Silver Lining...

[oozie7]

First let me say that game was beyond disappointing and embarrassing on all fronts. The play calls on offense were bad, the tackling sucked, and the sloppiness and the penalties were just ridiculous. But even with all that we found a way to win with all of the following happening:

- Had two unforced fumbles, one took points off the board the other gave Miami the ball in our territory.
- A tipped ball by our defense that somehow went from an interception to a TD for them.
- Frank's first INT came on a play with two wide open receivers and gave Miami the ball in our territory again.
- Lost the turnover battle 4-1.
- Had 100 yards in penalties.
- To end the game Miami got to run 10 plays with a chance to score and we somehow held them even though most of that was caused by our dumbass penalties.

Under normal circumstances we lose that game and probably deserved to lose this one. But we somehow found a way to win. Take it and move on.

 

[CountyGator2]

Sitting in the stadium tonight it looked like most of the game miami was up and we were going through the motions. Strange game indeed. But take the W and move on. Those aren't scrubs running around in green and orange. They have some really good players.

 

[EvilWayz]

Sitting in the stadium tonight it looked like most of the game miami was up and we were going through the motions. Strange game indeed. But take the W and move on. Those aren't scrubs running around in green and orange. They have some really good players.

More Mead for you.

 

[NorthJerseyGator]

First let me say that game was beyond disappointing and embarrassing on all fronts. The play calls on offense were bad, the tackling sucked, and the sloppiness and the penalties were just ridiculous. But even with all that we found a way to win with all of the following happening:

- Had two unforced fumbles, one took points off the board the other gave Miami the ball in our territory.
- A tipped ball by our defense that somehow went from an interception to a TD for them.
- Frank's first INT came on a play with two wide open receivers and gave Miami the ball in our territory again.
- Lost the turnover battle 4-1.
- Had 100 yards in penalties.
- To end the game Miami got to run 10 plays with a chance to score and we somehow held them even though most of that was caused by our dumbass penalties.

Under normal circumstances we lose that game and probably deserved to lose this one. But we somehow found a way to win. Take it and move on.

Great summary. It was so ridiculous the last half of the 4th quarter that I mentally just said I quit and was ok with letting Miami win....between our dumbass plays, dumbass players, and dumbass refs I threw in the towel and was too flabbergasted to continue....I was ready for another Florida Flop, except this time to let them just win and end the ridiculousness......but then we won after all that shit of all 4 quarters so I guess we have some will in us due to coaches. Unheard of to win with 4-1 turnovers and over 100 yards of penalties and to constantly screw ourselves all night like we did.

 

[oozie7]

And several players suspended too.

Still no excuse for that shitshow but everything set up ripe for a loss and they somehow managed to win. They deserved to lose in all honesty. That last drive with all the penalties was just ridiculous.

 

[gatorbuilderorlando]

100% on all fronts - agreed.

Take the win. You NEVER win these games and yet we still did somehow. Even in the last 60 seconds, penalty after penalty we just kept giving them chances - insanity.

The thing that gives me hope: clean up tackling and unforced errors and we are MUCH better. And those are things that can be corrected. The talent is there. College football isn't usually this forgiving so I'm happy from that perspective. Usually you pay for a game like this with the L.

 

[NorthJerseyGator]

100% on all fronts - agreed.

Take the win. You NEVER win these games and yet we still did somehow. Even in the last 60 seconds, penalty after penalty we just kept giving them chances - insanity.

The thing that gives me hope: clean up tackling and unforced errors and we are MUCH better. And those are things that can be corrected. The talent is there. College football isn't usually this forgiving so I'm happy from that perspective. Usually you pay for a game like this with the L.

That's the thing, when we weren't f*cking ourselves over on both offense and defense we actually played well.....Franks delivered when needed to and defense delivered when needed to throughout the game. Again, that's removing half of the game where we threw the ball away on offense via fumbles and INT and handicapped ourselves on offense with reverse psychology playcalling that didnt work or threw yards away on defense via penalties.

Remove all that shit (again which was like half the game because we did that shit on O and D throughout the entire game) and we delivered on both sides of the ball with drives on O and pressure/disruption on D.

Even though it looked like we should have lost because of all that foolishness, we actually CONTROLLED the entire game on both sides of the ball. When we screwed up Miami got points, when we didn't, Miami didn't do shit on either side of the ball. I know that sounds like typical homer speak but in a wackass shitty, ugly way we actually controlled most of the game. I know playing shitty happens to every team and Miami is decent squad but if we executed just average we win by 17 points easily. Miami didnt do shit except play off our mistakes. They imposed no will on either side of the ball vs our O or our D.

That to me seems to be the best takeaway after sleeping on it because before I went to bed last night I was much more pissed than I am now........was an oddly unsatisfying W considering it was against a rival and was opening game......just wanted us to blowout them out and was pissed that I had to be on edge with game in doubt throughout......Franks wasn't perfect but he delivered when needed to, that is great. Pass rush delivered all game too, they didn't let up after secondary kept sabotaging them much of the game.

 

[kb851]

Both teams made major mistakes

Gators were more mental, Miami more physical and game management

Miami had a hold that called back a near TD run
They had the fumbled punt
Missed FG

Their other mistakes were timing and play penalties

Florida had two unforced fumbles and two unforced interceptions...huge
Has an inexplicable pass interference on 4th and 34 when letting Miami catch the 25 yard pass ends the game
Three personal fouls that were like turnovers too

All of the Gator mistakes are fixable and our kids will be very tough to beat

 

[Gator Fever]

I am glad they had a left tackle that didn't know to move when the ball was snapped in that game.

 

[Dawgs_74]

Gonna be such a great year, I cant wait until october

 

[LizardGrad89]

That's the thing, when we weren't f*cking ourselves over on both offense and defense we actually played well.....Franks delivered when needed to and defense delivered when needed to throughout the game. Again, that's removing half of the game where we threw the ball away on offense via fumbles and INT and handicapped ourselves on offense with reverse psychology playcalling that didnt work or threw yards away on defense via penalties.

Remove all that shit (again which was like half the game because we did that shit on O and D throughout the entire game) and we delivered on both sides of the ball with drives on O and pressure/disruption on D.

Even though it looked like we should have lost because of all that foolishness, we actually CONTROLLED the entire game on both sides of the ball. When we screwed up Miami got points, when we didn't, Miami didn't do shit on either side of the ball. I know that sounds like typical homer speak but in a wackass shitty, ugly way we actually controlled most of the game. I know playing shitty happens to every team and Miami is decent squad but if we executed just average we win by 17 points easily. Miami didnt do shit except play off our mistakes. They imposed no will on either side of the ball vs our O or our D.

That to me seems to be the best takeaway after sleeping on it because before I went to bed last night I was much more pissed than I am now........was an oddly unsatisfying W considering it was against a rival and was opening game......just wanted us to blowout them out and was pissed that I had to be on edge with game in doubt throughout......Franks wasn't perfect but he delivered when needed to, that is great. Pass rush delivered all game too, they didn't let up after secondary kept sabotaging them much of the game.

Reverse psychology playcalling. That's a really excellent insight.

Thinking about the game with that in mind, it becomes evident that UF thought, because we have so many returning really good WR's, and they had three new starters in the secondary, that Miami would play loose to give some help to the back, which would open up running lanes for us. Except Miami played to stop the run anyway and so we played right into their hands.

And here's the problem I have with that. Not with your insight, which, as I said, is solid, but with our playcalling.

That kind of thinking is for traditional offenses. You set up a game plan and you follow it. Our offense is supposed to evolve constantly based on what the defense gives us. So in this scenario Mullen not only called a poor game, but he went in with a preconception of what was going to happen and didn't adjust based on what was going on in the game. That's not a Mullen offense, that's an Addazio offense. If he's going to call an Addazio offense, we might as well start thinking about Houston or Memphis as likely bowl trips this year.

 

[NorthJerseyGator]

Reverse psychology playcalling. That's a really excellent insight.

Thinking about the game with that in mind, it becomes evident that UF thought, because we have so many returning really good WR's, and they had three new starters in the secondary, that Miami would play loose to give some help to the back, which would open up running lanes for us. Except Miami played to stop the run anyway and so we played right into their hands.

And here's the problem I have with that. Not with your insight, which, as I said, is solid, but with our playcalling.

That kind of thinking is for traditional offenses. You set up a game plan and you follow it. Our offense is supposed to evolve constantly based on what the defense gives us. So in this scenario Mullen not only called a poor game, but he went in with a preconception of what was going to happen and didn't adjust based on what was going on in the game. That's not a Mullen offense, that's an Addazio offense. If he's going to call an Addazio offense, we might as well start thinking about Houston or Memphis as likely bowl trips this year.

Instead of spending 9 months perfecting Franks and the regular Mullen offense, which is what we all thought was happening the past 9 months, Mullen apparently spent the last 9 months thinking, "shit, Diaz knows me, knows my offense, knows my playcalling, knows my tendencies....I need to outmastermind his mastermindedness and really make our offense like nothing we've done before....." Offense looked like Mullen overthought it, and Diaz just kept it simple on his part and almost won due to Mullen's gaffes.

I could maybe understand Mullen doing this in a 1 week prep midseason after there being tons of season film in our offense but to do this shit after 9 months of prep? His spread option offense should have been running on all cylinders seamlessly with Franks after a full season and then 9 months prep for this one game. Instead we had under center, bunch formations for the first 2/3 of the game.

Through it all, between last season and last night, under Mullen the team sure as hell don't quit......we've had multiple come from behind wins under Mullen after shit ass play putting us in the hole and both offense and defense just get focused and deliver. But we don't want to live like that as fans, haha.

 

[TennesseeGator]

We rarely are the favorites when we play them. When we are the rare favorites, we still lose.

This is a program we have only beat one time since 1986. A program we were 0-2 against in neutral sites.

I'm glad we got the W.


On a side note Mullen adjusts after bad games. Last year we lost to Uk, bounced back to stomp UT. We crap the bed vs Missouri... bounce back to win all games forward. I guarantee he will have them much more crisp in the next few games.

 

[PacoGator19]

We won after committing 4 TOs and not coming up with any of what seemed like 4 Miami fumbles.

 

[NavigatorII]

We won after committing 4 TOs and not coming up with any of what seemed like 4 Miami fumbles.

I believe I counted 10 balls on the ground and Gators got one of them. I'd have to watch the replay to be sure but it sure seemed like it.

 

[grommit]

The silver lining to me is that we know what we have to start working on a week earlier than anyone else does this year. We've seen how bad it can get and we have a long list to get working on asap. We also have 2 weeks now to work on those issues before we see the field again, everyone else starts the season next week and goes from there. That first game will be a complete tune up game as well and we'll get another week after that to practice more. Before we actually head to Kentucky for our first SEC matchup, we will have had almost a whole month of playing time and practice to fix our problems.

We won a game where we knew our offensive line was our biggest liability and we went up against the toughest defensive front we will see this entire season. It wasn't pretty and 52 yards rushing is rather sad, but the only direction to go from here is up. Each week that O line will get better.

Basically we have a head start on working out our problems and getting better vs everyone else. Many of these problems were self inflicted like the 80 yards in penalties in the 4th quarter. Take that away alone and we would have probably beaten Miami by 14 or 17 points as it deprived us of 2 or 3 more drives by keeping Miami on the field. No excuse for those penalties and you can coach that up.

Only serious problem we have is a coach who refuses to bench Franks no matter how badly he plays. Spurrier pretty much couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Franks still going out onto the field even after committing 4 turnovers all by himself. The rest of the country is scratching its head wondering why Florida doesn't have any back up QBs on it's roster.

 

[oozie7]

Franks was not an issue last night. Everyone is just piling on. Mullen had a far worse game as a playcaller than Franks did as a QB. The two fumbles were not on him and that interception at the end of the game is all on Mullen. It should not have been called and the play design sucked on top of that. He took responsibility for it after the game as he should have. That call was a damn near fireable offense.

 

[grommit]

We won after committing 4 TOs and not coming up with any of what seemed like 4 Miami fumbles.

We committed 4 turnovers, our brand new O line was limited to giving us only 52 yards rushing on the game, and we gave up 80 yards in penalties in the 4th quarter alone. All against a team that traditionally always gets the best of us and had the weight of 5 national championships motivating them last night.

As ugly as it was, this win was very welcome, no matter how it came. Little to no injuries as far as I know as well. Last year we finally got that Michigan huckleberry off of our backs. Now in game 0 this year, we have exorcised a bit of that Miami demon which haunts us so well. Should be feeling just fine today and screw whatever the haters have to think on it all.

 

[oozie7]

According to advanced metrics our Miami's turnover luck of +3.5 was worth 14-17 points. It's really crazy. They fumbled 4 times and recovered all of them.

Meanwhile we had fumbles that were obvious recoveries by us given to them, tipped balls that should have been intercepted going for TD's for them and a whole bunch of other BS. Everything that could go wrong did and we found a way to win.

 

[TennesseeGator]

A Butters coached team and most of Muschamp coached teams would have laid down and lost unless it was UK or UT. Miami will go multiple years before they beat a UF team. 2-1 the last 3 matchups. They play that card. Now it's our turn.

 

[fsumc]

As a Nole I enjoyed the sloppy play of both teams. But in all honesty the UF issues are correctable for the most part. So long as your players stop being idiots. Easier said than done with dudes this age. 10 sacks is unheard of though. That’s some 1960s football type stat line. Miami has some major flaws on that line that are going to be overlooked because you let them stay in the game. They have a sense of undue optimism because of this game. But a 4-1 turnover margin should have been a win. Their schedule is charmin soft from here out but so is their OL. They will not be able to run the table through the conference like many of them predicted.

 

[EvilWayz]

I feel like the ten sacks were due largely to the repeated interference penalties.

I also think if that hadn't been his first start and he wasn't a freshman, the game could have quite easily gone the other way. All of his mistakes were due to never having a goal line stand under his belt.

 

[ifuaintagatorumustbegatorbait]

“A Butters coached team and most of Muschamp coached teams would have laid down and lost unless it was UK or UT.”

I was thinking the exact same thing TG after the game. There’s no way in hell we would have shown the poise and resiliency to win that game with Mac or Boom. Just like the Vandy game last year, there’s something about Mullen that makes these kids play to the final whistle. I really love watching a game knowing the team won’t quit on the fans or the coaches no matter the adversity.

 

[gatordad3]

A Butters coached team and most of Muschamp coached teams would have laid down and lost unless it was UK or UT. Miami will go multiple years before they beat a UF team. 2-1 the last 3 matchups. They play that card. Now it's our turn.

Not much of a big deal, but Miami is 1-2 vs Florida since joining the ACC.

 

[gatorbuilderorlando]

Re-watched the game and wasn't as disappointed as live. I think I expected to just roll on from the last 4 games into this year without a skip. Truth is this is a different team and the first game wasn't Towson State. UM had a top 3 defense returning and we rushed for 50 yards all night - add in the highly improbable 4 turnovers and the win - I'll take it.

Felt much better about the effort after a re-watch. Clean up the tackling/TOs and we win by 20+...as most of us expected coming into the game. This team does have potential but tempered expectations going into game 1 would have made for a more enjoyable watch.

 

[gatorbuilderorlando]

Oh yeah - and we're 2-1 vs. Scum over the last 11 years - so a big time streak is rolling!

 

[oozie7]

Well I told everybody it would be close. A lot of people underestimated their defense. I'm not upset the game was close, I'm upset we played so sloppy. But at the end of the day a win is a win. We played as bad as we could play and pulled it out. Thankfully most of the issues are correctable.

 

[LakerGator]

First let me say that game was beyond disappointing and embarrassing on all fronts. The play calls on offense were bad, the tackling sucked, and the sloppiness and the penalties were just ridiculous. But even with all that we found a way to win with all of the following happening:

- Had two unforced fumbles, one took points off the board the other gave Miami the ball in our territory.
- A tipped ball by our defense that somehow went from an interception to a TD for them.
- Frank's first INT came on a play with two wide open receivers and gave Miami the ball in our territory again.
- Lost the turnover battle 4-1.
- Had 100 yards in penalties.
- To end the game Miami got to run 10 plays with a chance to score and we somehow held them even though most of that was caused by our dumbass penalties.

Under normal circumstances we lose that game and probably deserved to lose this one. But we somehow found a way to win. Take it and move on.

I guess 10 sacks the most in years isn’t worthy of your list? Constant pressure on the scU.M. QB all night? Embarrassing is harsh given we won. You know nothing of Gator history my friend. Losses to a Div. 2 team is embarrassing, beating a U.M. team with a much hyped defense is not.

 

[CountyGator2]

Well I told everybody it would be close. A lot of people underestimated their defense. I'm not upset the game was close, I'm upset we played so sloppy. But at the end of the day a win is a win. We played as bad as we could play and pulled it out. Thankfully most of the issues are correctable.

One thing I think is being overlooked, is we had everything to lose and Miami had nothing to lose. They were dogs, in a stadium that they knew would be majority Gator, not ranked, new coach, etc. We seemed to play tight and not to lose at times.

 

[superdawg51]

Franks was not an issue last night. Everyone is just piling on. Mullen had a far worse game as a playcaller than Franks did as a QB. The two fumbles were not on him and that interception at the end of the game is all on Mullen. It should not have been called and the play design sucked on top of that. He took responsibility for it after the game as he should have. That call was a damn near fireable offense.

The INT was on Mullen? So delusional.

 

[sadgator]

Florida’s defensive effort was really good. They coulda mailed it in so many times in the 4th, and they didn’t...played hard all the way to the end.

Mullen might want to do some loose ball drills over the next two weeks....

 

[sadgator]

Anybody have any doubt that we lose that game if Mac is the coach?

 

[NorthJerseyGator]

Anybody have any doubt that we lose that game if Mac is the coach?

Most definitely. Defense would have been soft, mentally and physically, and out of shape in 4th quarter.

 

[oozie7]

The INT was on Mullen? So delusional.

100% for putting him in that situation. The call was reckless. At least if you’re going to throw make it a safe pass that you can complete and keep the clock running. Not try to run a kill shot play when you’re up 4 backed up in your own territory needing to run clock.

 

[SwampMaster]

100% for putting him in that situation. The call was reckless. At least if you’re going to throw make it a safe pass that you can complete and keep the clock running. Not try to run a kill shot play when you’re up 4 backed up in your own territory needing to run clock.

I wish we had hidden camera footage in gator households for that play. I bet the family pets took coverage. I wanted to smash the tv.

 

[gatordad3]

Anybody have any doubt that we lose that game if Mac is the coach?

If Butters had another season, Franks either would have transferred before the 2018 season.