As I was walking out of the stadium after the 33-29 loss to LSU last Saturday, I heard a man behind me say “It can’t get any worse than this - a home loss to a team that almost lost to a bad Tennessee team.”  Well Gatorfans, it just got worse.  Behind an horrible offensive display and a mediocre defense last night, UF managed to lose to a Mississippi State team that was basically average. We’ve had some injuries, but didn’t we have 3 seasons of top five recruiting classes? Did we not just have the number #1 recruiting class in the nation?  How complicated is our offense that Mack Brown could not just run? It could not be worse that our running game is right now. Can we get a toss sweep maybe?

At times it looked like Miss St. was not trying to win, but trying not to lose. 29 of 30 plays in the second half were running plays. 92% of MSU total plays in the game were running plays.  Yet the Gator defense could not get them off the field. I am not blaming the defense, its hard to be ready play after play when your offense goes three and out 50% of the time. It was ugly to watch.  I am embarassed for our guys.

Its all inside the numbers, and its not pretty. Urban Meyer and the Gators managed to do something that has not been done in a while, 21 years to be exact – they lost a homecoming game. UF had not lost three straight since Emmitt Smith was running around here in 1988.  Ron Zook never lost three in a row and if memory serves, didn’t we fire him after a bad loss? Wasn’t that loss to Mississippi State?  I am not even close to suggesting we scrap any of the coaches, I just saying it should be a chinese fire drill in the south end zone this Sunday morning with the team.

Today is a new day, you will see in about an hour when the new polls come out that your Gators will be unranked, 4-3, 2-3 in the SEC, and looking at the Georgia Bulldogs in two weeks.  Not a very good view.  BUT – If the Gators (yes, the SAME ones from last night) win out against Georgia, South Carolina, and Vandy, the Gators will be in the Georgia Dome in December.

Meyer and his coaching staff have two weeks to retool an offense that looked lost most of last night.  It could be the perfect time to insert Trey Burton at QB and call a close to the John Brantly experiment.  This style of offense seems to work better with a mobile QB and looked much more fluid last night when Burton was running the offense. This reminds me of the same conversation that took place in 2005 when it was stated that Chris Leak would not be able to run this offense.  I know this, after watching our Gators the last three weeks, I have a brand new appreciation for what Leak was able to accomplish.

Lets hope this team figures it out quick.  If not, we will be playing a bowl game in late December with a 6-6 record somewhere in Shreveport, La.  If that’s all we are capable of this year I would be dissapointed, but I would be in Shreveport with my Gators.