You are correct, Woody. I replied to his tweet when he sent this blog out.
He admitted he was probably being a little too over critical.
The players didn't even line up with the squads they had practiced with through the spring.
Of course the offensive line was having trouble. Of course the quarterbacks were a little disjointed.
What? The off-the-sidelines pass to McGriff isn't going to be in the fall play package?
There were plenty of positives in that scrimmage. A team having fun after years of misery and 53,000+ fans in attendance.
That's pretty good!
Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI
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From: gatortalk@googlegroups.com [mailto:gatortalk@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Woody
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2018 10:01 AM
To: Gatortalk
Subject: [gatortalk] Re: [gatornews] How to define what happened during the 2018 Florida spring game
I get Will's point... but I think it was somewhat of an overreaction. We were never going to learn anything from the spring game. It was all about making it fun and reconnecting football with the fan base. We're not going to see any improvement until maybe halfway through the season.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 10:27 AM, Shane Ford <goufgators01@gmail.com> wrote:
How to define what happened during the 2018 Florida spring game
Posted 4
After the 2018 Orange and Blue Debut, Dan Mullen said that he just wanted to bring fun back to Florida football.
Maybe I'm old. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations. But what I watched on Saturday afternoon wasn't much fun. It was barely football.
I was expecting a fireworks show with QBs throwing deep to all of the wide receiver weapons we've heard so much about all offseason. Instead, I saw QBs who didn't look much different than they did a year or two ago. I saw offensive linemen consistently struggling in pass protection. I saw busted coverages by linebackers on tight ends that ended up in touchdowns.
The only players who caught anything deep were alums who last played for Florida before any of the current players were born.
With apologies to Lawrence Wright and Travis McGriff, I didn't tune in to watch a legends game. I tuned in to see a preview of the explosive offense I was promised when Scott Stricklin whiffed on Chip Kelly and brought in Mullen to restore the Florida program.
Many – including me – have bought into that vision for the program. But for a program that has struggled so much offensively, the entire vibe on offense was just tone deaf.
I want games in The Swamp to be spectacles. But this was a circus.
While the deep throws to former players were puzzling, I think the events of the day were best exemplified by QB Feleipe Franks "60 yard" run for a TD. Defensive back Quincy Lenton clearly had Franks in his sights about 10 yards downfield and slowed down. Then DBs McArthur Burnett and Trey Dean* caught up to Franks at the 15 yard line (enough to grab his jersey) but he was given the TD anyway.
Then Franks kicked the ball up into the stands and celebrated like he had just scored the game winner against LSU.
Some may try to say this was just having fun. They may tell you that the environment under the previous regime was so bad that Mullen had to do something to lighten the mood. They may tell you that this was about the fans, former players and recruits having a good time. They may be right.
But I think it was embarrassing. It was Butch Jones trash-can level bad. I half expected Mullen to come out in his postgame press conference and proclaim that it was part of building the program "brick by brick."
Mullen has repeatedly spoken about the "Gator standard" way of doing things. One of the reasons I thought he understood that standard was that the SEC East championship signs came down almost immediately after he was hired. It indicated that the days of participation trophies were over.
But maybe we need to define what the Gator standard is a little bit clearer. It's pretty simple: winning.
From 1990-2010, Florida won 78 percent of its games and finished the year unranked 3 times. Those teams averaged 35.2 points per game and an offensive ranking of 19.5. From 2011-2017, Florida has won 59 percent of its games and has finished the year unranked 4 times. Those teams have averaged 24.0 points per game and an offensive ranking of 92.9.
I saw nothing on Saturday that was building towards the former kind of offense or level of winning. It was a waste of a practice and a waste of time.
I spoke with multiple people that I know who were there. They showed up expecting to be excited about the direction the program was headed. Instead, they left wondering whether the staff felt the only way to generate excitement was to do so artificially.
When UCF claimed a National Championship after defeating Auburn this past season, my reaction was that it was ridiculous. But I understood what they were doing and even appreciated how their marketing efforts kept the school in the news and the national consciousness.
But that kind of behavior is beneath Florida. It's why I've settled on the word unbecoming to describe the spring game. This is an elite, blue-blood program.
It shouldn't require gimmicks to make the game fun.
*An earlier version of this article identified Joseph Putu instead of Trey Dean as one of the defensive backs who had an opportunity to tackle Franks. I apologize for the mistake.
Sent From Shane's iPhone
Go Gators! & Skål Vikes!
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GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions |
Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007)
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GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007)
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