What if? After a ho-hum kind of win at Missouri this week, I feel like this season might be summed up with a lot of “what if” questions. There is very little to be upset about if we’re all being realistic with ourselves based on expectations coming into this year and where we were only 24 months ago. The Gators are sitting at 9-2 with a bye week ahead and a home date with coach-less and directionless FSU coming in after that in what is plainly said a must win for Dan Mullen and company. Saturday’s game is not one any of us will remember for its importance or any standout performances by individual players, but it was a road SEC win against a team who had beaten the Gators twice in a row. These things a few years ago were much harder to come by, but how quickly we all forget.
UF opened the game with the ball and had a nice drive moving until taking negative plays (theme of the day) had us settle for a long field goal attempt. Good to see McPherson connect there as he has been consistent but without a ton of opportunity this year. The whole first half was just sleepy for both teams – I don’t know what the SEC record for punt yardage in a half is, but we had to give it a run. The Missouri offense did a whole lot of nothing save a couple plays on one drive, and the Florida offense continued to move the ball with zero run game (save a Toney reverse…which we maybe want to see more than 1 per month of) but seemed to be most adept at directing the barrel at our own foot to kill drives with sacks, penalties, or huge losses of some other kind.
Emory Jones usage was significantly higher in this game, but still head scratching. When he’s in there, somehow we can magically run the ball. Novel concept I know, but somehow he’s pulled or put in at the strangest times. Of all things Dan Mullen does that just absolutely amaze me (in a good way) this is one area that I just will never understand.
Go into the half at 6-3 and our 2nd half team shows up. Dan straight abandoned the run at this point and it worked, with the Gators taking control from here on. The game was never really in doubt, even in the first half with things close we always had control of things from what I saw. Trask put up another pedestrian day (for him, that’s what these are) of 200+ and 2 TDs. In the first half, I thought he struggled some and missed a few receivers and reads, one being a wide open Grimes for a TD on a 3rd a short. The only player that was consistent was Jon Greenard. He has been in O&B for all of 11 games and I just love the guy – plays hit butt off, interviews are fantastic, and just seems to be a leader. I wish we had him for another year.
Our day ended with Auburn going straight Gus on us and somehow giving UGA a win. Fromm at one point had 3 TDs and 110 yards passing. You don’t see that stat line all too often. At this point we’re left to hope for some chaos above us to put us into a New Years Six bowl game and another top 10 poll finish if we can take care of business. That is nothing to shake your head at with where we’ve been all too recently, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow with what was available to us only 3 weeks ago before the UGA game.
So, what if?
What if Felipe doesn’t get hurt? (This is a 37 page thread on its own…but none of us have an answer. Are we really better now? Are we WAY better now?)
What if we have Greenard/Zuniga healthy for the whole year? (To me this is the biggest one. Those two change everything.)
What if the hold on Tyrie Cleveland gets called at LSU?
What is Cager’s non catch isn’t a catch?
There are several more that could be added to that list – but looking back on this season I wonder what we’ll say. Is it a “what if?” or is it just the precursor for a run we all want to see. Who knows, maybe this time next year we’re sitting at 10-0 and Emory Jones is on pace for a Tebow-esque 20/20 year. I really feel that anything is possible right now with this program. For one, I’m going to enjoy the ride and be thankful that Dan Mullen is the guy behind the wheel.
UF opened the game with the ball and had a nice drive moving until taking negative plays (theme of the day) had us settle for a long field goal attempt. Good to see McPherson connect there as he has been consistent but without a ton of opportunity this year. The whole first half was just sleepy for both teams – I don’t know what the SEC record for punt yardage in a half is, but we had to give it a run. The Missouri offense did a whole lot of nothing save a couple plays on one drive, and the Florida offense continued to move the ball with zero run game (save a Toney reverse…which we maybe want to see more than 1 per month of) but seemed to be most adept at directing the barrel at our own foot to kill drives with sacks, penalties, or huge losses of some other kind.
Emory Jones usage was significantly higher in this game, but still head scratching. When he’s in there, somehow we can magically run the ball. Novel concept I know, but somehow he’s pulled or put in at the strangest times. Of all things Dan Mullen does that just absolutely amaze me (in a good way) this is one area that I just will never understand.
Go into the half at 6-3 and our 2nd half team shows up. Dan straight abandoned the run at this point and it worked, with the Gators taking control from here on. The game was never really in doubt, even in the first half with things close we always had control of things from what I saw. Trask put up another pedestrian day (for him, that’s what these are) of 200+ and 2 TDs. In the first half, I thought he struggled some and missed a few receivers and reads, one being a wide open Grimes for a TD on a 3rd a short. The only player that was consistent was Jon Greenard. He has been in O&B for all of 11 games and I just love the guy – plays hit butt off, interviews are fantastic, and just seems to be a leader. I wish we had him for another year.
Our day ended with Auburn going straight Gus on us and somehow giving UGA a win. Fromm at one point had 3 TDs and 110 yards passing. You don’t see that stat line all too often. At this point we’re left to hope for some chaos above us to put us into a New Years Six bowl game and another top 10 poll finish if we can take care of business. That is nothing to shake your head at with where we’ve been all too recently, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow with what was available to us only 3 weeks ago before the UGA game.
So, what if?
What if Felipe doesn’t get hurt? (This is a 37 page thread on its own…but none of us have an answer. Are we really better now? Are we WAY better now?)
What if we have Greenard/Zuniga healthy for the whole year? (To me this is the biggest one. Those two change everything.)
What if the hold on Tyrie Cleveland gets called at LSU?
What is Cager’s non catch isn’t a catch?
There are several more that could be added to that list – but looking back on this season I wonder what we’ll say. Is it a “what if?” or is it just the precursor for a run we all want to see. Who knows, maybe this time next year we’re sitting at 10-0 and Emory Jones is on pace for a Tebow-esque 20/20 year. I really feel that anything is possible right now with this program. For one, I’m going to enjoy the ride and be thankful that Dan Mullen is the guy behind the wheel.
