Urban Meyer said in a press conference Monday that Offensive Coordinator Steve Addazio will be counted on to call offensive plays for the foreseeable future. Meyer responded to calls that he will release Addazio of either his play calling duties or his position on the coaching staff as “I don’t think that will happen,” Meyer said. “I’m not into blame, I’m not into excuses. We’re into solutions.”  Addazio has been calling the plays for the Gator Offense since Dan Mullen left to become head coach at Mississippi State in December 2008.  Although the wins still came in 2009, the offensive production has dipped a bit.  Gator fans have let out an exhaustive moan and a very audible level of boos over the past two months with the lack of production by the Gator Offense.  There were several times Saturday night the boos in the stadium were audible on national TV.

Close your eyes. C’mon, close them.  Twelve months ago, the Gator Football team was ranked #1, Just finished beating South Carolina in Columbia, 24-14, coasting to the SEC Championship Game.  Ok, Open them; that dream is long gone….

Quite a lot has happened since then.

We lost in the SEC Championship Game to eventual National Champion Alabama, then steamrolled Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl.  Oh, don’t forget we had our head coach resign, recant, relax, refocus, and restart his job.  We lost 11 players that would be drafted or play in the NFL this year from last year’s team.  Why do I point all of this out to you?

Because I cannot stand what I am hearing from the Gator fans right now. Yes, 6-4 IS uncharted territory for an Urban Meyer coached team.  Yes, three home losses has not been accomplished by a UF Football team since 1986.  Yes, it is also true that South Carolina was 0-12 in Gainesville coming into the game.  Yes,  it is only the second time where we controlled our own destiny to get back to Atlanta and lost (see Tennessee 2001 loss). Yes its heartbreaking.

Now the truth.  46% of our football team is Freshman or Sophomore (for you people who still need clarification, that’s young men that are 17, 18, and 19 years old).  It will take time for them to gel and play against top level caliber teams in the SEC. Playing now only makes them stronger for next year. We are only about two plays from being 8-2 (losses to Ala and USC only.) It could be worse, You could be a Texas Longhorn fan.They are 4-5 and just lost their 4th home game in a row. Didn’t they play in the national championship game last year?

In regards to John Brantley, I believe the coaches are giving Brantley every opportunity to make the most out of the season because he watched behind Tebow for two years and they owe it to him to try and make it work.  Meyer has said repeatedly that he gives UF the best chance to win.  I promise you, it would have been worse with Burton and Reed at QB Saturday night because of their limited understanding of the offense. I also agree it could not have gotten much worse Saturday night.  If we were 8-2 and going to Atlanta, I bet the grumblings would be plenty, but the kid would not be getting booed at home in The Swamp. 

All is not lost, we still have a couple of games to play and maybe the “go as hard as you can for 4-6 seconds pregame speech” should be replaced with ” play hard for your teammates and have fun.”  FSU looms on the horizon and will be a testament to the soul of this team to see how we finish this season. 

After all the pain, all the booing, all the losses - show me your character gator fans.  Maybe the team will now play better because the pressure of a championship is long gone, I don’t know.  What I do know is that we set a very poor example when we boo our players at home on national TV. I was embarrassed for our players and coaches.  Ronald Powell, Sharif Floyd, Mack Brown – they all came to win championships.  Give them time – they will.

One side note:  Whether all the booing was directed at Addazio or Brantley, the Gator run defense or the USC flagman in the south endzone, all gator fans need to be careful and remember 2002 to 2004.  Remember the 8-5 seasons that we were subjected to under Ron Zook.  Remember 2001 that when we went 10-2 and lost to Tennessee in The Swamp 34-2-32, we booed the Gators and ultimately cost us a really good coach(see Visor). It came out later that the boos that night sparked a sentiment in him that we were all too spoiled and forgot we came from, like the  0-10-1 season in 1979, to cheating in 1984 by Charlie Pell and in 1989 by Galen Hall.(asterisk here for Coach Hall- I still don’t agree the penalty fit the crime – It was Jarvis Williams and helping him with a child support payment, not buying him an escalade)

Team also means is 12th man. That’s us; All kinds of weather we’ll all stick together” right?

Show our boys that we accept them and will cheer for them no matter what. Go Gators.

He squatted holding his helmet in his hand with :04 seconds left after missing a FG that would tie the game at 10 -10 in the swamp two weeks ago.  Since that time Chas Henry has worked in practice on his form and strength, ready for the call that could put him in position to win a game for the Gators -Saturday night in Jacksonville he got his chance.  After a near touchdown on an interception by safety Will Hill, Henry nailed a 37-yard field goal to give the Gators a hard fought 34-31 victory.

The game was thrilling from the beginning with a pick by Janoris Jenkins on the first play of the game.  Florida and UGA traded blows for most of the first half with a surprise performance from a #3 we have not seen in the last 5 games.  Chris Rainey scored the first TD of the game with a 19 yard hand off he took from John Brantley and ran up the middle to get Florida on the board.  He finished the day with 84 yards on the ground, to go with his 2 receptions for 9 yards.  Rainey said in the post game interview that he “felt like he owed it to his teammates to go out and play well.”  Rainey seems to have put his off the field problems to rest by doing what the coaches wanted him to do and staying true to his contract set out by Urban Meyer and the administration following a reduced stalking charge that netted him a fine and community service.

The SEC race just got more interesting with South Carolina and the Gators both victorious on Saturday.  They will meet for the SEC East Championship n the swamp November 13th.  UF has a date with Vandy next Saturday and barring a complete collapse, should show up for the S. Carolina game 6-3, with only a victory to get back to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. 

 I know the last two weeks have put a sour taste in our mouths.  The collective groan we all had two weeks ago was replaced tonight by a vindication of sorts by Chas Henry, Chris Rainey, and a Gator defense that had trouble stopping Mississippi State.  We all feel a little better about our football team - the good and the bad of it all.  The good being the direct strike hitches that Brantley was zoning in on in the second half; the bad being the up the middle zone read that was netting us about 2.5 yards a carry.

We have a lot of work to do, but Gatorsportsnation feels a lot better about where we are going to be as a team.  We still have a Championship to fight for.  We still have a season to fight for; and I certainly liked the fight I saw from our Gators.

….and I love beating Georgia.

(AP Photo/Stephen Morton)

About 10:49 Saturday night, all seemed to be well in the Swamp, Frankie Hammond had just caught a 2-point conversion to put Florida up by three with 3:29 left to go in the 4th quarter.  The defense bent a bit and let a third-down conversion get away from us, but the D finally stood tall and held to force a fouth down.  After setting up for the field goal, LSU called timeout.  I knew it, you probably knew it, Urban Meyer should have known it, the Mad Hatter was up to something.  All the fourth downs LSU converted in 2007 against us would tell you history was about to repeat itself.  The guy sitting next to me actually sad it out loud,”LSU is about to fake this field goal.”

Well, fast forward to the try and of course – a fake.  I was one of the few who thought it was at worst a forward pass. It was close; very close bounce. The replay officials have a difficult job, but couldn’t we have just a bit of luck being we were in the Swamp?  The same feeling you had watching the end of the 2007 game came rushing back.  I sat there thinking that Urban should go back to being special teams coach.  After watching Julio Jones return that kickoff for 47 yards, now this 4th down conversion, Urban may be doing this now. 

Three plays later, Tolliver was holding a TD pass from Lee and the Swamp was silent. The bounce heard ’round the SEC had the Mad Hatter smiling again – and maybe coaching for another year.