Unbelieable and unacceptable

I get a lot of grief from some of you for these (and complaints when they don’t come). I’m too hard of a grader I hear. What are you? My undergrads? But I stand by what I see. Flaws in a team show up even in a big win over a chump if you try to be objective. Didn’t I say after Hawaii we would struggle with running QBs? I feel vindicated. As I said, we were over hyped.

QB: I have never drunken the Tebow Koolaid. He’s a great athlete, but some of the mental aspects of being a quarterback have not been visible in his game yet. However he doesn’t deserve the blame for this loss. He did have the atrocious fumble, we only converted one third down, and he was stopped on fourth down (more about that later). He also complete 63% of his passes, threw for 300 yards, led his team to 30 points, and twice put together touchdown drives when his team was behind in the 4th quarter. He did this despite a limited running game, some poor plays by his WRs, and considerable passrush. He had another one of those crazy last second throws as he was going down, sooner or later that will hurt us. He is getting a little better at realizing when he should pull the ball down and run when a pass play breaks down. However I don’t remember any awful plays on his part besides the fumble and he stuck some throws in there.
GRADE B+

RB: Moody (21) found a little space early, but got hurt again. After that no one did anything. Not that they had much of a chance. The only guy with more than a single carry was Chris Rainey (3) who had three. If Meyer doesn’t trust his small backs, why didn’t he recruit bigger ones? Yeah it is good to be the fastest team, but you need balance (size, strength, smarts: any of those important?). What about Mon Williams (27)? Brandon James (25) was surprisingly absent; I barely saw him on offense (although admittedly I was in the 67th row). One of Rainey’s three carries went for 12 yards, but he failed on a fourth. But that was a bad call, you don’t a run wide slow developing play on a short yardage play. The forgotten man, Kestahn Moore (33), is probably on the field more than anyone else. He mainly works blocking, and slipping out as a safety valve. Both are valuable contributions.
GRADE: D-

WR: Take away Percy Harvin (1) and the Gators had 133 yards passing. 52 of that came from the tight ends, 12 more from the backs. Only Riley Cooper (11) and Louis Murphy (9) had any catches. Both had drops, as did the Juco Moore (16). Admittedly the Rebs laid a few hits out there, but the corps did not have a good game. Even Harvin who made a million plays fumbled three times (got two back). That freshman I like, Deonte Thompson (6) barely set foot on the field.
GRADE: B-

TE: Hernandez (81) was the second leading receiver with 52 yards, but also had a fumble. Tater Salad (#84 in your program, #1 in your heart) was on the field a bit, including kickoffs.
GRADE: B (he had one bad play – the fumble seems worse because we had 3, but if that had been our only turnover you wouldn’t be calling for blood).

OL: Bad. Just bad. Way too much pressure on Tebow. Few running lanes save for when Harvin ran on gimmick plays. Guard Jim Tartt (63) appears to still be hurt, so we better hope he was the glue (doubtful, but he is good).
GRADE: F

DL: A one point midgame we had some passrush going. That was because we were confusing their OL by having big DE Carlos Dunlop (8) line up standing behind the DL almost as a spy. Then some LBs blitzed and got there, but otherwise their QB wasn’t sweating. Dunlop also had a nice stop behind the line. Ole Miss also found repeatedly found running lanes. NOTE: He’s not listed as a starter, and it may just be because Jermaine Cunningham (49) is dinged, but Justin Trattou (94) has been starting (but not doing much). I think he started against Tennessee too (the TV I was watching on was had lots of static). They did functionally force turnover because it was a hit on their QB has he threw that made the ball float to a pick.
GRADE: C-

LB: Spikes (51) had a sack. Doe (32) caught someone behind the line. Otherwise they did not do much noticeable good or bad. Stamper (41) was hurt and did not play.
GRADE: B

DB: Hallelujah!! Starting corners for the University of Florida Gators defense: Joe Haden (5) and freshman Janoris Jenkins (29). The Wondy Wonder (4 – apparently in Creole the word for “four” and “toast” are the same word) wasn’t hurt, he just wasn’t playing (I saw him on the field once). About time. Markihe Anderson (14) was the nickel. Jenkins is a solid tackler, but there were some misses in the secondary in general. Major Wright (21) had a pick, but that was a gift. He totally blew his angle on the 86 yard TD. That was entirely on him. He’s a big hitter, but as we saw last year that’s not the most important ability for the last line of your defense.
GRADE: B-

Defense overall: Lots of missed tackles. Yes they were on a short field thanks to those fumbles, but they gave up 31 points to Ole Miss. And they struggled with a gimmick offense all game. That said they were not the reason we lost, but if we had won they would not have been the reason either.

ST: Brandon James had a few good returns, coverage was decent, Chas Henry (17) made a great play to get a punt away when the blocking broke down (a theme). But they fell for a fake punt (the unbalanced formation should have made it clear something was up) that set up Mississippe’s first TD. Even more critically (obviously) was the blocked PAT. You just can’t let them get through that late in the game.
GRADE: C- (James did have a big return to give us life after they took the lead again in the 4th quarter).

Coaching: I’m not going to complain about passing the field goal in the first half. It was 47 yards, that’s hardly a give me. If you think you have a play that can get you the first down, then you can try it. Trying the kick would not be a mistake either. And yes we lost, but the fact it was Ole Miss probably played into the thinking (Meyer knew they were 22 point dogs). That’s about the only pass Urban Meyer is going to get from me. Yes, he’s won a lot of games, but he has some flaws. I’m not just drawing these from this game. He’s not good at in game adjustments and he loves his schemes too much (remember all those shovel passes when he first arrived). How many times did Tebow have to run for his life before he finally changed his beloved spread offense to keep another blocker in? When we lined up for that final fourth down attempt Tebow lined up in the shotgun and he was the deepest player – the running backs were in front of him. Could you telegraph the fact the Tebow was going to run any more? Bad formation, I was complaining about before we even snapped the ball (props to South Carolina for agreeing with me). Also did we prep for the “Wild Reb” at all? We sure didn’t seem to have. It worked all game, again no adjustments were made. How about lining Brandon Spikes up opposite their QB when he lines up at WR and just plowing him? Even if you get a personal foul, Ole Miss would think twice before doing that again.
GRADE: C-

Fans: When it was becoming clear that Ole Miss wasn’t going way and we were going to need to play the whole game we got very loud. When the offense started the last drive it was by far the quietest I had ever heard any sporting venue. Ever. It was noticeably quiet, and you can’t say that very often. But then as they started moving, we made started making noise on offense (and we had done that earlier in the fourth quarter too). Even the bad started playing cheers during timeouts. Some needs to educate them: we aren’t sweating through the heat sitting on metal bench in a concrete bowl for some tunes.
GRADE: B (we weren’t that loud on offense)

Player of the Game: Percy Harvin. He did fumble thrice (losing one), but he was huge when we were trying to come back late. He had two TDs and 268 of our 443 yards of offense (that’s 60%). I considered their QB, Jevan Snead, but he was 9 for 20.

Play of the Game: Ole Miss’s 86 yard TD. Surprised its not the blocked PAT? Here is why. After blowing a ten point half time lead and letting them run off seventeen points unanswered, we scored to tie the game. We had momentum, the feeling was okay, the situation had righted itself. Their offense wasn’t looking that good and it was third and long. It wasn’t a bomb, but a short pass, with blown coverage and we got to watch Wright futility chase him the whole way. Suddenly with five minutes to go the Rebs had some heart and it was clear they would not go away and might very well win. Even if we make that PAT, they still might have won.

The showdown with the Turdicanes

I should probably preface this by saying I don’t like Miami. Before I got to UF I was not a huge college football fan, I rooted for various schools and rooted against various others, but I have always had a special distain for Thug U.

This will be a shorter analysis than normal – I was in the 80th row so it was tough to read numbers to know who was doing what.

I would like to point that while several people took shots at my analysis (and for even doing one for Hawaii) – much of what I said held up.

QB: The Savior (15) is definitely better than last year. Several times he kept his head up while running around and found a receiver. He’s still far from perfect – the ‘Canes dropped a pick when he threw into double coverage. He also still has limited pocket presence - he holds the ball a little too long, doesn’t scramble when he should, and mistaken often thinks he is big enough to get away from sacks when there are hands on him. Still in a tough game he kept his poise.
GRADE: B+

RB: This is where I was the most incorrect after the Hawaii game. Rainey (3) is indeed our best back, stronger and shiftier than Demps (2) (although he has some moves too), and Moore (33) looks poor by comparison. But we are not a great running team. Those three combined for 7 yards on 9 carries (Demps and Moore combined for -6 yards). Also we did not pass to them very often – Brandon James (25) seems to be the bubble screen guy, which is fine as he does it well.
GRADE: C- (see the OL)

WR: Harvin (1) was not 100%, but thankfully we are off next week. That meant that Murphy (9) was our #1 guy. He was okay, getting open a few times – but he also had some costly drops when the team was sleepwalking through the first half. The juco Moore (16) did well to catch a deep pass while getting whacked. Also apparently Meyer agreed with me because freshman Deonte Thompson (6) started. He made a few nice plays, he’s good a finding soft spots in the defense. As a whole the receiving corps did not block well.
GRADE: B

TE: Boy are we a lot better with Aaron Hernandez (81) playing instead of Tater Salad (#84 in your program, #1 in your heart) – who did play, he’s part of the short yardage squad. Hernandez is fast for a TE, making him a tough matchup. He’s talented at getting open when his initial route doesn’t pan out. He was our big play guy this week (not sure how much I like saying that about a TE).
GRADE: A+ (imagine how dangerous we’d be with Cornelius Ingram)

OL: Jim Tartt (63) was listed as starter, but I never saw him on the field. It appears Marcus Gilbert (76) played in his spot. It was a rough game for this squad. There was still enough pressure on Tebow it seemed to affect what the offense could do – we sure didn’t seem to be throwing deep, especially early (and when we did it was usually after Tebow fled the pocket). Worse yet Miami constantly got penetration on running plays, leaving very little room for our backs on traditional running plays.
GRADE: D+

DL: There’s no way for me to say how the guy I liked last week – DT Lawrence Marsh (90) – did this week watching from the 80th row. Overall the DL very well against the run – they busted a few runs here and there, but for the most part their backs had nowhere to go (it helped that every run was a draw). We still don’t do so well with running QBs, the DEs have to keep containment -Dunlop (8) especially. To their credit, they adjusted. Unfortunately their was minimal passrush. Even when we blitzed – which we did a fair amount of, including more corner blitzes – they still had time. Jermaine Cunningham (49) picked up a cheapie after the game was over (remember that if people talk up his sack numbers later in the year).
GRADE: B (stopping the run can’t be underestimated, especially in a game against an inexperienced QB)

LB: Meyer agreed with me again, because I saw Stamper (41) on the field a bunch, although he did not start. The linebackers came up to help in the run and sucked up most of the short passes – preventing them from becoming long passes.
GRADE: B+ (good play, but no big plays).

DB: Will we PLEASE bench Wondy Pierre-Louis (4)!! Miami targeted him all game, he just can’t prevent his guy from catching passes - and he also misses tackles. He was either pulled or hurt late in the game (I think pulled because he came in to blitz). Otherwise the secondary was pretty good. Most of the short passes they completed were against Wondy. Don’t get too excited, I honestly only remember them trying to go deep once all game. Of course with the lack of passrush, that implies the coverage was holding up. Freshman Janoris Jenkins (29) looks to be the nickel back. Maybe he can replace the Wondy Wonder. As a whole this was the most improved unit from last week – the Canes longest pass was 14 yards (we had at least two 30 yarders and three 20 yarders).
GRADE: Everyone else: A Wondy: F-

ST: Let’s see: a blocked punt safety, a bad snap on a punt that Chaz Henry (17) still got away, several big returns from Brandon James, pretty good coverage. It’s tough to argue against our special teams being the best unit.
GRADE: A+

Coaching: Our gameplan wasn’t great, and Meyer stubborn keeps trying the same things no matter many times the don’t work (how long did it take him to give up that shovel pass?) - in this case Tebow up the middle. However I’ll give him credit for making adjustments and finally finding a way to move the ball in a tough game. Those intermediate range passes we started working are not our standard offense.
GRADE: B+

101: I don’t have a term this week, but I want to expand on why it is especially important to stop the run against an inexperienced QB. Quarterback is the most mental and hardest position to play of any team sport. Young quarterbacks especially will feel the pressure and try to do too much and make a mistake. Defenses will often throw complex defenses and blitzes against new quarterbacks to confuse them. The way to help protect a young QB is to run the ball well, so the quarterback doesn’t have to do much, and especially not face long yardage on third downs. Our defense never game up a run of longer than ten yards. Now in this case to his credit their QB did not panic even though it was his first start ever, but the whole offense had to rely on him and he could not do it at all. Late in the game especially he ate the ball a few times.

Fans: For all the hype of the Miami game we were pretty quiet in a game against an instate rival. Seemed that people were getting frustrated even though we always led. We are struggling to sing in time with the music too.
GRADE: B

Play of the game: Aaron Hernandez’s 38 crossing route. Not only was it our longest play of the game, it was a major shift in momentum. Never underestimate momentum. Until that time Miami’s athletic defense had been good enough to frustrate our offense (remember our first TD came on a short field thanks to a limp Miami punt). Hernandez’s catch was our first big play and you could see it hearten the offense. It opened the door to pulling away late.

Player of the game: Aaron Hernandez – he also caught our first TD and lead the team with 5 catches.

Bottom line: We have some problems and probably aren’t blowing too many teams, but we can hang around against most of them - and we have an easy schedule.

I coulda been a Rain-bow Warria!

Okay, I am back by popular (or at least some) demand, but I'll to try to be more concise. Anyway I had great seats - 45 yard line 24 rows in. Naturally I get the great seats for a subpar game. We kicked the (formerly Rainbow) Warriors asses, just as we were expected to. It's tough to draw a lot of conclusions about this team from playing a such a patsy.

QB: The Savior is better. He still is more great athlete than great quarterback, but a couple of times I was pleased to see him scrambling with his head up and flip the ball to someone who had come open as the defense broke down. He still does not have great pocket presence - for a guy who is such a good runner, he is surprising poor at realizing when the play has broken down and he should take off. He was hit from behind and fumbled when he was half running while deciding what he should do (he was lucky the ball bounced right back too him). Meyer called his number a lot less - and he found more yards than usual, not really a shock you can catch the defense by surprise when you don't run Tebow into the line 20 times a game. Two backups played: John Brantley (#12) and Cameron Newton (#13). Brantley, a redshirt freshman, is supposedly the better passer, but has been hurt a bunch. Newton, a true sophomore, seen as is the runner. I can't say much because they barely did anything other than hand off - and the platooned, so either hand a chance to get any rhythm. Newton is significantly bigger (bulkier) than last ear, so it is nice not to see such a gangly guy out there - but I don't know if he still has hat awkward throwing motion.
GRADE A- (Almost gave an incomplete because we barely passed - 17 total passes attempted).

RB: Wow, for the first time since C4 left for the draft there are some real threats in the backfield. Of the three big new names Chris Rainey (3) looked the best as he showed shiftiness and some ability to break tackles to go with his already famous speed. Equally speedy Jeff Demps (2) also looked good running the ball – and he showed some toughness taking on two blockers while covering a kickoff (of course he got knocked down too…). Much hyped USC transfer Emmanuel Moody (21) showed nothing, but reportedly had an injured ankle. Rainey and Demps made last year’s leading runner, Kestahn Moore (33) look superfluous. And it is not just me saying that, Meyer has had him lineup at fullback occasionally in practice. This may also be because we don’t have a fullback (need to recruit one there Urban). KR Brandon James (25) surprisingly got some carries early. Mon Williams (27) briefly stepped on the field – if he is back from his knee injury, he might be able to provide some power.
GRADE: A (There are no A+’s awarded again Hawaii).

WR: Seeing them play without the injured Percy Harvin (1) really made it clear how special he is. We just don’t have anyone else who compares. Of course when we throw so little it is tough to tell. Louis Murphy (9) had two catches, one more than any other WR – which is about right, because he is probably the best after Harvin. Props to Riley Cooper (11 – formerly 86) for blocking down field. I saw the hype Juco WR Carl Moore (16) on the field, but he was quiet. Probably the best looking WR was freshman Deonte Thompson (6). He only had one catch, but on the deep bomb Tebow threw to the TE on broken play he was wide open even further downfield and was running towards the sideline to help the QB out. He also used the sideline well on another play, but could not get the ball.
GRADE: Incomplete.

TE: We had a Tater Salad (#84 in your program, #1 in your heart) sighting! Actually the redshirt senior (who successfully appealed for one more year of eligibility) was the starting TE and played quite a bit. With superstar Cornelius Ingram (7) out for the year and promising youngster Aaron Hernandez (81) not playing for reason Meyer refused to share, Tater Salad was the guy. He blocked well – even lining up in the backfield to replace our nonexistent fullback, and caught a deep pass on the sideline when he broke free as Tebow was running for his life. He played about as well as I have ever seen him.
GRADE: A (good for him).

OL: They opened running lanes well, but Tebow was pressured a fair amount (actually a lot for how little we passed). We started with the Pouncey twins (Mike is back from emergency DT duty last year) and Jim Tartt (63) inside. The talented, but fragile Tartt got hurt (he already was dinged and getting some practices off) and Carl Johnson (57) replaced him (I think Marcus Gilbert (76) also got on the field) because Maurice Hurt 74 – potentially a starter – was out. Phil Trautwein (75) and Jason Watkins (77) played at tackle. Trautwein is the big name, but I’ve seen him get pushed around a lot more than I have seen him push others – Watkins played well when Trautwein went down last year.
GRADE: B- (really - it was Hawaii, they should not have gotten pressure).

DL: The lack of passrush was a deadly last year and I have been saying all summer we don’t have one. Meyer hyped Carlos Dunlap (8), but I never bought into it. I was right – his one contribution was getting a false start penalty (on us for invading the neutral zone) – the same went for also overhyped (by others, not Meyer) DE Jermaine Cunningham (49). But there is good news: oddly our starting lineup included a third DE Lawrence Marsh (90) who I was unfamiliar with (internet says he is a soph) – he actually played DT. He is a tall guy, but not very big (internet says he is 6’5” 305lbs, but he looks maybe 280) – which you could say about our whole DL. But Marsh is good. Note: I’m not saying he’s not bad, he looked GOOD. He had the best game for a Florida defensive lineman in the last two years. He got penetration several times and was in the QBs face (had at least 1.5 sacks). On the first his inexperienced showed because he got through the line and then chased a RB for a step before turning around to collect the helpless QB. Our last starter Terron Sanders (92) had a wide body, but did not go much (and Hawaii found running room inside early). Freshman DT Omar Hunter (99) looked big, but did nothing. Sophomore DE Justin Trattou (94) showed a few flashes, which he did early last year too before disappearing. Freshman DT Matt Patchan (71) played some, but his biggest impact was a personal foul. Sophomore DE Duke Lemmens (44), who I remember seeing a little last year, made some smart plays snuffing out shovel passes – heads up plays have been rare on the DL lately. Overall this unit doesn’t look good, and I think passrush will be tough to come by against a better teams, but at least we have one bona fide quality guy in Marsh. And we shut down their run after a while – although running QBs may give us trouble.
GRADE: B

LB: Our best defender last year, MLB Brandon Spikes (51), was hurt so Ryan Stamper (41) started in the middle. I noticed him last year and thought he should have played more – a feeling reinforced by his steady play Saturday. He was constantly in good position: on a young defense that is a valuable skill. When Spikes comes back I think Stamper should stay in the starting lineup. The OLBs are A.J. Jones (16), who is undersized, but good in coverage (to the point I half expected Meyer to try him a safety last year). When Hawaii went three-wide we stayed in the 4-3 and just moved Jones out. Given the questionable nature of our secondary it might be wiser to bench Dustin Doe (32) for Stamper. Doe is a hyped guy, but I hardly ever seen him do much of anything (to be fair he did have one play on Saturday, getting behind the blocking and dragging down a WR on a bubble screen).
GRADE: B

DB: Easily the most improved defender from last year was CB Joe Haden (5 – formerly 12). He was our best corner last year, but was all over the place Saturday. In part that was because we threw out a bunch of corner blitzes – which usually involved Haden. Those might be dangerous to use as much as we did against better competition. Wondy Pierre-Louis (4) continues to start on the other side – which appalls me. Isn’t Markihe Anderson (14) healthy by now? He was on special teams. Wondy’s most noticeable play was a missed tackle. At safety converted corner Ahmad Black (35) started next to the hard hitting (but often missing tackles – at least last year) Major Wright (21) both had picks for TDs, but both were on bad throws not great defensive plays. Black especially is a fan favorite right now, but our secondary is still a concern. Make no mistake about it, we benefited from them searching for a new starting QB. Our first pick (when the game was still 0-0) by Black was an overthrow to a wide open receiver, which would have been 6 had the pass been good. Final note: freshman CB Janoris Jenkins (29) got some playing time.
GRADE: A-

ST: Brandon James remains lethal – but I don’t like that everyone is calling him “BJ” (initials are not a nickname – and certainly not those initials). On that punt returned he displayed an ability to stop and change direction so quickly there is almost no way a single tackler can keep up. I also liked the balls our punter Chaz Henry (17) showed on running the fake – that was not a called play. Just don’t do that against LSU. We also blocked a field goal (play was redone due to an unrelated penalty).
GRADE: A

Coaching: Not much to say here, Hawaii is not much of a test. I did like the defensive adjustments – early on the Warriors found some yards running and with shovel pass (ah…shades of Meyer’s first season), but the DL adjusted and that stopped.
GRADE: Incomplete

Football 101: Most of the time defenses send their defensive linemen to try to sack the opposing QB. Sometimes they will send extra players – linebackers or defensive backs: this is called a “blitz.” When extra guys rush the passer there are often more than the offense has blockers (at least on one side of the field), so the QB is sacked or has to hurriedly throw the ball away. Hopefully this is a surprise to the offense – defenses will blitz inexperienced QBs more, because they are more likely to be caught by surprise (and/or make a bad play under pressure). The danger is with more guys rushing there are less defending receivers and the offense can hit a big play (usually just one defender is covering a receiver, so he has to be perfect) – especially if they defense can’t get to the QB quickly enough. Offenses have special plays (“hot reads”) if they suspect a blitz is coming. Thus blitzes can be very effective if used judiciously, but too many can end up costing a defense big plays. Ideally your defensive linemen will get enough pressure on the QB on their own (that’s not happening in Gainesville this year – but it did against OSU), but if you can’t the blitz become crucial.

Fans: It was a hot day at first, but we were fairly loud. Once the ass-kicking seriously got going our cheering became rather pro forma. A few drunks were angry we could not keep a shutout (it was weak that they kicked a fieldgoal down 56-0).
GRADE B+ (we’ll call that a warmup game).

Play of the game: Brady’s punt return – it really was beautiful.

Player of the game: Joe Haden

Bottom line: Last year against Western Kentucky we blew them out, but I saw some holes in our defense – which time eventually proved I was right about [SIDE NOTE: I was right about former Gator WR Chad Jackson in the NFL too – the Pats just cut him after two unproductive years despite spending a second round pick on him. This is why I am the one spreading knowledge] despite naysayers. I feel the same way now. Plus our offense only scored 5 TDs against a weak opponent (and none for the first 18:00 minutes).