Acantha

2nd pre-season game told us all we needed to know last year. And the year before. And before that...

Florida Gators Realistic Ceiling: 10-2, BCS birth With a new, well, everything in Gator country this year it's difficult to pin down expectations. There's a lot of "ifs" and "on paper" type quotes floating around, and that's always scary. My write-up pretty much reflects that with the same areas showing up on both sides of the line. Why They Will: 1. Talent Well...sort of. They have a lot of young talent and some solid returning vets, but they were brought in for a different kind of system (but more on that later, for now I'll just focus on talent alone). Meyer's last recruiting year was insane, especially on the defense. The whole team still has a lot of speed and they've gotten bigger in key areas as well. There also seemed to be an influx of guys capable of playing multiple positions, so there's been some shuffling between linemen, LB's, TE's and FB's. Not that that means much in itself, but it at least makes things interesting. All in all, the talent is there, it just has to be molded. Which leads me to: 2. Coaching They have an all new coaching staff and after the past few years in Gainesville that has to be a good thing. I loved Meyer, but losing Strong and Mullen and replacing them with out of their depth coordinators combined with Meyer deciding to take a hands off approach due to his health led to a disaster last year. Not only did upgrades come, but they came big. Love him or hate him, Charlie Weis has proven to be a success on the offensive side of the ball and was a huge get for Florida. Add to that a DC with a lot of NFL D-line experience and a Head Coach that has had great college success on the defensive side of the ball, and you have a recipe for some excellent coaching. Of course a recipe is one thing and the finished meal is another...but at this point the recipe's all we got to go on. 3. Brantley This could go anywhere (Why they will, why they won't, coaching, talent, etc...) so I'm just throwing it in here. Brantley was a big recruit with serious talent coming out of high school and showed that he could at least make the throws during his cleanup time while Tebow was here, but when his time came to be the man, he fell on his face. It's hard to say if this was the fault of Brantley or an offensive coordinator that was completely lost and given way too much responsibility. It was obvious that Brantley didn't belong in the spread, but either did Leak who made the best of it. I think a lot of blame rests on Brantley's shoulders, but there's enough blame to go around that there is still a lot of hope for him this year. Brantley is the prototypical pro-style QB. He's big, has a strong arm, and can move around the pocket and scramble for first downs when he needs to. If anyone can get him back on track it's Weis, and the new system should fit. It all just depends on how Brantley jumps back from last year. Reports out of spring training have been all over the place and culminated in a poor spring game, so it appears there's still work to be done. Why They Won't: 1. Talent While years of good recruiting leave Mushcamp with a fairly stocked team, he's going into the season with a lot of youth and an entirely new system on both sides of the ball. This team was put together for a spread, and while Weis' pro style offense may be great for Brantley, growing pains for the rest of team are unavoidable. I've also heard that Mushcamp and Quinn want the defense to be a little more hardnosed, not relying quite so much on pure speed; something that will take some time to instill. 2. Coaching There's always going to be a tough transition when you bring in an entirely new coaching staff with new systems. How well this staff can get the team ready to play will be what decides their fate. There's also been some question if Mushcamp is going to be able to handle Weis. My guess is there won't be much drama this year, but that could be story line for the future. 3. Schedule Alabama, Auburn, LSU, South Carolina, Georgia, and the SOW for a team with so many questions likely means bad things. None of these coaches have a recent history with these teams, which means everything is starting from scratch. The staff seems talented enough on paper, but much like the player they are unproven. The SEC is not forgiving, and these coaches have to face the best it has to offer this year. Summary: Tough schedule, all new coaches, young talent in a new system, and coming off a terrible year. The Gators have enough pure talent to win the games they are supposed to and sneak an "upset" in there somewhere, but I don't see them doing anything more than that. I'd expect similar results as last year with 7-8 wins. If they get any more than that, it's going to mean the coaches are better than most Gator fans have dared to vocalize, and it would mean really good things for the future of Gator football. GO GATORS!

Bite your tongue.

Yahoo is becoming known for breaking these big stories. They do some really good investigative journalism over there. I understand that overall, readers demand the type of stuff ESPN puts out (aka crap), but it seems like as big as ESPN is, they could afford to hire some guys to do this kind of in depth stuff too. I have no doubt rules are broken everywhere, but saying that it happens at this level everywhere is hyperbole. I have some "inside knowledge" of a major college program (a very close childhood friend's family are BIG time boosters for the program, and the football team in particular) so I get glimpses, albeit small, of this type of thing. But it never approaches anything like this. Yes, boosters feed kids money and cars, easy "jobs", etc..., but this is beyond anything I've heard about. Are there other schools that do it? I'm sure there are; but saying "all schools" (even taking into account the exageration of "all") just isn't accurate. I also know that there are MANY clean programs out there. I've heard my friends family laughing about how easy it is to steal players from "X" school becuase they refuse to play the game. I know it sounds slimy, but it's the reality out there. I'm also with you in that I believe it should be legal to pay players, though I think it should be in osme controlled manner.

This standard answer of "it happens everywhere, XXXX just got caught" is going a little far in this case. Most schools break the rules, but this is some high level stuff.

Unfortunately true. It was fun being excited about this guy while it lasted.

Worse is that he's rarely seeing a double team. I've seen two things he's really bad at right now: following the play and using his hands...both pretty important parts of his job. He doesn't seem to know how to use his hands to get rid of his blockers at all. He just tries to push with his legs and that's it. The more I watch him, the more I can see him going to the practice squad.

Jasper was in on that last series. Wasn't really moving people too much, and doesn't appear to follow the play very well (got fooled by a play action and lost the runner on another play). As I'm writing this, he walked his Olineman back into the pocket and was rushed the QB a bit....that was the INT play. Based on one drive, I'd say what everyone knows about him is accurate. Big, athletic guy who's a project at this point. Hopefully he can make big strides this pre-season and continue throughout the season.

It's a good thing the starters looked good, cause this drive is depressing.

My God, Maybin is absolutely horrible. He's gone during first cuts.

These announcers are so incredibly bad it's killing me. I know they're kind of supposed to be biased, but this is the most absurdly biased announcing I've ever heard in a pro game. It's like listening to a high school game on the radio in the south.

I think you could fill the Grand Canyon with it.

OLine looking good pass blocking, not quite so good run blocking. Both tackles look like their scared of contact right now though.

Announcers said that it's the kicking teams choice where they kickoff from. Most likely wouldn't ever be the 30 in regular season, but Chicago coaches wanted to see their team in multiple scenarios, so they're going to do it both ways.

Dareus is just huge. Nice to see penetranion from him so early on. Not expecting to see him at NT so much though.

Was I the only one expecting Easly's leg to fly off on that return?

Chicago is my most hated airport. I've never been through there at any time of year or day and NOT been delayed, and usually it's a LONG delay. I haven't been through there in a few years, and I'll pay extra to keep clear.

Not so easy to get to though.

I was married in December and I'll be taking my wife to her first game also. We don't really have a choice, since we'll only be in town for a week, so it's the Eagles game for us. I think it's perfect...NFC team, big game, still early in the season, not too cold. 10 more minutes until tickets are on sale! This will be my first Bills related purchase in about 8 years.

Tech divers can get to 300 easily, and very diver I know would jump at the chance. Don't know anything about the location, but there's gear for everything.

With the addition of Barnett, if Merriman stays fully healthy we have some exciting possibilies from our LB's.

It says it's 300 ft down. I'm suprised they don't have divers coming from all over the place trying to get down there.

Which games aren't we showing up for?

All that, and the Vikings still got the better OT over us that year.