The High Five, Vol. 11

By
Pat Dooley
-
43
285

It’s my birthday. Kelsey and I are going to watch football. There will be no High Five. Even I get my birthday off. By the way for my radio listeners, Kelsey won her volleyball title game.

I am 56 for those of you who are wondering. I am old. But I am happy.

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43 COMMENTS

  6. Happy Birthday Pat! You were right on with your SwampCast last night. Something’s got to give with Adazzio. I think this goes back to even last year and some struggles with our offensive team. Different players in ’09 vs. ’10 but same common denominator. Adazzio. Terrible play calling, inability to adapt to game, refuses to get the ball in the playmakers hands. Something’s gotta give. I respect and trust UM. He deserves our loyalty. But he is the HC and has to make that decision and soon.

  7. I stated last week that the o-line held the outcome of this game in thier hands. WELL thier hands and feet and,etc stink. I hope each is getting a great education as they have no chance of playing in the next league. Both of the lines stunk up the swamp. And who is the o-line coach? I believe it’s the same coach who’s calling the plays! Meyer HAS to do something about this and fast before the outstanding recruits we have abandon ship. And to top that off we have at least 2 more games of this crap to watch. May God be mercifull.

  9. Happy Birthday Pat, I wish you many years of covering Gators Sports! Make sure you update your resume…there may be a job opening for Offensive Coordinator at the University of Florida. Perhaps you may be interested in applying for that job. We the fans appreciate what you and Robbie do for keepings us informed with sports from our Alma Mater and for giving us a space where we can meet to voice our opinions.
    Happy 56!

  10. Happy Birthday Pat and wishing you continued success with your new lifestyle of exercise and nutrition. Its only gets harder the more mature you become. As a UF alum, do you any remaining eligibility? Juat asking.

  11. Addazio has run this football team into the ground. The only reason the 2009 team won 13 games was because of tebow and a great defense that returned 11 starters from the 2008 championship team. I know I’m not the only one that wants answers this week and problems addressed and then solved immediately! I’m not going to give Azzanni a free pass either. Our receivers can’t hold on to a simple crossing route. UM made the mistake of hiring his friend as OC and then basically giving him the program in his “leave of absence”. Go Gators and please let Urban see the problems and have the sense to act on them.

  12. Happy Birthday, Pat. May you enjoy many more.

    Here’s a high five for you:

    1) Fire Adazzio, his play calling has been absolutely numbingly unimaginative;
    2) Fire Adazzio, the offensive line was supposed to be the strength of this team but has just been offensive;
    3) Fire Adazzio, even Azzanni seems to have more electricity to him (not saying make Azzanni OC);
    4) Fire Adazzio, even if it’s not his fault, the masses have already turned against him
    5) Fire Adazzio, even if it’s not his fault, the recruits read everything so have probably joined the masses and will soon join someone else

    Just sayin…..

  13. Been going to Gator games since 1958. Listened to my Gators before that when Otis Boggs brought play-by-play to my young ears. I just can’t endure a full game in the stands anymore: even last year was hard to watch.This is the worst offense since Gary Darnell, maybe worse than that. I pray that Coach Meyer doesn’t let loyalty to Adazzio cloud his judgement. We need a strong offensive coordinator: maybe defense too. Too much talent to be pushed all over the field.
    PS Happy Bday

  14. HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAT,

    What an awful performance for a championship game. In some ways it remided me of the 79 season. I had to fight myself not to leave early and I haven’t left a game early since teh 79 season.

    I believe I recall UM saying last summer at the start of training camp that one of the reasons he came back was for the coaches because he knows if he quits, they’ll all get let go on the spot.

    I really think UM has lost the fire necessary to win at the major college level. He played way too tight last year and it cost a brilliant group of kids a chance at a perfect season and another national championship.

    He’s paid well over 4 million a year and he’s treated with kid gloves so he’s got time to spend with his family. He’ll make enough money at UF so that his children will never have to work a day in their lives.

    Urb, you need to get back in the office and take control of this pathetic team you are the head coach of. If you don’t have the fire and intensity anymore, quit this time and stay quit. Do yourself and all of us a favor.

    Mediocrity is not what we have come to expect around here, and I’m not interested in going back.

    I’m not suggesting UM is not the man for the job at UF, what I am suggesting is 65% of UM is not the man for the job.

  15. HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAT,

    What an awful performance for a championship game. In some ways it remided me of the 79 season. I had to fight myself not to leave early and I haven’t left a game early since teh 79 season.

    I believe I recall UM saying last summer at the start of training camp that one of the reasons he came back was for the coaches because he knows if he quits, they’ll all get let go on the spot.

    I really think UM has lost the fire necessary to win at the major college level. He played way too tight last year and it cost a brilliant group of kids a chance at a perfect season and another national championship.

    He’s paid well over 4 million a year and he’s treated with kid gloves so he’s got time to spend with his family. He’ll make enough money at UF so that his children will never have to work a day in their lives.

    Urb, you need to get back in the office and take control of this pathetic team you are the head coach of. If you don’t have the fire and intensity anymore, quit this time and stay quit. Do yourself and all of us a favor.

    Mediocrity is not what we have come to expect around here, and I’m not interested in going back.

    I’m not suggesting UM is not the man for the job at UF, what I am suggesting is 65% of UM is not the man for the job.

    By the way, you can’t fool us you’re goofing off watching the tube on your new patio!!

  16. A belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY Pat…hope you enjoyed the male strippers we all chipped in just for you!!!! Much MAHALO, and respect, for your article…never thought I’d ever read one with such candor. I did something Saturday night I never ever considered, not in my worst nightmares, left after UF’s first inept offensive possession of the 3rd quarter. The game was painful to witness and I was NOT going to watch cocks celebrate on our own turf. As my childhood hero, I’m happy for SOS.

  17. The ’10 Gators football season has been a waste of time. The current Gator team has just about become unwatchable. There are only two reasons for the debacle which is this season. The coaching and the players.
    This Gator team has a lot of talented athletics, but they are for the most part “young athletes”. They aren’t quite ready for prime time. I don’t care how much talent a college football team has, when you lose nine starters to the NFL draft, five of which were under classmen it’s going to hurt. And it has hurt badly.
    For instance, when I heard our starting defensive ends were going to be Lemmens and Trattou, I knew we were in trouble. Of the starting DEs at UF, at least one of them should be of NFL quality. Can anyone out there not related to one of these guys tell me you thought either of them were NFL ready? I didn’t think so.
    As for the coaching, it has been atrocious to say the least, and it starts at the top. Urban M has either abdicated his responsibilities (especially on the offensive side of the ball), or he is just too stubborn to address the issues of having a starting quarterback that doesn’t fit his system and/or having coach handling the offense that’s not an offensive coordinator.
    First of all, the Pouncey experiment has benefited no one! All it achieved was getting the “O” off to a shaky start and hurting his draft status. The only one that will get anything positive out of this will be the NFL team that drafts a once sure fire “first-round” guard in the third round because someone wanted to make him a center. To continue with the O-line, why was it necessary for each player on the offensive line to know every detail about every position? Some guys are built to player center, some are made to play guard, and in the case of the most athletic big-guys they are made to play tackle. For no apparent reason this group has been shuffled more than a deck of cards on the casino cruise. No wonder they have played like they don’t know what they are doing…they don’t know what they are doing. Their heads are so full of unnecessary information, they have to be confused.
    To his credit, John Brantley has been a true “company man”. He is not openly complaining about playing in a system that set him up for failure from the beginning, but the kid has got to be a basket case behind closed doors. We were told the “O” would be tailored to take advantage of Brantley skill set, his NFL quality passing ability. What we get is Brantley miserably running option plays, and recently being split out at WR. Not to mention when he is behind the center, he’s wasting a “big league” arm on a “dink and dunk” passing game. If I were advising this kid, I’d tell him to get the heck out of Gainesville ASAP, even if it meant going to a D2 program. If he stays and goes through another season like this one (and there’s no indication next year will be different) he’ll ruins any chance he has of making it to the next level.
    For the sake of not writing a novel, I won’t go into the less-than-creative play calling, the telegraphing of the next play by who’s playing QB and the posture of the offensive linemen, or the defensive side of the ball.
    Little did we know this year was written off before it started.

  18. Happy Birthday, Pat, and many more! I saw my first Gator game vs. Georgia Tech in 1968 in Atlanta, then we moved to Florida and made it to the Swamp for Graves’ big initial win,18-17, over Ga Tech. I’m hard pressed to recall a Gator team so poorly coached offensively, maybe 1988 or 1979. I think Adazzio s a good man for the Gators, just has too much on his plate and in wrong spot on staff. He needs to be “associate head coach” and offensive line coach. We need a strong offensive coordinator. Not sold on Austin, either. Better days ahead. Go Gators!

  19. agree with all. I don’t like the 3 qb system. Am I the only one who sees Reed as the future. He needs to be the qb now to get the experience that Urban says he needs. The underperforming senior receivers and d-line needs to be benched for the young talent. We’ve been waiting to long for the senior receivers to develop. p.s. As the fastest man in college, Demps would be a better reciever.
    mo

  21. You can’t play in the SEC without a QB. Meyer doesn’t trust the others and Brantley simply doesn’t make good decisions or execute well enough to compete at a championship level. It’s “wait until next year” time at Florida. Only, next year may not have a QB either. Clearly Cam Newton was kicked out of school. None of these guys beat him out.

  22. The offense last year was pretty boring even though we had a great QB and a team to back him up. This year they are not boring they are just pathetic.Everything changed when Mullen left.I don’t think Brantley is the guy but he has taken a beating all year. He’s had no chance with o line being so bad.hmmm…offensive coordiantor and offensive line coach is the same guy…can there be a connection???

  23. Pat, you are right, there has got to be a change at QB and offensive coordinator or we might be 6-6 going into the bowl game. Take your chances with Jordan Reed and Trey Burton because you have got to have a “RUNNING” threat at QB to be a success in Urban Meyer’s offense. If there is not a change, we will be going through the same exact things next year or maybe worse because the schedule is more difficult.

  24. Okay, so what happenned to the beloved 3 headed monster quarterback. Didn’t see tis formidible beast at all versus South Carolina. It worked so where did it go?! We loved it so much that people wanted to name it; talk about instant affecetion. And so many other schools play rrue freshmen at critical quarterback, running back (which see Lattimore) why can’t the Gators try it? The 2010 Gators seem like a confusing jigsaw puzzle, we’ve glanced at the box top but never got a clear picture of the finished product, some are trying to jam great pieces into places where they just don’t
    fit…go back and get a good look at the box top, a global picture of what this team should look like. And please, no one is owed a job if the next in line is better. Gators, please play for your fans, not seniors, juniors, sorority sisters, band members, history professors…. We are the ones who have stood by you!!

  25. Pat,
    Happy Birthday!!! & MANY MORE!!!
    AMG-AMG-AMG-AMG-AMG-AMG!!!!!
    A ddazzio M ust G oooooooooo!!!
    Thanks for the MEMORIES…Steve and STEVE A…
    Thank you for reminding me of MY TEEN-AGE years -when FLA
    was 7-5-playing in the Tangerine Bowl, and …NO WAIT, THAT TEAM COULD THROW the BALL in THE END-ZONE!!! Thanks CHRIS COLLINGSWORTH and GATOR COACHES WHO ARE NOT AFFRAID TO THROW FARTHER THAN 5 yds DOWN FIELD!!!
    HEY FRESHMAN! WE GOT YOUR BACK! YOU DESERVED A BETTER SHOT THAN THE ONE ADDAZIO DREW-UP ( RIGHT BEFORE THE GAME APPARENTLY)…
    But, SINCERELY… TREY, JORDAN, Freshman…we are ANXIOUS FOR YOU GUYS TO REPRESENT THE MIGHTY GATORS in THE FUTURE-please DON’T LEAVE US NOW – YOU ARE THE ONLY BRIGHT-SPOT!!!

    gatorgi70x7

  27. As bad as the offense is this year (hopefully Adazio will be demoted), the Defense is worse. My belief is that Meyer hired Austin because he was black and felt that he needed an African-American to replace a great coach in Charlie Strong. He should have known that Austin was terrible because of the lousy defense he coached with the AZ Cardinals.

  28. Tom Brady would not be effective in our offense or even Micheal Vick (running QB). Addazio does not know what he is doing and Meyer sounds moronic at press conferences. Unless Meyer wakes up and brings in a solid offensive mind, we all must get used to what we are seeing right now. Meyer may end up being the college football edition of Vanilla Ice!

  29. The good news is that it’s now officially basketball season. The bad news is that we got pushed all over the field vs USC, had no offensive firepower and the defense couldn’t have tackled Betty White. We had absolutely no schematic or pysical advantage and there was no will to win. We wanted to win, but we didn’t have the will to do it. Missing Timmy and Charlie Strong. Missing Urban as special teams coach. Unfortunately, this team is now content with losing. Do they still play the Astrobluebonet bowl?

  31. Pat,
    Your article says you had a birthday party Friday night. How many football players attended, and why did you let them drink so much?
    Haha! Just trying to stay light hearted after that game Saturday.
    Make us proud the rest of the way Gators. Even if you lose, at least play hard!!

  33. Interesting year, with powers like UF, Texas, Penn State and USC struggling. Even in college football, every dog has his day, and this year those dogs are at Oregon, QAuburn, TCU and other odd places. As Gator fans, we just need to chill out a bit. I even had to tell myself to stop yelling at the TV screen this season. Meyer is a good coach, one of the very best, and UF has too much talent, too many resources to be down for long, so we just need to hang in there. Now, about that Addazio guy, well…..some things could use a little changing.

  34. Boy, this is a lot of denial, fans, coaches, media. You can’t get better from here. But, that’s OK, it’s a process. You remember what Einstein said about insanity? Pat was right when he was fresh from the shock. This has to be a wake up call for change or you just end up right back here next year.

  35. Come on guys, it all comes down to the offensive and defensive lines and neither is doing a good job… Brantly can’t pass if he doesn’t get time to turn around before someone is in his face and the runners can’t run when the linemen are being pushed into the backfield.
    The offensive line was supposed to be our strength this year and it has been bad since game 1…
    Nixon has been hurt all year and Patchan has missed another year. I hope some of the stud recruits are learning for next year..

  37. It became obvious last year that Addazzio was in over his head and he was bailed out by great talent as has been stated above. Nothing has changed this year in that regard but i now have an uneasy feeling about UM going forward. Is he just not as committed since his health problems? Was Dan Mullen the brains behind the whole thing all along? Remeber DM was with UM throughout at BG, Utah and Gville, so it is a question that will be ultimately answered going forward without him. The directions that the Miss. St. program and our program are going speak volumes. I hope i wrong but post game comments like “our defense played their hearts out” after they couldnt make a stop in the SC game, or “i will get this fixed” now that the season is essentially over, make me wonder. The whole coaching staff seems lost, UM included.

  38. 56 is young. 156 good weight.256 bad. One is young looking guy,other not so fast.Florida in deep dodo and I suspect it all begins with the head guy.If he’s straightened out, time to do that with his whole program.If he can’t do it anymore and isn’t all in, time for him to move on.Not negative comments, just that he’s had it. Happens

  39. Just thinking…

    What would happed if Jordan Reed started at quarterback on Saturday? The first quarter has been unproductive for the Gators, a changeup at quarterback would give Brantley a chance to watch defensive tendancies and evaluate how he would handle them. To argue that he’s only a freshman does really hold up as many top tier programs have started freshmen as quarterbacks with good results. Was Jordan Reed recruited as a quarterback or as an athelete. Either way he’s shown that he can play well and should be playing. We don’t need to loose Jordan tl some school who will play him more. His size, speed, and skills are what the Gators need! Jeff Driskel will be a great addition to Florida’s class and he could play with Reed. I repeat, we do NOT need to loose Jordan Reed!!

  40. It all starts with attitude. Black and Puncey have it at the senior level. Reed and Floyd have it at the freshman level.
    Recruit for attitude and train for skills, not the other way around. The point is everyone needs to have the right attitude, put the TEAM first, and hold the belief that we can and should win every game. Either your’e on the train or your’e on the tracks. No exceptions.
    Next, Addazio is a fine O-Line coach. He needs a O-Coordinator to complement him. Look to the high scoring spread offenses of Oregion and Boise State,etc., and hire a top O- Coordinator skilled in the Spread offense.
    We need a QB that fits our system and energizes it. We are forthunate to have two of these already and a third on the way. Give them the playing time they need to develop. They will energize the Offense and ignite the spark that’s missing.
    Lakeland GatorNaught

  41. Boy, it’s amazing to think that Newton was on campus as the heir apparent to Tebow. If they could have just kept him out of trouble and in class Florida would be looking at Meyer’s third and fourth National Titles in less than ten years. It would have been an amazing record that would have stood the test of time in College Football History. Shoot, maybe even 5th and 6th if they had put him on the field with Tebow last year. Amazing.

    Brantley was given his shot. Meyer has been MORE than fair even giving up a shot at Atlanta. That should be enough. This is exactly what kept Alabama in the wilderness for 15 years, living in the past instead living in the present and building for the future. Legacy is a great thing but you have to fit the system. You can’t build around mismatched parts just to keep the alums happy. That is only going to make the alums mad in the long run.

    Meyer may not be the same guy. He was such a focused coach when he arrived and now he can’t seem to remember what the issues are. Everyone knew Addazio wasn’t getting the job done last year and now they still want to pretend that he can do the job after these ridiculous performances. Too bad.