Just so everyone knows, I did not fall off of the Turnipe Truck when I post a comment here. I grew up in Gainesville. My dad played QB for the Gators, my brother played for the Gators & my nephew played on the 2006 NC Team in the recent history of the Gator Football program. So to all of the fans that have posted comments on this issue that are local to Gainesville or outside of Gainesville surrounding the coaching staff of the Gators, there needs to be a reality check here. First of all Pat Dooley is a seasoned sports columnest that obviously loves the Gators and supports any effort to make the Gator Sports programs as strong as they can be. However, just like many people that have lived in Gainesville for most or all of their lives, he has somwhat lost the state and/or national perspective of the program in general. I think that Pat realizes that the Florida football team at this point, is not one bit realitive to the state or, particularly the national discussion forum surrounding college football. What he, and many local Gainesville fans do not consider, is the overall impression of the Gator football program on a wide scale in its current mediocre state.The Gator program will have a hard time recruiting the talent it needs to compete in the conference, much less the talent to compete in the national title scene. These trends take a significant amount of time to reverse. So the fact that the Gator program is in the state that it is in, will take years (not months) to reverse. This season is a complete disaster, partially due to injuries, but mostly due to marginal talent in the 2nd & 3rd team players and a rampant lack of discipline on the part of the team as a whole. What is the root cause of these problems? The Coaches! Recruiting is abysmal....you cannot tell me that they have any future pro players at the offensive skill positions outside of Soloman Patton ( a stretch) and Kelvin Taylor ( future 1st rounder) at this point in time. Are you kidding? Addiionally what are they doing on a week to week basis to erradicate the sensless Personal Foul ( and other) penalties that palgue them on a weekly basis. This is the U of F and I cannot believe they couldnt find any better talent at the skill positions than they have right now. They should have starters for most other teams at almost every position and at this point in time and they clearly do not now. Why not? They have one of the finest facilities for sports as well as one of the best public university academic programs in the nation, and this is the best that can be produced by this football coaching staff & program? Another source of frustration is why did they not play Taylor more in the earlier part of the season to get him into the flow more? I remember back in the 80s when Emmitt Smith, as a Freshman, took over early in the season (224 yards @ Alabama) and never looked back. Not saying he is another Emmitt but when you have a Thoroughbred in the stable, why would you keep that Thoroughbred in the stable while you run a couple of Nags in its place? Then there is the issue of the lack of discipline of this team, which is marginally tolerable when you are winning and completely unacceptable when you losing. And not just losing to SEC schools ( at home), but losing to what is essentially a Div. 1 AA team like Ga. Southern. In conclussion, I hate for anyone to lose their job in this economy, but lets face it, college football coaches at major division 1 schools are not hurting for money.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 05:52:13 +0000
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