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re: McElwain names Appleby starter for Outback Bowl
Posted on 12/12/16 at 8:03 am to TJGator1215
Posted on 12/12/16 at 8:03 am to TJGator1215
I was hoping for some discussion on the talent issue. No one wants to do it. I is sad.
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Posted on 12/12/16 at 8:07 am to dbuchanon
Is it though? Really? When the whole sport is a popularity contest? Who do you think the voters and committee are going to like more? Someone who scrapes by all season or someone who lights up the scoreboard?
People like 60 yd bombs for touchdowns. 40 yd breakout runs for touchdowns. Not a team that struggles for each first down.
I love a win. I hate to see them lose. But it's frustrating watching this team.
People like 60 yd bombs for touchdowns. 40 yd breakout runs for touchdowns. Not a team that struggles for each first down.
I love a win. I hate to see them lose. But it's frustrating watching this team.
Posted on 12/12/16 at 10:49 am to finchmeister08
Well Finch...as a glass half full guy, I think the general Gator Nation population will be happier with the offense and team in general in 2017. I am basing this not just looking thru my bottle thick O & B glasses, but because the offense returns 10 starters, the OL will start to have depth to push starters and elite programs have that depth. Starters need to know they cant take plays off because a player behind them wont take plays off. WRs are back except basically Fulwood. QB will be in good hands regardless of who starts the Michigan game. I think our OL will make the QB position better alone. A stout run game is a QBs best friend.
Defensively there is enough talent to hold our own and it should improve as snaps are earned and experience is gained. Special teams is awesome kicking & punting. The Michigan game and every game on our schedule is winable and a few questionable. The games I question are the road trips to UK & SC. But no reason to not have a very good season. If we dont...and say go 8-4 without cause (like QB injury etc etc)? Then I am concerned and its coach alert time and we will have 2018 to finally decide what we have vs what we dont have. If we go 8-4 ish in 2018? Then its time for a new coach and I will be leading the charge. Til then there is nothing we can change and nothing we should change until Mac has 4 yrs.
Defensively there is enough talent to hold our own and it should improve as snaps are earned and experience is gained. Special teams is awesome kicking & punting. The Michigan game and every game on our schedule is winable and a few questionable. The games I question are the road trips to UK & SC. But no reason to not have a very good season. If we dont...and say go 8-4 without cause (like QB injury etc etc)? Then I am concerned and its coach alert time and we will have 2018 to finally decide what we have vs what we dont have. If we go 8-4 ish in 2018? Then its time for a new coach and I will be leading the charge. Til then there is nothing we can change and nothing we should change until Mac has 4 yrs.
Posted on 12/15/16 at 12:19 pm to TJGator1215
No, TJ, you've been a dick all year. That's why people question your fanhood. Because you seem to enjoy and revel when Florida struggles and never seem to enjoy it when success is experienced.
Slayer, my response to your question about the talent is this:
On offense, there was practically nobody when Mac took over. There were maybe 3-4 guys who could play, but that's nowhere near what it should be. Juniors and seniors should be the guys that get the majority of the snaps, be the playmakers, and be the team leaders. There has been no upperclassman leadership because there are no upperclassmen capable of playing. So in Mac's 1 and a half classes, he has had to completely retool the offense and now you see what we have on the field. Flashes of guys with playmaking ability, but a lack of experience and consistency. This is caused by not having upperclassmen there to guide them and show them what it takes to consistently make plays. The flashes of talent are there and I think you'll see more consistency and better playmaking ability once a quarterback is brought into the fold. I know that's always the fallback, but you see the flashes. You see Scarlett and Perine are capable of running the way they did vs LSU, you see Callaway and Cleveland and Swain and Hammond and know they have some ability. It's unfair to judge Mac's ability to develop quarterbacks because he simply hasn't had the time to develop the quarterback. How can you determine how Franks or Trask have been developed if they just finished their true freshman season and redshirted and haven't played a single snap yet? Let's see how they look next fall before we declare that Mac can't develop quarterbacks.
On the defensive side, I think we've seen a lot of young guys get valuable experience. Reese and Kylan Johnson are going to be very good players moving forward, and Vosean Joseph can develop into a good player for us as well. They all three made plays this year that I can think of off the top of my head that you don't see many freshmen making. And that's not even including Jeremiah Moon, who was supposedly the best of the freshmen linebackers before he got hurt. The defensive line is very deep, but lacking a couple of big body defensive tackles that are needed in the trenches. We have a lot of talented capable guys, Cece, K Davis, Sherit, Bryan, Clark, Clayton, Jordan Smith, etc, but I think we need to add a few big bodies and an elite pass rusher. The secondary is not a concern of mine. Marcell Harris, Nick Washington, and Chauncey Gardner all played at a high level last year and will only be better this coming year. Duke Dawson will have to step up and be CB1 for us and the 5-6 talented freshmen coming in will have an opportunity to come in and take the other starting spot. And that's not even including the DBs that redshirted this year who very well may have developed nicely under Coach Gray.
We have guys who can play. I think the defense will go from being top 10 this year to top 20 next year. And the offense will go from 100th to top 50 if we can get better quarterback play.
The pieces are being put into place, and now is the time for Mac to start to compete with the elite programs in the country. He's had two years to build up to what we see in year three. If there are more offensive struggles next year, then there will be cause for concern. Right now, I'm okay with what we've gotten in his one and a half classes and on the field. If we're talking about getting blown out by Bama and FSU again this time next year, then there will be some major concern as to if Mac is the right guy for the job. But right now, I'm enjoying what I think Mac is building and how much we are winning. I think we are only going to win more and more in the next several years under Mac
Slayer, my response to your question about the talent is this:
On offense, there was practically nobody when Mac took over. There were maybe 3-4 guys who could play, but that's nowhere near what it should be. Juniors and seniors should be the guys that get the majority of the snaps, be the playmakers, and be the team leaders. There has been no upperclassman leadership because there are no upperclassmen capable of playing. So in Mac's 1 and a half classes, he has had to completely retool the offense and now you see what we have on the field. Flashes of guys with playmaking ability, but a lack of experience and consistency. This is caused by not having upperclassmen there to guide them and show them what it takes to consistently make plays. The flashes of talent are there and I think you'll see more consistency and better playmaking ability once a quarterback is brought into the fold. I know that's always the fallback, but you see the flashes. You see Scarlett and Perine are capable of running the way they did vs LSU, you see Callaway and Cleveland and Swain and Hammond and know they have some ability. It's unfair to judge Mac's ability to develop quarterbacks because he simply hasn't had the time to develop the quarterback. How can you determine how Franks or Trask have been developed if they just finished their true freshman season and redshirted and haven't played a single snap yet? Let's see how they look next fall before we declare that Mac can't develop quarterbacks.
On the defensive side, I think we've seen a lot of young guys get valuable experience. Reese and Kylan Johnson are going to be very good players moving forward, and Vosean Joseph can develop into a good player for us as well. They all three made plays this year that I can think of off the top of my head that you don't see many freshmen making. And that's not even including Jeremiah Moon, who was supposedly the best of the freshmen linebackers before he got hurt. The defensive line is very deep, but lacking a couple of big body defensive tackles that are needed in the trenches. We have a lot of talented capable guys, Cece, K Davis, Sherit, Bryan, Clark, Clayton, Jordan Smith, etc, but I think we need to add a few big bodies and an elite pass rusher. The secondary is not a concern of mine. Marcell Harris, Nick Washington, and Chauncey Gardner all played at a high level last year and will only be better this coming year. Duke Dawson will have to step up and be CB1 for us and the 5-6 talented freshmen coming in will have an opportunity to come in and take the other starting spot. And that's not even including the DBs that redshirted this year who very well may have developed nicely under Coach Gray.
We have guys who can play. I think the defense will go from being top 10 this year to top 20 next year. And the offense will go from 100th to top 50 if we can get better quarterback play.
The pieces are being put into place, and now is the time for Mac to start to compete with the elite programs in the country. He's had two years to build up to what we see in year three. If there are more offensive struggles next year, then there will be cause for concern. Right now, I'm okay with what we've gotten in his one and a half classes and on the field. If we're talking about getting blown out by Bama and FSU again this time next year, then there will be some major concern as to if Mac is the right guy for the job. But right now, I'm enjoying what I think Mac is building and how much we are winning. I think we are only going to win more and more in the next several years under Mac
Posted on 12/15/16 at 12:44 pm to atlgator
Good summary, thanks.
Posted on 12/15/16 at 4:09 pm to atlgator
I guess it's easy to call me a dick or not a fan when you have nothing to refute what I've posted except Mac won the east. Every QB on the roster is his, he chose them. Mac had players on offense when he got here. Yes the depth was bad but its his job to fix it. Outside of WR, and RB the talent and depth has either marginally increased, not all or in the case of the defense fallen off a cliff. It is the coaches job to get the players ready. We saw back ups play better at OL than the starters, he left injured LDR in, zero adjustment on either side of the ball, etc. You're dreaming if you think the defense with it's gaping talent-depth holes will just fall ten spots. We'll be lucky to break top 50 imo. We have tons of DEs but 2 average DTs-S, with zero depth, inexperienced LBers, and no experience at CB. The offense can't save Mac like the defense did the last 2 years. 2017 will be his last year and the new coach Will need to fix the defense when he arrives.
Posted on 12/16/16 at 6:31 am to TJGator1215
Look about two posts up and there's plenty to refute what you say about the talent level. It is his job to fix the depth. HES HAD ONE AND A HALF RECRUITING CLASSES! You can't snap your fingers and depth magically appear. It's certainly improved on offense since he's gotten here. He brought in LDR and Appleby as temporary bandaids because Treon was so bad and because Grier pissed hot. If that hadn't of happened, we wouldn't have ever had to see Appleby in a Gator uniform. We have no idea what Franks or Trask will look like, so I'll reserve my judgement of how well Mac develops QBs for them. You can't judge a guy based on two exiles from mid tier universities that were brought in only because we had two quarterbacks on the roster and both of them were true freshmen. Wait to judge how he develops quarterbacks for when Franks or Trask play, because they are truly his guys. The depth at RB and WR has improved drastically, the depth at OL has improved because we literally had 6 bodies when he took over on the OL. Six. The defensive line is just as deep as it was when he took over. Defensive tackle is iffy, but outside of Caleb Brantley, we didn't have much at defensive tackle since he got here. He'll sign a couple of defensive tackles in this class and there will be some growing pains there but it will be fine in the long run. You saw the sack numbers from last year get cut in half and the yards per carry increase by nearly an entire yard. That's improvement. Especially when the quarterback play is as terrible as it is.
This year was good for our young linebackers because it got them a lot of good experience against the best teams they'll ever see. That will help them going forward. We're fine at safety and deep enough along the DL that not having a true defensive tackle won't be completely detrimental. Cornerback is a concern but I see Duke Dawson being a solid guy on one side and one of the freshman or redshirt freshmen, hell maybe even Putu starting on the other side. The depth at CB is good enough to where we have options and guys have to earn playing time.
You say no one refutes what you post, but that's really not true. You just ignore anything and everything people say that proves that things aren't falling apart. You sound like a spoiled teenage girl. If you listen to sports radio or podcasts or anything, when people ask who the second best coach in the SEC is, you know who they say? Mac. I'm not completely thrilled with everything that's gone on. But I'm happy enough with the amount of on field success to not be calling for his head after year 2. It's laughable to say he won't be here after next year. It shows the dream world you are living in.
This year was good for our young linebackers because it got them a lot of good experience against the best teams they'll ever see. That will help them going forward. We're fine at safety and deep enough along the DL that not having a true defensive tackle won't be completely detrimental. Cornerback is a concern but I see Duke Dawson being a solid guy on one side and one of the freshman or redshirt freshmen, hell maybe even Putu starting on the other side. The depth at CB is good enough to where we have options and guys have to earn playing time.
You say no one refutes what you post, but that's really not true. You just ignore anything and everything people say that proves that things aren't falling apart. You sound like a spoiled teenage girl. If you listen to sports radio or podcasts or anything, when people ask who the second best coach in the SEC is, you know who they say? Mac. I'm not completely thrilled with everything that's gone on. But I'm happy enough with the amount of on field success to not be calling for his head after year 2. It's laughable to say he won't be here after next year. It shows the dream world you are living in.
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