The Day After Breakdown
Here on The Day After Breakdown, Inside the Gators looks back on the Florida-Arkansas game and hands out positional grades based on the performance of UF's players and coaches, a by the numbers, hot and not and the bottom line.
-----
* Recruit Reaction: Prospects disappointed, embarrassed
* Notebook: Multiple players injured in loss
* GET YOUR 30 DAY FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP
* Three Takeaways: Looking at Florida's situation at quarterback
* Vote: Who should start at quarterback next week?
-----
| POS | COMMENT | GRADE |
|---|---|---|
|
QB |
There's not a whole lot that needs to be said here from a player standpoint. At this point, we know what Florida has in Luke Del Rio - a slightly below average quarterback who is best positioned as perhaps a team player type of backup. It is a given at this point that he isn't a starting caliber signal caller for an upper level SEC program. That's just the reality of it. Don't let the sub par 19-of-37 for 229-yards and two interceptions fool you - he was even worse than that. A lot of those completions and yards came on Florida's final two drives when the game was already out of reach. |
F |
|
RB |
The luckiest player on the roster was Jordon Cronkrite, who despite rejoining the team this week wasn't subjected to carrying the ball behind this line on Saturday. Hell, as a form of punishment, he should have had to. The Gators backs carried 11 times for 37-yards. One positive was Mark Thompson's contribution in the passing game. |
D |
|
WR |
There was one drop, but many more times than that LDR simply wasn't able to get the ball to receivers. On back to back passes in the second quarter he missed a wide open Antonio Callaway and Freddie Swain. Ahmad Fulwood made a couple of catches. Brandon Powell remains an underutilized weapon. |
C |
|
TE |
After making a spectacular, game changing type of grab against Georgia last week, C'Yontai Lewis returned to early season form with a terrible drop that would have converted an early third down for the Gators. DeAndre Goolsby was once again utilized mostly as a dump off option (2 catches for 3 yards). |
F |
|
OL |
After showing improvement over the last two weeks the line took a big step backward on Saturday. Arkansas defensive line isn't anywhere near the most talented group Florida will face, but they were simply more physical than the Gators. |
D |
|
DL |
For much of the game they seemed to be flat footed and lacking emotion. The grade might be a bit overly harsh considering the atmosphere, the injuries the unit is dealing with and the lack of support from the offense which kept sending them back on the field time and again with very little rest. |
D |
|
LB |
The top two guys - Jarrad Davis and Alex Anzalone - resemble a walking MASH unit. They played through injury the best they could. Give Daniel McMillan credit, he had what might be his best game as a Gator. |
C |
|
DB |
Yes they weren't their normal stellar selves as a unit, but taking everything into consideration (the lack of a pass rush and Duke Dawson's pick six) they still get a passing grade. |
C |
|
ST |
This was a mixed bag. Eddy Pineiro hit his lone field goal attempt, but Johnny Townsend only had a so-so day - averaging 44-yards on 7 punts. Antonio Callaway had a 25-yard punt return, but he also had a fumble backward out of bounds. Chris Thompson got lit up on the kickoff return to start the second half. |
C |
|
Coaches |
Not a single coach on the staff should feel even halfway decent about how their unit performed on Saturday. For the first time this season the defense joined the offense in deserving a failing grade. Post game we heard about sophomore CeCe Jefferson standing up in the locker-room and giving an impassioned speech. That is something that you would hope the head coach would do himself, or could at least supplement. Does Jim McElwain have that in him? Since his Kelvin Taylor sideline tirade we have seen almost no emotion from him whatsoever. When your team appears to be as flat and listless as the Gators were Saturday - isn't it incumbent on the head coach to show a little fire to get them motivated? Does CJM have that in him? As has been observed here on The Day After and Game Thread in the past, he appears almost comatose out there at times. There has to be a happy medium between psycho (Will Muschamp) and sleepwalking (McElwain) on the sideline. |
F |
DEFINING MOMENTS
* For the second consecutive week this designation goes to a Luke Del Rio play because for the second consecutive contest Del Rio had his first pass of the game intercepted. This one wasn't as blatantly bad as his throw back across the middle of the field against Georgia - but 24-yards later - as Arkansas players were celebrating in the endzone - it hurt just as much. From staring him down pre-snap until he actually threw the ball to a very well covered Tyrie Cleveland - the pass had DO NOT THROW ME written all over it. Del Rio of course did anyway and the result was a hole Florida was never able to climb out of the remainder of the day.
HOT & NOT
* Hot: This is normally meant to signify a Florida Gator who is improving or doing something positive. In this instance it refers to Jim McElwain's seat. Hot may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it is definitely warming up. You cannot present yourself as an offensive minded coach and then have your offense go out and look out-manned and over-matched against a team which was giving up 43.6 points per game in league play.
* Not: Much like with Treon Harris last year, at some point you have to stop blaming the player who is going out and doing his best with a limited skill set. This is the same situation this year with the quarterback. Don't blame Del Rio, blame the coach(es) who keep sending him out there. What is he supposed to do, tell the coaches he doesn't want to play? There are four quarterbacks on the roster. If Del Rio, who is below average, is so much better than the other three that he keeps getting sent out there - set up for failure - then it's time to take a closer look at the man in charge of developing the quarterbacks. This is two straight years of a substandard offense and below average quarterback play. The common denominator in both years is Doug Nussmeier.
BY THE NUMBERS
3 - This number could be used twice. Once to signify the non defensive points Florida scored against one of the worst defenses in the SEC. Or, as the number of first downs UF gained in the first half of the game before the final drive of the half when Arkansas allowed the Gators two dump off passes in order to keep everything in-front of them.
5 - The number of rushes it took Arkansas to gain more yards than Georgia rushed for all game last week. The Razorbacks ran for 32 yards on their first five carries. That's 12 yards more than the Bulldogs ran for all last week.
531 - The difference between the amount of rushing yards amassed by Auburn (543) and Florida (12) in the last two Arkansas games.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I could sit here and emphasize the positive to you by stating that at 6-2 overall and 4-2 in conference Florida still controls its own destiny in the SEC East. That is certainly true enough. However, even with that being the case I don't know many Florida fans who actually feel good about where this team stands after getting manhandled by a so-so Arkansas squad.
Last week - had they been able to run the table - Florida was in the discussion as a dark horse candidate to make the College Football Playoff. This week, forget participating in the race, the horse isn't even on the track or in the stable. Hell, at this point Florida isn't even a horse, it's more like a goat dressed up as a horse for Halloween. And forget the treats, the trick has already been played on the Florida faithful - who thought that they were in store for an improved offensive showing this year.
And forget the East Title for a minute. After being held to under 300 yards of offense for two consecutive weeks by so-so defenses the concern now is can the Gators rebound to formulate some sort of offensive game plan to move the ball against South Carolina - who at #22 (pass yards allowed) and #16 (pass efficiency defense) is the highest ranked pass defense the Gators have faced this year.
The bottom line is that Florida either quickly improves significantly on offense or the Gators are looking at 3-4 more losses this year.
------
Thank you for reading this Inside the Gators article. To discuss it, please visit the Alligator Alley Forum.