It is a good thing Heupel gave us last year, because otherwise this looks a lot like a coaching search year. He earned enough trust from the fans, the players, and the recruits that we can trot out the two worst games of his coaching tenure in consecutive weeks and we still think he’ll figure it out. Which is nice. It’s the only thing nice right now, because that was a throwback to the entire 2010s
If Mertz can take the ten yards every time, so can Rattler. And Beck. And Weigman. And probably whoever Alabama has in by then.
Mertz was ran out of town because he was a terrible decision maker when he was pressured. And we sat in a zone all night and let him pick us apart, and that’s not counting that our back 7 looked like they had never seen a man go in motion before.
I know I personally would feel 1000% better about tonight's loss if we had just beaten the shit out of Austin Peay
Well I have made it clear THIS is THE GAME for me. So I really don’t give a shit going forward. More losses = more reason to make changes assuming we make the right ones. At some point you have to put your foot down and say if Vandy/Mizzou/SCar/KY can do it so can we
Banks legitimately thought he could get to Mertz with a 4-man rush and sitting in the Zone would provide opportunities for Mertz to make mistakes. While it didn't work, obviously, it wasn't a specifically bad scheme to start the game. When it was clear Florida was getting away with consistent holds by their RT which allowed Mertz to roll out, that should have been the end of that gameplan. We waited way too long to blitz and pressure Mertz. Way too damned long.
Remember this is the same Banks who gave up 15/20 to Bama on 3rd downs and has had game streaks (ole miss among others) where we give up 3rd downs at 60-70% clip. I’d bet Milton and offense play better if they aren’t off the field for almost the whole first half. 2 damn 8 minute drives from a team not throwing it more than 10 yards. I cannot explain how mad I was and still am.
If you’re playing bend-but-don’t-break defense, you can’t go three-and-out twice in a row. You demoralize the defense and don’t let the offense get into a rhythm. You also have to buckle up in the red zone, which we didn’t do. Not sure whether I blame the offense or the defense more here, but if UF kicks FGs all half, we’re fine. If our offense moves the ball—even if we kick a couple FGs and go in to half down 19-13 because we don’t gift them a TD—we’re fine.
Just about every Florida QB since the dawn of time, even the terrible ones, have looked other worldly playing us.
I guess sitting back in zone could make sense if your team had a DB that could make a play in zone. For us, what's the point? Just be aggressive IMO. If a team is good enough to exploit it, they damn sure can exploit our soft zone.
Looks like we need an Oline coach who can recruit the position, a DC that can/will scheme and coach an aggressive attacking defense and a Dback coach who can actually coach the position. Anything else?
The OL definitely didn't impress much against Florida but on the flip-side, Milton isn't keeping them honest. They weren't specifically great in pass or run blocking but in retrospect after the JD wore off... IMO they probably did enough. OL was good last year, but had a fair bit of talent that he inherited. He's coaching scraps this year and with Mays out... it's hard to call. Elarbee is listed as the Primary recruiter on all 5 4-star OL, with 3 of them in this class. Banks hasn't been good. At all. I agree with you, he's not aggressive enough and that 100% cost us against Florida. The stats show where the D is strong and where it's weak. We got 7 TFL against Florida but 0 PBU. Florida got 3/4 respectively. Which leads me to: Martinez is by far the worst coach on the staff. I wouldn't be averse to keeping Banks so long as we sent Martinez packing.
