Passes and Picks

Breaking the cardinal rule of college football

Never look ahead in the schedule. Never look past next week. Looking past a weak opponent to a big game will only let that weak team score an upset. The Gators get to come home to a pretty bad Ole Miss team Saturday but have formidable No. 6 LSU on the road in less than two weeks. The Gators better not look past Ole Miss, but luckily I don't actually play (no matter how much I refer to the Gators as "we") so I can look ahead.

In a nutshell, LSU is awesome. They are 5-0 for the first time in 30 years and are the highest ranked SEC team right now. They've scored an average of more than 41 points per game and knocked off then No. 7 Georgia, who was many analysts' pick to win the SEC this year. Junior QB Matt Mauck is looking better than ever after recovering from a season ending injury last year. All that, and the Tigers have a bye this week to recover from some minor injuries to be healthy and waiting for the Gators in Tiger Stadium.

Oh and speaking of Tiger Stadium, LSU has only lost one game there since midway through the 2001 season. And the Tigers threw down a complete whooping of the Gators last year in the Swamp. The Gators better bring their "A" game into Baton Rouge or they'll leave with yet another loss.

But Gators, don't look past Ole Miss. No games are gimmes this year. I just choose to look past it because if we lose at home to a team led by the second-best Manning brother, I might just kill someone. 

Gators top Wildcats 24-21 in late comeback

1986. Do you remember what you were doing in 1986? Personally, I was attending kindergarten at Cyprus Woods Elementary. Ronald Regan was the president. The Wildcats beat the Gators 10-3. That was the last time it happened.

Three coaches and 17 years later, Chris Leak led a late fourth quarter comeback to escape with victory. That means Zook is two for two in giving us scares against Kentucky. Now we did win, and as they say in football the W is the most import thing, but we barely won. We were down by 18 points to the Kentucky Wildcats. Under Steve Spurrier we used to win by scores of 73-7 and 65-0, not the seven and three point victories Zook has posted in his two years at the helm.

But enough griping, let's get to the good stuff. The Gators won! They overcame the largest deficit to win a game in their 90+ years. Chris Leak is 1-0 as a starter and the Gators put up 21 points in the fourth quarter, a complete turnaround from the late game debacle against Miami the second week of the season.

The Gators also moved to 1-1 in the SEC, are ranked 24th in both the Coaches Poll and the AP Poll, and get to go home Saturday to face an unranked, 2-2 Ole Miss team that barely beat Vandy.

Zook pulled out the win, so i guess I can stay off his back and not mention my favorite Web site. Well, not by name at least. But in closing I will point you to a column in the Lexington Herald-Leader that waxes nostalgic for the days of Steve Spurrier. That's a Kentucky columnist complaining about Zook, just for the record. At least Florida fans aren't the only ones that miss the Ol' Ball Coach. 

Chris Leak to start against Kentucky

Quarterback Chris Leak will get his first career start against Kentucky on Saturday. And its about time.

The revolving door theory to quarterbacks was not working in the swamp. As soon as Martin or Leak got some momentum behind them, Zook would promptly put the other guy in.

So why is starting the younger, less experienced back a good decision? He's a better quarterback.

Even without any sort of rhythm against the Vols, Leak managed not to consistently underthrow receivers who couldn't be more open if they were playing a Pop Warner team. Martin did.

Leak's interception wasn't his fault. Martin's was.

Leak doesn't make me cringe when he takes the field. Martin does.

Leak is obviously the QB of the future, so he might as well rack up some starting time now, since we don't really have a talented, experienced signal caller. Finally Zook is making an intelligent decision, which makes me wonder how he'll screw this one up.

Maybe when he said Leak would start, he meant at wide receiver and he'll put Vernell Brown in at QB. Vernell does have the experience in the Zook system.

Or maybe when Ronny Zook said, "We're going to give Chris a shot to start" he was talking about Chris Rock or Kris Kristofferson. I'm sure he'll find a way to mess this one up.

And while I'm on the subject, I'll point you to a Pat Dooley column about Zook's ineptitude. He ends, and I will too, with these chilling statistics: Zook is 6-7 in games that matter (not our two patsy teams we play each season) and is 1-4 in the last five games against division I-A schools with the lone win coming at home against San Jose State. Sends shivers down your spine, doesn't it? 

What's pass interference?

Let me give you the textbook definition of defensive pass interference according to NCAA rules (PDF): contact beyond the neutral zone by a Team B player whose intent to impede an eligible opponent is obvious and it could prevent the opponent the opportunity of receiving a catchable forward pass.

Now I would argue that pushing a receiver to the ground would be pass interference, but apparently not to the officials working Saturday's Florida-Tennessee game.

Chris Leak's pass was picked off by Jason Allen with 7:15 left on the clock and the Gators driving and there was absolutely no call when Allen shoved the receiver to the ground. What were the Zebras watching at that point, Days of Our Lives? It certainly wasn't the game.

Now I'm not one of those people that like to blame a loss on the officials unless it was clearly their fault. This loss belongs to Zook and Zaunbrecher, as I told you before. But that was not the only missed pass interference call they made. In the fourth quarter I counted 4 times interference should have been called on Tennessee defensive backs, twice ending Gator drives. With Florida only down by two scores, a touchdown on either of those drives would have pulled us back in the game.

So the loss isn't the fault of the officials, but they sure didn't make it any easier. Its hard enough to combat eleven men on defense without having to fight the refs too. 

In the wake of a loss, Alligator writer gets it right

In case you don't know, the Gators lost to Tennessee 24-10 at home on Saturday.

Alligator writer Jeremy Fowler wrote one of the best columns I have ever read in the sports section of the Alligator. Unfortunately the column doesn't appear in the online version of the newspaper, so I'll have to recap it for you. Basically he said Ron Zook and offensive coordinator Ed Zaunbrecher called a game that didn't allow the Gators to win the game because they never went downfield.

"It makes you wonder what UF's offensive playbook actually looks like," he wrote. "Here's how you throw 89 different passes without gaining more than five yards."

He continued with a quote that made me laugh out loud: "Wonder what it's like between players and coaches in the huddle: 'OK, Ingle, Carlos Perez and Kelvin Kight are not going to move from their receiver spot, so just wait until the cornerbacks smother them and then zip the ball on over there.' "

I couldn't have said it better myself. The "Z" boys hardly called any passes that would have opened up the offense and kept the Tennessee defense honest. I think it might even be time for the boys of FireRonZook.com to buy a new domain name: FireEdZaunbrecher.com. Or maybe they can just add a page to their site.
 

Florida lays the groundwork in prepping for SEC play

The Gators scored seven rushing touchdowns (and two more in the air) in their 63-3 trouncing of Florida A&M and as a team ran for 309 yards. Why does that matter when we were playing such a weak team? Simply because we now know we can run the ball. Keeping the ball on the ground more often will open up the receivers for our young quarterbacks on passing plays. It will also lessen the pass rush to give Ingle and Chris more time to make decisions in the pocket, a process that will speed up with experience. We aren't going to have another 300 yard rushing game against Tennessee's defense this Saturday, but maybe this game served as an indicator that the pass-happy Gators may becoming a little more balanced.

And while I'm commenting on last Saturday's game, I've got to say I thoroughly enjoyed the Rattlers' halftime show. The Marching 100 lived up to the hype while playing songs from everyone from the O-Jays to 50 Cent and dancing in time. And as an indication that mainstream sport reporters are old, all of the stories I read about the game recognized the first group and failed to mention the rendition of 50 Cent's "Magic Stick," which garnered the largest cheers of the show. The only real disappointment of the show was that the band played to the alumni side of the field, although the students clearly cared more, and their own section of fans were on the student side as well. But all that aside, I still came for the game not the band. 

FAMU's Marching 100 comes to town...

...oh yeah, and they're bringing their football team too. Florida A&M University's famous Marching band, the Marching 100, is coming to perform in the swamp for the first time and Gator fans sure are excited. I haven't seen anything in print about this, but people are trying extremely hard to score some tickets to Saturday's game, and we're playing a 1-1 Division I-AA team with whom we have no history. All I have heard people talking about in Gainesville is the wonderful band and how much better they are than the "Pride of the Sunshine State." Well, they are better (and so is their Web site), but who cares? Sure it will be fun to see the band perform while sweating up in row 74 of the student section, but I go to games to see football. I can think of many more comfortable and appropriate venues to see a concert. I remember way back in the day when tickets were hard to get because the Gators were winning, not because of the visitors' sideshow attraction. I'm sure the Gators are going to pound the Rattlers and it shouldn't be much of a contest. But we have many kinks to work out before heading into tough SEC play, and I for one will be in attendance to see if we can get a step closer to being a contender. I think we should go to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium prepared to see some gridiron action, not brass and woodwinds.  

Zook blogs up 23 pt lead in loss to 'Canes

In the trailer to Chuck Olsen's Blogumentary, Chuck walks around Time Square asking "the man on the street" if he knows what a blog is. Chuck gets a lot of responses like, "one of those words that you're not supposed to say" and "what i left in the toilet this morning." Three weeks ago, I probably would have given a similar answer. Since my enlightenment, I've started this blog to report on what is sure to be a roller coaster ride of a second season of Florida Gator Football under head coach Ron Zook. As you'll soon find out, I am a huge Gators fan, so you'll have to pardon me when I say "we" referring to the Gators and "they" refering to whomever they happen to be playing. So now, in the spirit of Chuck's man on the street interviews, I am compelled to report the Zook really blogged up the first true test of the season. The boys in orange and blue worked hard to pull to a 33-10 early third quarter lead just for Zook to blow it with some antics he calls coaching. Good ole Zook blogged up the game, and I'll blog you all about it. This is how it went down.

First things first, I am not one who believed the Gators had no chance to pull off a victory in the Orange Bowl, for a couple of reasons: we we're as bad as people were saying, and they weren't as good as people were saying. Now its easy for me to say that after the game came down to the line, but you'll just have to believe that I was saying that a week ago. We finally found some consistent kicking and punting to solve the nagging special teams issues of last year, we had two talented if untested quarterbacks at our disposal, and our defense seemed to be pretty strong in the whooping we laid down on San Jose State. The 'Canes didn't have Willis McGahee to rush for 204 yards on us, Brock Berlin didn't have the offensive line that made awful quarterback Ken Dorsey look good for the past few years, and the game in 2002 was really a lot closer than the score made it appear (but that's another story for another day). All that being said, I was really excited to watch my Gators go down south to take on the heavily favored Hurricanes. I was also really excited when The dominate effort of the Gator defense and some key plays by quarterbacks Ingle Martin and Chris Leak lead Florida to a 33-10 lead with 6:10 left in the third quarter. Then the Gator D fell apart letting the 'Canes score three quick touchdowns to pull to 33-32 with 11:08 left, while the stuttering offense could hardly get a first down. So what does our genius head coach decide to do to spark our offense? Put in the third string quarterback, of course. Gavin Dickey, the redshirt freshman who a few weeks ago admitted he did not play at the level of Martin and Leak, was thrown into the game. And to end the misery of the story quickly, Dickey managed to get off a few good passes, was then stopped, 'Canes got the ball back and scored a TD, and the Gators lost 38-33 in the worst choke since the infamous 1994 "Choke at Doak" (known as the "Rally in Tally" to FSU fans).

I don't now, and won't ever understand why Zook would put in a third string quarterback with the game on the line. I won't ever understand why he put the game into the hands of freshman receiver and trusted him to throw a touchdown pass in the Outback Bowl last year (Vernell Brown's pass was intercepted to pretty much end the game). But I do understand that if Zook doesn't stop blogging up the big games when the come down to the wire with foolish, ill-advised plays he's going to be quickly looking for a new job. I've already gone from writing the coach's name on my chest in support of his first game with the Gators (I'm the "K"), to a strong supporter of fireronzook.com, and Ron better be careful or Florida AD, Jeremy Foley will make that same kind of switch soon too.