Carter: Gators Continue to Search for Ways to Get Over Hump This Season and Beyond
Saturday, November 12, 2011 | Football, Scott Carter
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The questions all seem to sound the same. So do many of the answers. It's like the official Groundhog Day of the sports world when a team goes through a stretch like the Gators are currently experiencing.
When a team is going badly and some of the same issues from the previous game rear their ugly head in the next game, people want answers and they want them now. Fans vent. Players strap on their headphones. Coaches watch more and more film searching for clues that maybe they missed.
The questions fly anyway. How frustrating are the fumbles? Why are the receivers not getting open? Why can't you score touchdowns in the red zone? What about those same penalties that keep creeping up?
It's a tricky cat-and-mouse game between the player or coach and those asking questions. If you say too much, it sounds like you are making excuses. If you say too little, it can be interpreted as if you might not have an answer. If you answer too directly, some might consider it throwing a coach or teammate under the bus.
The game goes on that way until the tide turns. It's been that way for the Gators after three of their last four games.
The Gators were right there again on Saturday against the old ball coach, playing well enough to make it a game but not well enough to avoid a 3-5 finish in the SEC, the Gators' first losing conference record since 1986.
This time they lost 17-12 to No. 15 South Carolina. The Gamecocks made just a few more plays than the Gators and that proved the ultimate difference. Florida's 17-6 loss at Auburn last month had the same feel. So did the Gators' 24-20 setback to Georgia.
And Saturday played out much the same way for the Gators.
What if they had not made a costly penalty – i.e. defensive tackle Dominique Easley's off-sides flag on a critical third down Saturday? Or what if they had scored a touchdown instead of a field goal? That happened twice. Or what if they had not changed a play at the line of scrimmage that turned into a busted play on a crucial drive? That happened too on Saturday when fifth-year senior quarterback John Brantley changed a running play to the right side originally called for the left.
Chris Rainey didn't get the memo, hence Brantley taking a 6-yard loss to derail a drive that started with Rainey picking up 23 yards on three consecutive runs.
It was not a single player who made the most costly mistake or biggest blunder. No, just a collective effort that fell short of a win.
“We left a lot of opportunities out there,'' Brantley said. “We've just got to be able to finish. That's been our problem. In these next two games, we've got to finish and end the season strong.''
The losses are beginning to take their toll. At 5-5, the Gators still need a win in their final two games to become bowl eligible. They close the season with back-to-back home games against Furman and Florida State.
The Gators resembled a team that needed a kiss on the cheek as they walked off the field Saturday.
Easley was one of the last players to walk toward the locker room, a distant look on his face. Gators offensive lineman Xavier Nixon, who had a critical penalty inside the red zone, waited for his teammate.
Nixon gave him a hug and patted Easley on the head as they left the field.
Rainey later expressed his frustration in the way his senior season has gone.
“It's killing me. You're just right there and you've got to finish a little more,'' said Rainey, who returned from an ankle injury that sidelined him the previous game to rush for a game-high 132 yards. “I believe we should have won this game – definitely.''
Asked the same about Auburn and Georgia, Rainey said he felt the same then, too.
The Gators are not used to having as many losses as wins 10 games into a season. It's uncharted territory over the last two decades. But for now it's the harsh reality they face in a transition year from one coach to another, from one offensive system to another, from one defensive style to another.
They continued to talk about sticking together and making the best of a tough situation after Saturday's loss, their fifth in the past six games.
“We've just got to have better discipline out there and make the plays that have got to be made,'' said tight end Jordan Reed. “We're thirsty and we're a young team and we're going to bounce back. There's a fighting spirit. We are just going to keep working hard every day and hopefully it gets better.''
With only two games left in his first season as Florida's coach, Will Muschamp plans to roll up his sleeves even higher if that's what it takes. That's the only way to approach it from where he sits.
“Three ballgames and we have had our opportunities,'' he said. “It comes back to turnovers, critical errors, and you've got to make plays. We have to execute in those situations, and that comes back on me.''
It also comes back to the team Muschamp inherited. It's something he'll never say publicly, but this team lacks depth and talent in ways not many Florida teams have over the past 20 years. Despite all those questions searching for answers, the players refuse to say that this year's Gators team is not as talented as those of the past – nor should they.
The problem is depth.
“We've got good talent we don't have enough numbers,'' Muschamp said.
That is an area that Muschamp and his staff are working on. For now, they'll have to play that cat-and-mouse game, refusing to point fingers as they look for a way to get over that prickly hump they have been unable to cross with much success of late.
