Post-Game Discussion: Florida at Utah

Agreed, blaming the fans for everything including the "vibe" is getting old, it's 100 percent nonsense.

 

That he won't get a chance to build a team? That's a good possibility. The hire/fire cycle will kill us and is just dumb - especially if your coach is a great recruiter. I didn't like the dumb mistakes but that wasn't Vandy's stadium last night - that was as loud as it gets and how many times does Utah need to win the Pac12 before gator fans consider them a formidable opponent?
O-line is a concern. Billy and crew did a decent job shoring it up but we have had terrible luck with personnel there. They'll get better but injuries there and we're in trouble.
The hire/fire crowd will do their best to guarantee many more years of mediocrity. Hope this year fixes that but the schedule and this start puts it on edge. Also idiots like Josh Pate are going to start babbling about a hotseat for Napier after the first game of year 2. You can count on it.

 

He averaged 7.6 yards per completion not too bad along with a 70% completion rate. There were issues in last night's game , a slow start, penalties that stalked our momentum drives and most were caused by 1st year players in this system. Not surprising considering it was a 1st game of the season on the road , in a hostile environment, furthest west we've played since I believe like the 1940's, against a team who was hell bent on revenge from last seasons loss. We probably played more true freshman, freshman and sophomores last night then I can ever remember, plus a bunch of new faces from the portal. There was only 1 starter on defense (Marshall) who started against Utah last year. In fact there were a ton of players who played a lot of snaps last night who played their 1st ever game in a gators jersey. USCw with the reigning Heisman winner looked mediocre in the 1st half against San Jose state. We played a ranked pac 12 powerhouse. Parts of me wish we would still schedule a cupslcake for our 1st game to get these 1st game issues out the way but another part of me like the big game to start the season, issue with that is with so many new faces on the team, issues getting worked out again st a good team can lead to a loss.

I'm not gonna harp too much on this OOC game, there were both Bad and Good things I seen last night. Moving forward I'd like to see how we fixed those bad and build on those good things. Now of we see this all season then that would be trouble some but these young guys did pretty well for alot of them.

 

Spanked punt, missed FG, no offensive spark with returns.

 

I hope it was an attempt to replace a moribund running game with a nickel and dime passing game. FTR, Mertz actually played within himself pretty well I thought, and did as much or more than I expected, TBH. If anything the run blocking was even worse than the pass blocking - and that is not good.

 

They did step up. But Utah also helped us out when they had their own series where they fell apart.

 

You kind of touched on the point of my question. While the back up center wasn’t the issue. Would the (no names) OL who jumped three times still have been out there. Since the OL must play like a unit, was missing the middle causing a trickle down effect? Don’t get me wrong, there were other issues in the game where we seemed snake bit and destined to lose. But I truly believe the OL play was the lynch pin that was the deciding factor. Had we played as well on the line as we did everywhere else, I think the narrative today would be about kicking and cleaning up fixable mistakes. We all knew it was a rebuild and I for one intend to be patient.

 

This. Our last drive and the lack of effort to even get back to the huddle after plays while needing two scores shows this lack of hustle and fire. Shots of Napier during this drive, it certainly looked like he showed no emotional reactions. Ridiculous. While the D rose throughout the game, the lack of fire caused the offense to wilt throughout the game. Absolutely demoralizing to watch.

I can't watch us play like this anymore. If there isn't marked improvement in the intensity on offense by the halftime in our next game, I'm selling my tickets and cancelling my dvr recordings. I'd rather paint the house than watch this pitiful lack of effort.

 

Yep. Some want to push this narrative that Florida's lack of success is on the fans. It's a joke.

 

Anyone remember any of Spurriers teams having a bunch of penalties and boneheaded plays and generally just looking unprepared in the first game of the year? We played cupcakes at home back then for the opener so we’d still win, but the point remains. Lets see if we can get some stuff corrected before we fold the entire season based off a P5 road game on the other side of the country.

 

K bye.

 

That might the best thing for you. Being a Gator fan is no bed od roses on occasion.

 

amen

 

Agree. If this Utah team does not get their stars back soon they are going to have a rough season as well.

 

This is the reason we are in the spot we are in. Coaches like Mcelwain and Mullen taking short sighted actions to have immediate success rather than doing the right things and building the foundation up. Napier told you day one this was a complete rebuild and it was going to take time and y’all weren’t gonna be happy with him for a while. Nobody’s fault but your own you expected something else.

 

Delivering blame for Florida's self-inflicted errors

 

I complete agree with this, and I am very pleased with the foundational structure he is laying and his recruiting

And I am speaking strictly about in-game housekeeping - procedure stuff, non play calling, has been thrown into question last year, and was on display again last night and looked even worse considering the high leverage situations they occurred which led directly to points for Utah, and took points off for Florida.

Maybe I am a bit harsh as lizardbreath alluded to, but housekeeping stuff like this is amateurish when you are leading a tier 1 program in the top flight of college football.

These were mistakes that no one ever thinks about because a clean sheet of asinine penalties like this shouldn't even be thrown into question at the highest level, and yet here we are.

I think what's even worse now for Napier - and I want him to keep loading the roster for years to come - is that a reputation is forming about his game day command - playcalling aside. Coaches have poor moments sometimes, but a pattern of poor moments becomes a narrative as the announcers were lampooning Napier relentlessly about it last night.

And that will continue as the narrative has been created.

 

And we have a long established pattern of not giving a guy extra years to sort things out.

How many recruits want to come to a program knowing there is a good chance the guys who tell him "you are our guy!" aren't going to be around much longer?