Florida’s players sound like they are starting to think about last year’s collapse. That needs to change, immediately. They talked about last season being “buried” but it sounds like the ghost is coming out of the grave.
Linebacker Jarrad Davis in the locker room after the loss walked around to talk to teammates and remind them the season’s just started, that Florida can still do great things.
“I tried to go around and tell guys to keep their heads up, this is only one game,” Davis said. “we have more opportunities this season. So we don’t need to take this as detrimental to the Florida Gators’ success this year. I feel like a lot of guys were down and it kind of reminded me a little bit of last year.”
Last year, Florida never adjusted and injuries piled up along with seven straight losses. If the Gators don’t adjust this time, Muschamp won’t keep his job and the intense heat will escalate each week.
Asked how Florida’s players can keep from getting down and feeling sorry for themselves like they did last year, Davis started to respond then stopped.
“That’s a tough question,” he said.
You get the feeling these Gators are one loss to Tennessee away from the wheels coming off the wagon.
Get The Picture 
It was interesting that Danielson noted the UT game on their schedule during the broadcast as the turning point for each team. He’s chalking up both of them losing to UGA, but that kind of makes or breaks the season. They go up to Knoxville. They lose that one, and they could be staring down 6-6 real easy.
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Remember, they are only playing 11 games. And as Bluto noted in a prior post, it would be so sweet if they finish 5-6, just missing bowl eligibility, due to not making up that game. 🙂
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Almost as sweet as sUGAr.
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That would be 6-5, unfortunately. I have a bet with an FU alum that they won’t lose over 5. Any suggestions how I may motivate this team out of their funk until we play’em? Moreso, he and some FSU friends are cheering together for every FU loss. And it’s only a $10 bet.
I had to talk the alum into this bet (he just wants the season over, the HC fired along with coordinators and to scourge the team to start anew.), but can you just enjoy the irony for a moment? : For $10, I have an alum plus hangerson cheering for FU to lose every game they play. I’d feel bad about it if it wasn’t FU.
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Damned good value for that $10 I would say. Just one pound of my “on sale” bone-in ribeyes at Publix this week are more than that with tax. You probably couldn’t even get a minimal roach in Colorado for that either.
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I once tried to place a bet against UGA. I don’t recall exactly which game it was – this was years ago – but I expected to lose and I reasoned that making a bit of money would help ease the pain of a loss while paying a bit of cash would be worth it for a win. But when the time came to make the bet, I just could not force myself to put money against my own team.
So I would never make it as a Gator fan, I guess. Their loss.
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Hopefully this year we can lay the type of beating on them that we should have last year. We are so overdue for a 20 point win against them.
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Ain’t that the truth. We were well on the way to an epic beat down last year, then Lynch had a brainfart, Gators get new life and we let them hang around all game. We need to crush them this year. That way, there will be an entire class of Gators that never beat Georgia.
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And a Coach who has never won in Jax after 7 tries. This year will make 8.
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“You get the feeling these Gators are one loss to Tennessee away from the wheels coming off the wagon.”
And I’m Ok with that
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You should be thinking long term. It took some wrangling to get that second extension. If he gets at least 6 he can continue his work through at least 2015!
That one-year extension is on top of the one Muschamp received in February of this year to take him through 2016. The terms of Muschamp’s contract remain the same. He’ll receive $2.7 million annually plus incentives such as $100,000 for beating Florida State and going to a BCS bowl game (the Gators appear Sugar Bowl bound).
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I’m okay with the wheels coming off in Jacksonville and the wagon turning over and bursting in flames.
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If Florida loses to UT-and I think that’s very possible-the team may just pack it in mentally for the rest of the season. Muschamp will be a dead man walking and that rarely works out well for the home stretch.
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Muschamp is such an asshole, if the won-loss record says the season is already a waste product the players may lay down just to get him fired.
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Glad to see them so down but now I’m wondering who’s going to be able to help us out by beating the gamecocks. It won’t be the Gators.
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South Carolina plays @ Florida and @ Auburn. They also host Mizzou and UT. I simply think they’ve got a loss or two in there. I don’t think Spurrier is sandbagging. They’re not very good. They’ll need a miracle to finish with 11 wins this season like the previous 3. They have a lot of holes, and they are very thin at some positions.
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In 2010, USC beat Alabama in one week then lost to Kentucky the next. And last year they lost to Tennessee. Florida might be the perfect candidate for this year’s upset.
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Now we have UGA fans cheering for FU to win? My, how times do change. This could be one great year of snark.
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You know, if you replace “lost” with *shit the bed” who would that sound like? 😉
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+1
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There’s a lot of football left to be played. Whoever beats auburn most likely will and probably deserves to be the east champ. The east is VERY fluid right now given there isn’t a clear cut championship caliber team in the division.
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Who wants to bust their hump on the field only to face the wrath of Muschamp on the sideline? Can you imagine the atmosphere in the film rooms watching the game replays with Coach?
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Well, they can’t be 6 and 6 since they only have 11 regular season games. I do not think they lose to UT. The Vols will be very beat up after this weekend, especially on D. I do see them losing 2 in a row at home, LSU and them Mizzou. Muschamp will then be in a must win situation against UGA. If he wins, he may stay, if he loses, he’s gone immediately.
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The Gators aren’t a good team right now; but they aren’t as bad as they showed Saturday. They’ll play the Vols tough but may lose because it’s in Knoxville. I see UF beating either LSU or USC. They’ll play tough at home as usual. As CMR always says “you’re never as good as you think and never as bad as you think.”
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That’s how I see it, too, Kevin. Muschamp likely is toast after the Georgia game. Frankly, I think that has been Jeremy Foley’s plan all along. He knew FU wasn’t going to be that good this season and the schedule is very difficult. Let Muschamp take the hit and fire him mid-season so the Gayturds will have the jump on other teams making a coaching change. then the new coach can ride in to the rescue next year.
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Foley’s coaching search would be fascinating. Florida has a recipe that has worked twice: hire an offensive minded head coach from a smaller school that has proven he can win with lesser talent and then plug in the Florida pipeline.
The problem is I don’t know that there is an obvious hire like that this year. Maybe Mendenhall at BYU.
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ever been to Provo? aces over eights on Hogtown. No comparison.
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No doubt. Just saying he’s about the only one I can think of that fits the model they’ve been successful with.
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Damn. I’m not sure Agent Muschamp will make it to the WLOCP.
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At Tennessee, LSU and Mizzou at home before the WLOCP.
I can absolutely see them losing all 3, but I think all 3 are winnable. Come out of that stretch 1-2 ,and he’s coaching in the WLOCP for his job. Come out of that 0-3, and he’s not making it to JAX.
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Totally agree with the above two comments.
The beat down last weekend proved there’s no improvement from last year. That score could have easily been 52-0 or 56-0.
At some point, it seems like Foley cuts your agent loose. The open date before UGA makes sense.
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I don’t think Saban would have allowed that, even though you are right, it could have been that bad. He tipped hi shand in the 4th Qtr when he didn’t even try a FG after running some clock even though his FG kicker could have used the confidence builder. I knew he wouldn’t call a time out or run a trick play like Urbie and Spurrier would but didn’t see that lay down coming from him. Actually seemed more embarrassing to FU fans to be needing a handout to keep them propped up.
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I don’t disagree with you, Mac.
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You just need to try harder BD. Usually I disagree with Mac even when I agree with him just for the sport of it but not since he recommended a good dark rum awhile ago. The man knows his liquor that’s for sure
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A win this weekend against the Vols puts our streak @ 5 in a row and evens the all time series. Time to get back on the right side of this series.
it is also Coach Dooley tribute game this weekend. Hope Gurley has a big game and the Dawgs roll.
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It’s about time for Ed Aschoff to write a column about the Gators and Driskell only being a play or two away, right on the cusp of breaking out and winning the SEC East.
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+1
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That will be Ed’s column after the Gators hose off The Driskeling from the skin again
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Couldn’t happen to a nicer fan base.
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The UF fans base is now 24 years old, so they are old enough to deal with these growing pains.
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Hope Muschamp doesn’t get fired but ends up losing to the Dawgs and winning 7 or so, just enough to keep his job and maintain mediocrity. Maybe beating USCe would be one of those 6 or 7 wins. I don’t want FU looking nationally for a new coach. They might get lucky and hire someone competent.
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Stay cocky before the Vols my friends….I got two words….Jon Crompton.
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…Simple. Just have these refs officiate the game…
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Your a video ref and the whole world sees you got it wrong. ramifications?…zilch. You might as well be a weatherman.
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That was my comment here after the game, why have video replats if you don’t have the balls to overturn obviously bad calls? Steve Shaw’s office had the nerve to say the play was blown dead because of forward progress. I have been watching football for six decades and have never seen a play blown dead that fast. Watch the ref at the bottom of the picture, look where the ball is before he reacts with pointing that the player was down. It isn’t that the play was significant in the game’s outcome but it demonstrates, as you point out beautifully, there is no accountability or desire to get better when it comes to SEC officiating.
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The SEC video officials are now using replay to overturn correct calls if it suits their agenda. Remember the “fumble” in the Clemson-Georgia game where the on the field officials ruled “no fumble” and the TV ref overturned it when all the sportscasters and an expert TV ref-type commentator said the thing wasn’t a fumble? How can you get it wrong when you can watch it repeatedly in slo-mo? But they do. The question then becomes, “Why?” I wrote a post about this a couple of weeks ago. The problem is there are no consequences. That’s why they do this sh!t. Shaw–identify the officials who screw up all the time and FIRE them for crying out loud.
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I just let that bad call go at the time. But seeing the replay, how in the world can it be forward progress? Unless forward progress is just 1/8 of a second now. Seriously that is just a regular tackle, not a play where a guy gets stood up for a few seconds before it’s blown dead. How can they defend that after looking at it?
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By the way, nice Bee Gees reference.
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If Foley cans Agent M before WLOCP, our tune will change from Bee Gees to Cinderella
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Someone needs to get a message to Agent Muschamp to hold on! There is always light at the end of the tunnel and a 5.4 million buy out at the end of this year. Win-win!
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“Someone needs to get a message to Agent Muschamp to hold on!”
Done!
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I think that rain out against Idaho is ultimately going to loom large in Muschamp’s fortunes. 7-4 looks a lot worse than 8-4, probably not good enough to keep his job.
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I think 7 wins keeps him safe. They have 2 wins now, you would think they will also beat Vandy and Eastern KY as well. That leaves 3 wins to come from UT, LSU, Mizzou, UGA, SC, and FSU. Going 3-3 in those games would show definite improvement from last year, and I think it would be hard to fire him.
But I don’t think they can win 3 of those games.
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You’re right that 3-3 will be a tall order there. I’m just not convinced that the UF fanbase will content itself with 7-4 as a sufficient sign of progress. The last time they cleaned house with a mediocre coach, what they got in his place worked out well for them. My guess is they’d go that route again. Would be happy to be proven wrong, however.
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There goes the last thread that held my bet up. Since that’s only ten teams, who was left out?
Wouldn’t you just love to hear the cheer go up from the FU alum plus his friends when they lose their 5th game of the year? While I pretend dejection for losing $10? Hope I can convince him to record it on his cell phone and share with the world. It’s doable with this guy because he’s a PhD and pissed because he’s never won a bet from me in 7 yrs. He swore off after last yr’s game, but was pulled back in by his newfound knowledge that they aren’t worth a shit. When making the bet two weeks ago, I thought it was a slam dunk….until they played competition. Just hope FU can drain this to the hurtful end.
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“Since that’s only ten teams, who was left out?”
The Bama loss.
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UT is the only one of those games the Gayturds can win IMHO. Their opponent will be favored in all the others. A 5 win season is very likely.
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Let’s just take ’em one at a time boys.
Whack a Vol day Saturday.
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Thanks, Big Dog. Too bad nobody here wants to listen.
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Honestly, I don’t get this. We’re not supposed to think about anything except the UT game Saturday? Why, exactly?
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We get too confused if we think about more than one thing at a time?
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Because looking ahead is a distraction…win the next one, then move on to the next one…nothing wrong with daydreaming about tomorrow as long as you take care of business today (meaning Saturday.) I do realize this is contrary to blog theory and I would never take your Kodachrome away, but counting your chickens before they become viable ….well I think it is time for Ed Burke to opine again.
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You’re saying we’re distracting the coaches and players?
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Christ, I hope the coaches and players understand this forum is for amateurs.
No, I am saying that I am uncomfortable speculating about things down the road before business is concluded Saturday afternoon.
I think that type of speculation leads to unrealistic expectations, which leads to disappointment and complaining when the expectations don’t meet the facts.
But, dude, that’s just me. Speculate, look ahead, whatever.
I don’t have to snuggle up to everything I read here do I?
I thought I was expected to be the contrarian here, or one of them.
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Oh…wait, are you asking me if I believe in the Kharmic Bitches and their impact on a football game?
You bet
Are you asking if I believe the mentality of the fan base has some influence on the outcome of a game?
Boy, that would make me a Football Weirdo.
If the right hat fits, I guess I will wear it.
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So, if they can CWM, who’s up for UF?
When Zook was fired, Meyer was about as obvious a choice out there. Perfect timing.
Who would it be now? The shine is of Chad Morris and Larry Fedora. Franklin is in for a long stay at Penn St, just like Strong at Texas. Briles ain’t leaving Baylor.
I just don’t see that next big coaching homerun for them
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They are talking Dan Mullen over at Alligator Army, who I hope does not get the job.
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Mullen is the likely guy and, given what he has done at MSU, I hope he doesn’t get the job. But the FU fanbase is so FOS they may not want him because he hasn’t won enough at MSU to suit them.
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Two years ago they wouldn’t touch him with a 10 foot pole.
Amazing the difference a Death Valley win makes
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That would be a sweet two for one for Jeremy because he would not only get Dan but he would also get the weather system that circulates around Dan’s head
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Gruden!
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I work in Chattanooga, and two years ago the Vol fans were convinced, and I mean convinced, that this guy would be their next coach. Radio talk shows supported their idiocy, despite the fact that Gruden is an NFL guy and he’s never shown any real interest in coaching college ball. It’s like they couldn’t distinguish between what their AD wanted and what the guy himself wanted.
It would be hilarious to see the Gator fanbase go through the same thing.
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Here’s my question: Are they desperate enough to can Foley and bring back SOS to right the ship? If they are, would he do it?
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I hear the GPOOE is looking for a new gig. Sideline reporter and cooking show hosting don’t seem to be his forté. Neither was big boy quarterbacking. Taibbi said it best: “I just think that Tim Tebow trying to throw a forward pass looks like a moose trying to fuck a washing machine.”
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Not Looking good down there Senator. A UF WR re-tweeted a post to bench Driskel. See the screenshots – http://www.barstoolsports.com/barstoolu/super-page/uf-receiver-retweets-twitter-movement-to-bench-their-starting-qb-how-awkward-do-you-think-the-huddle-is-today/
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The tweet pic shoes Driskel wearing jorts! I kid you not!
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Sorry. “shows”…
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nice read.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/florida-gators-will-muschamp-struggles/
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Officials love the Sound and Fury
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“Please help me mend, my broken heart … and let me live again.” Great song.
~~~
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