Per 247 report, back with the team for 24.... Great news for a freakish athlete to be back in the fold!! Go Gators
At this juncture, any upperclassmen with experience on defense is a good thing. I'm hoping this years "D" will be improved. Better coaching, more leadership and improved execution. With another year under their belts the young kids should be on fuego. Go Gators.
I confess that I took Florida's good D from the late 80's until 2018 for granted. The D was a quality that was nearly a given with maybe some minor hick-ups like 2007 when we lost a ton to the NFL. Never expected to see failure like we've witnessed the past 5 years and to be yearning to be just slightly better than average!
Was watching the “History of the SEC” series a couple of years ago. In the 1980-1989 segment they were covering Auburn with Bo. One of their OL from that time was was talking about when Bo cut back and went 80 yards for a TD against us. The OL said; “you don’t just run 80 yards on Florida”. Reminded me how far we fell on the D side under Mullen and Grantham. Four years destroyed over four decades of defensive legacy. As the billboards say: Thanks Dan!
Good point! And we truly did need the Facility. UCF had an indoor facility over 10 years before we did. But no facility can overcome a bad coach like Grantham. I read that his claim to fame was the he was an outstanding DL coach. His results at UGA and Miss St had clearly showed that he was out of his skill set as a DC. Move him back to DL and let him excel. I have to think that a great DL Coach is in much higher demand and will make more $ in his career than a piss-poor DC who can’t get a job.
Speaking of football facilities. I remember when Foley was trying to sell McElwain on a short-bus version of an indoor practice facility becasue UGA had one at one time... That was one thing that McElwain saved us from... freaking penny pinching Foley.
I was at that game. John L or Neal fumbled as they crossed the goal line and it was called a touchback. Bo ran it 80 yards on the next play. 14 point swing. We would have probably won the game if it would have been called a TD. Jordan-Hare voodoo struck again.
Hard to believe how 99% of those players never panned out, and the biggest damnation on DM/TG was their xfer destinations. A ham sandwich could recruit better than those 2.
That voodoo is real. I hate playing them there. Bell’s 2 point conversion run gave them a little Swamp voodoo, but Jordan-Hare voodoo was back in 89, and 93, and 06. I loved that rivalry we had with them but dreaded playing them up there. BTW, even with early 1980’s tech, you could see that ball crossed the plane and shouldn’t have been a touchback.
I agree with your point, but the short bus comp isn’t accurate. Foley didn’t have mental or intellectual limitations. He chose to be foolish and bury us.
I meant that Foley wanted a 40 to 50 yard indoor practice facility instead of one that is a full 100 yards long. McElwain talked him out of it.
If not mistaken, I think that was also the phantom "missed" field goal game. Anytime a UF team goes up to play in Auburn, we can usually count on a good, old-fashioned screw job.
Phantom missed FG game was Halloween 1981. Game winning FG looked good, but was wide left so it was a 12-14 loss. Tony Lilly grabbed a fumble out of the air on a sweep play and ran for a TD. Back then, you could not advance a fumble that touched the ground, but the Lily ball never got within 3 feet of the ground…Yet, the refs made the call that it did…
Remember... "Fire Hoke!" Gator Cop's sometime sig line. No matter how well our defense played, if we lost, poor Hoke to the blame from the Gator Faithful...
