Can somebody just go ahead and post a Molly Hatchet vid of "Gator Country" this morning? Ya'll gettin me FIRED UP!
Im excited to see us finally have a return on special teams (punt or kickoff...dont care just no fair catch for god sakes). Excited to see pressure on the opposing teams punter and a blocked punt. Excited to see a special teams coach who has a frickin clue (did we get rid of the last guy who was coordinating our special teams by the way). Excited to see our running backs get screen passes consistently and help get rid of the 8 man in the box defenses we seem to face. Excited to see if we know how to manage the last minute of any half. Excited to see if we quit running the wide receiver screen which encourages 8 men in the box and a minus 3 yard play leaving the team in 3rd and long. Excited to see a defensive coordinator who understands we shouldn't be 15 yards off the ball back pedaling when its 3rd and 7. Lots of room for improvement this year...
Looking for signs of improvement in all three phases. Execution, fundamentals, toughness, discipline. Skipping ahead, also looking forward to that 2024 recruiting class and beyond.
Great defense is when watching football gets really fun. I'm thinking 2nd quarter in 06 championship game. Or 3rd Q last year vs USCe. When you are able to just have those explosive quarters because the offense is clicking and defense is making huge plays, holy hell is that exciting. I'm really hoping to see that early in the game against Utah. With Rising likely not 100% and a rebuild front 7 on our defense, I hope we can shock them into turning a 10-3 game into a 27-3 game in a blink of an eye.
Defense is my favorite...love pick 6s, sacks and pressures, stuffing the run..I remember the UF vs uga back in 1984, my very first UF vs uga game in Jax....goal line stand...then a bomb by Bell to Nattiel for a TD..a good 27-0 spanking of the dawgs...yes defense is very exciting to watch when it's good..not the 3rd and very long that our defense has been giving the last decade or so..people say Muschamp was a great defensive minded coach....but I was at an lsu game when he was our coach..we scored and went ahead...then our defense proceeded to give up a 3rd and 23 ultimately they scored and went ahead..we lost that game..frustrating...if we had just had a decent defense..we wouldn't have had I believe 4 losing seasons the last 10 years or so
I was at that game and in the lower end zone seats where the goal line stand happened. The thing that was really cool was the vantage point from my seat was almost directly in line with what Kerwin was probably seeing when Nattiel was breaking open. When Kerwin let go of the ball it almost felt like I was throwing to Ricky. Between it and the noise that followed was something everyone in this world needs to experience once in their life.
Wrap up. For God’s sake, please wrap up…no more bouncing off. Set the edge. No more RBs and QBs running around our DEs. Please Be aggressive on pass defense - I’ll take some penalties as long as we’re fighting for the ball. No more 10+ yards off the ball. That will help a lot.
Oh, hail, let's get real: I'm going to make a prediction, if the OL plays well, we will have very close scores in every single game! We might even when more than a few! BTW, why hasn't Molly Hatchett ever opened a game before with Gator Country? Sounds like a tradition that ought to get started!!!
Tennessee continuing their losing streak in the Swamp. They are way, way too cocky and could use a little humbling up in week 3. Go Gators! The last time the Vols won in Gainesville was 2003.
Have to give the edge to the team with the better qb, but home field also matters! University of Utah Sep 2 (Sat) at Salt Lake City, Utah McNeese State University Sep 9 (Sat) vs McNeese State Gainesville, Fla. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium University of Tennessee Sep 16 (Sat) Gainesville, Fla. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Charlotte Logo Sep 23 (Sat) TBA vs Charlotte Gainesville, Fla. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium University of Kentucky Sep 30 (Sat) at Lexington, Ky. Vanderbilt University Oct 7 (Sat) SEC Gainesville, Fla. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium University of South Carolina Oct 14 (Sat) at Columbia, S.C. University of Georgia Oct 28 (Sat) Georgia Jacksonville, Fla. University of Arkansas Nov 4 (Sat) vs Arkansas Gainesville, Fla. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Louisiana State University Nov 11 (Sat) at LSU Baton Rouge, La. Missouri Tigers Nov 18 (Sat) at Columbia, Mo. Nov 25 (Sat) vs Free Shoes University, Gainesville, Fla. Ben Hill Griffin
What excites you the most about the 2023 season... ... FSU getting hung out to dry in their conference realignment push.
What excites me the most about the 2023 season is that I can now focus on new football memories... fresh... and I can dispatch the 2022 season into that season that could have been dustbin. Forever knowing that that was the last dysfunctional football season for a long long time. And I get great joy that we have a far more talented overall team with a renewed sense of possibilities and outcomes. Just beat the teams we should and that's a good start. The second year in the same system with added talent and added experience is a good thing. I will take 3 year experienced field general QB1 over a 1st year QB1 all day every day. People will be surprised as ET said about just how much smoother our team works in the second year versus the first year, last year, with a much more experienced QB1 at the helm. The offense, defense and the special teams for 2023 excites me. Can't wait! Bring back the Gator bait chant! Go Gators!
I hope holding them under 30 is a realistic expectation. This defense is all speculative at this point. Pleeeeease don’t suck.