Do you think Mertz is playing well?

We can win with Mertz, but Mertz isn't going to carry us.

 

You’re wrong too

 

So your plan is to concede the season and put an inexperienced QB in behind that offensive line?

 

^This

 

You're kidding, right? You've got a veteran QB who is playing really pretty well, you're not halfway through the season and want to pull the QB for the future? That's a good way to lose the team.

 

We brought Mertz in because he's an experienced QB. He isn't Tim Tebow who can carry a team, but how many other QBs have we had that are? He's doing his job, and it's not his fault those around him or in front of him aren't.

 

I agree but I was more so talking about the receivers that he didn't see not the throws he made and he was under pressure so it's not all on him

 

KY battered the LOS on both sides of the ball. Our OL had problems with their front four every play. Our DL had similar problems. As I continue to repeat what a wise coach once said, "I'd rather have an OL than a QB". I think yesterday's game made that perfectly clear. We don't have the horses yet. They do.

 

In 1984 we had, the Great Wall of Florida, arguably the best offensive line we've ever had. And, even though we had such a stellar line, Kerwin Bell, who had time to throw, only had 183 attempts that season. So, as you posted an OL is more important than a QB.

 

My comment wasn't meant to be a knock on Mertz. The rest of the team and coaches need to step up.

 

dont look at our OL recruiting if you think it’s going to get significantly better in the upcoming seasons cause I have some bad news for you lol

 

Mertz is doing well with what he has been asked to do, but I do believe he is avoiding some deep shots when they are an option.

Edit: The coaches could maximize the play book a bit better.

 

Yeah, like using first down for more than just running into the pile every series of downs.

 

I said Monday in the pre-game thread that it was glaringly obvious all you have to do against Napier is stop the run and you stop this offense. People disagreed with me and said they HOPED that Kentucky thought like that in this game. Well Kentucky did precisely that and the end result was Florida got embarrassed again. Based on what I’ve seen of Napier’s offenses it will happen repeatedly unless something changes. This isn’t on Mertz.

 

Agree with the edit

the utah game we throw a slant and rb screen where did that go?

 

As I did also. We have have a stacked box every game until we can beat it. Yet, our run defense was 100 times worse and the bigger reason we lost.

 

it is limited by the O line but…the OC doesn’t fully realize it. When your o line struggles to pass block, you do quick passes - to WRs - a quick game. We barely try this. Instead, we continue to run slow developing play action that needs the o line to maintain blocks better and longer than on average…that isn’t a good strategy for a struggling o line. Many times we run MULTIPLE play action fakes after the snap on the same play….fake to WR on jet sweep, pirouette and fake a hand off to a rb, doing a 360 - the qb turning his back on the defense and then coming all the way around…a bad o line can’t hold up that long. QB turns around and “slam” he is hit before he can locate a WR. We even do this on 3rd down and long. Which is a complete waste of 1.5-2 seconds and no defender pays attention to play action on 3rd down. No other college or pro team runs a play action fake on 3rd and long. Because it is useless and only hurts your offense.

When you have trouble running, you spread out the offense to create more gaps. Instead we pile everyone into a tight formation with multiple tight ends. There is a reason the air raid and other formations that are spread out usually have running backs average 5-6 yards per carry. They are not typically great running teams that can grind the tough yards out but they get chunk runs due to having the defense spread way out.

anyway, I agree the o line is bad. And should be limiting the game plan. But…the team keeps running stuff that is not designed to hide or help the o line/qb.

 

Throw in something wide with the RBs as in sweeps. Jet sweeps with the WRs are good, but geez. I think Etienne on a sweep would be just fine and let him possibly get one on one with a tackler. If that happened, my money would be on Etienne to make something happen. I agree with the bolded 100%.

 

Play action with no respect for the run is definitely a waste of time.

 

You’re just hanging on, aren’t you ?