Florida Gators -- Week #6

Ouch, take 2.

Let’s start with the good. Jacoby Brisset. I thought he looked incredibly smooth out there. Not just for a true freshman starting his first game, but as an overall athlete all of his movements were so coordinated and fluid. I’m thinking there’s going to be quite a battle for the starting quarterback position come spring and next fall. His first interception came on a route that Jordan Reed gave up on and his second interception will hopefully be a learning experience; put the ball where your guy gets it or no one gets it. I thought it was kind of funny that we were running so much option. I know Charlie Weis had to plan with the athletes he had available but it still made me chuckle at the irony. The sad part is that it looked better than it did last year under Urban!

The other good that stood out to me was Dominique Easley. No newsflash here but he’ll be playing on Sundays. He is so fast off of the ball! He is regularly the first lineman making contact with the opposing lineman. Sometimes he is so fast he seems to be across the line of scrimmage before the ball is even snapped, but never mind that part for now.

On to the bad. The defensive line was once again exposed. The only way to keep from getting worn out over 4 quarters is to make third-down stops early on. With LSU coming out so jacked up with the home crowd behind them, those early stops just weren’t happening. The “Mad Hatter” made a nice call on the second play of the game going deep when the Gators were surely selling out after a first play 13 yard run. Of course, the call was made to look all the better when Pop Saunders blew his deep middle coverage.

I have to call out the coaching here a little bit. This will sound like second-guessing but I promise you these were my thoughts before the outcomes of the plays:

On our third possession, down 14-0 on 4^th & 1. I loved the call to go for it even though it isn’t by the book. At the time it felt like 21-0 would not have felt any worse than 14-0. So no problems there. But later on in the same drive, faking the punt on 4^th & 6 did not seem necessary. I felt we had controlled the ball for a few minutes by making a couple of first downs and that things were calming down (at least from a fan’s point of view). It doesn’t matter that Burton probably should’ve made it, it was definitely not the right call.

The other coaching call I questioned was after the LSU punt after our failed fake punt. LSU pinned the Gators back at the 8 yard line but there was a procedure penalty against LSU. My thought was to add the 5 yards to the kick and take the ball at the 13 yard line. The best thing that could have happened by making them kick again was a touchback which would have been a 7 yard gain. Instead, LSU gets another chance and the punter ends up calling his own number and runs the ball into the end zone (which was subsequently called back to around the 25 yard line). I can’t say I knew that was going to happen, but from the television angle behind the punter, you could clearly see the entire left side of the special teams open up. Even though I was watching the game by myself, I said, “Uh-Oh,” out loud as I saw both guys who were covering the left gunner just turn and take off.

Here’s something that I wasn’t sure about. How did LSU get the ball to start the second half AND get fourth-quarter wind? LSU won the toss and deferred until the second half. In the second half they chose to receive the ball, of course. That left the Gators to decide direction. Shouldn’t they have chosen to go against the wind in the third quarter in hopes of having the wind at their backs should a last-second field goal be necessary? Maybe they just didn’t want to kick off into the wind to start the half? LSU made the same choice in the first half (chose to kick off with the wind) so maybe I’m way off on that strategy?

Penalties! Enough with the penalties! Do all of those encroachment/offsides penalties reflect on the coaching staff or the players? Whoever’s discipline problem it is, fix that shit!

And finally, shouldn’t a major Division I program have a better punter than what the Gators have? Can Chas Henry grow a 'stache and re-enroll for four years?

Just Joe