FLORIDA: THE ALTERNATIVE TRUTH

 Before last week’s game, Gainesville Sun Sports Editor and Columnist, Robbie Andreu, put pen to paper and inked the following:

The more I think about Urban Meyer’s no-risk approach on offense, the more brilliant it seems.

SNL is not in the business of impugning the intelect or foresight of those who chronicle the Gators, so this post is by no means meant to be an excoriation exercise at Andreu’s expense.  That said there were plenty of non-journalism degree holders who watched the Gators “play it close to the vest” for 3 games and weren’t nearly as convinced of Urban’s genius heading into the Ole Miss game as Andreu was.  In fact, there was vocal minority of Gator-backers who believed before last Saturday that there were clearly-defined cracks in the Gator facade.

While it is difficult to tell if the “vocal minority” has garnered the numbers necessary to become a majority, it is clear from national pundits (see SI’s Mandel), local airwaves, and state fishwraps that Urban Meyer is no longer beyond reproach. Nor should he be since he is the head coach at one of the nation’s premiere football programs and oh yeah, a multi-millionaire as a result. 

Unswayed by the logic of his collegue and presumed friend, Gainesville Sun Columinist, Pat Dooley writes in today’s paper:

I think the emphasis on having Tebow become a better pocket passer has backfired to a point. We saw it Saturday against Ole Miss when Tebow was sacked three times and that doesn’t include the pass he threw to [offensive lineman] Maurkice Pouncey under pressure or any of the others that went awry because he held the ball too long.

That’s not Timmy being Timmy.
[...]
I’d let Tebow be Tebow, let him pull it down and run when the play isn’t there. Get him out of the pocket to throw on the run more. Tell him it’s OK again to be the guy he was last season.

As blog-god Dr. Saturday points out, Tebow averaged 15 carries per game last season, which is (drumroll please), the exact number of carries Tebow had against the Rebs.  Tebow also had a banner day in the pocket, passing for 319 yards.  The real difference between 2007 Tebow and 2008 Tebow seems less about the carries, or his ability to “create” Rembrandt quality works of art when the play implodes, than it is about Florida’s ability to field an offensive line that is without injury and knows its assignments.  Two starters were injured and did not play (or played sparingly) in the second half last Saturday and not to be outdone, Florida’s D-line has quickly deteriorated from the platoon of young bucks capable of wreaking modest amounts of havoc using a heavy rotation, into an ad-hoc unit of comprised of those warm-bodied males that remain available after the most recent round of season-threatening injuries.

However the occurrences of last Saturday may have manifested themselves in the psyche of the Florida offensive machine, the most glaring problem is a holdover from last year’s campaign of mediocracy:  Defense.  Predictably, Meyer remained stoically countenanced following the Ole Miss game, and even went so far as to openly place the blame for the loss at the feet of the offense, which fumbled on consecutive plays and proferred to the Rebels 3 drives of 50 yards or less as a token of its appreciation. 

Football exists on a continuum and to be sure, the offense’s willigness to part with the ball played a key role in the Gators undoing. But this rigid interpretation of Saturday’s drama misses the mark by failing to account for the secondary’s colossal failure on 3rd and 7, which resulted in an 86-yard touchdown pass.  Even accounting for X’s, O’s, leverage and technique, it is nearly impossible to explain how Florida could be burned for an 86-yard touchdown pass on a 3rd and long.  Thus, even though Florida’s secondary has generally been improved this year, the spectre of the “big play,” which embodies the legacy of the 2007 Gator defense, seems likely to play an equally importnat role in the 2008 production.  In fact, Both of Ole Miss’ touchdown passes came on 3rd down, and another completion on 3rd and long led  to McCluster’s 40-yard jaunt to paydirt. 

In the end, it now appears that Urban’s newfound adherence to the currency minted by the Coaches of yore (ball control, field position, turnovers etc…) is unlikely to yield victories against quality opponents as long as Florida’s defense, which remains young, is vulnerable to game-altering plays against opponents backed up on their own 14-yard line.  Which is another way of saying Dooley has probably hit the mark by proposing that this offense find a way to recapture last year’s explosiveness because the recently unamske defense is likely to have some tough afternoons in the future. 

For this week anyway, Florida should be able harness its opponent into a chest-thumping return of the swagger it posessed following the UT victory.  The unpalatable reciprocal, of course, is that even a small measure of success by Arkansas QB, Dick, will likely trigger severe PTSD from Gator-backers who suffered through Saturday’s Shakespearean tragedy.  Heading into what should be Florida’s “Waterloo” the following week, this Saturday’s contest is all about instilling faith in themselves and their fans for the Gators, because they will need an abundance of both to have a chance against LSU.

-So Sayeth the Shepherd