Well done. Good read. Like it. Why is the defense going to be night and day better? Well, we cannot be much worse, so the bar is low, so to speak. Additionally, there is much BETTER depth on dline than the 22 dline. And finally, two words.....Austin Armstrong. P Toney is a good guy, and I thank him for his time and wish him success in the NFL. No, I will not miss him for one millisecond in 23. Set that one in stone.
Interesting if not factually depressing Matt. This encapsulates Gator Nation's QB concerns about 23. It's why I am hoping for a 6-6 regular season. The fact is, most good teams are decent passing and rushing. Can't pass? Stack the box. Can't run? Pressure or put more bodies in the defensive backfield.
Anyone who witnessed the LSU game last year knows the horror of which I write. I was behind the LSU bench, and their offense came off the field, after scoring a TD, of course, repeatedly just LAUGHING cause we were not making any adjustments on defense. They ran motion, realized our coverage when we blindly followed, and their QB had a field day that evening taking candy from a baby.
Well this certainly got off track. Getting back to the original thread question, comparing UF in May 2023 to May 2022. In my opinion all of them will be one year older.
The team was awful last year due to the defense. Offensively Florida was top 25 nationally. If the defense was even mediocre we would have been near top 25, of the defense was top 50 we could have been top 15. Point being blaming the best player on the best unit for the teams record when we had a historically awful D seems a bit shortsighted
If Mertz gets those numbers ARs final season numbers would have almost certainly been superior. Of course there are nuances because it does depend on how those numbers are built. And Mertz rushing, if he is negative then that’s definitely a detractor. If he gets 3500, 30 and 10 we should be around a top 25 offense. Just like last year. Again not good enough but the improvement in record will be all about whether the D dramatically improves But even if Mertz undershoots AR and we end up 40th offensively…the team should improve due to D. It should be pretty easy for UF to go from “one of the worst ever” to “below average” on defense. If they can even get to average that is worth more than any realistic gap between AR and Mertz
Get off ride, your current thoughts are outside the discussion. There is no need to rehash the stat diatribe its a realm best reserved for agents and handlers. The next UF QB will preform better regardless of stats if he posts a record of 7-6 or better and/or the total offensive point production is more than 2022. people Im sure the Colt message boards are eager to receive your cutting edge defense/analysis of their QB position in 2023.
Agreed, but there was that one time when the D played well enough to win and the offense stunk it up.
Good points all — but regarding the effusive praise for AR after Utah, the dude was a rock star. I don’t know how many “Richardson - OMG!” texts I got from friends and family who aren’t even big Gator fans during and after that game. If AR played like that in other games last season we wouldn’t be having these discussions and we damn sure would have won more than we lost. Unfortunately for that particular version of AR, the Utah game was pretty much a one-&-done
22 outfit was just inconsistent. When the offense played well the defense stunk and vice versa. Special teams was nonexistant. The narrative going into this year would be so different if UF continued to play well after USCe and tamu but the team went the other direction. But I'm cautiously optimistic. The heat is already on CBN, given the impatient nature of the fan base, hopefully we win 7 in the regular season but looking at the schedule, nothing is a given. We have a huge roster change and a ton of youth. Hopefully the offensive line and the running game click well. Key to the offense I suspect this coming season. I don't think Gator Nation can take a fourth consecutive year of a defense that stinks. That simply must change.
QB- worse; there is simply no replacing the AR x-factor regardless of his passing production RB- better WR- better. Pearsall comes back and we get an infusion of SPEED. TE- even or better; non-existent in 2022 so nowhere to go but up OL- worse. Hard to lose someone like O'Cyrus and believe you will be better. DL- better because it can't be worse than 2022 LB- better because it can't be worse than 2022 DB- better because it can't be worse than 2022 P- better; another year of experience for the Craw K- better; another year of experience for whoever is gonna kick Special Teams- bad until they have a dedicated coach. Did we get one? If so better. If not BAD, BAD, BAD.
O'Cyrus was a beast and it was a privaledge to watch him work. Some say he is replacable by one of the transfers, I will have to SEE that to BELIEVE that.
AR had a pretty good game against FSU and Tennessee also but you are right, there weren’t very many all out efforts like that. When AR decides to go beast mode, he’s a different animal. His qb skills are very raw though and I’m sure he realized he wouldn’t last long if he didn’t work on his pocket skills.
Not meaning to be contrarian, but we were ranked 36th in total offense. Oklahoma, Arizona and even Kansas had higher ranked offenses yet finished with losing records last year. It's not like we were unique...
Lol, if we were 25th in offense and defense, it’s likely we would be ranked near 25. That still sucks. I
