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 What's Wrong With The Gators?There is a wonderful, all-too familiar moment during a game that we Florida fans absolutely love. Maybe it is 20-6 UF, or 17-0. It is probably midway through the second quarter. Then something good happens on defense. In the early 90's, it might be a 3 and out, force the other team to punt from deep in its own territory. Later on in the 90s, it was more and more likely to be a forced fumble or an interception. The offense trots out and bam! One play, a corner route, a post over the middle, and as the Gator receiver races down the sidelines towards the inevitable touchdown, you know in your heart it has just ceased to be a game and has now become a romp. That's the comfort zone for us fans. So named because it is oh-so familiar, and also because it is the end to the stress of the afternoon. The outcome of the game is no longer in doubt, the starters are no longer on the field subject to injury, and the other team can begin pouting about "running up the score" as Stevie Ballcoach unapologetically continues to call his ball plays for the second and third teamers. Welcome to 1999. Those moments don't exist. As Spurrier has matured, he has learned that what is important is winning first and foremost. So after the 1997 season, Florida beat Penn State in a bowl game not by throwing the ball around, but by pounding Fred Taylor into those weak northern boys and by defensive goal line stands. In 1998, Spurrier got so conservative in a home game against Auburn that he and his team was booed in a 24-3 win. This year, following a 13-6 win at the Swamp against Vanderbilt, Spurrier said he was afraid to call pass plays because of what might go wrong. So what is wrong with the Gators? Or is anything wrong? What does it matter if Gator fans don't have that wonderful moment when the blow out becomes inevitable? A win is a win right? Of course not! Last year, Florida outgained and thouroughly outplayed the Tennessee Volunteers in their own stadium, and at times the game seemed to veer towards that blow out moment. But the Gators never got that separation, and what should have been a two-touchdown win suddenly ended at regulation tied. And then the Gator choke-factor, a deep-seeded aspect of the collective Gator psyche that alumnus Spurrier had worked so hard to eradicate, reared its ugly head and Florida lost in overtime. The game this year was quite similar: a play or two early in the second half and the 2-point win might have been a 2-touchdown win. Not so lucky against Alabama. To be sure, the Crimson Tide played a fabulous game, but who can deny that it took a freak fumble and some amazing OT miscues to take what should have been a 33-26 (or 36-26 or 40-26) victory and turn it into a 40-39 defeat? The point, as Penn State found out last week and Baylor found out so agonizingly against UNLV early this year, is that freaky things happen in college football, and if you pout about the miracle after the game, you look like a sore loser. As the 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996 editions of the Gators proved, why take the chance? If you are up by 21 points, that freaky play with two minutes to go only costs you margin of victory, not victory. But what is wrong with the Gators? Is it conservative play calling? Yes and no. The play calling isn't going to help the situation. You can't have a Fun and Gun offense if your Gun isn't loaded and you're not having Fun because you are terrified. But, of course, the conservative play calling is not the cause, but rather the response to, poor execution. When the 1996 version was scoring 45 points a game, you might ask, why doesn't everybody run the Fun and Gun? That's when you learn the meaning of the words: product of the system. Shane Matthews, Danny Wuerffel, Chris Doering, Ike Hilliard, Reidel Anthony... these guys were all labeled products of the system, as if to say that in another system, they wouldn't have been as productive. But now we learn how much the system was a product of these gifted players. Shane Matthews went from fifth on the depth chart to SEC record setter not simply because of the system, but because he was talented enough to flourish in it. Wuerffel was the same story. And that is not to point the finger solely at Doug Johnson: the offensive line, the wide receivers, and the running backs also must read the defense and understand the changes that are called for on the spot. What was so special about the SEC championship teams of 1991, 1993, and 1994 was that the offense, as a unit, was able to do that. What was rare about the 1995 and 1996 incarnations was that all the pieces were in place and we had a glimpse of one of the most smoothly executing and technically perfect offenses in college football history. Maybe drunk on that kind of good fortune, the system has evolved to exploit the talents of the Shane Matthews, the Danny Wuerffels, and the Ike Hilliards of this world. Unfortunately, the Gators don't have that. But they do have a talented, if young, team. The challenge remains for Steve Spurrier and his players to tweak the system just enough to fit the 1999 team. If they hurry, they just might match the success - with an SEC and national championship - of the 1996 team. But man, they'd better hurry. |
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