We are close... but not quite good enough... yet

[bayou gator]

I put 50% of last night's loss on Butters, and 50% on Mullen.

50%: We don't have any quality depth whatsoever (especially on D), and a severe lack of talent on the OL and at RB. This program's overall roster is lacking, and we are struggling to keep up with the big boys because of it. Mullen has had to recruit for 2 years with the stench of stagnation from a decade of neglect by Butters, and even Muschamp, as well (neither of them knew how to recruit a full roster). With that said, Mullen gets no more grace from me over this roster after this season. This upcoming crop of recruits better end up being f*cking amazing.

As for Mullen's 50%: last night was a winnable game, even with our depleted roster. I have always said Mullen is a good coach, but I am not convinced he is great. I stand by that. He still has a lot to learn, and I hope he does, quickly. His run game play calling was more than frustrating; I'm pretty sure it gave me cancer. There were sooooo many run plays that were nothing more than throwing away the play. His concept of "keep em honest" with the run game with f*cking retarded. Those calls had no purpose, and no chance of success. It was blatantly obvious to everyone watching that game. Even some of the run play calls with EJ were maddening. It would have been much better to just empty the backfield and spread out the receivers, and let Trask sling it. The likelihood of success would have been much higher. The thing that I miss most about Spurrier was that he truly knew how to put players in a position to make a play, and designed his offensive attack around their skills. Great coaches know how to do this. Case in point: look at what the new LSU OC has done with that offense in less than a year's time. That dude will be a HC soon. Hopefully those dumbasses in Knoxville don't go after him.

With all that said, it was good to see a team that actually fought, and grinded, and truly looked like they were competitive. But most of all, they wanted it. BADLY. We needed a perfect game, and some turnovers, to win last night but we came up short to a better overall team.

It has been years since we had a real team with a real chance against a team like LSU last night, and that's good to finally see. If we can clean up some things, we can still win the East. It won't be pretty or easy, but we can do it.

Go Gators!

 

[Gator98MD]

The recruiting needs to get better if we ever hope to compete with top teams. I can’t fathom why we aren’t doing better in that area. Why don’t kids want to come to UF?

 

[Gator Fever]

I think the defense next season will be lacking compared to this season when the Butters holdovers are gone.

Mullens defensive recruiting is lacking some I think.

 

[bayou gator]

The recruiting needs to get better if we ever hope to compete with top teams. I can’t fathom why we aren’t doing better in that area. Why don’t kids want to come to UF?

I think more games like last week and last night will help us remove the stench from the past decade. This program has been a rotting corpse for far too long. We are finally showing signs of real life; even growth. Hopefully Mullen can turn this into quality recruits. It is a must for us to be able to compete at a high level.

 

[bayou gator]

I think the defense next season will be lacking compared to this season when the Butters holdovers are gone.

Mullens defensive recruiting is lacking some I think.

I agree

 

[Gator98MD]

No doubt our brand is on the uptick but we need it to translate in recruits.

 

[FireFoley]

I am not so sure how close we are b/c of the defense, etc.,but that seems to be a theme here, so I go back to the end of Brian Kelly's first year at Notre Dame. Now this is not an endorsement nor a shot at Kelly and I offer no opinion at all on him, but he took over a pretty mediocre to bad team at ND and I think squeezed into a low tier bowl game that year. After the game or sometime soon he was asked to summarize the season and what he needed to do and I vividly remember him saying something like this: 'I have to recruit for defense. I can manufacture offense'.

Now I realize in today's game defense is optional and even Coach Ogre/Farmer Fran finally revamped his offense and even Alabama's D is not up to snuff, but within a game in the SEC there are a handful of very important defensive plays that either change the game or win the game. Maybe Jim Leonard at Wisconsin has a secret formula (4 shutouts in 6 games), but you still have to have a defense that can stand up to even the best teams out there if you want to win at the highest level.

 

[FireFoley]

I think more games like last week and last night will help us remove the stench from the past decade. This program has been a rotting corpse for far too long. We are finally showing signs of real life; even growth. Hopefully Mullen can turn this into quality recruits. It is a must for us to be able to compete at a high level.

Help, perhaps? But it will not be completely free and clear until the founding father/the perpetrator is completely gone in mind, body and spirit.

 

[theoriginalmadgator]

I put 50% of last night's loss on Butters, and 50% on Mullen.

50%: We don't have any quality depth whatsoever (especially on D), and a severe lack of talent on the OL and at RB. This program's overall roster is lacking, and we are struggling to keep up with the big boys because of it. Mullen has had to recruit for 2 years with the stench of stagnation from a decade of neglect by Butters, and even Muschamp, as well (neither of them knew how to recruit a full roster). With that said, Mullen gets no more grace from me over this roster after this season. This upcoming crop of recruits better end up being f*cking amazing.

As for Mullen's 50%: last night was a winnable game, even with our depleted roster. I have always said Mullen is a good coach, but I am not convinced he is great. I stand by that. He still has a lot to learn, and I hope he does, quickly. His run game play calling was more than frustrating; I'm pretty sure it gave me cancer. There were sooooo many run plays that were nothing more than throwing away the play. His concept of "keep em honest" with the run game with f*cking retarded. Those calls had no purpose, and no chance of success. It was blatantly obvious to everyone watching that game. Even some of the run play calls with EJ were maddening. It would have been much better to just empty the backfield and spread out the receivers, and let Trask sling it. The likelihood of success would have been much higher. The thing that I miss most about Spurrier was that he truly knew how to put players in a position to make a play, and designed his offensive attack around their skills. Great coaches know how to do this. Case in point: look at what the new LSU OC has done with that offense in less than a year's time. That dude will be a HC soon. Hopefully those dumbasses in Knoxville don't go after him.

With all that said, it was good to see a team that actually fought, and grinded, and truly looked like they were competitive. But most of all, they wanted it. BADLY. We needed a perfect game, and some turnovers, to win last night but we came up short to a better overall team.

It has been years since we had a real team with a real chance against a team like LSU last night, and that's good to finally see. If we can clean up some things, we can still win the East. It won't be pretty or easy, but we can do it.

Go Gators!

to be fair, the coaching staff did come up with some interesting run plays in the second half with option pitches on the edge that got some nice yards.

have to be fair and understand just how bad our Oline really is......this staff is getting the most they can out of a very poor group.

Spurrier had sick talent all over the roster from day 1 and only got it stronger over time....innovation is easier when you also have the favor in roster talent.

This coaching staff is getting the absolute most out of the talent that they have and the kids (bless their heart) are giving their all. Cannot fault their effort and how focused they've become in on field discipline. That was as tough environment and what'd we have maybe 5 penalties all game? The staff has these kids playing tough, disciplined and with 100% effort.

 

[theoriginalmadgator]

I am not so sure how close we are b/c of the defense, etc.,but that seems to be a theme here, so I go back to the end of Brian Kelly's first year at Notre Dame. Now this is not an endorsement nor a shot at Kelly and I offer no opinion at all on him, but he took over a pretty mediocre to bad team at ND and I think squeezed into a low tier bowl game that year. After the game or sometime soon he was asked to summarize the season and what he needed to do and I vividly remember him saying something like this: 'I have to recruit for defense. I can manufacture offense'.

Now I realize in today's game defense is optional and even Coach Ogre/Farmer Fran finally revamped his offense and even Alabama's D is not up to snuff, but within a game in the SEC there are a handful of very important defensive plays that either change the game or win the game. Maybe Jim Leonard at Wisconsin has a secret formula (4 shutouts in 6 games), but you still have to have a defense that can stand up to even the best teams out there if you want to win at the highest level.

Leonard's secret at Wisconsin is not to play anyone good (including the big 10 garbage) and get shutouts.

 

[rogdochar]

Appears bad, but more 4* recruits may sign before this year's deadline. You see, DM is showing sensible interaction with players. If the players love him, it will shine through when they talk to recruits and get us a better look out of these remaining recruits.

 

[FireFoley]

Leonard's secret at Wisconsin is not to play anyone good (including the big 10 garbage) and get shutouts.

It could be and I am not arguing and you maybe be correct, but last nite's game with LSU brings me to Dave Arranda, the DC at LSU. He was the DC at Wisky before coming to LSU and Wisky had a good defense under him. In fact Wisky statistically is pretty good on D every year. So for years I have thought that I know Wisky is not getting 4 and 5 star defensive recruits. Heck JJ Watt was a walk on and maybe his brother was too. They have had other walk ons defensively that have made it to the NFL. So I take great interest in a guy like Arranda at LSU and wonder can you take less athletic but much much smarter and disciplined football players and be +just as good on defense or do you truly need the best players? Leonard himself I believe was a walk on at Wisky, all 5 foot nothing of him and went on to play many years in the NFL. I lived in the midwest when he was a player at Wisky and saw many of their games and the one thing I remember about him as a Free Safety He was NEVER out of position. I think the jury is still out but I would love a guy like Leonard to be handed a handful of higher rated, more athletic recruits and see what the results will be. We will probably get that chance soon but as Leonard as a head coach. If not, I would offer him 4 million a year to be DC just to see the results, good or bad. But I doubt he ever leaves Wisky except for a head coaching job.

 

[bayou gator]

I am not so sure how close we are b/c of the defense, etc.,but that seems to be a theme here, so I go back to the end of Brian Kelly's first year at Notre Dame. Now this is not an endorsement nor a shot at Kelly and I offer no opinion at all on him, but he took over a pretty mediocre to bad team at ND and I think squeezed into a low tier bowl game that year. After the game or sometime soon he was asked to summarize the season and what he needed to do and I vividly remember him saying something like this: 'I have to recruit for defense. I can manufacture offense'.

Now I realize in today's game defense is optional and even Coach Ogre/Farmer Fran finally revamped his offense and even Alabama's D is not up to snuff, but within a game in the SEC there are a handful of very important defensive plays that either change the game or win the game. Maybe Jim Leonard at Wisconsin has a secret formula (4 shutouts in 6 games), but you still have to have a defense that can stand up to even the best teams out there if you want to win at the highest level.

Yep. Especially with regard to the SEC. This is a league that is based on the D line. Other groups and positions may get more attention, but the play of your D line will likely determine the score. We MUST get more studs on the D line if we expect to compete on a consistent basis. We have no asses in the middle, and no depth on the ends. If Mullen can’t find recruits there, he won’t last long here.

 

[78]

to be fair, the coaching staff did come up with some interesting run plays in the second half with option pitches on the edge that got some nice yards.

have to be fair and understand just how bad our Oline really is......this staff is getting the most they can out of a very poor group.

Spurrier had sick talent all over the roster from day 1 and only got it stronger over time....innovation is easier when you also have the favor in roster talent.

This coaching staff is getting the absolute most out of the talent that they have and the kids (bless their heart) are giving their all. Cannot fault their effort and how focused they've become in on field discipline. That was as tough environment and what'd we have maybe 5 penalties all game? The staff has these kids playing tough, disciplined and with 100% effort.

Yep, no one complained about the game-clinching run by Perine against Auburn. You can't abandon the run.

 

[78]

The best thing we did last night was get the TE involved. The worst thing we did was abandon it later in the game.

 

[lrtx1]

Recruiting should fix itself if we keep playing the way we have lately, these kids have seen nothing but garbage from Florida for the last 10 years. Even when we won it looked bad. This year is the first year when we get the ball I expect to see a score and not a punt.

Penalties are something I see have improved drastically. Not only the fact we seem to be getting less if them but, when we do get one it seems we can overcome it. In years past we should have punted on 2nd and 20 because there wasn't any hope to get a first down. Not so much anymore.

 

[Gator Fever]

We will see but I am not real high on some of those players and we havent been getting DTs under Mullen hardly.

I think it might be 2021 for that group to play real good.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

.
This coaching staff is getting the absolute most out of the talent that they have and the kids (bless their heart) are giving their all. .

you must be pretty deep into a giant bag of medicinal marijuana.