What record

gaytors a win, Georgias a win, south carolinas a win.

 

If J Jackson was added to the list, I could definitely see 6-2.

 

I think there is a difference between being critical and being reactionary. We can make valid excuses for Dooley, because valid excuses exist. At the same time, we can be quite critical of decisions that seem questionable.

There have been questionable decisions all year long. It isn't like we are blindly putting it all on Dooley. We are looking for answers to some lof the more questionable choices.

The common answer is time, youth, inexperience, lack of depth and injuries. These are not reasons for some of the questionable management calls.

We know this season is a wash, but we should at least expect to see Some positives, not just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.

I mean the excuse this year are somewhat applicable next year, yea? We don't know that Hunter comes back 100%, or that he has really "grown" this season from being on the sidelines. Will he and Bray forget how fast the game is? Can they both knock off the rust?

Shouldn't we be working toward that possibility, instead of just thinking "hey, they'll be back."

 

I've read your sunshine pumping in about 4 different threads now without comment, as you are certainly entitled to your opinion and free to express it here, even if it differs from mine.

I've also been waiting for this. We aren't a good football team except for a few bad breaks. We aren't a winning team that has had some bad luck. We aren't on the verge of greatness or getting really close to competing on a national level. We aren't a 6-2 team that had a couple of guys get hurt.

We are 0-5. We haven't beaten anybody that matters since '09. We haven't beaten anybody that is good since at least '06. Almost beating Les Miles and Butch Davis don't count for much to me, and neither does playing good teams close for a half before imploding into a blowout loss or a boring walkover. Dooley and company have a tough job. Two years into their tenures, what are the signs that they are up to the task?

 

So how does that imaginary team finish? 10-3 with a blowout win over Michigan St. in the Citrus?

Does this team with those guys back really look like that to anybody? Isn't that the same team that put up a losing record with a loss in the MCB last year just one year older?

 

No.

 

Where are the significant differences?

 

I think the biggest difference (outside of the obvious players) is leadership. Who are the leaders on this team?

 

Linebacker, safety and wide receiver.

Losing Lathers and Janzen put the D in a bind. JJ was the only legitimate playmaker on defense. He could go back and free lance. He also cleaned up a ton of mistakes. Now, there's nobody that does that.

Lathers knew what the hell was going on and he has legit SEC speed at OLB. AJ and Maggitt are getting better every week and this will pay off in the long run, but Lathers doesn't get burned by a Florida jitterbug or take terrible angles against Connor Shaw.

Also, the offense was rolling with the mighty three of Bray, Hunter and Da'Rick. If all three were healthy, Tennessee is putting up an absurd amount of points, forcing offenses to take chances. Now, any team that's up by ten can play keep away and win.

This was an 8 win team with those guys in the lineup. It's now, at best, a 6 win team.

This is also leaving out Montori and what he could have brought to the table.

 

Most of the answer is summed in Groves response. The two key cogs in the defense are gone as are the two key cogs in the offense. The coaches aren't just throwing something out there and seeing what sticks because it's all they know to do, it's all they can do at this point. No one on the sideline is tested, hell half the starters aren't tested. The defense doesn't have the speed it needs and the offense doesn't have the skill position players it needs anymore to be competitive. What made this team work is completely gone. The remaining players can only be coached up so much. They just aren't that good. That's the bottom line. We knew that 5 months ago. No need to start thinking things could've/should've somehow changed just because the few good players we had got hurt or had to get cut from the team.

 

it's funny that we loved the fake punt last week and some other questionable extreme calls Dooley made that worked, but Palardy once again fails on the onsides kickoff, and suddenly Dooley is an idiot for trying to be creative and sneaky. I said we would be bashing him for those calls at some point, and look we are. You can't have it both ways.

 

If an injury to either of our two frailest players completely cripples our gameplan, perhaps we should have spent a bit more time getting the run game ready to actually produce positive yardage.

 

We have a special teams coach, but for the second time we attempted the lateral onside kick and it went out of bounds. 0% of success both times. We were also offsides. It'd be different if it was executed properly and we just didn't manage to come up with it.

 

again, we knew that would happen. I'm still not understanding why you're surprised now.

 

With those two we should be sitting at 5-3, maybe 4-4 with a glimmer of hope to maybe, just maybe knock off Arkansas.

However, I still have to think there would be issues there anwyay. Jumping offsides, busted plays on defense, etc. etc. The offense would be better, but in the long run I still don't know if it makes that much difference.

It really goes to this. Despite our shortcomings, we were in the game against UGA and SC. We were outschemed and outplayed in the second half. I pin both of those losses on the coaches. I just think a top-notch coach wins one of those games. You HAVE to start winng a few of those alogn the way. You just do. I really don't know what else to say.

 

I knew we'd be bad once Bray went out. I knew we'd struggle on offense. I didn't think we'd be totally outplayed by a South Carolina team running a high school offense that actually played a very, very bad game.

 

I knew we'd be bad once Bray went out. I knew we'd struggle on offense. I didn't think we'd be totally outplayed by a South Carolina team running a high school offense that actually played a very, very bad game.

 

People are vastly overvaluing Bray and Hunter. This was a mediocre team with them, it's a mediocre to bad team without them.

 

Id say its just flat out bad with them on the sidelines, mediocre is a stretch. Bad should have beat SC anyway. Would have needed mediocre to beat UGA.

 

How does this differ from next year, though? We'll still have the same players. We thought this year would be bad? So, next year should also be bad?

Even if Dooley goes out and recruits the best class... ever. Those players will still be young and inexperienced. Faster, yea. More talented, yea. But that is a fantasy.

I mean, if we knew that 5 months ago, this team was bad... with all the players we lost, what is next? We can't coach them up, you say you can only coach them up so much. If they are bad, why does a year change that?

How many years until we can actually critique coaching? Because next year, this is the same team it was 5 months ago.