Encouraging Signs for 2024 Season

I’m not sold on the O line or oline depth until I see them play. Barber is the LT and out for spring. Waites was repping as first team LT with Barber out and now he is out for spring (again). Leaving us two transfers - Dixon who I am high on and Manuel who has played less and thus more of an X factor. Two freshmen repping now as second team tackles. Maybe that will help with depth but scary to have to maybe rely on freshman at tackle.


while it doesn’t always matter, the talent level (based on recruiting) of our o linemen is some of the lowest in the conference. I can’t blindly accept that our o line coaches are better at spotting hidden gems than every staff in the country and then when found, coaching them up to be as good or better than our peers in the SEC with much higher rated players.

 

Hopefully Chim Dike. Napier praised him in PC today.

Wilson will be everywhere and I think we'll have a couple to complement him. Also Need Zip and/or Boardingham to bust out.

 

The reports have been positive around the O-line, refreshingly so. I can't imagine the coaches simply spewing out false hopium for us. The post above from Doctorg8r refers to some of the positive.

Getting back to the defense for a second.

I always thought kids were waiting for someone else to step it up and take the runner down. It was a bit of a dysfunctional collective mentality with piss-poor execution and effort. Player: "Shoot, I'm gonna go 70% and hope someone else can clean it up!" There's plenty on video to prove this. So all of the focus on execution would be well-founded and important. Some of those guys are gone now too. Which is good. I refuse to pick out the one former GA player that often gave up, but there are more than a few. One guy trotted and watched the deep guy go by and never followed at least a couple times a game. Those guys should still be doing stadiums IMHO.

I'm hoping the culture has improved around that. Just watching that pisses me off.

Anyway. The kids we have are a great group. Many have matured. They want to be coached up. They want to learn. And they want to be a part of the team that turns this around. We keep hearing this is a veteran team. We'll see!

Go Gators.

 

I can absolutely believe they are spewing it. Why? Because it's the same thing they did last year. UF is replacing nearly the entire OL for 2024 - just like 2023 - and the coaches were saying the same stuff. (Don't believe me? Just do a quick internet search for 2023 UF offensive line.) In fairness, they could be saying these things because they're true. But also in fairness, they could be spewing because, well, what else are they gonna say?

Personally, I think Spike718 has it right: believe only some of what you see and none of what you hear (or read).

 

Thrilled if SOS called that…hopefully Spurs hasn’t gotten dyslexia in his later years.

 

Your dad was quoting the legendary Jake Gaither with that line.

He was the clearly the best coach in Florida up until Ray Graves arrived in Gainesville. It was at least a debate after that

 

They need leaders on that defense that hold them accountable. They need a Brandon Siler to punch somebody in the mouth for giving piss, poor effort

 

Geez O Pete’s, what an awful power-whining rant. Just another oblivious hypercritical hot take from a clueless entitled Gator fan... SMH!

Chris Doering is proved to be right once again- too bad.

 

We had the Oklahoma drills... and if you do that drill enough, you wont miss tackles on game day.

 

I totally agree... We also need to teach gang tackling, and swarming to the ball.

 

CBN mentiomed a "Texas" drill. If that's the drill with hitting the assistant coaches onto a polevault landing matt, I like it.

 

I think I saw video of that drill. Still looks funny to me.

 

It’s called a pit.

 

I laughed out loud at this reply - but I do apologize that my constructive and often evidence based analytical comments are too harsh for you. I will try to be nothing but blindly optimistic in the future.

 

I like the things that we can see …but I’m still suspect on the things that we can’t.

@62gator shared a video, “embrace the process”, on another thread that gave a glimpse of the program behind the scenes that was pretty impressive. It showed a lot of what we already knew. That BN is highly organized and has acquired a lot of really smart, high character kids & great athletes that have bought in and want to be the group that can push this program forward.

But it doesn’t show the things that we want to see changed on the field. Have we finally had an alpha dog or two emerge on defense? …a Siler or J Davis type that are unquestioned leaders that can push everyone else? Have we eliminated the dysfunctional brain farts that seem to happen at critical moments on the field? Do we have guys on D who embrace contact? Who can tackle through the ball carrier and not arm tackle? Among other questions we’ve all had this offseason.

I’m as optimistic as anyone. I don’t understand how you can be a fan and not be. But there is a lot that we just won’t know until Miami.

 

And reports from practice aren't always helpful since we are going only against our own teammates. For example, lets say reports from practice is that an offensive unit looks dominant doesn't always transfer to the real games because maybe they looked dominant only because the defensive unit they were going against was subpar. I've learned over the years to not put much faith in the media reports coming out of practice unless it was something to do with an injury or return from injury for this player or that.

I always get a chuckle when I recall in 1994 that all the Tennessee media was gushing over how UT's offense was stacking up points in practice scrimmages despite losing Heath Shuler from the year before and was really good. When I read that my first thought was if Tennessee's offense can run roughshod over their own defense, imagine what a Spurrier offense might inflict. The result that year was 31-0 and the game wasn't even that close.

 

I see the world through glasses with Orange and Blue lens and I’m always optimistic this time of year. But, when I try to be objective, I do feel like our coaching staff is better, personnel wise, than the last two years. If they mesh well we are better off there.
Also think the talent level is getting better. Some of the players he recruited, Lagway and McCray just to name two of many, appear to be “ringers”. And despite criticism I think Napier did very well in the transfer portal. He landed some quality players in areas of need.
Having a top tier, experienced QB back is a huge plus for us and gives us an advantage in some games, especially early in the season. Having a 5 star stud waiting in the wings is nice too.
Also has to be a plus that we are in CBN’s 3rd year. Most of the roster was chosen by him and by now all of the players are his.
I think we are going to be better this year. I think Spurrier’s 8-4 plus bowl win prediction is attainable and hearing that he’s predicting it gives me even more hope.

 

I wonder if you could put Lagway in the backfield and have a run/pass - run/pass option?