As Gator fans anticipate the start of spring practice on March 16, this Gator has noticed a perceptible vacant look in the eyes of typically manic, wild eyed Gators (is there any other kind?). A quick re-cap of the past 13 months in the life of Florida Gator Football supplies the answer; a virtual decade worth of seismic shifts in the foundation of the program. The result has been an excruciating journey from defending National Champion and No 1 ranking on December 1, 2009 to the current situation of a brand new Head Coach and brand new staff with new and different offensive and defensive philosophies, abject instability at quarterback, not to mention the loss of huge swaths of standout players including, of course, one of the all-time greatest players in the 140 year history of college football.
Before peering out of the fox hole to take a peek at the scenario for the first spring practice of the coming new era, this Gator has the need to look back at a slew of lingering, bewildering questions that remain from the aftermath of the last 13 months.
· First and most obvious; What’s REALLY going on with Urban Meyer? On this topic, Gator Gridiron diverges with the various conspiracy theories of many Gators---GG thinks Coach Meyer’s public explanation is THE explanation. After a lifetime of extraordinary focus, hard work and over-achievement, including almost working himself to death, literally, on behalf of the Florida Gators he is emotionally burned out and wants to live a different life with different priorities, like actually getting to know his kids and family. The fact that he has an unusual level of financial stability for a man his age allows him the opportunity to make this decision. If you were sitting on a stash of millions of dollars, would you be destroying your health working 80-90 hour weeks, sleeping in your office and never spending time with your children, especially after a health crisis where you and your family thought you almost died?
· How did an obscure offensive line coach with dubious (at best) credentials take over the Florida Gator Football program in 2010? Gator Gridiron hesitates to re-visit one of the most insidious, incompetent nightmares to ever invade Gator football, but many of us are still perplexed, and somewhat grudgingly awed, with the way Steve Addazio maneuvered his way into control of the program, actually becoming at one point (perish the thought!), Interim Head Ball Coach. The short answer seems to be he carefully cultivated a close personal relationship with Coach Meyer, as well as other influential individuals in positions of power, skillfully burnished his meager credentials and then ruthlessly and adroitly seized the moment when Coach Meyer, and Gator Nation, was most vulnerable. Thankfully he’s gone now to lay waist to the Temple football program.
The bottom line is this; it is tragic that it took Urban Meyer’s resignation to liberate Gator Nation from the ineptitude of Steve Addazio; but, hey, if it took losing Coach Meyer to get rid of Addazio, so be it.
· How can you go through 4 weeks of Spring Practice, another 3-4 weeks of 2-a-days in August/September and not know that your center cannot snap the ball? I guess the answer is; that is what happens when Steve Addazio is in charge of your offense.
· How can John Brantley spend 3 years in the program as quarterback of the future and nobody realize he can’t run the option? This is one of the great mysteries of 2010. We can chalk the problems at center partially up to Coach Meyer delegating responsibilities to others, but Brantley has been the heir apparent at QB for 3 years. When your entire offense is based around the quarterback being able to keep defenses honest by serving as a running threat in the option, how do you go 3 years and not realize your QB of the future can’t execute the offense? What did these guys do at practice, anyway?
· On the topic of John Brantley, why did Coach Meyer and Addazio insist on sticking with the “Tim Tebow” offense, when Brantley has always been a traditional drop-back, pocket passer; not a runner or dual-threat QB?
Your guess is as good as mine; I have no clue.
· Why couldn’t talented players, specifically Andre Debose and Omarious Hines, ever get on the field? In a year when the offense was crying out for playmakers, two obviously talented players, who made plays and performed well in their limited opportunities ON THE FIELD, were seldom utilized.
· What was the Meyer coaching staff’s infatuation with Deonte Thompson? In the 45+ years that this Gator has followed Florida Football, Deonte Thompson has dropped more balls than any other Florida receiver. Yet Thompson continued to be featured as go to receiver while the aforementioned DeBose and Hines and other gifted receivers could never get on the field. ????
In the six short years that Urban Meyer served as Head Coach he achieved a truly extraordinary and unprecedented level of success. Among numerous other achievements he brought home TWO National Championships, won 13 games back to back for the first time in NCAA Division I history and dominated the recruiting landscape, bringing in spectacular players like Percy Harvin and Tim Tebow in additions to boatloads of other outstanding players. But, for whatever reason, the 2010 season was a year filled with unexplained, maddening and at times seemingly irrational frustrations. What a strange, bizarre trip it (2010) was.
Roger Franklin Williams
Gridiron Gator
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