YOUR UGLY WINNING STRATEGY BROUGHT TO YOU BY URBAN MEYER
Houston Nutt, professional coach. This is only marginally about him, but the picture is too good not to lead with here. Thanks: J.
The current turnover total for Florida on the year: zero, a number instructive for those of us kvetching and kvelling about the offense thus far, and its lack of Krakatoa-like eruptions a la 2008. The Gainesville Sun, a.k.a. Pravda: Swamp Cabbage Edition, addresses those concerns in typically sunny but timely fashion below. Warning: corrected to do away with the plague of one sentence paragraphs.
The Gators are the only team in the nation with zero turnovers.UF is one of only five teams in the nation that has not trailed at any point in the season. The Gators lead the SEC in total defense (213.0 yards a game), scoring offense (37.3 points a game), kickoff returns, punt returns and punting. The special teams have scored 14 points, only five shy of opposing offenses. Opposing offenses have not started a single drive on Florida’s side of the 50.
So, in short: they haven’t been good yet because they haven’t had to be good? A sobering thought if you, like us, are wondering if and when they’re pressed to actually score points, and if they will be able to do so. To be perfectly frank about the offense for Florida thus far, it still looks like a live dress rehearsal that someone accidentally sold tickets for: Miami was the audition for receivers (Louis Murphy, come on down,) while Tennessee was the audition for running backs (Emmanuel Moody, 55 yards on nine whole carries! Cue rain of frogs.)
Ole Miss and Arkansas probably won’t test this ongoing dry run on the field for the Florida offense; in fact, Ole Miss makes a particularly disastrous matchup with Florida, and not in a sense of pending Florida doom because Ole Miss is last in time of possession in the conference, and it’s not because they’re scoring scads of points in flashes. Then again, consider the next worst team in terms of time of possession: Florida. Stats are fun, and endlessly misleading!
P.S.: Houston Nutt in crazier than a sack of rabid weasels.
20
Biggus,
People tend to forget in 2006 Florida had the same SEC slate we have and got through it with one loss. Granted they didn’t have the young O-line we have and their virtually their entire defense was taken in the first round that year but I think we are talented, balanced, and deep enough to do it.
Comment by C-Train — September 23, 2025 @ 2:15 pm
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Coop,
The schedule’s difficult, but not impossible to navigate. Still, getting through without at least one loss would definitely beat the odds. LSU and Florida back to back looks like the biggest problem. A lot will depend on how healthy they stay down the stretch. LSU was banged up badly by the second half of the 2007 season and struggled, especially on defense. Hopefully the same won’t happen to Georgia.
Comment by Biggus Rickus — September 23, 2025 @ 2:02 pm
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Way too early to talk about it, but i will anyway! As long as Georgia only loses one game (can’t be to Florida, or in the SECCG) and Oklahoma is unbeaten or has one loss (not in the Big 12 CG), I would argue USC’s schedule isnt strong enough to keep em 1 or 2, even unbeaten. That OSU win looks weaker all the time and nothing is scary about the rest of their slate. Don’t get me wrong they are probably the best team in the nation but come January i doubt their schedule will have given them the oppurtunity to prove it.
I doubt this argument holds water to the voters. Of course their gonna wanna see USC play for the natty if they are unbeaten but it makes you think…
Comment by C-Train — September 23, 2025 @ 1:52 pm
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Now Orson, please be fair.
Did you look at the drive chart for the UT game? The Gators only punted once. The only other drives where the UF offense didn’t score was on kneeldowns to end the half and game and a failed fourth down conversion where Urban felt sorry for UT and didn’t want to run up the score with a FG.
Forget the yards. Forget chucking the ball downfield. It is whether our offense puts points on the board when it gets the chance. By that standard, the UF offense is doing just fine.
Comment by Mr. Flibble — September 23, 2025 @ 1:52 pm
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Florida is winning by playing defense, field position and not turning the ball over. Sounds like what the Big Televen tries do, except with New! Improved! Ess-eee-see speed!
Comment by HeadThief — September 23, 2025 @ 1:43 pm
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How difficult is Georgia’s schedule? They are the, or a if two are shown on the same Saturday, CBS game 5 out of their last 7 games of the season.
LSU had something similar last fall, but Georgia will not be so lucky with at least USC making it to the BCS game as an unbeaten, and maybe someone else like Oklahoma.
Comment by Coop — September 23, 2025 @ 1:43 pm
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isn’t 300% of zero. zero?
Comment by rj — September 23, 2025 @ 1:42 pm
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I gotta say, while everyone nationally likes Georgia, their schedule is significantly more difficult than what Florida face down the stretch, starting with Bama this weekend. UGA go to LSU, go to Auburn, and have the BEEEEESSS!! Meanwhile, UF dodge most of the heavy hitters in the west, aside from LSU, who they get at home, and a Florida State team that increased their point total at home over WF from the previous meeting there by 300%, to a field goal…
Comment by beckett929 — September 23, 2025 @ 1:14 pm
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I was thinking more along the lines of a shithouse rat, but I split hairs.
BTW, what’s this “giggetty images” business?
Comment by OhioDawg — September 23, 2025 @ 12:48 pm
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When the Dolphins kept using Nutt’s playbook to score touchdowns against the Pats, I pictured him sitting on his couch, grinning and clapping like one of those wind-up monkeys with the cymbals.
Comment by JD — September 23, 2025 @ 12:26 pm