It’s nothing to write home about, but yet another win. For the statisticians, that’s 10-0 and 20 in a row overall. You may not like how they go about it, but Florida keeps winning. Curse the television all you want, but beating South Carolina means the Gators will go undefeated in the SEC in the regular season. And oh yeah, that didn’t happen in either of the last two national championship seasons. Remember you could be a USC fan having just got done watching them get plastered by Stanford.In his last regular season SEC game, Tim Tebow accounted for one touchdown through the air, another on the ground, and two phantom scores to Riley Cooper. Cooper’s an outfielder right? Coming down may hurt, but lay out on one of those and make a play. Tebow is now 1 rushing touchdown away from tying Herschel Walker’s plus bowl games record. With 4 games left, it should be no problem for #15.
10 games in and we’re still trying to find out exactly what the running back plan is. Sounds a little like USF, except of course the fact that Florida is undefeated and #1. Jeff Demps, 9 carries. Chris Rainey, 6 carries. Emmanuel Moody, 3 carries. Brandon James, 1 carry. Whatever gets the win I guess. At one point there was actually a drive where Moody scored a rushing touchdown (his first of the year) and only a few plays earlier, Omarius Hines caught a pass. For a second, I thought it was my birthday. Not only did Hines catch 1 pass, he actually caught 2. The announcers were so kind to inform us that Hines’ first catch of the game was his first of the season. I’m so kind to inform them they were wrong. It was his eighth of the season, but why should they know that, it’s only their job.
Blitz was the word of the day. As in, the Gators still have trouble stopping the blitz and Florida’s defense blitzed too much. There are play designs in which the blitzer is supposed to be allowed a free path. I understand that. Maybe a quick slant or stop. Something in which the ball is supposed to get out of the quarterback’s hands almost immediately. Unfortunately for Florida, the blitz seems to fluster Tebow enough that it stalls the entire offense at times. On the other side of the ball, Charlie Strong and company decided to bring the heat themselves. For three quarters, it worked in a very limited manor. For the most part, it seemed to cause coverage problems when an extra player was putting pressure on the quarterback. In the fourth quarter, Strong softened up and only called for the blitz strategically. Holding back somehow resulted in the defensive line getting pressure and Jermaine Cunningham entering beast mode. Definitely one of those times I’m patting myself on the back for being an absolutely outstanding couch coach.
Our game ball goes to Justin Trattou because without that interception and subsequent 53-yard return, the game could’ve been a lot more interesting that it already was. Interesting makes for good television, but big wins are comfortable and keep me from chugging Pepto. Trattou’s pick was followed by a collectively sigh of relief from the Gator fan base. It was the “phew, we’re going to win another one” moment of the day.
So it’s 10-0 now. Through the conference unscathed. Back to Gainesville for 2 home games before heading to Atlanta and then beyond. And for good measure, remember, when you look back at 2006 (another season where there was plenty of complaining about the offense…and the defense for that matter) all you recall is Florida hosting the national championship trophy at the end of the season.
5 comments:
We definitely struggled again this game, but I felt that we palyed a LOT better than we did in some of our other struggles -- namely Arkansas and Miss St. There was a couple of plays that we could have made that would have blown this game open (namely the Riley Cooper wide open TD throws) but we just couldn't convert. Still feel like we get a little tight inside the 20 and on 3rd and 4th and short, but I didn't feel as bad about this game as others. Maybe b/c this was the game that I thought could trip us up from the very beginning of the season and b/c South Carolina is better than their record shows. Or maybe b/c I am at that point in the season where I realize we are what we are. We are not going to win any with stlye points, but lets just win the f-ing game and go to the next one.
PS -- others might be angry at how we are winning, but if someone told you that we would be going into our 11th game without establishing a true #1 WR, having Tebow get sacked more than he has the past 3 seasons, having Spikes out multiple games due to injury/suspension, not being able to convert inside the 20 to save our lives, and still be 10-0 and #1 in the country I would have said sign me up! So I guess I can't bitch too much.
I just got home from SC. I have to say, their crowd was very loud, really impressive. Thank god we pulled out the W...that was an awful drive lol. All I have to say to everyone is WE WON. Be happy. we are 1 still. who cares about anything else. When kickoff takes place next saturday, we all will just be focused on that game...even if it is against FIU, and will have forgotten all about this. But gotta admit...felt like the game was going to turn, until Garcia gave it away.
By the way...when I posted about leavitt being fired, I was actually referring to Strong going to USF...the more i think about it, the better it sounds. Heck, if he can be remotely tied to a job like UCF, then USF would be a huge step up from that and could be feasible. I havent looked at how much Leavitt would be owed though. Thoughts?
10-0. 10-0. 10-0. All that matters. 10-0. Don't worry about anything else, but getting to 11-0. Worry about #12 once #11 is over.
I like the Strong to USF idea, but here's my thinking. If (big IF, we know it's probably not happening soon) the Bulls were to make a change, I would vote to keep Tresey as DC and go for an offensive minded head coach. As much as I like Strong, USF needs an offensive identity. I think Tresey could be a good longer term solution managing the D, so go after someone for HC that can get points on the board consistently.
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