Whatever you think of Urban Meyer’s salesmanship, there’s no denying his coaching skills. Here’s something David Hale posted this morning:
— It’s one thing to enter the year without an established QB. That, of course, will be the case for two-thirds of the SEC this year. But it’s another thing to do that with what is far and away the least accomplished group of receivers in the league, and that’s exactly what Florida will do in 2010.
Listen, I’ve seen enough of Urban Meyer to assume he’ll put a potent offense on the field no matter what this season, but he’s definitely going to have to work a bit harder to do so this season than he has in the past (which is amusing considering he worked so hard it put him in the hospital last year).
Florida will return just 886 receiving yards in 2010 — less than half the average among the other 11 schools — and the biggest question mark surrounding the Gators last year was whether or not they had a legitimate vertical passing game.
Again, I don’t doubt Meyer’s ability to put a quality offense on the field, but it will be very, very interesting to see how that unfolds this season.
Here’s a guy who got all sorts of skepticism about whether his offense would work in the SEC when he started at Florida now being given the (Mount Cody-sized) benefit of the doubt that it’s going to continue to perform at a very high level despite having big question marks about his passing game. And I bet that most neutral observers would agree with David’s observation. How many head coaches can you think of who get paid that sort of complement? Dude can coach.
Get The Picture 
He gets by with a little help from his friends.
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Agreed. (drools)
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Thirded.
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Fourth-ed.
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Hold on, I have to make sure this FG is longer than it should be.
Okay….fifth’d.
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Hey, don’t look at me, fellas. I own the pecker, for whatever reason.
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We at SEC HQ continually strive to see that all our member institutions are treated equally on the gridiron and would never–I repeat–never allow the prospect of large bowl revenue to enter into our instructions to our fine SEC football referees about who this office expects to prevail on Saturday. (Er,,,,, did I say that right, Penn?)
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Andre Debose redshirted.
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If he can stay healthy, I think he’ll be Harvin-esque… which is to say he may already be Harvin-esque considering Percy was rather injury prone while at Florida.
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The hows and what fors of the passing game don’t interest me nearly as much as the 3rd & shorts. Running ‘tween the tackles isn’t really what the quarkbacks do. Without Tebow, how will they pick up the tough yards up the middle to keep drives going? He often put the team on his back when they needed the tough yards. Who will step up as the go-to guy when the chips are in the middle?
They have lots of playmakers. They will continue to score points and create big plays. I suspect Brantley is a pretty good quarterback, but will the running game prop up the passing game (who lacks much experience in the receiving corps) or will the passing game prop up the running game (which is predicated on big holes and bouncing runs outside)?
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I thought that’s what they reunited Drayton and Moody for. 😉
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They will pick up the first downs and td’s …
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you would think we never had a winning season before TEBOW??
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Take it as a backhanded compliment to Tebow.
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The posed question is, “Who is the they you refer to?” Who will pick up the tough first downs?
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somebody, they did it before the TT experience ….
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To me that’s the biggest question mark going forward for Florida. Over the last 3 years if they could get into third down and only have 3 or 4 yards to go, that was guaranteed and extended lots of drives. I wonder how they’ll get the tough yards that Tebow could just bull his way forward.
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Before Tebow was the starter they won a MNC with Leak at QB. They got firsts the old fashioned way. Yeah, Tebow was a freshman on that team and came in on third down some, but not always. Mostly a back ran for first down if it was short enough and Leak passed for it if they needed more than 3 yards. As much as I hate to say it, I do not expect there to be much of a drop off offensively for the Gators next season. It will just be different. More downfield passing and more running by the backs. More like when Leak was the starter. They are loaded with good underclassmen. I expect to see several of the recent signees playing a lot next fall. Plus, they will be good defensively. Face it, they will not be easy. We’re going to have to beat them with superior play.
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That’s a novel idea – actually playing better than them when we play them.
We do that and we’re winning our fair share, at least, of these games. Our biggest problem against FL has been ourselves.
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If you include as “ourselves” the alumni who insist on playing FLA as an away game every year because they like to stay at the Cloister, go to cocktail parties and play golf at the Ponte Vedra Club, I agree whole-heartedly.
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Senator, off subject here, but have you heard what the Washington AD is saying about the Pac-10 trying to lure Texas and A&M. And that he thinks we’ll eventually end up w/ 4 super-conferences. Interesting…
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I honestly do not know why Meyer gets the benefit of the doubt on this. His 2005 offense was horrible. His 2006 offense was pretty bad. 2007 and 2008 were good. I don’t care what the numbers say, the 2009 offense was not good.
I’m not saying he can’t coach. Meyer has made Florida tougher on both sides of the ball than it ever was before and that can go a long way in college football. Meyer is not an offensive genious, though.
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CUM is a smart coach for a very good reason, he realizes that Defense wins Championships. Like SOS before him when UF’s D dominates they win MNC when they don’t UF doesn’t.
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razzle dazzle and ball hoggin …
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Is this your peace offering to your Florida regulars after we’ve all been trashing Corch the last few days?
I agree, grudgingly.
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We should not forget though that the last qb transition saw UF lose 4 despite the fact that the qb won the heisman. I think uf takes a step back this year. At least 3 losses.
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Last 4 years :
48 wins Florida
40 wins LSU
39 wins Alabama
38 wins Georgia Bulldogs
In the last 4 years, 14 losses by Coach Richt
In his last 4 years, 13 losses by Jim Donnan
And, we fired him for it.
Coach Richt beat Florida in 2004 finally in David Greene’s senior year by having David Greene throw the fewest passes he threw against Florida any year as UGA put up 31 points on Florida. But we still lost to the Tennessee vols with UGA scoring only 14 points and we still lost to Auburn with UGA scoring only 6 points.
Coach Richt beat Florida in 2007 in Knowshon Moreno’s first of only 2 years here playing when Knowshon had 33 rushes as we scored 42 points against Florida with Knowshon rushing for 3 TD and 188 yards. We lost that same year 2007 to the Tennessee vols with UGA scoring only 14 points on the vols when Knowshon was given only 13 rushes, and we lost to South Carolina the same year too with UGA scoring only 6 points when Knowshon was given only 14 rushes again.
2008 Knowshon got only 14 rushes against Florida in his second and last season for us to see him run. The final score was 10-49. Nice.
2009 well let’s not even go there 17-41 Florida.
2001 we scored only 10 points on Florida.
2002 we scored only 13 points on Florida.
2003 we scored only 13 points on Florida again.
2005 we scored only 10 points on Florida again.
2006 we scored only 14 points on Florida again.
So, now we come in here in February and talk about guess what ? UGA and our chances against guess who ? Florida.
53 interceptions and 82 fumbles the last 4 years on OFFENSE for UGA.
96 we have averaged NCAA Number 96 in the nation in PENALTIES the last 4 years too.
Now, I am quite certain someone has a list of excuses for all these 7 losses to Florida in the last 9 games against them, but as you can see the 7 losses to the Florida crocodiles over the last 9 years of the Coach Richt Era, have ALL been because of the Offense.
Do you think it might be ok, if we concentrate on our own OFFENSE and not focus on discussing Florida as either having a chink in their armor or not, when the issue very clearly is that UGA is in DECLINE and the reason for it is because of the CHINK in OUR OWN ARMOR on OFFENSE.
We are the 4th best team in our own Conference.
Only 3 of the astounding 14 LOSSES the last 4 years now have come against Florida; and now we field 3 freshmen quarterbacks who I am sure will all line up and run the plays without penalty, not fumble and not throw interceptions. Right ?
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Let’s see. The UGA/UF series during 01-04 saw UGA scoring 16.75 points per game and UF scoring 21 points per game. During the 05-09 period, UGA scored 18.6 points per game and UF scored 31 points per game. And you conclude that our problem is offense. Classic.
For us reasonable people, now that Martinez is in Norman and Strong is in Louisville, we think it’s possible that we can close the DEFENSIVE gap that has existed in the series.
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