After Portal Thoughts 1/28/23

2 DCs, same players
Hmmmm…..

 

Exactly. They may not be genius dc’s but I watched that defense and didn’t see much standout talent.

 

Fraziars got hurt at TAMU on his great TD catch....don't believe he played again until the bowl game. Douglas got a lot of snaps with us missing Shorter, Henderson, Fraziars.....as well as Pearsall and Bowman for parts of the last 4 games.

 

The start of 2021 Gator D wasn't awful, held a very good bama team to 31, allowed UT just 14 points, shut out Vandy. Things began to go sideways pretty quick when DM emotionally checked out.
The first two games of last year the D played good beginning of the year. D kept a very good Utah offense in check, and frankly AR was the reason UF lost to UK early in the season. So to say the talent level of the D was equal to its dismal performance the rest of the year, I'm not buying it.
We give up 28 points, making USF look like a top ten team the same USF that only scored 3 points the next week verse Louisville (a not great team). Looking at our stats last year we were bad in every category, and at one point almost last in allowing 3rd down conversions. And don't even get me started about the vandy game or the bowl game.
As the year went on, our D got worse, not better. That's a coaching issue.

 

Overall team rushing should be down statistically, but rushing from the RB's I believe will still be very strong.

 

We not only lose his yards and big plays but his ability opens up running lanes and helps spread things out. Need to establish strong second threat in passing game to offset that.

 

I don’t disagree. I’ll just say that Todd’s defense was pretty effective year 1 and to a lesser extent year 2. But fell off a cliff year 3, then another cliff year 4. Which has been a pattern throughout his career. At least Toney’s demonstrates the opposite. But yes, if we still look horrible defensively next season a change is needed.

 

Well said and I agree with all points.

The issue for the Gator, while improved, no superstars.

On offense, Etienne Is close, but they need WR to be a real weapon. Most of that is dependent on the QB which as you pointed out is worse.

On defense, Marshall is close but we need a pass rusher to step up.

Hopefully one of these 4 stars can become a star.

 

We need to stop running QBs with a spy. We need to cover RB out of he backfield on pass routes. We need to have DBs that can stay within 2 feet of WR/TE. We don’t play zone well, so don’t try. Those are areas for D to improve.

 

I think that is how it should be for a true freshman, but I don't think that Bowman was keeping Douglas off the field. Unless my source is faulty, which is possible, Fraziars played against FSU but not as much as Douglas. We were hurting for bodies all through the second half of the season, so I could see Fraziars playing through discomfort.

 

We'll see. I don't believe Fraziars was really healthy down the stretch. But thankfully most of those guys are gone because that team down the stretch was not good.

 

You may be right on fsu.....I'm trying to remember if I saw him other field. But my guess would be he wasn't ready....we were just so very shorthanded.

 

Been saying this as well. How many bonafide All Sec players do we have? I do think we’ll have a few surprises in 2023, and that our overall roster is better.

This is what I’ll be eyeing in spring practice - signs of top-end talent.

 

Maybe, but he was too skittish and seldom ran to scare the opposing D.

 

Hamlet: “Get thee to a nunnery.”

 

Fell off of 2 cliffs! How does that happen??

 

We did hold a USCe team to 6 points 1 week prior to them beating 2 top 10 teams(Tenn and Clemson) back to back while racking up 96 points in 2 games. So maybe we should wait to see if CBN's defense gets better each year like it did at ULL with the improvement of players or if it stays stagnant.

 

Thank you

 

Chauncy was a big part of when the defense was good. He left a huge hole tgat was never filled.