Coordinators

Anyone notice that Mullen's new offense scored twice as many points as ours against LSU? Here's a nice love letter to UF's current best coach. The Spurrier and Miles quotes:

"I told Urban Meyer this summer that Charlie is a better coordinator than he was three years ago," said Steve Spurrier, who was Strong's boss from 1991-94. "He said, 'You're right.' ... They seem to know what the other team is doing all of the time.

"Charlie, like all good coaches, if there is a better way to do something, he looks for it."

In a lot of ways it's a perfect storm, Strong evolving constantly and having all of the checkers to line up in whatever defense makes sense.

"The way he attacks you," said LSU coach Les Miles, "he's constantly stirring the pot looking to be better."

OH MY!!! The Pat Dooley Show With The Voice Of The Gators

Some good observations here by Mick which include the differences in interviewing the various UF coaches, calling games in different venues, and the origins of "OH MY!"

(Sorry, I've had trouble embedding these videos.)

Dr. Saturday On Similarities Between '09 Arkansas and '08 Ole Miss

I had also called '09 Arkansas the most likely candidate for our annual SEC West upset. One big difference that should be added to this scenario is that Ole Miss played a close game with the Gators in '07, whereas Florida at Arkansas last year wasn't close (though it was for awhile).

From here:

• Arkansas at Florida.
Arkansas was already designated the Official "Trap" Game of Florida's mythical championship run, a status the Razorbacks solidified by hanging unbeaten Auburn out to dry last week, 44-23. With that score, the 'Hogs have put up 40-plus as underdogs against Georgia, Texas A&M and Auburn in a four-week span, and continue to look alarmingly like the Ole Miss outfit that upset Florida at home last year. The scenarios are a little eerie:

• Florida is coming off a big road win. (Over Tennessee in '08; over LSU in '09).
• Ole Miss, while not hyped at all coming into the season, returned four starting offensive linemen, a deep set of maturing receivers with a lot of catches to their name and eight starters on defense from 2007. Arkansas, with only slightly more respect coming into this season, returned three offensive linemen, a deep set of maturing receivers with a lot of catches to their name and nine starters on defense. from 2008
• Both teams have revamped offenses built around a big, hyped slinger who transferred from his original destination. (Jevan Snead in '08; Ryan Mallett in '09)
• Ole Miss consistently hit Tim Tebow with one of the best rushers in the SEC, Greg Hardy, who had two sacks and made the cover of Sports Illustrated on another hurry. Arkansas has one of the best pass rushers in the SEC in Malcolm Sheppard, who already has three sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss despite drawing more attention following his All-SEC breakout as a junior.

Still, Ole Miss needed three Gator fumbles and a missed extra point to pull out an improbable win then. Even if Arkansas gets that kind of fortune, the otherwise high-flying Razorback offense was tied up in a burlap sack and beaten within in an inch of its life in a 35-7 loss at Alabama, and the only defense on par with 'Bama's at the moment is the one the 'Hogs get here Saturday.

(Dr. Saturday predicted a 38-18 Florida win over Arkansas.)

S.B. and Football (hint: it's not "Super Bowl")

Interesting overlap, but a different appraisal on the benefits of SB. Check this Meyer quote against the Shannon video below:

Meyer said he made the mistake early in his coaching career at Florida by not having injured players attend meetings during the season. Naturally, the danger in that is having players fall even further behind in the playbook.

Now, Meyer makes it mandatory for players like Patchan (knee), Andre Debose (hamstring), Jeremy Brown (back) and Carl Moore (back) to attend meetings and to be around the team as much as possible, so when they return they’ll be ready to play.

“The worst thing that can happen to a football player is he sits home and watches TV or ‘Sponge Bob’ or whatever the heck those kids watch,” Meyer said.

Pick 6: Week 4 (Arkansas)

Week 3 (LSU) Results:

Touches: Demps
Yards: Demps & Hernandez
Receptions: Hernandez
TDs: Cooper
Margin: 10

Mary: 9 (2 Defensive Points for Spikes' 2.5 sacks and 11 tackles)
Sean: 9 (2 Def. pts. for Haden's int.-- I picked Haden twice.)
Galapagos: 7 (2 Def. pts. for Spikes' output listed above)

Totals:

Mary: 19
Sean: 15
Galapagos: 11
Brad: 9
Michael: 4
John: 4
Mark: 1

Note:

I've tweaked the defensive scoring on sacks. Instead of 2 sacks equaling 1 point, 1.5 sacks now equal 1 point.

Here is the defensive scoring (you make 2 defensive picks like you do for the other categories):

8 Tackles (solo and assisted)= 1 Point
1.5 Sacks= 1 Point
1 Interception= 1 Point
1 Score (TD or safety)= 1 Point

And here are the other categories:

Yards from Scrimmage
Touches from Scrimmage (runs + receptions + passes)
Receptions
TDs (including returns/blocks)
Point Margin (list one guess--earn 2 points for being within 3, 1 point for being within 6)
(No QBs)

Stats

You can use the comments section on this post to make your picks for the Arkansas game.

Play On!

Is this really the offense?

Apparently so.