Three Things Florida Gators Fans Want To See From The Gators In Baton Rouge
Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators rebounded from their loss to Kentucky last week with a 42-0 shutout over Vanderbilt.
We won’t say the Gators rebounded particularly well against the Commodores because, well, they played the Commodores. And they didn’t exactly play them well.
GatorBait’s own Franz Beard put it well -- the scoreboard said shutout, but the scoreboard lied.
Florida left a lot to be desired in its win over Vanderbilt last week. Fortunately, the Gators have an opportunity to go out and clean things up against an LSU team that doesn’t exactly resemble the Tigers’ teams we’ve seen as of recently. LSU head coach Ed Orgeron is arguably on the hot seat as LSU’s fall from grace continues.
Though it doesn’t have all the drama that 2016 had, this game is feeling somewhat like the 2016 edition of the UF-LSU matchup. Instead of it being one team’s game to win and the other team’s game to lose, it’s both teams’ game to lose.
If Florida loses to a pedestrian LSU football team on Saturday, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium might collapse. And if the Tigers lose to the Gators on Saturday, the LSU fan base will undoubtedly have their sights set on Orgeron’s job.
Aside from a win, here are three things Florida fans want to see from the Gators as they visit Death Valley on Saturday afternoon:
Florida Gators fans want to see a hotter start
Though the Gators scored on the Commodores in their opening pair of offensive drives, fans were somewhat disappointed in the fact that it took a combined 15 plays for Florida to drive a total of 127 yards. In Florida’s second drive, it took Emory Jones and Co. seven plays to drive just 49 yards on a touchdown drive that saw the Gators have to go for it on 4th and 1.
For most teams, scoring on its opening two drives would be enough.
But Florida isn’t like most teams and Vanderbilt isn’t like most teams Florida plays -- the Commodores are considerably worse.
Not to mention, as soon as the football season kicks off, Florida fans like to instantly use Georgia as their measuring stick. And in most seasons, that makes sense. After all, all too often it comes down to the game in Jacksonville to decide the winner of the SEC East.
But this season, it doesn’t appear to be shaping up like that. Florida’s loss to Kentucky two weeks ago likely derailed the Gators’ road to the SEC Championship game. And, though Gators fans hate to hear it, the Georgia Bulldogs are damn good this season -- likely better than anyone anticipated.
But for most, a win over the Dawgs would help chalk this season up as a success. But the Gators can’t sleepwalk their way through the first half like they did against Vanderbilt if they want to win the Cocktail Party.
And correcting that starts this weekend in Baton Rouge.
Noon kickoffs (11 a.m. local time in Louisiana) are hard enough as it is. Which is what makes the fact that Dameon Pierce was shocked to learn the game kicked off at noon, and not 7:30 p.m., on Monday a little concerning.
Mullen better hope that Pierce and the rest of his roster is awake and ready to roll on Saturday.
Florida Gators fans want to see the Dan Mullen from halftime last Saturday stick around
Dan Mullen wasn’t his cheerful self last Saturday.
If one was playing a drinking game that required them to drink everytime Mullen ripped his headset off, one would be very drunk by the end of Saturday’s game.
And though the fact that Mullen was having to rip into players and assistant coaches isn’t typically a good sign, Florida Gators fans ate it up.
Mullen’s very brief halftime interview with SEC Network sideline reporter Taylor Davis went viral after Mullen offered just four words to Davis.
Following the game, Mullen wanted to be sure he didn’t offend Davis and also mentioned he used more than four words when addressing the team in the locker room at halftime.
“I probably said some more words in the locker room,” Mullen said in his postgame presser.
Whatever words Mullen used during halftime seemed to have helped juice up the Gators, who performed considerably better in the second half against Vanderbilt.
Following Florida’s loss to Kentucky, Mullen was criticized for not holding himself and others accountable.
Needless to say, fans were pleased to see Mullen go nuclear on defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, as well as be painfully honest when addressing his quarterbacks’ first-half performance last Saturday.
Florida Gators fans want to see shoes stay on feet
While yes, fans especially want to see shoes stay on everyone’s feet on Saturday after last year’s incident, this is code for cleaning up the penalties.
Fortunately, the Gators haven’t committed penalties nearly as embarrassing as Marco Wilson’s shoe throw from last year, there’s been no shortage of dirty laundry on the field.
In the Gators’ loss to Kentucky, Florida racked up 15 penalties for a loss of 115 yards. Of the Gators’ 15 penalties, eight came due to false starts as Emory Jones and the Florida offensive line struggled with the snap count in a rambunctious Kroger Field.
And if they thought Kentucky was loud, they’ve likely got a surprise coming on Saturday when they travel to Tiger Stadium in Death Valley. The fact that LSU has been off to a turbulent start and the game is at noon should be in the Gators’ favor.
But it’ll still be loud.
"It was a loud environment up there at Kentucky,” Mullen said. “I always know Death Valley is going to be a pound place. Anytime you go there it’s a wild, crazy environment.”
Mullen was asked this week about working on the snap count and the quarterback’s cadence. And while he didn’t offer much, it oughtta be reassuring for Gators’ fans that it’s being addressed.
When Emory Jones was asked the same question, he told reporters that he and the offense would likely stick with the same regime, but really dial in on the focus involved pre-snap.
“We're probably going to stick with what we've been doing every game," Jones said.
"Just the level of focus that is needed this week, knowing what happened last game we played in a hostile environment, it's mainly just the focus and the discipline in making sure we're just locked in every single play because we have to be. That's for all 11 guys on the offense. Really on the whole team, but I mean in the sense of the snap count and stuff like that we're probably going to do the same thing, it's just a point of just being focused and disciplined."
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