest total failure we have seen so far and I hope that it is the last one we see. This is a team that beat a great Utah team only to give away the Kentucky game and almost give away this game. We are a handful of plays from 0-3 and a handful of plays from 3-0. We are living on a razor's edge. I am curious about this UT game that I have been nervous about since the summer. We've seen UT confident before while we have looked mediocre only for us to win. 2018 comes to mind. Does that mean we will win this year? I don't know. In many ways it makes this season intriguing and many ways it makes it frustrating. Either way, seeing a ton of youth playing and building for the future is some encouragement even if it doesn't pay immediately.

Go Gators!
 

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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On the timeouts you are dead on. It made no sense whatsoever to do that. None. I didn’t read the rest of your post. I’m sure it was good.
Apply the logic to most of the rest of the team and you are there. When I realized that we took the timeout at :34 seconds and not USF, I lost my mind.
 

FireFoley

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Apply the logic to most of the rest of the team and you are there. When I realized that we took the timeout at :34 seconds and not USF, I lost my mind.
Don;t let GIG see that you feel that way. I mentioned it last night as soon as it happened and was roundly rebuked. I saw it as a total game management failure. But to each his own
 

BMF

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Good write up GT.

A few things:

In the first half on D personnel decisions were head scratching. Jailen Humphries has not played one meaningful down in 4 years, yet he was inserted in the first half. Then, they put in true freshman Jamari Lyons for a series in the first half. Why? Neither player played a non-ST's snap in the first two games, but were on the field in the first half. It was like the D staff got cute and figured they could plug in our 3's early to give them meaningful snaps because it was lowly USF.

AR has twice as many tackles as he has TD passes this year (2). I hate to say it, but he's a dud. Great athlete, bad QB.

Henderson had 3 catches for 3 yards yesterday. smh

I keep reading about the defense missing Miller - and I get it, he's a senior. But it's his first year in this defense too. I don't understand why the LB play is so bad. What happened to Wingo? He was a 5-star by Rivals. I just don't get how so many 4* kids can be busts.

Our three best players are two transfers from ULL and a true freshman RB.

Barber has been a pleasant surprise. He was committed to Minnesota while Hevesy had a kid ranked around 1300 committed (Strickland), glad we landed him in the end.

The honeymoon for Napier is over. He lost a lot of goodwill in a span of a week. I'm not writing him off yet, or saying he's not the right guy for the job - he's done so much to move our program into the 2020's. But I remember Butters first season - when he went to overtime vs. a 3-8 Florida Atlantic team - I remember saying, this guy is a fraud, he's not going to work out here. There were a ton of signs through those first10 games leading up to FAU, but he had the big win vs. Ole Miss early (much like Napier's big win vs. Utah) and he beat UT and UGA. This is only game 3 for Napier, so a little different analogy, but the UF's of the world don't go to the wire with the USF's of the world. Sorry, that's just facts. Even Urban's struggles in 2005 he didn't whiff like this (he had a tough game vs. Vandy w/ Cutler at QB, but otherwise blew out the gimme's). His play calling is awful and his personnel decisions are questionable. I know Miller is injured, but if he keeps trotting out AR over and over it'll be 'insanity' (we all know the definition). He needs to look in the mirror.

UT is licking their chops and I'm not sure our D can slow them down. AR couldn't handle the last two weeks in his home stadium, just imagine what the 110k hillbillies are going to do to his psyche. I hope Miller is healthy, just so he can come in and hand it off 20 times. AR needs a sports psychologist.
 

LongTooth

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BN has to pound the rock. Run ETN. Run Johnson. And yes, run AR.

We’re back to a level of quarterback play that makes Donald Douglas, Rodney Brewer, and Kyle Morris look like legends. It’s the parts of the 80s that didn’t feature Wayne Peace or Kerwin Bell.

Grind it out with this OL. We just have to dig in and impose ourselves on the ground. This is what we are. This is the way. Take shots here and there with safe throws, and use the RBs in the passing game.

Good running game uses clock, gives opponents fewer drives, and protects our thin defense.
 

oxrageous

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Even Urban's struggles in 2005 he didn't whiff like this (he had a tough game vs. Vandy w/ Cutler at QB, but otherwise blew out the gimme's).
Good Christ. Urban had quadruple the talent.

It's been 3 games, people. 3 games.
 

soflagator

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Good Christ. Urban had quadruple the talent.

It's been 3 games, people. 3 games.

I’m really trying to get past the last 8 days and back on board. By tomorrow I may feel better. But just to be clear, between 2005-2006, we started Vernell Brown, Reggie Lewis, Jarvis Herring, converted RB Marcus Manson, a Utah transfer and the McCollum twins in the secondary. Because he had to. We also had serious questions at RB, a QB that didn’t fit, WRs that largely didn’t fit, and a team that had known little more than 5 loss seasons. Yes, we had talent, specifically in 2006. But we weren’t a complete team in any way. I also don’t think anyone’s expecting a NC next season either. But we appear to be light years from where we were in those seasons, and more than the talent gap justifies.
 

oxrageous

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Sure, then it's okay to go to the wire vs. USF. Got it. Thanks. Glad to see you still have the new coaches balls stuck in your esophagus.
What exactly were you expecting to accomplish this season?
 

oxrageous

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I’m really trying to get past the last 8 days and back on board. By tomorrow I may feel better. But just to be clear, between 2005-2006, we started Vernell Brown, Reggie Lewis, Jarvis Herring, converted RB Marcus Manson, a Utah transfer and the McCollum twins in the secondary. Because he had to. We also had serious questions at RB, a QB that didn’t fit, WRs that largely didn’t fit, and a team that had known little more than 5 loss seasons. Yes, we had talent, specifically in 2006. But we weren’t a complete team in any way. I also don’t think anyone’s expecting a NC next season either. But we appear to be light years from where we were in those seasons, and more than the talent gap justifies.
Yeesh.

You guys weren’t even this insufferable a YEAR into Mullens regime, and you hated him from the start.

Going to be a long, dark stretch on Gatorchatter. Even darker than usual. I don’t get the enjoyment out of the perpetual misery I once did. I find myself hesitant to open threads these days, and that sucks.

When even level-headed people like sofla start to sound like Bait’n, that’s when I step away. I’m just not interested in being miserable with you guys right now.
 

Durty South Swamp

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doodley doodley doo!
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Yeesh.

You guys weren’t even this insufferable a YEAR into Mullens regime
That's probably bc despite our disdain for that jackass, it at least looked like we might be competent and marginally competitive. And we were the first couple seasons. No one hates Napier, but this team looks anything but competent. It looks flat out embarrassing and the qb play is treon harris level bad.
 

soflagator

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Yeesh.

You guys weren’t even this insufferable a YEAR into Mullens regime, and you hated him from the start.

Going to be a long, dark stretch on Gatorchatter. Even darker than usual. I don’t get the enjoyment out of the perpetual misery I once did. I find myself hesitant to open threads these days, and that sucks.

When even level-headed people like sofla start to sound like Bait’n, that’s when I step away. I’m just not interested in being miserable with you guys right now.

How about this. I’m still hopeful based on the fact that he won so many games in his last 3 years at ULL. I’m also happy to see we’re recruiting way better, and the players making the biggest marks—unlike the last 3 guys—are his own instead of leftovers, including Kimber, Montrell, Etienne(that’s 5 of our 9 TDs) Ocyrus and Pearsall, and some of the new defenders. Have my issues but am trying to be hopeful. I want the guy to succeed here, which is all the more reason I get frustrated when I see what I view as self inflicted things that may prevent that.
 

BMF

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Yeesh.

You guys weren’t even this insufferable a YEAR into Mullens regime, and you hated him from the start.

Going to be a long, dark stretch on Gatorchatter. Even darker than usual. I don’t get the enjoyment out of the perpetual misery I once did. I find myself hesitant to open threads these days, and that sucks.

When even level-headed people like sofla start to sound like Bait’n, that’s when I step away. I’m just not interested in being miserable with you guys right now.

Glad to see you're keeping the swampgas vibes going on here....
 

revgator

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Yeesh.

You guys weren’t even this insufferable a YEAR into Mullens regime, and you hated him from the start.

Going to be a long, dark stretch on Gatorchatter. Even darker than usual. I don’t get the enjoyment out of the perpetual misery I once did. I find myself hesitant to open threads these days, and that sucks.

When even level-headed people like sofla start to sound like Bait’n, that’s when I step away. I’m just not interested in being miserable with you guys right now.
Full disclosure cuz I love ya @oxrageous

I hated the Muschamp hire from day one- he lost the team
I liked the MacElwain hire at first - guy was a clown
I liked the Mullen hire - he lost the team
Didn't like the Napier hire - time will tell

I'll censor myself accordingly. :cuff:
 

deuce

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Misery loves company.

I haven't given up on this team but I'm not seeing much to cheer about.
 

Scared $ Don’t Make $

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Good Christ. Urban had quadruple the talent.

It's been 3 games, people. 3 games.
Exactly…. Everyone let’s say it together….

RELAX!!!

The guys Napier has recruited and brought with him are already some of our top talent. Let the man cook for a year and let’s see what happens with a full recruiting cycle.

If AR can’t throw the ball, F*ck it! Run the ball down their throat until someone proves they can stop it. Hell LSU last year ran the same damn play 50 times in a row and beat us.

Let’s line up in pistol with AR, Etienne to his side and Johnson 4 yards behind him. Good luck on stopping those 3.
 

Spurdog98

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Sure, then it's okay to go to the wire vs. USF. Got it. Thanks. Glad to see you still have the new coaches balls stuck in your esophagus.
How many starters on our D could have started on the defense in Urb's first year? Start with the D line and then look at our LB corp from that year. I'm going with NONE.
 

BMF

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How many starters on our D could have started on the defense in Urb's first year? Start with the D line and then look at our LB corp from that year. I'm going with NONE.
Totally not the point. I pointed out that Meyer's first team had a close game vs. Vandy, but blew out the gimmes. Butters team went to OT vs. a 3-8 FAU - which is almost what happened to Napier's team Saturday night. Regardless of which team had more D talent - there's no excuse to go down to the wire vs. the USF's on our schedule, none. But I get it - Ox wants this forum to be swampgas, so if you don't pump sunshine don't post here. Message received (it was received 9 months ago too, thought it was safe to come back but that's what I get for assuming). Notice the downvotes from the sunshine pumpers - but they don't respond to defend their position (because they can't - they can't defend coming a c*nt hair away from losing to USF). smh

Happy Good Morning GIF by Curtains Cool
 

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