Pat looks back on Florida’s loss to Michigan and the question of coach Jim McElwain’s job security.
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Do you ever wonder what the heck this guy is talking about. He could have said everything necessary in 5 minutes.
So don’t click
Think Mac feels like he’s more of an entertainer than a coach. Has to put some of his brand of folksy humor and spin on it. He reminds me of HEE HAW show in the 70s. He’s like Buck Owens telling a joke and picking his guitar…..pickin and grinning with those buck teeth. Trouble is, his audience isn’t buying the hardy har har BS anymore. UF fans don’t pick and grin, shuck and jive, or do the hokey pokey. Like most SEC fans, they like results without being sugarcoated, danced around, or somewhat ignored by their coach. Coachspeak works for some program. Mac is trying to make it work here. But now it’s obvious, in his pressers. Covering for you coaching staff is admirable to some , but in the SEC coaching ranks it will get your fired. But, for now, the GatorNation is still somewhat subdued. Lose to Ga, Tenn, and LSU and it probably won’t matter.
Very well written.
While I don’t take much stock in Dooley, he made one valid point. Someone will continue buying tickets and the old swamp will remain filled to capacity even with 7-5 and 6-6 seasons. The UAA, AD, and President Fuchs care about revenue and the program continues to make revenue regardless of the less than stellar record. Nuss has to go and Mike Kent should be fired NOW. A strength program is absolutely non existent, but it matters not. Tickets and T shirts are being sold, and the mediocrity will continue. UF is the Duke of the SEC. Great academics and minor sports programs, and a laughable football program.
I’ve been a Gator football fan (my wife says rabid) since my Freshman year in 1960. But let’s face it. Great academics are what make a great university. So go Gators.
Student athletes? Like the concept. Not that this is one game, but the O-line did not look improved. Perhaps Michigan is that good. We shall see. Out played and out coached. Glad we don’t play them every year. Best team won.
Gary–You make some valid points, except for Dooley. Not sure about UF being the Duke of the SEC either…..I don’t think we could beat them either right now (I’d opine that Vandy claims that title). As to Dooley, living way out here in Texas makes me appreciate him an awful lot, sort of reminds me in many ways of the legendary Tom McEwen from the old days in the Tampa Tribune.
One comment. 112 total offense 2015, 116th in 2016. Currently at 121st with only 125 teams, no matter how creative or smart they think Nuss is it isnt translating on the field. Make a change Mac or you will go with him. Stats dont lie
The Gators have relied on a very good and often great defense for the last 9 years. When Coach Muschamp left I had hopes that we would see a more creative, productive offense. Instead Coach Mac, the “quarterback whisperer”, has been unable to find a consistent, talented quarterback who has the ability to rally the offense and put points on the board. A quick look at the number of suspended players is indicative of a team headed in the wrong direction. The fans have been supportive but for how much longer
True Gator fans do not impulsively criticize the coaches and/or the team just because the game was lost. For every game, there must be a winner and a loser – no matter what. It would be a miracle if a football team won every game every year. I ask my fellow Gator fans, especially those who are alumni, to please stop criticizing our coaches and our team. I myself am guilty of pointing my finger at the suspended players, wondering if the outcome of last week’s game could have been different if only the suspended players could have played (I fully support the decision to suspend them, which is absurd for me to say, since I am just a fan/alumnus, and not a coach). Please support our coaches and the team – they need our moral support. Whenever you lose – you must regroup and rally, and this requires the total support of the fans. Let’s not go down the road of negative criticism. If any of us (fans) were qualified to truly critique our coaches and our team, we would not be mere fans – we would either be playing on the team or coaching the team. GO GATORS!!!
It is not the losing so much as it is the manner of losing. There just is no offense and apparently this year, no defense.
I am a true Gator fan. I understand that the Gators do not always win. I went with a hundred or so fans to the airport and cheered for the Gators deplaning after getting whipped by Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl….Jan of 1996? Coach Spurrier said “Ya’ll must have heard the score wrong”! That team had a struggling offensive line, and no effective run game but they won a lot…11? games. They had a GREAT coach, whom they apparently respected (by not misbehaving!) This 2017 team was not ready to play, in my opinion. Conditioning? Offense? Defense? Special Teams? Coaching? Play calling?
Shannon, it’s funny how we fans remember things. That ’95 team ran the ball for 173.6 yards/game (5.1 yards/carry) and threw for 360.8 yards/game. That’s a total offense of 534.4 yards/game. I’d call that a pretty effective run game in a balanced offense (410 rushes, 457 passes). I don’t think you get that with a struggling offensive line. But I do see how the fiasco in the Fiesta Bowl could alter a fan’s memory of the season. This year’s O-line should struggle that way! I do agree that this year’s team didn’t look ready… at least not to face a team the caliber of Michigan.
C’mon Glen, it’s not the loss, it’s the trend. Go Gators
The offensive identity is Nussmeier. Inept excution, blown assignments and lack of awareness of what is going on around you. Sound just like Nuss to me
There is only one question that needs to be asked. How many other teams in week 1 had 11 yards rushing?
Looks like Mac is going to stay on the Nussmeier pony until it takes him right over the cliff. Gator Nation has had enough of this garbage. This coaching staff was specifically hired to generate great offense. They have done the exact opposite, and continue to be the laughing stock of CFB as the blowouts and 100+ offense rankings continue. Unacceptable.
Is there no end to this awful product?
It’s time to get radical and throw out play action with a line that can’t block runs or pass plays. How about screens, draws, traps, end arounds, reverses-even double reverses, double passes—-anything to slow defenses down. Then some regular plays might work after defenses have to guess what’s coming. Everyone now can predict the plays, so it’s a guarantee for more losses.
This is borne more from frustation than what is considered football sound, but at least it might appear we are trying to win!
Emory and Henry, even! what we are doing does not work…
Harbaugh is a contemptuous arrogant pr**k but a great football coach. He can teach and elevate his player’s performance from good to great which is what good coaching is all about. He can make adjustments during games and find ways to win without any desperation or panic.
Our guys need a big dose of this kind of coaching.
Stoops
Dpat–Nobody until Mac has a chance. But let’s say he can’t get it going, then I’d say Bob Stoops too. Problem, he won’t take it. I’d be shocked if he did, just as shocked as I was when all those great, proven, big name coaches turned it down before Muschamp and those who declined before Mac. Something is wrong here and it goes back much further….wish I could put my finger on it, but I can’t. An elite team doesn’t just suddenly go to sustained average for so long unless there’s more noise in the system than most of us are aware of. Hope I’m wrong as a left shoe on this, but I’m beginning to wonder.
Could it be us? Could our constant carping whenever we didn’t or currently don’t win big enough be the problem? We wore Spurrier out, caused Urban to have real or imagined health issues, put a For Sale sign in Zook’s front yard day one and chased Muschamp out of town after his miracle second season. The pressure these guys feel must be suffocating. We say “Well, he’s being paid $3M+! He should be able to handle the pressure!” I’m just as much to blame as anyone. The only success we really had, prior to Spurrier, was with Charlie Pell and he was cheating to please us. Maybe what we need is a coach, like Saban, Bear Bryant, Woody Hayes or Bo Schembechler that tells us to shut the F up mind our own business. After all, it’s not like we own stock in the corporation.
While I agree that Nuss has become part of the problem and not the solution I also believe that
much of the Gators offensive success will have to do with the development of QB Feleipe Franks.
The offensive line will most likely improve but as the season goes on as Franks goes so goes the
Gators offense. I focus on Franks because Malik Zaire has proven himself to be an up and down,
inconsistent performer whereas Del Rio with his mobility issues requires an almost perfect pass
protection which is not going to happen.
Franks needs a line that’ll block, and an OC that’ll adapt to what the defense is doing. With current team trajectory, we’ll be seeing Franks playing for someone else and lighting it up in three years.
Please someone correct me if i am wrong in what i am going to suggest, why not humble yourself and ask the OBC for a few tips on how to run and call a successful offense? Spurrier always had an offense,that’s what he is noted for so why not suck it up and just ask for a little help? GO GATORS!
Watching the Michigan game I saw a number of missed blocking assignments on offense. The center is responsible for calling out the blocking scheme. He gets that from the play called by the coaches. It was either miscommunication or the O-line is just not as good as we think, or maybe Michigan D is that good. They had a lot of 10-1 and 9-2 defenses, stacking the line and playing the receivers man-to-man. The O-line coach couldn’t figure out the right scheme. I don’t think Northern Colorado is going to show us if Florida has an offense. It will be against Tennessee that we can get a good idea if this team has merit–or not.
Deja vu Zook, Muschamp and Dooley… =Same as the Old Boss. Maybe we need the Old HBossCoach.
I live in Baton Rouge and naturally the tiger fans here have Gator envy all day every day, especially since out Gators walloped them in Omaha. With the news of the game being moved to noon the local yokels pounced on the opportunity to bash UF for changing the time of the game and again ‘dodging’ them as a way to not play them during the impending hurricane from last year. Add to that the fact that UF lost to Michigan and the Gators were show fodder for the next couple of hours on sports radio. It’s obvious that people know the offense stinks and again they are already chalking up a victory in The Swamp. No respect for the defense as well and they’re predicting a rather easy tiger victory. It seems to me that this offense is just offensive and if changes are not made the Gators will be looking at a long season and probably a new coach. Can anyone say Chip Kelly??! He’s out there just waiting in the wings for a prime job and this one would certainly check off the boxes. No tight end waggles, crossing patterns or rollouts to the RB’s. No Dre Massey. There was a temporary Kadarius Toney sighting but nothing else. Tyrie Cleveland is a big time receiver but he is very under-utilized in this pathetic offense. Let’s hope they get it together and lets hope they can shut up the mouths of the pathetic tiger fans.
Joe Shiver, memory IS a funny thing! I guess a five yard run seemed bad when Wuerfel could light up the long ball… Move forward Gators. Do your very best, and good things will happen….But get rid of ideas that don’t work. And, stop being so “comfortable” with bad games.