Orange and lame
As I am temporarily back in Gainesville I attended the Orange and Blue game. As part of my report I took a little trip down memory lane to see some of my past writeups. I was pleased how even my coverage has been – I always acknowledged that you can’t learn much from a snazzy practice and have managed to avoid declaring anyone the second coming. With that review out of the way I will now say that I am going to make some rather strong conclusions from what is essentially a media event – for example on the first TD the QB should have been “sacked” but it just was not called - and a media event missing many key players at that.
QB: John Brantley (12) isn’t great, but he isn’t atrocious. He made some okay plays here and there. The truth is he’s not getting much support, especially not from his line. However I do not want to absolve him, he does not handle pressure well. When things break down he can’t keep the play alive and make a play. Not all QBs can do that, but the better ones can. Given Brantley’s limitations it may be a long season. The backup is evidently Tyler Murphy (10) who did not show me anything. There were also a series of big stiff guys thrown out there late.
RB: Chris Rainey (3) reportedly likes the new offense that lets him run out of the I formation. He is still a shifty guy, breaking off several good scampers, including one when a D-lineman got 3 or 4 yards deep into the backfield. I’m not sure if he can stay healthy if he gets a bunch of carries. He was also the only healthy back. Malcom Jones (20), listed as a DB, ran and actually did not look half bad. Ben Sams (37) was on the field.
WR: Quinton Dunbar (84) was the media darling of the scrimmage. And to be fair he did make some good plays, but he made almost as many bad ones (drops, poor routes etc). He’s young so he can learn to be more consistent. No one else was worthy of notice. Which is alarming given that Frankie Hammond JR. (85) and Omarius Hines (82) were on the field.
TE: Jordan Reed (11) was there.
OL: Wow. I know they were down to seven healthy bodies and starting a walk-on – Kyle Koehne (64) – at tackle: but boy they were bad. They had several recognizable guys out there [Jon Halapio (67), James Wilson (66) Sam Robey (50), but the DL was on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage all day. Given their spotty play last year it was not an encouraging display.
DL: You could argue that given how effective the DL was it is a good sign, but I did not see anyone making many great plays.
LB: Somehow Dee Finely (13) is still here. I swear he was at UF before I got here. He’s still just a special teams player. Jelani Jenkins (43) made some good plays.
DB: Matt Elam (22) was involved in many tackles, and wrapped up well. How is he in coverage is unclear. Cody Riggs (31) certainly thought he played well from the way he danced although I did not see it. The player who impressed me the most (of the whole team) was Safety Josh Shaw (9). He was consistently in position. What worries me is that when I looked at me review from last year I saw this statement: “In the secondary the big question is who starts at corner opposite Janoris Jenkins (1) or to put it another way who will be the corner that gets thrown at. Based on what I saw it should be true freshman (another early enrollee) Josh Shaw (29) who was head and shoulders above our other DBs. He's far from perfect and will get burned some in his trial by fire, but he made some plays.” That appears not to have worked out, but given Jeremy Brown’s (8) season I can stand by that comment.
ST: With Chas Henry (17) now graduating our new punter seems inconsistent. He boomed one, but shanked one too – and that was with no rush (literally - part of the scrimmage rules).
Football 101: The “I Formation” refers to how the running backs lineup before the play starts – in this case the fullback and the halfback lineup directly in with the quarterback (a ways behind him) who is underneath the center. It is a standard running formation – but offers less flexibility than having the running backs split. You can run more types of plays that way.
Fans: At one point as Brantley was moving the team he defense tried to pump the crowd and they responded. The crowd is ready to turn on Brantley if he struggles. Now I am not the type to say you can’t ever boo you team, but those times are rare and usually involve stupid plays or stupid play calling. I think after being jerked around so much in 2010 when everyone expected him to be a stud his confidence is not what it could be. It has the potential to be cyclical – he’s booed and then plays worth. This may not end well.
2011 is not a good year to have a sub Gator-standard team. We face ‘Bama and Auburn next year. That’s the worst pairing of the 5 various Western SEC teams we might draw.
QB: John Brantley (12) isn’t great, but he isn’t atrocious. He made some okay plays here and there. The truth is he’s not getting much support, especially not from his line. However I do not want to absolve him, he does not handle pressure well. When things break down he can’t keep the play alive and make a play. Not all QBs can do that, but the better ones can. Given Brantley’s limitations it may be a long season. The backup is evidently Tyler Murphy (10) who did not show me anything. There were also a series of big stiff guys thrown out there late.
RB: Chris Rainey (3) reportedly likes the new offense that lets him run out of the I formation. He is still a shifty guy, breaking off several good scampers, including one when a D-lineman got 3 or 4 yards deep into the backfield. I’m not sure if he can stay healthy if he gets a bunch of carries. He was also the only healthy back. Malcom Jones (20), listed as a DB, ran and actually did not look half bad. Ben Sams (37) was on the field.
WR: Quinton Dunbar (84) was the media darling of the scrimmage. And to be fair he did make some good plays, but he made almost as many bad ones (drops, poor routes etc). He’s young so he can learn to be more consistent. No one else was worthy of notice. Which is alarming given that Frankie Hammond JR. (85) and Omarius Hines (82) were on the field.
TE: Jordan Reed (11) was there.
OL: Wow. I know they were down to seven healthy bodies and starting a walk-on – Kyle Koehne (64) – at tackle: but boy they were bad. They had several recognizable guys out there [Jon Halapio (67), James Wilson (66) Sam Robey (50), but the DL was on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage all day. Given their spotty play last year it was not an encouraging display.
DL: You could argue that given how effective the DL was it is a good sign, but I did not see anyone making many great plays.
LB: Somehow Dee Finely (13) is still here. I swear he was at UF before I got here. He’s still just a special teams player. Jelani Jenkins (43) made some good plays.
DB: Matt Elam (22) was involved in many tackles, and wrapped up well. How is he in coverage is unclear. Cody Riggs (31) certainly thought he played well from the way he danced although I did not see it. The player who impressed me the most (of the whole team) was Safety Josh Shaw (9). He was consistently in position. What worries me is that when I looked at me review from last year I saw this statement: “In the secondary the big question is who starts at corner opposite Janoris Jenkins (1) or to put it another way who will be the corner that gets thrown at. Based on what I saw it should be true freshman (another early enrollee) Josh Shaw (29) who was head and shoulders above our other DBs. He's far from perfect and will get burned some in his trial by fire, but he made some plays.” That appears not to have worked out, but given Jeremy Brown’s (8) season I can stand by that comment.
ST: With Chas Henry (17) now graduating our new punter seems inconsistent. He boomed one, but shanked one too – and that was with no rush (literally - part of the scrimmage rules).
Football 101: The “I Formation” refers to how the running backs lineup before the play starts – in this case the fullback and the halfback lineup directly in with the quarterback (a ways behind him) who is underneath the center. It is a standard running formation – but offers less flexibility than having the running backs split. You can run more types of plays that way.
Fans: At one point as Brantley was moving the team he defense tried to pump the crowd and they responded. The crowd is ready to turn on Brantley if he struggles. Now I am not the type to say you can’t ever boo you team, but those times are rare and usually involve stupid plays or stupid play calling. I think after being jerked around so much in 2010 when everyone expected him to be a stud his confidence is not what it could be. It has the potential to be cyclical – he’s booed and then plays worth. This may not end well.
2011 is not a good year to have a sub Gator-standard team. We face ‘Bama and Auburn next year. That’s the worst pairing of the 5 various Western SEC teams we might draw.
posted by El Breto @ 4:18 PM
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