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| Gators in the Gator Bowl. Hmph. |
Both Florida and Ohio State did not have the season that either fan bases expected from their team. Will Muschamp and Luke Fickell were both first year head coaches. What do Florida fans think of the 2011 season overall?
In general, Gator Nation's pretty disappointed. Florida's 6-6 record is lower than it ever was, even under Ron Zook, and those years had more exciting offenses and more promise burbling than this year seemed to have.
The Gator Bowl has been called "The Urban Meyer Bowl" for obvious reasons. How do Florida fans feel about Meyer coming out of retirement to coach the Buckeyes, instead of the Gators?
No one has renamed the Gator Bowl but TaxSlayer.com, I think, but Florida fans are in one of two camps on Meyer: Either they have come to terms with him being a mercenary and resigned themselves to wishing him well, or they have taken his decision to coach Ohio State as a defection and branded him a traitor and a liar. I'm more in the first camp than the second.
Who are the top playmakers to watch on offense and defense this coming Monday?
I think Florida's best offensive player is Andre Debose, a fleet, athletic wideout who has come into his own in 2011, especially in the latter parts of the year. He still doesn't run much other than deep routes, but he has been devastating on them at times. On defense, Florida's best playmaker, defensive tackle Dominique Easley, is out, leaving De'Ante Saunders, a freshman safety with superb instincts, as the defender most likely to make a big play.
Do you personally think that Florida's 6-6 season is on Urban Meyer's roster that he left behind? Is it really that "bad"?
The roster he left behind is not "bad" - the defensive talent was sufficient material for Muschamp to cobble into a top-20 unit - but is not particularly great, either. Maybe the worst sin Meyer committed was recruiting players that could fit his system and few others; he left Muschamp with more than a few pieces of clay that had already started hardening. Meyer's recruiting isn't the only reason Florida struggled in 2011, not by any metric, but it's definitely a contributing factor.
Both Ohio State's offense and Florida's offense are among the worst in the nation. The Gators rank 102nd and the Buckeyes at 107th. In your opinion, will this be a high or low scoring game?
If either team scores more than 30 points, something has likely gone terribly, terribly wrong.
What are your thoughts on Braxton Miller?
I am frightened by Braxton Miller. Florida hasn't faced a run-first mobile quarterback this year (Jordan Jefferson doesn't quite count, though Connor Shaw and Jordan Rodgers gave the Gators fits), and had serious problems containing an option attack against Furman, an FCS team; Miller alone might be more talented than the entirety of Furman's offense.
What was the Gators most disappointing aspect of the 2011 season?
Florida's young offensive line made great strides toward being shelved next to the sieves in your local department store, so I'll go with that.
Who do you think wins the Gator Bowl and why?
I think Florida wins, mostly because I think Muschamp's defense is finally getting both hungry and proficient at the same time. But nothing beyond either team scoring a lot of points would surprise me.
