Georgia/Florida: A Summary

you’ll be back on the computer in no time.

Does that mean we can’t Occupy Jacksonville?

I’m hoping that Weis finds a way to hang 50 on you next year, though I will admit that even my most wild eyed moments of optimism, that doesn’t seem likely. I like this rivalry, and always have. It has a good SEC traditional feel to it, and we don’t have many of those. Given our history, most of our “rivalries” have really only been around for 30 years or so. While UGA obviously controlled this series for the majority of the time before that, it’s obvious when speaking to the older Gators how much they’ve always hated UGA. In comparison, when I come by sites like this one, it’s nice to see vitriol reciprocated. Like I alluded to above, I hope that UGA suffers long and terrible stretches of awfulness, but I wish it with SEC love. Congrats again.

I was born in 1972, didn’t become football aware until 1980 (good year for that, no?), thus those events you speak of did not happen.

/Thanks NCT…I’m glad we started this! I love Dooley even more now.

maybe there’s a transfer we can work out. I’ll call up Trooper, I hear he’s the man that makes these decisions.

My grandfather, who passed away this August was also a huge Cardinals fan, and actually lived on Cardinal lane. It’s a family thing…the Cardinal fanhood. This insane run would’ve really made him happy.

As for the quality of the opposition for Florida, it certainly played a factor, but I think less so than some Gators want to believe. The reality is that, even in games where Florida was outmatched, they lost much worse than they should have. There’s no shame in losing to those juggernauts in the west, but there is in not even showing up. Coaching lost the Auburn game, and IMO (though it may not be popular here), coaching lost the UGA game as well. I should specify, offensive coaching. Is it conceivable that UGA wins if Florida has a sound offensive gameplan? Absolutely, there defense is good, but UGA made adjustments to what Florida was doing, and Florida had no response. How can anyone believe that you can beat a quality team like UGA, without having an effective running game?

 The offensive line is a complete mess, but more than that, we’ve seen a regression in some players that were previously much better (Xavier Nixon comes to mind), and that is poor coaching. The WRs have been terrible since Billy Gonzalez left for LSU. It’s conceivable that they’re simply not as talented as we thought, but when you add it all up, it begins to look a lot like poor coaching….but of course, I’ve saved the best for last. Florida is LAST IN THE COUNTRY in penalties.

 UGA, Bama, and LSU all have good squads, but they didn’t make Ronald Powell commit a stupid personal foul, or cause the offensive line to false start again, and again. Understand that I’m not trying to diminish what UGA did, I actually thought that Bobo called a good game against a Florida defense, that has been pretty solid. Losing is frustrating, but losing without discipline or progress is maddening, and Florida has displayed neither. UGA, Bama, and LSU are all squads that could have beaten this team with or without good coaching. In 2007, I felt like the coaching was solid, but the players were young. I don’t get that feeling right now. This team is going to have to have a come to Jesus moment, and I have no idea which way it will go. Either way, the move to Grantham seems to be paying some dividends now, and I know you’re a Richt fan, so things are looking pretty rosy for the Dawgs.

imo, it’s a different beast. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but I think it takes personality, and to some extent simplicity, to succeed. It also seems to work better for defensive coaches than offensive, but maybe I’m letting the defensive oriented Carroll, Monte Kiffin, among others, sway my thinking there.

But there is a huge difference between the two that makes them completely different animals imo. College kids have several distractions. From first and foremost having to be students (although we know they get lots of help from tutors, class schedules, etc in many cases), but that still requires some time that NFL guys just don’t have to deal with. Then there’s the personal/social schedule as BMOC in a town loaded with social opportunities as most college towns are. Then there’s the other time issue of NCAA limits on practice, both during the season and in the off season.

NFL players are professionals. They’re the best of the best talent wise, and focus on the game for a strong understanding of schemes. They’re simply capable of a lot more than college kids are. Plus, they’re professionals in the sense that they can focus solely on football. They don’t have the distractions of being kids, and “student-athletes”. They can focus all week, watching film all morning, practicing all afternoon, going home, then watching more film at night. They can study their playbook, and only their playbook, not their playbook and text books. Bill Callahan was blasted at Nebraska for simply having too dense and too complex a system for college kids to grasp, or anyone for that matter in the 20 hours a week during the season they practice.

Some coaches just have trouble making the adjustment from part time players to full time pros, and vice versa. I don’t remember the numbers, but I thought Weiss had solid offenses at Notre Dame. Or maybe it was suspect competition once Brady Quinn had enough time in his system to understand the schemes. But the fact remains, the pro game and college game are such different beasts for so many reasons, you can’t translate success in one to the other because of the large amount of variation between the two, primarily in players and in practice time.

but I’ll actually go one step further, and say that this year, and last, makes me question the entire Meyer system. I think that we quite naturally assumed that success = effective system, and may have ignored what kind of players where on the field. Everyone knows that the Meyer system likes small fast WRs, but how many of those were ever actually successful in Meyer’s system? I can only think of one, and Percy Harvin is still almost 6’0 and also has other worldly athleticism. He was just flat out better than everyone else on the field. The other WRs that were successful, don’t fit that mold of the small quick player. Louis Murphy, and Riley Cooper would hardly be considered “spread” type players.

Then you add in Tebow who was also a superior athlete, and the NFL level talent on both lines, and all over the defense, and I think we just assumed that their success was as much attributable to Meyer’s system, than it was a unique collection of talent. I’ll admit that the success of Florida made me question certain football axioms that I’d long held true. Of course the dominance of LSU and Alabama today kind of brings that all back full circle, and reenforces more than ever some of the truisms of college football. The reality, as much as I hate to now admit it, is that Florida doesn’t play in a conference like Oregon, where a system like the spread can succeed unless you have a superior level of talent to accompany it. I’ll always be grateful to Meyer for the success he brought us as fans, but my view of him as an innovator has been altered. I know that other fans, including many of you, believed that when Tebow, Harvin etc left, that Florida would fall. I didn’t believe it, and it would appear that you were more able to see the level of talent that Florida had, than we were.

Oh well, it’s gone now, and we begin the climb back to being a more “traditional” team. Even though I may be somewhat questioning Muschamp today, I still know that Florida is in a unique position in college football, and will eventually use that recruiting advantage to create some great teams. It’s been fun chatting with you fellas. As I said above, good luck in your remaining schedule.