Thanks for the memories, Phil

At the hands of the 30-6 crushing of the Volunteers, a lot of people are calling for Fulmer's head. And I can't say that I blame them, as Fulmer looked almost as bad as West Virginia's Bill Stewart did against Colorado, just swap crying with some fine hat work.

And while the loss, in some ways, wasn't nearly as bad as it looked, in other ways, it was far worse. Florida's offense was outgained, but that's because Brandon James had two monster returns, one for a touchdown. And it's not like Phil didn't have warning that we had James... he returned one for six last year too... and would have the year before if it weren't for a close block-in-the-back penalty. It's hard to crow about outgaining on the other team, when they only have to punt once. For most of the second half, Florida wasn't even trying to score, as much as they were just trying to eat the clock (Putting on my partisan Florida hat for a second: Thank god... we finally got a good look at Moody, and he looks every bit as good as advertised). The worst bit for Tennessee has to be that even the Fulmer-faithful can now see that Phil just isn't cutting it anymore. As a Florida fan, I'm happy to go against good ole' Phil as long as you want to throw him at us. As a college football fan, though, it's sad to see one of the best inter-state rivalries in college football fall to this, and I'd at least like to see Tennessee come back to relevance, at least.

As far as Florida's performance goes;

The offence looked flat again, like they did against Miami, but at least this time they had an excuse: they didn't NEED to explode. Why bother wasting clever packages and schemes when you're up 17-0 in the first? And when you get in such great field position, so consistently, why bother going for the throat when you can just stand back and watching them self destruct? Harvin and Tebow looked just like they did last year, albeit with far fewer plays, and Moody looks like the answer to all our running back woes. All in all, I don't think the lack of offense in the first half was a result of really having no chance to make plays, and the lack of offense in the second was more Meyer just slowly and deliberately eating the clock, both of which while good, still leave a question mark on just how the hell you arrange all that talent, which is an entirely pleasant question to be left with.

The defense on the other hand looked impressive again. Aside from Foster getting a few good runs against us, the Vols just couldn't seem to put together anything consistent. While it's not clear how much of that was the Vols offense being bad, and how much is our defense returning to usual form, a quick channel change to Da U vs Texas A&M shows their running backs in significantly better form, and a quarterback who doesn't look nearly as incompetent as he looked against UF, giving me hope our defense is at least closer to the dominant force it was in 2006.

Special teams, of course, deserves its own section, because unlike the other two aspects of the Gators team, there's no question about it. The special teams unit deserves every bit the praise it has gotten thus far and more. The amazing field position that special teams has given us so far this year has meant our offense has barely played this year, and that's after three games.

Most exciting of all, though, is Moody. A real, honest to god running back means that Meyer finally has all the pieces he needs to run the offense the way he wants to, and a quarterback that can survive the season without, say, oh, I don't know, a bruised shoulder and broken non-throwing hand.

Class or: how I learned to stop being polite and blame the BCS

Last week's game against Miami was rather cathartic for us Gator fans. Having not won against them since '85, and 6 losses in the 23 years (Although three of those were against [Coach Redacted]. So, you know, that's not saying much), it was good to 'exorcize the demons', so to speak. Of course, the two and a half quarters of offensive misery was a bit worrisome, but it's good to see our defence isn't the source of unadulterated disaster like it was last year. Overall, it was a pretty decent slugfest, one where our defense proved solid, and Miami's defense proved amazing until they just ran out of depth.

Unfortunately, people won't stop talking about the field goal kicked at the end. Randy Shannon said of it "Sometimes when you do things, and people see what type of person you really are, you turn a lot of people off.". Hey, sure, let me know how running up the score on Charleston Southern went for you then. Of course, Warren Sapp was a bit less obscure... he just out called Urban Meyer a 'classless dirtbag'. Thank you sir, after your little incident with Chad Clifton, I'll happily take that as a compliment.

Was it a 'classy' thing to do? Of course not. The game was in hand. The starters were in. But look at Meyer's options. The offense looked horrible for most of the game, and poll voters are all too happy to penalize a team which doesn't make the highlight reels. A box score showing you don't beat the spread, and you weren't as good as they thought they were. Oh, and your field goal kicker hadn't kicked a field goal yet in either game. But was it 'classless'? Nope. But hey, if you Miami fans want to call it 'running up the score' and 'classless', I'd like you to explain how 2002 was any different, and why your repeated touchdowns late in the game were somehow less egregious than one field goal.

Ha ha, just kidding, I know you can't. Don't worry, I'm not calling you to task for 2002. That was [Coach Redacted], anyway. But running up the score post-1998 can't be held against anybody. Why 1998? Because that's when our good friend, the BCS came into being.

So, what is still 'classless'? Well, I'd argue picking a fight with an in-state rival on the field would count. Logo stomping (Yes, I'm aware the Gators have done this too, the examples I can think of happened under [Coach Redacted], but it's classless whenever it's done, period) is up there. Georgia's bench-clearing touchdown last year is up there. Both trying to run out the clock to prevent an offensive player from setting a record, and letting another team score to get that offensive player the record by very publicly 'playing dead' would count (Gator Flop).

Whats my point? Mainly that every team has its examples of poor sportsmanship in its history, that running up the score isn't poor sportsmanship in this beauty pagent era of college football, and especially that Miami crying fowl over running up the score is like the pot calling the kettle black.

Greetings!

Scene:

September 29th, 2007, approximately 11pm.

In a drunken stupor, I lie in the backyard, stunned that Auburn found a way to beat us. Again. Struggling to think of something, I think of anything but the game. Blogging! That bastard Orson Swindle, total hack! I can write better than him! Well, almost as good! Okay, I WRITE THE SAME LANGUAGE! That blogging thing, indeed. I shall start my own blog!

Fast forward 6 hours later, 5 in the morning, floating in the pool. The idea is dismissed for being idiotic.

But hark! Sunday Morning Quarterback sold out, leaving an opening in the blogosphere!

So, doing my best to mimic SMQ, Saurian Sagacity, and Every Day Should Be Saturday, I will do my best to occasionally not suck.

So here, I solemnly swear that at least once this season, I will seriously consider writing something that follows through on that. Maybe.