Was Mac smart?

[TLB]

AND they will behave or their "choices" will have them sitting or gone.

I agree. The roster is thin so it's tempting to keep a guy despite a poor choice, but it sets the precedent. Rather he set the opposite precedent as he has done so far this year - you make a bad choice, you hurt the team. We'll go on without you and do what we can, and you can consider life without a team to belong to (perhaps a short term suspension, or removal from the team, but even a short suspension can give the feeling of what it's like). Next few years, he'll have enough depth that even small mistakes (like Robinson earning a demotion to 3rd string earlier in the season) has real consequences - this year, Robinson's right back on the field in quick order as we don't have the depth and need the players....next few years, there are others eager to step up and take your place. You have to earn the right to play.

 

[NavetG8r]

I agree. The roster is thin so it's tempting to keep a guy despite a poor choice, but it sets the precedent. Rather he set the opposite precedent as he has done so far this year - you make a bad choice, you hurt the team. We'll go on without you and do what we can, and you can consider life without a team to belong to (perhaps a short term suspension, or removal from the team, but even a short suspension can give the feeling of what it's like). Next few years, he'll have enough depth that even small mistakes (like Robinson earning a demotion to 3rd string earlier in the season) has real consequences - this year, Robinson's right back on the field in quick order as we don't have the depth and need the players....next few years, there are others eager to step up and take your place. You have to earn the right to play.

That's kind of a long winded way to say "Depth, we ain't got it, and JMac knew it so he's planning for next year when we should be better all around (depth wise).

 

[TLB]

That's kind of a long winded way to say "Depth, we ain't got it, and JMac knew it so he's planning for next year when we should be better all around (depth wise).

Long winded I am. Guilty as charged.

 

[RocketCityGator]

I'm just glad they showed early on that they weren't there to play a full effort. I told my son in the first quarter, the D isn't even trying and O players just cruising out of bounds instead of picking up yards. Cleared up my day when I turned it off. No need to waste 3 hours when they aren't there to play.

There is no justification of any sort for a Gator team approaching any game this way. I pretty angry about it now. I would be sending all kinds of vile letters to everyone in the UF administration if I had spent good money to travel to Orlando.

 

[OcalaGator83]

Everybody is free to draw their own conclusions, but mine is that Mac sure hasn't shown too much in the way of "smarts" down the stretch of this season. I'll accept that we have terrible personnel, a patchwork O-Line, an undersized talentless idiot at QB, and so on, and so the outcome was inevitable. What I don't like is the way we went about it. Equally disturbing is how so many seem willing to settle for excuses and "moral victories" we used to laugh at our rivals for. Maybe some of you are ok with that, I'm not. So I'm not jumping off the ledge yet, but next year is the make or break year for me. I don't even care if we win 10 games, go to Atlanta (of course I'd like to), I just want to see a different mentality from the team and the coaches. At least make me believe you're trying everything you can to win ball games. Really didn't feel that at all after we clinched the East, just felt like we hailed a big moral victory and called it a season.

I'm willing to buy that Muschamp's loser mentality was still part of the problem, but I won't buy that next season.

 

[TLB]

Complacency doomed Gators after reaching uncharted waters

“You can never take your foot off the gas pedal,” McElwain said. “We had some guys satisfied when we first won the East. I think they’ve gotten a taste now of what you really have to do in personal preparation moving forward.”

...

“We weren’t worried about beating Vanderbilt, we were worried about what was going to happen after we beat Vanderbilt,” Thurman said. “We’ve never been there before. I think it’s obvious some of the guys on the team, some of the younger guys who haven’t been there don’t know how to succeed. We got a little complacent.”

...

“We’ve got a ways to go, as I’ve said from the start. And yet, we’re on our way to building something special. I’m really looking forward to hitting the offseason and really getting a full year behind us as we now know the expectations. There’s a lot we can learn from that (bowl) game.”

Tabor said the 2016 team will draw on the experiences and — more importantly — the failures of 2015, just as this year’s group used 2014 for motivation.

“Coming off the (2014) season we had, 7-5, after we got the SEC East, we felt like we were good,” Tabor said. “Just like we learned from that 7-5 team to get to the SEC championship, we’re going to learn from this team and how we got there but fell off late in the end.

“Had a pretty good year, but got a little lax down the stretch. It’s a learning lesson.”

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I'm just glad they showed early on that they weren't there to play a full effort. I told my son in the first quarter, the D isn't even trying and O players just cruising out of bounds instead of picking up yards. Cleared up my day when I turned it off. No need to waste 3 hours when they aren't there to play.

Yeah, it's the first game since Zook that I didn't watch in its entirety (without some excuse). It's easier that way. Fooley still gets paid the most in the SEC. Everyone expects to lose. What's not to like?

 

[MJMGator]

What's with all the novels in this thread?

 

[TheDouglas78]

The most important thing about this bowl game was the extra practice time. Michigan was the more complete team on the field, because they had a more complete roster. Michigan had more talent on offense at the most important position group, offensive line. With no offensive line and a defensive line that didn't show up, you are taking a loss.
The fact that the defense didn't show up and the offense couldn't get out of it's own way decision making wise is on the staff.
The fact that we were playing a more complete, and more talented Michigan Team is on our recent history.
We may have had more individually talented players, but they have better overall talent (especially on offense).

Does this make one coach better than the other, no. It's one game, a game that obviously meant more to one team than the other. In 2017 in year three of each of their programs, we will have more of an idea. We still truly don't know what we have in McElwain, and honestly Michigan doesn't know what they have in Harbaugh at this point.

This game would have mattered recruiting wise if it was a BCS game or a playoff game. It was the Citrus Bowl. The same bowl game we used to make fun of Tennesse going to.

Now for us to get all those 3*, so T-Rex can complain some more.