The Better Team Won, Clearly

[CapitalTider]

As someone else said, you are probably being a little hard on your team. It's understandable after a one-sided loss, but I don't know that things are that bad. Demps will be back at 100% soon and I feel certain Rainey will be back on the team by the time we meet again in December. Assuming we both make it, but I don't know who else from the East can make it and I like our chances now.

You do have some valid points, I'm not sure that Meyer is much of a QB coach. Letting Tebow's fundamentals remain as they were hurting his draft stock was inexcusable and Brantley has NFL talent but does not seem to have developed much in 4 years in the system. I'm not sure if it's the spread so much, Bradford played in a passing spread and he seems to do fine, I think it has more to do with Meyer.

When the UF fans kept saying they wouldn't miss Tebow I knew that was wishful thinking. Tebow was a special talent and that doesn't come along very often. Brantley is a fine QB but he doesn't have the unique skill set to run Meyer's system and hasn't had the experience over the past few years. I've always thought Meyer was a great offensive mind, but he seems unable or unwilling to adapt his offense to his personnel. You see this occasionally with coaches who are "married" to a particular offense. It's one reason I'm very glad Alabama did not go with Paul Johnson.

I think losing good assistants has hurt Meyer, I don't think it's something he's had to deal with before. I don't understand keeping Pouncey at center. He's a great guard but if he can't handle a shotgun snap by this point he's not going to. Surely UF has a real Center from one of those top recruiting classes.

 

[TideFan in AU]

Great post EastLA, and I appreciate your classy post. I agree with others that maybe you are being a little too hard your team. Brantley is having to deal with very limited running game, which makes UF very one dimensional. He has been in the system a while, but has no game experience on the road in the SEC. Remember, Mark and Trent carried GMac last year on the road at Ole Miss and in the USCe game. GMac got a bit overwhelmed and had a midseason slump that lasted about 3 games. Brantley does not have the luxury of being able to lean on two of the best RB's in CFB.

I also disagree a little on your view of Auburn, Camputer and Malzahn. Now, I can't take away that they've looked good at times, but only at times. They have looked abysmal at points in every game this year, save the game against this week against ULM. Cam has struggled passing the pass down the field, and their OL has been dominated against MSU, Clemson, and USCe. These three teams has rushed speedy DE's up the field giving Cam lanes to escape. I think we will defend Cam the same way we did Tebow last year - keep him in the pocket and make him beat you through air. He is not even on the same planet as Tebow as a passer, so I think the results will be the same. Their power running game has been bottled up most of the year, and has really only looked good against USCe who kept turning the ball over and over and over and putting a gassed defense on the field. After the Clemson game, the majority of the barner faithful were firmly off the "Gus Bus" (their words, not mine) and most of them were seriously worried about getting embarrased by USCe. Their boards were in meltdown mode at halftime in that game. I think they are improving, and Cam's running ability is very impressive, but I am not totally sold on a team that is 3 or 4 plays away from being 2 - 3. Their biggest wins are against a USCe team that scraped by UGA and Clemson team that looked terrible against a very mediocre Miami team. I'm reserving judgement until we play USCe and they play Arky.

 

[BamaFossil]

I doubt Florida is as far behind Bama as many Florida fans think.

I doubt Bama is as far ahead of Florida as many Bama fans think.

Blowouts breed acceptance of "truths" that we adopt based on incomplete knowledge and buttressed by the media. IF we make it to the SECCG, and IF Florida is our opponent, what happened yesterday could be the biggest impediment to Bama pulling off the win in the SECCG. IMO our coaches will have to do a masterful coaching job to get the team prepared for another win against Florida this year. Fortunately, they're up to the task.
DT_old:

 

[CoastGhost]

You know that old saying about the sun shining every day and dogs' posteriors - I think it applies and in a few years, our situations may well be reversed. Good luck with the rest of the season and hope to see you in Atlanta ... really I do

 

[Jessica4Bama]

Great, great, great post.

I really hope you stick around on TideFans.



Yes, GMAC does hold the ball too long at times, but schematically, CNS would rather him do that, than have him throw the ball into tight spaces.

UF's corners are ball hawks, and we weren't going to take any chances throwing the streak routes last night.




That's the biggest problem. It's part of the "post-Tebow Syndrome." You don't take the best college football player of his generation out of the offense and just expect things to roll along as always. It's human nature to fall into patterns and expect things to happen a certain way, but you can't expect your football players to make a super human play on every 3rd down. The biggest indictment of Meyer is that he had the entire off-season to make it work, and right now, it doesn't. Every player on the UF offense has played one offense the last 4 years - The Tebow option. Now, Florida looks a lot like a team learning an offense for the first time - because they are.


Look. Alabama is obviously ahead of Florida at this point. Fundamentally, we whipped you at the point of attack, but there's hope for the Gators. You guys moved the ball between the 20s, played the run admirably on defense, and controlled the ball in the second half. You did all that on the road.

Aside from that traveling freak show down there in Baton Rouge, the Gator's likely have the best defense we'll play all year. With that D, you'll still win a lot of games. Nick Saban leaves a lot of fan bases and coaching staffs scratching their collective heads, thinking "I thought we had a pretty good football team." You do, even if last night's scoreboard didn't reflect it.

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: