Will Muschamp (left) was left looking for answers in the loss to Alabama. (Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports)
When the season started, Florida fans were ready to put last season’s 4-8 record behind them. They wanted to believe it was just a bump in the road and not the precursor to a bigger problem.
Losing the final seven games of the 2013 season was bad, but that one of those losses came to Georgia Southern was even worse. It was embarrassing. Did the 2013 season put Will Muschamp on the hot seat? Well, yes, but with an asterisk. The UF supporters decided to write the season off to key injuries and chose not to put the blame on Muschamp.
The 2014 season started optimistically. Key injured players, including quarterback Jeff Driskel, were back. This was to be the year the Gators were going to challenge for the East Division championship and possibly beyond.
In the opening game against Idaho, the Gators returned the opening kickoff before lightning forced the game to be postponed. That should have sent up a red flag. That was forgotten when the Gators actually played their opening game and hung a 65-0 win on Eastern Michigan. But then Florida struggled against Kentucky, squeaking out a triple-overtime win. Muschamp’s support took a hit, but it could have been made up with a win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
If you had known that Alabama would turn the ball over four times and commit 11 penalties you would have thought things would have been golden for Florida and Muschamp.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
The game was a disaster. Driskel only completed nine passes for 93 yards. The Florida defense, which was supposed to be the Gators’ strength, gave up 672 yards of total offense. No Florida team ever gave up more yardage in a single game. The secondary was shredded by quarterback Blake Sims, who threw for 335 yards in the first half alone and 449 yards in the game.
“When your receivers are that wide open” Sims said, “any quarterback can make those throws.”
So in 60 minutes Muschamp went back to his uncomfortable place on the hot seat with the Florida fans.
“We need to stay the course right now,” Muschamp said. “That’s a good football team, but we have a good football team, too. As the game wore on, we just wore down.”
Florida fans are not convinced about staying the course. They are not happy with where that course has led them.
“We didn’t make the plays when they were there, and they did,” Driskel said.
So will the disaster in Tuscaloosa lead to changes in personnel for the Gators. According to Muschamp there will be no change at quarterback. But is there anybody on campus that is better? Muschamp obviously doesn’t think so.
“Jeff gives us the best opportunity to win right now,” Muschamp insisted.
“It has nothing to do with schemes we haven’t seen,’’ Driskel said. “We didn’t make the plays when they were there and they did. At the end of the day we didn’t play well enough to win against a good team.”
Florida has this week to lick its wounds and get things straightened out before playing at Tennessee on the first Saturday of October.
“The meat of our schedule is coming up,” Muschamp told Gatorzone.com “Obviously [Alabama] was a game we really pointed to and we felt good about going in. We’ve got to execute better offensively, play better on defense, coach better as a football team.
“Everything is still in front of us as far as the SEC East is concerned. We’ve got a good football team. We didn’t play that way Saturday. We need to coach better, play better, and we will.
“We gave up too many plays defensively, and didn’t make them earn it,” Muschamp said. “It comes down to the fact we couldn’t get off the field defensively on third down. Too many big plays, too many explosive plays given up. Offensively, we can’t stay on the field and maintain drives. We’ve just got to find ways to be more efficient offensively, and defensively, we’ve got to get some things fixed, especially on the back end.”
With Tennessee ahead, Muschamp knows it is important for the Gators to get back on the winning track.
“We’re going back to training camp-like practices,’’ Muschamp said. “We’ve just got to evaluate where we are. Are we doing too much defensively? You can’t bust a coverage and let Amari Cooper run down the middle of the field. That can’t happen. That’s on me as a coach. In that situation, are you asking your players to do too much?
“We’ve got to get those things corrected.”
Florida needs a win to stay relevant in the SEC East race. But it may be even be more important to win back the Florida fans and turn the heat down on the seat Muschamp finds himself on currently.
