There's no sugar coating how tough this loss was. Big game and bigger recruiting implications. Home field makes it sting a bit more. Offensively, I continue to see progress. Minimal sometimes but progress. The O-line looked solid, considering they were playing without arguably our best guy in Torrence. I still see Billy keeping things somewhat vanilla while they build depth. 185 yds passing and 210 rushing. Take away the opening touchdown pass to Shorter and Ant's TD scramble and the numbers are bleak. 134 passing and 129 rushing. Still, 35 points is 35 points. Defensively we need serious work. Fundamentals too. Tackling, timing, gap integrity, playing more physical. Imo it's a 3 headed beast. Coaching, scheme and effort. It's year 1. CBN is recruiting very well. It's clear there will be some serious movement when the season ends. Between portal activity, position battles and croot'n I expect a very different team at this point next year. Dont forget with only a handful of starts under his belt, AR is still developing himself. Kitna and Miller will have a much better grasp on Nape's system by game 1 next year and I would expect a legit QB battle to ensue in the spring. A transfer QB could really shake things up. We shall see. Special teams was the star of the show. The bye should get us as ready as we can be for what will be our biggest test. Can we step up and be Georgia's Tenn? Remember, its year 1 under Billy. Just like adjustments at the half, there will be adjustments after the season. Year 2 will be huge for recruiting and development. Year 3 could be really good IF, IF we pull it all together. Win or lose, support our boys! Go Gators!!!!
Thanks again @thekentuckygator for another concise and well-written summary! Nothing left to say except I agree.
I fear we have another Grantham-like problem on our hands...only worse. Our DC is clearly over his head and the Mullen-like question of the year is "Will Napier do anything about it"?
Great summary...the offense IS improving. If there is a problem with the offense, its the fact that they are not getting possessions thanks to the Defense's third-and-whatever rate of conversions. We currently average 6.4 yds per play which is good enough to be tied for 23rd in the Country (with, ironically, FSU). Our last three games have average 6.6 ypp, so we are trending up, in a sense. For plays per game, we are 125th! If we had more plays, I speculate we'd have better offensive numbers in terms of total yards (including the QB). It also would allow the offense to get more into the groove. We need to get the defense off the field after third down!! That is compounding our problems! Just my $.02
This is something I have been aware of and while I hope the staff is dynamic and flexible as they purport to be it appears any in game let alone in season adaptations aren't happening. We seem to be on the short end of halftime adjustments most of the time which Is concerning.
I think having serious concerns about the defensive coaching is legitimate at this point. To not admit there is some kind of problem is ignoring reality. Even with being down a bit in talent, there is no way we should be dead last in any NCAA defensive category.
Sean Spencer is the co-defensive coordinator. He had much experience in both NFL and college. The idea that Toney is doing this all on his own with any meaningful experience is just not accurate. There is also Batemen in the mix. I myself will reserve judgement until the year is over. There is nothing we can do now and no point in grinding over how bad the D is at this time. I agree we shouldn't be this bad but i believe there is still time for improvement, and we need to see after the year is over what CBN does or says about his plan going forward.
Patience is tough to come by when the defense has been so bad for so long…but I do agree that it’s too early to make any overarching assessments.
You've beaten this dead horse to pieces with constant . . . well, it almost seems like bashing at this point. We get it. So does Coach Napier, I'm sure.
Game already exposed what we already knew... we need to upgrade the wr/cb/s rooms. Say whatever you want about that operation in baton rouge, but they have ATHLETES at wr. Shorter/Henderson/Pearsall are good, but there's no one on the roster who can take the top off a defense. I like the pass rush honestly, but sometimes they don't keep containment or finish off plays/sacks. Pass rush performed better then Bama against Tennessee.
The coaches see the same thing we do. I refuse to think any coach is looking at the film and saying, "yea, that's exactly how I want that route to be played" when our guy is so far off it is impossible to make a play. They have to at least try something drastically different. Shake up the lineup, go to a bear front, bring extra men... anything, just no more of the same on all downs. The desired scheme has shown it does not work with this group of players. I'd say it has been death by a thousand cuts, but we're giving up such big chunk yardage that would be inaccurate (more like 10 cuts, lol).
That’s true but they were scoring over 40 points a game. Exciting football to watch basically. Watching us is like watching a train wreck happening. Just different
It is painful to watch but we have played a tougher schedule. I recall that last year their defense was bad. Ours this year is historically bad - LSU may have had a breakthrough game but it is puzzling how we could be this bad.
Spurrier said the same thing on (every ones favorite /sarcasm/) Pat Dooleys podcast Monday morning. He said we are last in the nation in 3rd down defense and we must do something different. He said he would be in every defensive coaches meeting to try and help fix it. He told a story (Shane Matthews ...who btw blames the players 100% and 0% on coaching? In college? WTH...and another pundit said changing schemes mid-season never works) while coaching at Duke after continually getting waxed by other more talented teams. Spurrier said they changed mid-season to an 8 man front and won their remaining games.
I feel similarly, but I hope it doesn't negatively affect recruiting. There's been a problem with the defense, so I question whether there's a quick fix. My suspicion is that McElwain and Mullen caused the issue with our defense that will require a few more recruiting cycles. Would any of our defensive players even start for Georgia? With that said, the game with LSU was winnable if the defense had made a few stops on third down. As well, the offense was trying to convert on third down too much. AR has improved his footwork but still makes too many off-balance throws. Teams are trying to beg AR to beat them with his arm, and he could have succeeded with a little help from his friends on defense. New thought: and I blame the current coaching staff. There's no sense of urgency when we are behind and we need to have a hurry up offense. The OFFENSE IS TOO DAMN METHODICAL! The hell with making shifts in the offense and the quarterback waiting for a play to be called in from the sideline. We are losing anyway, so be damned with precautions! Surely, they could have executed plays more quickly on offense when they were behind? I like Napier, but, honestly, he's slowing the offense down and making too many predictable play calls!
I believe at this stage of the rebuild, with the players he currently has, he is keeping things "within current developmental range". I think as depth and scheme familiarity improves he will open things up more. We are simply not there yet.
