People are down on the Gators. I get that. But most of the complaints from a little earlier in the season no longer apply. This isn’t about coaching or play-calling or playing with passion and effort. It’s about the Gators now having far too few players left to successfully compete in the SEC. Suspensions and injuries are what ultimately have killed this season.
I think we all have a good idea how Saturday’s game at South Carolina is going to play out. The Gamecocks will jump on the Gators early and by halftime we’re going to know what the outcome is going to be — another bad loss for Florida.
If the Gators can’t stay on the field with Missouri, how do they expect to do so against a team that beat the Tigers by 18 points on the road earlier in the season?
Here’s one quick side prediction: South Carolina’s running backs will have a huge day in the passing game, because Florida’s linebackers are too slow to cover backs out of the backfield. We saw that over and over in the losses to Georgia and Missouri.
Here’s another prediction: Carolina’s struggling offense, which is even less productive than UF’s, will pull out of its slump thanks to a Florida defense that seems in full retreat.
Just like the losses to Georgia and Missouri, this game is going to be hard to watch. The outmanned Gators, with only 56 scholarship players, will play with more effort this week, but the outcome will be the same.
It’s all about the players. The Gators simply don’t have enough to win an SEC road game.
Prediction: South Carolina 35, Florida 10.
Whoever is the coach next year will have some major rebuilding to do. At least it will be with players than can play in the system, and hopefully the spread option, and the state recruits have all the skills and speed necessary.
One group that should not be retained – EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH THE STRENGTH TRAINING PROGRAM. It sucks that we lost 9 scholarships to idiot behavior, but we’re missing 20 more from the 85 scholarship limit that are not due to credit card fraud. It’s unthinkable that a training staff can prepare kids so poorly that 1/4th of scholarship athletes are injured, most of which are injured for the year. If a rival wants a negative recruiting opportunity, there it is, if this training staff sticks around.
Don’t worry CS, the S&C coach is the lamest of lame ducks. Our next HBC will know how the game of football is played, unlike many of this entire staff. This staff’s incompetence just boggles the mind. Next year we will see a profound improvement.
I have wondered a couple of times what was going on there with S&C. Frequently I have seen players and coaches from other schools give high praise to the S&C staff but not at UF during Mac’s regime.
The sign that are S&C staff was not that good was all the injuries we had last year also. We will turn this around!
This article sheds some light on S&C. Mike Kent http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/21272643/inside-story-split-florida-gators-football-coach-jim-mcelwain
This article you have the link for spells it out well why McElwain was fired, its everything ive been saying on here and more. Everyone needs to read it!
My gut feeling is that the Gators will win this game. I don’t know how, but I can see them pulling this one out and it won’t be that close. Hope I’m right. Go Gators!!
If they would play like they did against A&M or LSU they could win! They had nearly just as many players out then too but had not given up then!
I see another blow out however I won’t actually see it. This team is unwatchable. The season can’t get over quick enough. We thought WM was bad and he was but Mac imo was worse. Mac has pretty much left the team in shambles. It may take a few years to revive this program so whoever is the coach has a big job.
The more things change the more they stay the same. Robbie South Carolina is not in a slump on offense. Please be honest about it. Muschamp is death to offensive production. He will never be a top tier coach and Foley’s hiring of him was a catastrophe, and letting him stay at UF as long as he did was ridiculous. Let’s hope our coaches do something different this week.
The title should be The beatings go on! That being said I’m a die hard Gator fan and will root for them no matter what the record! Think we can beat FSU which is not saying much this year but I”l take it!
If we get blown out this week, we will be crushed by FSU. I disagree with Robbie. The failure to put together a competent offensive plan has left us a laughing stock, ultimately resulting in a loss of team morale and a will to compete defensively. Between Chump and MAC, UF has become a bad bad Division 2 team. I feel bad for the players. We fans were buried after week one.
Grim. But accurate. Other than Eddy Pineiro, who gets penciled in on the depth chart next year? At this point, can any of these guys NOT expect full blown open competition beginning in the Spring?
Mark,
Pinerio is eligible to go the NFL….Unfortunately
I heard Chris Collinsworth say today on ESPN that the Gators are down a total of 29 players. It would be nice if we were to root for the few we have left, an NFL size roster, missing a vast amount of first teamers, our best QB Luke Del Rio. Two best RBs in Jordan Scarlett and Malik Davus (sp?? on all names so far)… Best WRs (yada yada, Cleveland banged up due to over use, yada yada yada), DL, depth at LB, safeties with experience out early, youth at CB, great punter and kicker….
We’re in bad shape? Hell yes, probably can’t win, but I will root like heck for the ones that are left giving their best on the field. Shoot we have a QB Franks who is still a big confused and Zaire who can run well but in there wanting to prove he can throw the pumpkin so he can get a shot at the next level.
I will root the most for those two
I get it that we don’t have LBs, we were thin there and now it is worse. So why not play say five down linemen and six DB’s. That would show trying to adapt rather than just say giving up.
With what little talent is left, the only hope Shannon has is a gimmick defense like a 5-3-2-1, And maybe some gimmick offensive plays like completing a pass, running for 3 yards on 4th and 2 and stop kicking field goals when you’re down by 25 points. I don’t know. It’s going to be hard to watch and wonder what happened to the Gator football program./ Didn’t they just go thru this 4 years ago with Muschump? Now they are starting over–again. And the cupboard looks mighty bare for some playmakers, pass catchers, linebackers and D-linemen. Kyle Trask might be the answer at QB but he needs people to catch the freakin ball and run the ball. What a sad year for Gator football. At least Gator basketball shows promise and starts Nov. 13. Finally, something positive in Gainesville.
whatever disadvantages we have, south Carolina has Muschamp, so its advantage Florida. Other people may feel differently, but I cant think of a worse nightmare than to lose to South Carolina. I realize the effort isn’t there as the spirit was broken due to the debacles, but there should be enough to win this game.
The sad thing is that this team has talent. Unfortunately, it is not utilized due to bad play calling on both sides of the ball and due to lack of development by the coaches. I am still trying to comprehend how the program fell so fast (of course two bad coaching hires didn’t help). The mental toughness was the only thing left after the injuries piled up and now that is gone as well. This team has a shot at making a final statement by coming out ready to play today but I agree with most that the schemes and poor preparedness by the incompetent coaching staff will do us in. Nevertheless, Go Gators!