I Just Have a feelingabout...

While I wouldn't say I'm optimistic- 7 wins is my prediction at best- I love that many are pegging us at 3-9/ 1-7.
Take the pressure off the players/ coaches.
But also the world will not end if we lose to Utah or UT.

And maybe it also keeps us hungry. It's clear the success we had vs USCe made us arrogant vs Vandy.

 

True, but the point was about offense. Only two teams posted better than 31 total points against Oklahoma State that year. The other team was Colorado who seemed to have a decent year (5th down or not). (both teams posted 41 offensive points against Ok. State). Up to that point, that was the best offensive scoring team; I think they are still 12th all-time. Only 4 post-Spurrier offenses have done better.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

That OKSt game was Spurrier’s coming out party and announcement that things had changed, electric offensive football had come to Florida for good and it felt like the book was closed on everything that had happened on offense for us previously. It was thrilling! Usually single game revelations prove false but like the debut of Emmit Smith this was proven true very quickly

 

I feel good about improvements in discipline and execution. I don't expect a lot of wins but I do expect fewer penalties and turnovers. I'm thinking six or seven wins.

 

It was such a thrill to look at the scoreboard and see that we had more passing yards at halftime than almost every game I had attended in the past for the entire game!

 

Actually, you seem to be kinda enjoying the moment just a bit too much and...

 

Yep, right up until the Kentucky game, and we saw a first year QB in a new system. The same game they on the 1st or 2nd play of the game I saw their DB run purposefully right for AR's knee with his helmet. GO BACK AND RE-WATCH IT. Right in front of the referee in the backfield... he did nothing... no flag.

It didn't help that we had the wrong running back in the backfield. He simply let the DB run right past him on his way to AR's knee. Hint, hint, he transferred out and is no longer on the team.

And right after that I knew the season was NOT going to turn out the way we thought it would.

But I think we now have an experienced QB that can find a way to manage the game the way our coaches expect him to. A QB1 that has 3 years of starting games under his belt... not a first year starter.

That's all we need this year, a good field-general that can manage the game plan.

 

You're right, of course, until you see how we did against P5 teams with a winning record.

Alabama (7-5) Won 17-13
Tennessee (9-2-2) Lost 3-45
Auburn (8-3-1) Won 48-7 (a GREAT win!)
Florida State (10-2) Lost 30-45)

Wes, by Florida standards, it was a rather weak schedule. In 1989, Florida lost four of five games by single digits. That means to me, the Gators could have easily been 11-2 in 1989 with Emmitt right, Emmit center, and Emmitt left. This is with a disruption in the coaching staff. But SOS fortified his 1990 record with a greater record against tougher opponents. Handing 11-1 Alabama with a 35-0 blowout loss was absolutely glorious, and the blowout against a solid Georgia team was even more sweet...

 

Thanks! The fact is that we were lucky to beat a middling Bama team that year.
We only scored 17 and actually 7 was on a blocked punt. So our offense scored 10.
Even against lowly Furman we just got 27.
The offense did get better- esp vs Auburn, but it's revisionist history to say that Spurrier's offense clicked right out of the gate for the entire season.
It had hiccups- like most first year coaches. Our D OTOH- very good.

 

Imagine if we beat Utah. Then it will be a lot of sports media saying ... everyone counted the Gators out except me.

 

FIFY

 

Even in your example, of tough teams, you include a 48-point output and a 30-point output. For those four games, that's a 24.5 points per game output which is better than 8 of the 10 SEC teams if you look at their SEC-only output. Further, FLORIDA was the only school that year to post 30+ points on 5 SEC opponents (in fairness, Tennessee posted 40+ on 4). From 1984-1989, FLORIDA posted 30+ against 5 SEC teams (for context).

If we look at SEC-only numbers, FLORIDA ranked a close 2nd to Tennessee (221 points to their 230 points). Nobody else in the SEC put more than 170 points on the board. FLORIDA and Tennessee were the only two teams to average 31+ points per SEC game; next closest was Auburn with 24.3.

You noted our dismal performance against Tennessee. But if we look at the other 6 contests...

Auburn, most SEC points allowed (by 22)
Kentucky, most SEC points allowed (by 5)
Georgia, most SEC points allowed (by 5)
LSU, most SEC points allowed (tied with MSU)
Alabama, 2nd most SEC points allowed (tied with Georgia) *EDIT: noted punt block exception* would put us at 3rd.
MSU, 2nd most SEC points allowed (tied with Tennessee)

We faced the top 2 defenses in the SEC, and we didn't face the worst SEC defense (Tennessee put up 49 on Vandy).

I didn't extract defensive scores from the rest of these games, but no matter how you slice it, it's very clear that FLORIDA's offense was very, very good; again, best point output per game in the history of the FLORIDA GATORS to that point. I just don't think it's fair to imply that they "lived off the defense," and that's not to say that the defense was nothing (3rd in the SEC for points allowed, SEC-only games).

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

People forget quickly it seems.

I think the reason many were optimistic last year was because we ditched Grantham and believed we had a real offensive weapon in AR that combined, would lead to significant improve like we saw in Mullens first year. We had offenses ranked in the 90s and 100s under Champ and Mac and yet saw significant improvement when mullen got here.

On the defensive side, people assumed just getting rid of Granthams scheme was worth a bump in our defense and yet toney somehow was worse. Had we seen even a modest improvement from the defense the overall record would have been significantly better than what we finished with.

For me, Kentucky was an eye opener. Those were some really really bad misses by AR. We already showed an inability to get off the field against Utah but I had hope that was because Utah was really good. I think the nail in the coffin though was USF. That was bad at all levels and really lowered my hopes for the rest of the season.

 

I liked Chuck Hunsinger. But he was before ,1962

 

These Gator Coaches say "Hello!"
Ray Graves (9-2)
Galen Hall (9-1-1)
Steve Spurrier (9-2)
Urban Meyer (9-3)
Jim McElwain (8-4)
Dan Mullen (10-3)

Not gonna let you discredit Steve's 9-2 record in 1st year either. Slow start offensively? We beat Okie State 50-7, then beat Alabama in game 2. The only dud was week 5 vs the Vols in Knoxville. The only other loss was at FSU 30-45. We beat LSU 34-8, Auburn 48-7 and Georgia 38-7!!

 

Cameron Rising is hurt. If he’s not all good by August 31st the O/U might go to 6. They may struggle without him. I want to beat them at their best(of course), but it’s still a W.
Win the TO battle, stop the stupid penalties etc. and 7+ is doable. Good springboard into 24.

 

I'm not discrediting merely pointing out that even Spurrier's first team did not click on all cylinders.
I do hate revisionist history and those who change the past based on a narrative. (1984 is my favorite book)
So to give more details....

We scored a total of 17 vs Bama but 7 of those were from a blocked punt. So our offense scored 10. AGainst a team that went 7-5.
Would you say the offense was clicking on all cylinders??? 10 points!!

The next week we played i-AA Furman. We scored 27.
We did scored 34 vs Miss. State the next week. This was a team that finished 1-6 in the SEC.
Jack Hairston's column after the win was titled "Gators tough to figure out."
Again- not clicking on all cylinders.
We also scored 34 on LSU. That team went 2-5 in the SEC.
Then, as you say we scored 3 vs Tennessee.

So in our first 6 games we played 2 teams that would end the year with winning record.
And in those 2 games our offense scored 10 and 3 points.

Once we got to November you are right we took off.
Some of other Gator coaches you mentioned had easier schedules and many inherited better rosters than CBN.

That's a matter of opinion- it's fine if we differ.
What is not an opinion is that Spurrier's offenses had some hiccups in the first half of his first season.

 

Good explanation, I guess the Okie State game really was an outlier and skews most observer's opinions!

 

That's right.
And it was a sweet preview of things to come. But that Okie State team won 4 games and was at the bottom of the Big 8 that year.
Smart, Saban and Dabo are probably the best 3 coaches in CFB now and all started slow at their current teams.
Let's just give CBN a little time and room and let him work.
IMO of course.

 

Why does the defense not get criticism for the records of their opposition, like the offense does?

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS