First let me start with some of these takes are ridiculous. It seems as if Billy set the bar really high after beating Utah in the first game, but everyone on here knew that our floor this season could easily be 6-6 and we all said if AR played to his own ceiling we had a legit shot at 10-2. Programs are going to take time to build. We were never going to win a National Championship this year. We weren't going to go to the SEC championship this year. It seems it is going to be an up & down year where we have really electric games and then we lay some duds.
- Nick Saban's first year at Bama he lost to Louisianna Monroe at home 21-14, they were 6-6 in the Sun Belt that season. They also only beat Vandy 24-10 that season as well. Bama went 7-6 and then 12-2 the next year.
- Kirby Smart first year he lost to Vanderbilt & Georgia and went 8-5 overall. Georgia then went 13-2 the next season and hasn't looked back since.
Our last two Head Coaches were able to win 10 games in their first years and then were fired really early in their tenure at Florida. We have to build this thing the right way and its gonna take patience honestly. The last staff left us really thin at a lot of positions and it is showing up on Saturdays.
Lets look at the defense yesterday. First off, the take that Patrick Toney isn't an SEC caliber DC is wild to me. After the first two weeks people were mentioning him as being a future HC soon and now he isn't an SEC quality DC. Let's stop with the reactionary takes please. We are feeling the effects of the last staffs inability to bring in quality LBs coupled with Hopper & Diabete transferring out. I just listened to Takeo Spikes talk about playing with London Fletcher and the impact in had on their defense when he hurt his hamstring and missed a game. He said they hadn't given up 100 yards rushing the entire season and then gave up 100 yards rushing before half. We are starting a 6th year Ventrell Miller and 5th year Amari Burney because we don't have anyone else behind them. What a great game plan by USF to run a ton of misdirection plays to force the young LBs Shemar James and Scooby Williams to keep eye disciplined and maintain their gaps. Guess what happened, those guys struggled to do that all night. Doesn't matter what the D-line is doing if there is always an open running lane. Billy said in his presser that he wouldn't be surprised if when he watched tape, guys weren't filling their assignments. Well they weren't. The good thing is Shemar & Scooby got a ton of reps yesterday. Now they can be taught off their mistakes. This defensive line is lacking depth in the middle but man I think they are playing well. We need need superstar LB play, we just need these guys to play the right spots/lanes. I can't wait to see what Jalen Kimber looks like when his cast is off. The kid can play. This might be the deepest the CB room has been in a while. Everyone is super rangy, long and can run. The safety spot will need to be addressed for the 2023 season. I'm hoping we get to see more Kamari Wilson & Donovan McMIllon moving forward, but with young guys we might end up with broken plays as they learn to play week in and week out. Will you guys have the patience for that?
Offensively I think we might have one of the best OL in the SEC, maybe in the country. Protection has been great and the run game has been even better. It is not secret that QB is holding us back. I'm starting to think AR has developed a mental block after the Kentucky game. He is getting much slower in his progressions and throwing the ball with hesitation which is why we are't moving the football. Maybe he is still truly learning the system because last year it seemed in Mullen's system he knew exactly what to do with the football and was quick on the trigger. The AR we saw vs LSU and the one we saw last night are two different guys. Richardson has to decide who he is gonna be at this point. Will he be Jeremy Johnson, another QB who was given the Heisman crown after a spring game at Auburn or is he gonna live up to the hype of being the next Cam Newton or Vince Young. He is looking much more on the path of Jeremy Johnson, who ended doing a whole lot of nothing at Auburn after that big spring game. The truth is this running game is very very good right now. It should be what we lean on. All we need is a QB who is a game manager at this point. We don't need this game changing QB when we have an explosive run game. We just need enough consistency through the air to force the defense to respect the pass. Right now they don't respect it at all and we are still running the football. If we had Luke Del Rio playing at QB right no we are probably 3-0 and ranked in the top 10. Shoot just look back to when Will Grier started and then got suspended. He was just a game manager. He wasn't going out there and throwing for 300 plus yards with 5 TDs. We barely beat Kentucky that season. That is who Jack Miller could easily be. But would you rather have AR take his lumps, develop and maybe end up with a big time season from a QB in 2023, or would you scrap AR as the starter and just go with the game manager type of QB at this point? We have athletes at the skill positions, we just have to get them the ball in space to do things with it. Because of AR's slow decision making with the football, we aren't even completing the easy throws which could gain us some extra YAC.
Patience people. I believe Billy is going to build this thing the right way. We just need patience and like I have said before, WE CAN NOT BE THE FRICTION THAT GETS IN THE WAY OF RECRUITING!!! Support is what we need to show to get the talent back into Gainesville.
Go Gators!
- Nick Saban's first year at Bama he lost to Louisianna Monroe at home 21-14, they were 6-6 in the Sun Belt that season. They also only beat Vandy 24-10 that season as well. Bama went 7-6 and then 12-2 the next year.
- Kirby Smart first year he lost to Vanderbilt & Georgia and went 8-5 overall. Georgia then went 13-2 the next season and hasn't looked back since.
Our last two Head Coaches were able to win 10 games in their first years and then were fired really early in their tenure at Florida. We have to build this thing the right way and its gonna take patience honestly. The last staff left us really thin at a lot of positions and it is showing up on Saturdays.
Lets look at the defense yesterday. First off, the take that Patrick Toney isn't an SEC caliber DC is wild to me. After the first two weeks people were mentioning him as being a future HC soon and now he isn't an SEC quality DC. Let's stop with the reactionary takes please. We are feeling the effects of the last staffs inability to bring in quality LBs coupled with Hopper & Diabete transferring out. I just listened to Takeo Spikes talk about playing with London Fletcher and the impact in had on their defense when he hurt his hamstring and missed a game. He said they hadn't given up 100 yards rushing the entire season and then gave up 100 yards rushing before half. We are starting a 6th year Ventrell Miller and 5th year Amari Burney because we don't have anyone else behind them. What a great game plan by USF to run a ton of misdirection plays to force the young LBs Shemar James and Scooby Williams to keep eye disciplined and maintain their gaps. Guess what happened, those guys struggled to do that all night. Doesn't matter what the D-line is doing if there is always an open running lane. Billy said in his presser that he wouldn't be surprised if when he watched tape, guys weren't filling their assignments. Well they weren't. The good thing is Shemar & Scooby got a ton of reps yesterday. Now they can be taught off their mistakes. This defensive line is lacking depth in the middle but man I think they are playing well. We need need superstar LB play, we just need these guys to play the right spots/lanes. I can't wait to see what Jalen Kimber looks like when his cast is off. The kid can play. This might be the deepest the CB room has been in a while. Everyone is super rangy, long and can run. The safety spot will need to be addressed for the 2023 season. I'm hoping we get to see more Kamari Wilson & Donovan McMIllon moving forward, but with young guys we might end up with broken plays as they learn to play week in and week out. Will you guys have the patience for that?
Offensively I think we might have one of the best OL in the SEC, maybe in the country. Protection has been great and the run game has been even better. It is not secret that QB is holding us back. I'm starting to think AR has developed a mental block after the Kentucky game. He is getting much slower in his progressions and throwing the ball with hesitation which is why we are't moving the football. Maybe he is still truly learning the system because last year it seemed in Mullen's system he knew exactly what to do with the football and was quick on the trigger. The AR we saw vs LSU and the one we saw last night are two different guys. Richardson has to decide who he is gonna be at this point. Will he be Jeremy Johnson, another QB who was given the Heisman crown after a spring game at Auburn or is he gonna live up to the hype of being the next Cam Newton or Vince Young. He is looking much more on the path of Jeremy Johnson, who ended doing a whole lot of nothing at Auburn after that big spring game. The truth is this running game is very very good right now. It should be what we lean on. All we need is a QB who is a game manager at this point. We don't need this game changing QB when we have an explosive run game. We just need enough consistency through the air to force the defense to respect the pass. Right now they don't respect it at all and we are still running the football. If we had Luke Del Rio playing at QB right no we are probably 3-0 and ranked in the top 10. Shoot just look back to when Will Grier started and then got suspended. He was just a game manager. He wasn't going out there and throwing for 300 plus yards with 5 TDs. We barely beat Kentucky that season. That is who Jack Miller could easily be. But would you rather have AR take his lumps, develop and maybe end up with a big time season from a QB in 2023, or would you scrap AR as the starter and just go with the game manager type of QB at this point? We have athletes at the skill positions, we just have to get them the ball in space to do things with it. Because of AR's slow decision making with the football, we aren't even completing the easy throws which could gain us some extra YAC.
Patience people. I believe Billy is going to build this thing the right way. We just need patience and like I have said before, WE CAN NOT BE THE FRICTION THAT GETS IN THE WAY OF RECRUITING!!! Support is what we need to show to get the talent back into Gainesville.
Go Gators!
