The Playcalling Of Game Two

by mlmintampa on Sep 11, 2009 7:28 AM EDT in Florida Football

There has never been a time when Florida's second OOC preseason game was terrifying. In 2002, 2003 and 2008, Florida played Miami, but was favored in two of the three games (you forget UF was a field goal favorite against No. 1 Miami in 2002). Since these first two games have not been terrifying, there has been no need to crack open the playbook any further than the first few pages.

Against Troy, the Gators say they will open it up more, on both sides of the ball. While you need the team to "stretch its legs" revealing too much allows the Kiffins a look into the system for next week's game. (I don't worry about Lane Kiffin. I worry about Monte.) Compare this to Tennessee, who gets UCLA at home. I give credit to Tennessee for having the guts to schedule home-and-home with UCLA, Cal and Notre Dame (plus one-offs with Air Force and Rutgers) in the same time period that Florida's big addition to the OOC slate was three games against Miami. But with Tennessee at home against a legit team, and Lane facing a former rival from when he was USC offensive coordinator, the Vols have to do everything to win. Not only will Florida have the advantage in talent and maturity, they will have the edge in that the Vols won't know what cards the Gators are holding.

Every year, Gator fans complain that we've scheduled Troy or Southern Miss or a state commuter school (hello UCF, FAU and FIU!). But it's not concidence that Florida dominates the Tennessee series in recent years when UT is willing to play a legit team in week two and reveal their playbook, as Florida hides the good stuff.

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Comments

Good point

As a Vols fan, I agree with the opinion about TN having to show everything against an opponent like UCLA. People nag about the Gators’ OOC foes, but as the past few years have shown, the current approach to scheduling seems to be working just fine.

TN knows pretty well what the Gators will throw at them; namely superb athletes at every position on the field. I hate James for what he does yearly against the Vols, but that kid is a threat to take it to the house on every return.

How much will the injury to the Gators’ WR impact the offense? I imagine there is some Fasty McFasterson who will step up in his place. I guess we’ll see on Sept 19th if Kiffin the Elder has devised a scheme to stop (slow?) the Tebow Show.

Here’s to both teams staying as healthy as possible prior to the tilt in Gainesville!

Ball, oskie, cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle... for this is the WINNING EDGE.

by pound the rock on Sep 11, 2009 2:28 PM EDT reply actions

susprisingly stand up Tenn fan.

I used to hate Tenn, I wish they would be good again so i can hate them again.

by Hook85 on Sep 11, 2009 9:14 PM EDT up reply actions

It's much better to be hated

than pitied. Getting commiserating emails from Vandy fans makes me want to vomit.

by danmarcel on Sep 14, 2009 6:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Well, heck.

Came in to comment, but ptr said pretty much what I was going to. I find it interesting that in 2001 we were able to come away with the win, and I think that having an entire season worth of film to study sure did help.

by danmarcel on Sep 14, 2009 6:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Interesting...

I have never thought about it like that, but it’s a great point. I’d still like to see the Gators replace the Hurricanes with home-and-home games against similar opponents, but I’m not that upset about it. I’m far more annoyed at the prospect of scheduling DII schools ever.

"A player who conjugates a verb in the first person singular cannot be part of the squad, he has to conjugate the verb in the first person plural. We. We want to conquer. We are going to conquer. Using the word 'I' when you're in a group makes things complicated." ~ Wanderley Luxemburgo, 1999

by ejruiz on Sep 11, 2009 8:59 PM EDT reply actions

Some UGA fans were wondering what advantages UF feels it derives from its current scheduling practice, and noted that UGA doesn’t seem to do better when it starts with patsies rather than live opponents… since I was on their site, I didn’t want to say “well, it works for us”, because that might have been taken the wrong way (or the right way, really, but “just because your team can’t get its shit together doesn’t mean we can’t” is blunter than I like to be.)

by peachy rex on Sep 11, 2009 11:32 PM EDT reply actions