Buddy Blog: Florida Gators Need the Balm of Homecoming This Week
Photo supplied by Buddy Martin; photo illustration.
Sumrall didn’t care about Mizzou’s homecoming, but he certainly does his own this week.
The scoreboard lied to Florida for four weeks. Missouri finally told the truth. Jon Sumrall said so himself Monday, in fewer words: “Plenty of that had already showed in previous outings, but it didn’t cost us wins and losses.”
There’s your autopsy. The secondary leaked in September, and the run defense had soft spots. Nobody minded at 4-0 with a No. 8 ranking. Then came 45-17 in Columbia, and now the Gators are 4-1, No. 16 and in need of a hard look.
To his credit, Sumrall didn’t blame the officials, the turf or the plane ride home.
“It starts with me,” he said. “You have to tell yourself the truth, tell each other the truth, and own it.”
It was refreshing to hear. It would be more refreshing to see.
“I’ve seen plenty of our downfalls through the first four weeks,” he said. Good.
Somebody in the building was watching the tape while the rest of Gator Nation was pricing playoff hotels.
His fix was simple: “Really simple, we just gotta get better.” Simple to say, anyway.
Florida celebrates at The Swamp after the Ole Miss game. File photo by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media.
The Gamecock Sales Pitch
Then Sumrall went into full hype mode for South Carolina. He called the Gamecocks “the best talent team that we have played” and said they’ve “got NFL guys everywhere.” South Carolina is 2-3 and hasn’t won an SEC game.
If those are NFL guys, they’re playing like the Jets. Every coach since Robert Neyland has talked up the next opponent, and Vegas isn’t buying it either. Florida is a 14.5-point favorite.
Still, the message was clear: nobody gets to sleepwalk into homecoming.
The Infirmary Report
The bigger worry is who’s healthy enough to catch a pass. Vernell Brown III, the sophomore who stretches the field and makes things happen after the catch, missed Missouri with a knee strain. It showed. Without him, Aaron Philo looked like a man trying to parallel park a bus.
“When you take him off the field, maybe there’s some things that we don’t do as well without him out there,” Sumrall said. That’s coach-speak for “the offense flatlined.” Brown is cleared but didn’t practice fully Monday. Sumrall called him “trending positively,” then said the most honest thing of the day: “What does that mean for Saturday? I don’t know yet.”
Eric Singleton Jr. and Bailey Stockton both played at Missouri after sitting out practice until Thursday.
“It’s hard to play at a really high level when you don’t get the practice reps,” Sumrall said.
It’s harder when your best deep threat is a game-time guess.
The Verdict
The good news: the coach is owning it, Jadan Baugh texted an apology Sunday, and Brown is close.
The bad news: Texas and Georgia are coming up after South Carolina, and owning it doesn’t stop a go route.
Back to the reconstructive, reaffirming warm confines of The Swamp Saturday, where the Gators are a two-touchdown favorite.
A team whose coach hates losing more than he likes winning isn’t finished. It just has to prove the scoreboard wasn’t lying about everything.
Mac Steen dies
Mac Steen in an archival football portrait. Photo supplied by Buddy Martin.
It grieves me to say that my good friend and former 1969 Gator captain Mac Steen passed away on Friday with his family in DeLand.
Mac had taken sick recently, but didn’t want to disclose it to anyone. Services are Saturday morning in DeLand.
I surely didn’t know it would go this fast but will always have great memories of Gator Football in 1969 with Mac. God bless him and condolences to Kathy and his family. Such a huge loss.
Mac was a great friend and beloved Gator with whom I collaborated on many stories, including a popular 10-part series that appeared in seven state papers leading up to the Camelot 1969 season in which Ray Graves’ team upset SEC champ Tennessee in the Gator Bowl. He was a DeLand orthodontist who put braces on several generations. I’m going to miss Mac terribly.
Thus was my last communique with him after the Ole Miss win: “Great one Buddy… Well written. I watched it with my son from Taiwan and daughter from Australia. In the words of the immortal Jimmy Buffett, ‘Twas surely our night to win.’”
“It was a pleasure and a hell of an evening / Truly was our night to win / But the authorities insist on my leaving / Take care, my American friend” — Jimmy Buffett
Spurrier says he might call Sumrall
And tell him about getting blasted 45-3 in his first season at Florida when the Gators traveled to Knoxville.
It was 1990 and we were just learning about the power of the new Gator offense, but in Knoxville, the “FunNGun” offense was not effective vs the Vols. After trailing 7-3 at halftime, things spiraled out of control for the Gators in the third quarter following a 91-yard kickoff return touchdown by Tennessee's Dale Carter.
Shane Matthews, who was plagued by a relentless Vols pass rush and dropped balls, was pulled in the third quarter. “At least his team scored 17 points,” the HBC said of Sumrall.
Spurrier even put in backup quarterback Kyle Morris, who also threw an interception during the game.
Despite that brutal game, Matthews remained the starter, bounced back, and went on to win SEC Player of the Year honors for both the 1990 and 1991 seasons.
“But you know what?” Spurrier added. Florida won the rest of its SEC games. But NCAA probation made the Gators ineligible for the SEC title, despite finishing with the league’s best record at 6-1. The SEC championship game did not begin until 1992. Spurrier still counts that as an SEC title because he promised players he would never forget them.
The Tessitore Jinx
Maybe there really is a Joe Tessitore curse on Florida. According to the site In All Kinds Of Weather, since 2010, he’s called 19 Florida games. The Gators have won just TWO of them. And Florida is 0-3 against Missouri specifically with him on the call. Yeah, that’s the ticket! It’s Tessitore’s fault!
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