The Florida Gators have a new football regime and a new offensive and defensive philosophy and its time to start a new thread . First of all I want to congratulate the mens basketball and baseball teams for their great seasons . Florida is the only program in the nation to finish among the nation's top 10 in each of the last 28 national all-sports standings. http://www.ufl.edu/athletics/ This will probably be a rebuilding football season but I think the Gators will surprise a few of the higher ranked teams.
To start things off here is a blog with some insight into the coming football season . http://www.onlygators.com/08/08/2011/espns-inside-the-program-live-with-the-gators/
http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20110627/ARTICLES/110629612 Congrats Gators on winning the Capital One Cup
Depth Chart is out http://www.gatorsports.com/article/...1153?Title=UF-releases-depth-chart-for-opener
Thanks bro.As far as I can see there are no surprises in that depth chart. I am not hoping it happens but if the team struggles I would not be surprised to see Driskel play early.
I have been hearing really good things about Brantley but this offense should help him much more. You could really tell he wasn't very comfortable with the offense last year. I am not so sure we have a QB on the roster that is ready after Brantley however I think we have 3 really good candidates. Driskel according to all reports has the #2 job locked up. Spring def helped I am sure. I can't wait to see what Weis can do with this offense. This is probably going to be the worst offensive team Weis ever has at Florida
Posted this somewhere else but I'll share my thoughts here: Ronald Powell, Dominique Easley, and Jay Howard were all very good last night. Howard was damn near unblockable. Matt Patchan has finally filled out. Better than expected. Xavier Nixon was dominant. We might have the best trio of RB's in the country. As noted earlier, Jeff Demps packed on a ton of muscle. He hears the NFL calling. Jelani Jenkins was the best player on the field last night. Pass defense is going to be an issue this year. Everyone is inexperienced. John Brantley needs to play much better. We're going to run Rainey and Demps into the ground if we don't lighten their work load. Gillislee needs more early touches. WR's need to be better. Our two best receiving threats were QB's last year. Driskell has a looong way to go. I'm not sold on him yet. Jon Bostic lacks the instincts to consistently play the run. Bostic's backup, Michael Taylor, made more plays in 6 minutes than Bostic made the entire game. Looking forward to seeing more of him. Kick off coverage was an issue. The Muschamp Stare was hilarious. Charlie Weiss is really fat. Every time Chris Rainey scored, someone in my house shouted "Time to Die."
I am not sold on Brantley yet .He still looks inconsistent to me. Driskel had a rough start but I hope they continue to give him some quality snaps to get him up to speed. Rainey and Demps did well but lets see what they do against a top SEC defense like Bama or LSU. On the plus side the Defense looks very solid and will help keep games close against the top competition .I have always liked Jelani Jenkins and I thought he was our best recruit in his class.He is proving that now. Overall it was nice to see the offense moving the ball again.
Here are some highlights and the Muschamp show. http://www.gatorvision.tv/mediaPortal/player.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=6500
My thoughts so far..... Brantley is still garbage and will be garbage this year. The Gators made it as easy for them as they could. I have come to terms with the fact he won't be a good QB and you all should too. I do however think Weis will put him in great situations and make it as easy as possible for him. Running backs looked good. I would like to some more of Gillislee in the I tho. He has to be the power guy and I would like to use him more. Rainey is the best offensive threat we have. He made some sick moves and the guy is tough.... "time to die defense" Defense looked amazing and they are going to keep us in a lot of games. There are going to be a lot more schemes than in yrs past were we played a basic defense but out players were so good it didn't matter. Very exciting to see them fly around the ball and make the plays they did. Secondary as mentioned before will be our weakest position but I still think we are going to be ok for the most part. With the blitzing and pressure we put on the QB hopefully that helps them. We need Elam to be a star tho. We have one at LB in Jenkins. Glad Caleb Sturgis is back as FG kicking last year drove me ****ing nuts! Sorry for the delay in posting. I will be around much more to post about the Gators.
I thought a pro style system would suit Brantley better but I guess he just sucks. He played solid tonight but he is nothing special.
The red zones problems have a lot to do with Brantleys inmobility and inaccurateness .Thats why they substituted him with another QB last year. It was good to see Gillislee more involved in the game.
Our defense again looked really good for the most part however I do fear the Vols passing game. Tyler Bray has looked really good and our secondary is still very young. One good thing about Bray vs our defense is that he is young and slow. If Florida gets pressure he won't be able to run around and avoid pressure. He is still young and lets face it that whole team is a lot like ours in youth. Should be an interesting test There passing game v.s. our running game (So use to it being the other way around). Things I liked about the game v.s. UAB Don't let the name UAB fool you thats a good team and that was impressive. They have a lot of Senior talent on that team I loved the power running game of Joyer at FB and Burton at RB. I would love to see that on the goaline. Every back that came in did well I thought but no one is close to Rainey. Brantley looked much better this game than the last. He still sucks but he is much better than last year Our WR's must help our QB out and not drop easy passes that should be caught. Deonte Thompson really bugs the **** out of me sometimes. Defense isn't causing Turnovers or very many big plays but is still getting the job done. We will need sacks and INts to win some games in the SEC cause talent is just too much not too. Thank ****ing God that Caleb Sturgis is back. We lost at least two games last year cause of no FG kicker on the team.
Florida vs. UK on Saturday, Sept 24. I am a UK fan so it is with some bais that I say Florida better come prepared. Some of the negative things on UK is thier O-line looks a lot like the phins this season. The right side is pretty weak and the left side can be beat. We dont have the greatest corners and our coach rarely calls plays for more than 30 yards. UK switched to more of a NFL style defense instead of going in with certian formation now they study all the Offenses formations and adjust accordingly. Since they literally switched a few months ago they have missed a couple huge coverages but with communication they match it great. Until least week we only had 1 good reciever but last week we saw a second one step up and lead the team in yards. Some of the best things... Morgan Newton is a nice QB. He reminds me a lot of Cam Newton. He is very mobile and can zip it in to tight spots or launch it downfield. As far as going downfield if Florida keeps pressure on him and doesn't give him time to get a open reciever they shouldn't have to worry about it much. If UK runs thier no huddle they are dangerous. They ran it more last week than I suspected but they ate up the field. If they dont run it much then i will have to give the win to Florida. UK Has 2 very dangerous players on Defense Danny Trevathan and Winston Guy Jr. These two always are on the top of thier game. Danny Trevathan is our iron man he plays every game every down. He is the leader of our defense. Danny Trevathan usually is a top 5 defense player in the SEC every week. Winston Guy Jr. is our top safety so you dont here his name as much but he has sticky fingers if you get the ball close to him he latches on. I will admit if they stay away from them Florida will probally clean house. The game is here in Lexington and we show up to our sporting events. Our Basketball program is the best selling every year and if they can get on track with thier football program i would say it would be the same way. I expect to Danny Trevathan in a phins uniform next year..Okay it might not happen but one can always hope
No Offense but Florida is going to win big. Florida's defensive front 7 is going to control the game. Kentucky won't have nearly the success that Tennessee had thru the air. I am interested to see if that Kentucky defense can stop Rainey (Which I don't think it can). Final score 38-13
The Gators have come a long way from the days they couldn't beat Georgia to now being a contender in alot of different sports,seem to be set for years to come as long as they run a clean program or not get caught.Not sure about there new coach but they always have talent.
Big game coming up.This will be a real test .Will Rainey and Demps have success against that defense.They have not had much success against then before. If I were Bama I would stop the ground game and force Brantley to carry the team .We will find out if he is capable of doing that.
I think Rainey and Demps are controlled this week, however they only need one hole to take one to the house. I think Brantley can run the team enough to help us to the win, But I don't think he can win the game for us. I expect us to do a lot of things we have yet to do this year. They will probably try and set up the swing pass and if Bama covers that it should free up some other players.
IMO Demps and Rainey give the Gators a puncher's chance. Bama is big and disciplined but not uber-athletic. Speed will test that discipline. Any mistake could cost them big. The thing we have going for us is that 'Bama isn't real explosive, so if we break free they could struggle to respond. But if there are no big plays, they could just wear us down. Unfortunately, them staying disciplined and wearing us down is probably the more likely outcome.
I think the opposite. The other years we've played Bama we were running the spread and it was always hard for us to get a traditional run game going. It is astonishing to watch the difference in how the tailbacks play. Also Chris Rainey has a great cut back ability that I never noticed in the spread. Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
As expected Demps and Rainey were not a factor .There was complete domination by Bama on both lines of scrimmage .Trent Richardson was unstoppable .I hope we start recruiting and signing some big backs like him in the future. There is still a chance of competing for the SEC East title as South Carolina and Georgia look beatable as does Auburn if we can get some decent QB play from Driskel or Brantley comes back.
Man I couldn't have been more wrong. I heard on the radio hear that Preliminary reports on Brantley is he has a torn ACL and done for the year
Driskel didnt even dress for the LSU game.They will be starting Brissett who has never even had a snap.
Wow. Sorry I have not been around, but no posts since October? What happened to our Gator faithful in here? Getting excited for Signing Day. Looks like Muschamp is getting some talent. Hopefully that means a better team next year!
Same, I also got really busy with school. Next fall will be the last time I go to the games as a student.
it was a rough year. not sold on muschamp, YET. hoping he closes strong on signin day. restock our lines a bit!
I've recently gotten some inside info on the program, and it doesn't make me too excited for the next year.
Muschamp doesn't pick the starters but instead leaves it up to the assistants. As a result you are getting situations where guys are playing because they were brought in by that coach not because they are the best The special teams coach and recruiter DJ Durkin is apparently a huge prick. He's also flat out lying to recruits. Telling them they will start over guys if they come to UF, and then these kids are getting mad when they don't start. One instance is where he told a kicker that he will start over Caleb next fall if this kid comes to campus. I have also been told that no one really likes Durkin. When Meyer called Mariotti to come to OSU. Mariotti said he would only if Durkin didn't go.
Quote - One instance is where he told a kicker that he will start over Caleb next fall if this kid comes to campus. Durkin is a good recruiter also and you usually don't get that way from lying to recruits. That has a way of coming back. Also Muschamp kept Durkin and not many other coaches so hard for me to believe he did that if this guy is a total D-Bag. Not saying anyone is a liar but a lot of that info is odd. That's almost impossible for me to believe. We wouldnt waste a Scholarship on a punter and we already have a kicker on board who doesn't care about Playing time (for good reason).
No offense but that argument may not really matter. I am sure you probably know plenty of people at wherever you work, where the boss likes/loves them, but yet EVERYONE else hates them. If it is from a kid that used to be on the team... it may have some merit. I am hoping it is like the telephone game and somewhat embellished, but time will tell. :S
As far as the story with the kicker recruit, the recruit came up to the player during a recruiting visit and told him what Durkin had told him. Also there were other players who came up to this player and relayed the same thing about how they were told they'd be starting and couldn't understand why they weren't playing. Also Skeet, while Durkin may be a great recruiter it doesn't mean he doesn't lie to recruits. Durkin and Meyer are both used car salesman when it comes to recruiting and they will tell a kid whatever they need to in order to get that commitment. I remember back when we were recruiting Tebow there was another QB recruit who claimed Meyer told him that we were recruiting Tebow as a linebacker and not a QB. Whether that's true or not, I find it not so hard to believe now as I did when I first heard it. Last thing on Durkin and this comes straight from the player, he has told players that if they have a problem they can come up to his office and he will lock the door and they can fight it out. That's not exactly something a sane man says.
The thing about those lies is that they usually come out and you lose a lot of integrity with recruits in the future. It may be true tho.
Not if you win. Nobody is a bigger scumbag in recruiting than Nick Saban. He still lures in top classes every year because he wins, and sends kids to the NFL.
ESPN did a thing where they asked 45 kids (they did not list names) who was the best and most overrated recruiter in the country. Nick Saban topped both list. I only remember the the top three so I will post. Best 1. Nick Saban 2. Gene Chizik 3. Will Muschamp Most Overrated 1. Nick Saban 2. Lane Kiffin 3. Les Miles
Most overrated? Not sure I get this list. IF they are so over rated, why do they always pull in darn good classes? Especially since boosters don't pay kids, right? LOL