I Told You Why I Like Tennessee; Here's What's Wrong With Florida

[Aavoxx]

Originally Posted by OrangeHammer

I wonder how many epic meltdowns we will see from Muschump during the season? Can i get an over/under?

37

[Yankee_Vol]

Beating FL would almost be as nice as beating AL

[99gator]

agree with much of this except a few things.

1. debose made plenty of big plays, but that's all he makes. i think he caught 5 or 6 go routes for big yards and not much else.

2. the schedule is not brutal. their two big conference road tests had a combined record of 12-13 in 2011. everyone else comes to gainesville with georgia in jax. if they are able to get it done in those first two conference games, they are done traveling for the year.

3. you didnt mention special teams which will be strong

[TennTom]

Originally Posted by bigeasy

I stopped reading once I clicked to open the thread....can I get an overview of the dissertation?

Dem wurds iz hard.

[Ashevillevol]

Originally Posted by Vol Main

To beat the gators this year, we'll have to score more points than they do.

Good Lord, How could we have overlooked that for all these years. We should be a lock now that we know what we are supposed to do.

[orangebloodgmc]

UTGhostHunter, I too hate the gators and I appreciate your attempt to set that aside and try to be objective.

In that same spirit, I will ask, 1) do they have any JUCOs coming in? That can translate to some instant production, potentially. 2) Did they have any EE's among 4 or 5 star offensive players? If EEs, they too could contribute right away. 3) What about kicking game? That can decide close games. I hope our's is good enough ... but I admit to knowing nothing about Florida's current kicking game.

[USMC Gators]

Originally Posted by UTGhostHunter

A couple days ago I posted my blog entry about Tennessee and a few people brought up Florida and why they can't be overlooked. I tried to let them know what my issues were, but I've decided to post my concerns on here in full. It's just my opinion based on my analysis of them, so take it for what it is.
Why Florida Can Win Eight Games But Won't
The Florida Gators are a program that I am not fond of. No matter when it is or who’s coaching them, I can’t stand the Gators. That said, I pride myself on my ability to separate being a fan from being an analyst. Still, I think it is only fair to state that I have a personal prejudice as it relates to the Gators. That will allow you, the reader, to decide if I’m being fair or not.
I love the Gators’ defense this season. There are future pros at every position (or there were before Ronald Powell’s ACL injury). I believe they have talented pass rushers, strong linebackers, and a secondary that can match up with most receivers if not all. They’ve recruited well on the defensive side of the football and look like they will be able to have a superior rotation of players compared to last season when they simply wore down late in games.
However, I still don’t like the Gators’ offense. There are too many questions at too many positions. You can look at any skill position on their offense and never find a name you’ve heard of. Andre Debose it the top receiver. Never heard of him; well, you probably should have by now, but he’s had more injuries than big plays. Their top running back appears to be Mike Gillislee. If you haven’t heard of him, it’s because he’s so talented that he couldn’t beat out two 175 pound scatbacks for the job. The top quarterback is…throw a dart at a board with Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel’s names attached to it and see where it lands. You’ve probably heard of these two because they struggled mightly last season get anything done when forced into action. But hey, at least the offensive line is good. That way the skilled guys will be on their feet while they don’t make plays.
Now to be fair, the spring game numbers weren’t that bad. To be honest, all that yardage came in the fourth quarter. Since the defense was split up, I have to believe that the lack of a rotation led to the defensive players wearing down due to decreased substitution and the offense took advantage in the fourth quarter to the tune of 34 of the 41 total points and 279 of the 619 yards. To put that into perspective, that is 45% of the total offensive production and 83% of the scoring all in the fourth quarter.
That all sounds pretty bad, but it isn’t quite as bad as it sounds. Yes, the defense wore down, but they were split up and subbing was probably decreased significantly. Also, there are some players from the last recruiting class who are expected to contribute immediately who hadn’t enrolled yet. On top of that, there were receivers who seemed to step up, and both quarterbacks had solid numbers for the day. All that came with a new offensive coordinator at the helm, so the numbers aren’t horrible. In fact, once put into perspective the numbers are solid and so were many of the performances. By the time the season hits week five, the offense should be running at 100%.
So why won’t Florida win eight games? I’ve given you reasons to like them, so what’s the problem? The schedule is brutal. Within the first three weeks of the season, they have road games with Texas A&M followed by a trip to Knoxville. That is nearly three thousand miles of travel in just two weeks. In fact, the trip to College Station is a round trip totaling 1,848 miles. There is a great potential for one or more losses in that time span. They also have to take on top teams like LSU, Georgia, and South Carolina. Then they wrap up the season with a road trip to Florida State. That makes it very likely that they’ll lose at least five games, maybe even six. I don’t dislike this Florida team, but they’ve got too much to contend with.
There’s my opinion; take it for what it is. If you think I’m just being hateful because I dislike the program, that’s fine. Maybe I am being vindictive without realizing it. I try to be fair (even to Alabama and South Carolina, who I hate worse), but bias is a hard thing to overcome.

Good post.
In defense of Gillislee, he was pretty banged up last year.

[VolsRule]

florida's defense will be very good, but their offense will be down again. UT should be able to pull the upset if they can get decent play on offense.

[Spartacavolus]

If UF doesn't play too well this year and WM is stroking out the whole year again, it will be interesting to see what happens.

[WiseOlVol]

Originally Posted by volroadwarrior

A talented team like Florida is always dangerous. They recruit 4 and 5 stars right out of their back yard. It will be a tough game to win even in Neyland.

Yeah, their 5* QB didn't get drafted. Their 5* TB was picked about 150th.

The longer they try to run the Pro Set, the more often we'll beat them...starting in 4 months.

[General Jack]

Originally Posted by bigeasy

I stopped reading once I clicked to open the thread....can I get an overview of the dissertation?

Or how about a picture in crayon? Wouldn't want to tax the intellect.

[General Jack]

To the OP, thanks for the write up.

[Volgrad98]

Nice write up OP.

Originally Posted by bigeasy

I stopped reading once I clicked to open the thread....can I get an overview of the dissertation?

Since you didn't read, it basically says that he doesn't like Florida because it looks like a flaccid penis.

[TNGrad2012]

I think this is the year that Tennessee breaks out and wins at least nine games. South Carolina lost Alshon Jeffery to my beloveds (Chicago Bears) in the NFL, and if we retool this defense enough and the offense stays on the field for more than 15 minutes in a game, we can beat those guys, though I'm not convinced that we will - hell, if we had had an offense last year, we would have beaten them then. Georgia underachieves every year despite always finishing with top five to top ten recruiting classes, so I wouldn't be shocked to see them lose to us. My gut tells me that Tennessee beats Mississippi State simply because we will have more talent at the skill positions. The Florida game could go either way since right now they are an unknown quantity, but since I'm bias toward Tennessee, I'll just go ahead and say that Tennessee wins it based on home field advantage. Alabama is a loss, no question about it. I think Missouri will lose to Tennessee simply because their defense sucks (every team from the Big XII has a ****ty defense). I think we get back to the business of whipping Kentucky and Vanderbilt this year as we will be in our third year with essentially the same lineup of players that Derek Dooley started out with, plus Tyler Bray will hopefully stay healthy and have an offensive line that will be able to protect him. We will win against NC State, Troy, Georgia State, and Akron.

Basically, I think the worst we will see Tennessee be this year is 9-3 with a bowl game in either the Outback, Cotton, or Capital One Bowls. At best, I have Tennessee finishing the year at 11-1, SEC East Champions, and will face off against Alabama for the first time in an SEC Championship Game. I do think that Tennessee could be a preseason top 25 team, but I would rather that we not be so we can achieve the element of surprise against our foes. I think the potential for losses will come against Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, but I think we can beat Georgia and South Carolina. Alabama is an automatic loss simply because Nick Saban is the head coach and he is our daddy. If Dooley is any kind of coach at all, we roll over NC State, Georgia State, Akron, Troy, Mississippi State, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and most likely Florida. Anything less than a nine win season is, in my book, unacceptable, and should lead to his ouster. He's had three years to build this program, and he's had essentially the same starters now for the past two seasons and he's entering year three with them. It's time to start bringing home the bacon.

Man, am I a homer or what?

[VolsMcGee]

Originally Posted by General Jack

Or how about a picture in crayon? Wouldn't want to tax the intellect.

daaaaaang that's cold man.