4th & 17!!! | Mertz injured and Florida defense collapses in loss to Mizzou | Postgame Reaction

the Florida Gators lose in heartbreaking fashion up in Colombia this past Saturday today we'll recap the game and preview what the Gators have to do to flip the script and find a way to make a Bull game this is the in all kinds weather [Music] forecast and welcome in to another episode of the in all kinds weather forecast I am your host Chris YZ alongside my co-host today Neil Schulman and we are here in the heart of Gator Nation today is November 19th 2023 headed into Florida State weekend and Thanksgiving weekend but before we get to those festivities we're going to recap Missour today and I'm not going to sugarcoat it guys that's a heartbreaking loss maybe the most heartbreaking loss yet this season Arkansas was tough but this one probably topped it the Gators fall 33 to 31 on a last second Harrison M field goal after the Gators were within seconds of winning the game and clenching bull eligibility for the second time in three weeks the Gators fought very hard in this game there was never a moment where they were really out of it even when they went down nine in the fourth quarter they still found a way to actually take the lead with a little over a minute to go but now the Gators have one game left on the schedule which we'll preview later this week the Florida state seminal who are number four in the country but the Gators almost walked away Saturday with a victory over a top 10 team on the road but the road WS continue Florida now has three consecutive losses and they are looking at potentially another one four consecutive losses I beg your pardon and they are looking at a fifth one next Saturday so Neil it's not great and I know the the tenor of the show probably won't be Co completely positive I do think we should give a lot of praise to these guys for fighting considering everything that's been going on this season the injuries now that are starting to mount up but it it still doesn't take this thing away there are no moral victories in the SEC and in college football yeah I mean I I think for better and For Worse on both the positive and negative side I don't think we learned anything new against Missouri for the most part maybe a couple of small things here and there but I mean look we knew our defense was pitiful we knew our offense would move the ball we knew thatc because we'd heard all the reports from Spring practice and summer ball before if given the chance if he was thrown into the game Max Brown did present a different Dynamic he can run the ball better than Graham merch can um we knew the offensive line was a liability and sure enough it actually I don't think was terrible in terms of block bling but I mean just just a lot of self-inflicted wounds with pre- SNAP penalties um I mean you have a false start and a delay a game back to back just to highlight a game in which we have nine penalties maybe we learn that Max Brown is a little bit better as a thrower than we might have thought um obviously we would not have predicted that merch would get hurt the way he did um shout out by the way to trz Johnson that maybe one of the biggest contributions he's made to Florida um in his college career um but I mean again like everywhere you look everything we saw was something we could have predicted like Prince Ley we know he's talented we know he can do good things we saw him set the edge very nicely on one play and make a big play great like that seriously not sarcastic that was a very nice play that he made watch the game tape more snaps than not when his when his job was to set the edge he did not do it we have seen that happen game after game all year year long and we can go player by player and do that with them um it's not one guy it's the it's almost every single one on the defense you know Jason Marshall at corner again not saying it's all bad not saying every single snap he loses his rep or he doesn't care or he doesn't do his job it's just more than you'd expect from a festar sigy Jaylen Kimber you know I think the kid tries I think he's doing the best he can don't want to make it seem like he isn't trying or doesn't care but he the the ball's deflected it's bobbled in the air he could have made that pick He Didn't Do It um Jayden Hill and the ball that was deflected that was first caught for a touchdown but then the replay showed it hit the ground it could have been picked off um I know Jaden personally I love the guy he's a good dude he's always very kind and respectful to the fans and that means a lot it's it's great to always see him show love to our Gator good foundation recipients he's done that since 2019 so he's essentially an OG with with that didn't make the play keep it respectful but keep it real SEC Defensive back you really want to see him make that play and if he does Florida might win the game um and and you go again every single play it's the same theme you you could have predicted it from watching the previous 10 games Theo whis the long touchdown catch and run um right after the max Brown fumble not hating on Jordan Castell by the way he's a freshman who's put some very good game tape out there earlier in the year taking more his lumps more recently but he's put in a terrible spot there he's an 18-year-old kid that's going to happen but he's put in the spot of do I stay with a receiver or do I go after the rolling out quarterback the reality was he had help from Kelby Collins who' won his rep and was coming in was closing in on Brady cook he should have stayed with whis he should have not abandoned whis and gone after the quarterback cuz the second he hesitated and backed off the receiver wide open and then with just one block whis went the whole way down the S and for a touchdown again young kid Gonna Learn talented I see promise there bad move there cost Florida big touchdown U that might have I mean just contributed as one of the factors that caused Florida the game so I will say I would not have predicted it would have come to a fourth and 17 um I did like what I saw from the defense to force that fourth and 17 but I will also say to lose a game on Fourth and 17 by allowing their best receiver in Luther Burton to just sit there in a team and make the play that's classic that is classic 2020 decade Florida defense Todd Grantham is beaming with pride somewhere you have the single worst performance in school history last week and you follow that up with maybe not no not the worst defensive play in school history run Lindsey run is always going to have that distinction but maybe one of the top 10 worst most embarrassing plays in school history on defense C I mean it has to be I would wager it's one of the top 25 worst defensive plays in school history so at this point it's not even being overly negative or pessimistic it's just me going you know okay this is the game tape that this team has put out there so far these are the statistics they put out so far let's use the recent relevant past to predict the future what do you objectively and truthfully believe is going to happen exactly what happened Florida fought because we knew that the offense would put up points and move the ball and I do appreciate that and it's not lost on me I'm not ignoring that but bottom line we lost the game and we're five and six because our defense found a way to lose good teams find ways to win Games bad teams find ways to lose games Florida had the game all but one but they managed to invent a new way to snatch defeat from the jaws of Victory because they're bad team they fight there's not no positives here it's not everything about this team is terrible terrible and awful and screw everything in the sky is falling but pound-for-pound it's a bad football team and they pretty much cemented that Legacy on Saturday night yeah and I think this team may just very well be what it is look let's think back to before the season Florida was projected to finish fifth in the SEC East they're going to finish fifth in the SEC East their over under Vegas total was five and a half they're sitting right there going into the final week of the season this team has met media expectations of what they would be and certainly we tried and and I think there was a lot of Hope after we hit five- two that Florida was going to be able to exceed that total finish with a winning record in SEC play and and look Neil the reality is Florida at this point in November is a missed field goal and a fourth and 17 away from being seven and4 and yes they could very well have lost the South Carolina game bad tip for Eugene Wilson that's picked off in Florida's 4- seven right now but Florida has put themselves in positions to win games this month where they could have a 7-4 record right now going into a Florida State game now where they're not going to be facing their Star Quarterback so Florida has done things though throughout the year like you mentioned where they just simply aren't making the play when they need to make the play whether that's getting a big game-changing turnover whether that's executing a simple handoff on in near the red zone at the end of the game whether that's making a field goal whether that's not having enough men on the too many men on the field or not enough men on the field for special teams or critical procedural how many procedural penalties do we have last night in in parts where we were had second and mid or second and short or third and short and ends up becoming third and long second and long puts us behind the chains and a lot of those happened after drives where Florida gotta stop on defense and didn't follow it up with a touchdown or a score on offense there were four moments where that happened in this game and I said the key to the game was going to be Florida was going to need to get get three stops on defense and score a touchdown on the ensuing possession 0 for four they only needed one to actually win the game hell they only needed a field goal once to win this game it's frustrating they just they haven't been able to make the plays when they've needed to make them this season and that is why they're sitting right now where they are in the situation at hand is that they may not make a bow game because of their ineptitude to be able to make the big play and I don't know if that's the fact that there's a lot of Youth on this team I don't know if it's that there's not enough Talent on this team I don't know if it's coaching or maybe it's just a combination of all three who knows we will not know really probably until next season when this team is a year older we have another additional recruiting class which right now is tracking between anywhere of a top five to a top 10 class and we return some of the staff most likely for next season we'll find out most the players and but most of the players I mean if you look at right the scholarship chart right now according to 247 Florida only only has five guys that have to move on of their eligibility in college this season and only one of those players is actually a major contributor and that's Rickie Piera so Florida next season is going to be returning the majority of its production they're going to be another year older but what can they do to take the next step because five and six at this point next year is going to be unacceptable it will get this staff fired most likely they're going to have to be going into the FSU game I would think eight and three next year at this point maybe seven and four at worst against a tougher schedule so they're going to have to make strides in order to take the next step and they're gonna have to learn to make the big play when it's needed they done it really NE one time this season and that was against South Carolina they converted the fourth Downs they got a lucky obviously on the tip play one time they haven't done it in a lot of the other close games this year when they've needed to make the plays well there you go so you have you have three flection games right where which we kind of talked about going in when we previewed the schedule didn't we say South Carolina Kentucky Missouri uh were gonna be the big ones and then Arkansas became one of those inflection games we weren't so sure about that at the time but all right I mean the bigger Point here is you have three games where it comes down to one play the team can either find a way to win or find a way to lose well majority wins the majority of the time two out of three I know it's a fairly small sample but you know what in college football where you only have 12 games you're defined by that by those few schedule or quarter your schedule yeah I mean and and again fair or unfair you are defined by how you play when the game is on the line and whether you find ways to win or whether you find ways to lose it is probably I will even go to the length of saying I think it is unfair that it's such a small sample size and such a small margin within that small sample size but the one play if you do nothing but you remove the E either of the Special Teams fups against Arkansas Florida wins that game they're six and five right now and we're probably still pissed or or deflated or you can say beaten into submission or whatever we're still feeling those those same things after the Missouri loss but we're saying you know what we did we did hit the over on our five and a half win total we did make it to a bowl game it's not going to go down in history as a complete and utter failure there were a lot of failures throughout the season but the season itself is not a complete wash it's not a complete failure because we did win two of those three games that we could have either won or lost nope we didn't we lost two of those three and I mean again the the way we lost those two games against Missouri and Arkansas were Florida beating Florida not the other team beating Florida Florida was the one that beat Florida because of dropping the snap on the extra point against Arkansas the Special Teams unit running onto the field when they were offens is trying to clock it special teams lost the game against Utah handing them a free first down by not realizing you can't have two guys with the same jersey number on the field at the same time giving them a free first down they would score a touchdown right after that special teams lost us that game too so 14 point swing in one play that's I mean the final score was 24 to 11 people may not think that was a a coin flip type of game but if you go back and look at it you can say well that that play that sequence turned the game from a coin flip proposition into one that Utah wound up winning by double digits so again all goes back to what I said at the start good teams find ways to win Games bad teams find ways to lose games Florida this year is a bad team we and we've seen it go the other way like 2019 like for for those of you who want to accuse me of being overly negative like 2019 Florida found ways to win games like they probably should not have beaten Miami in Orlando they found a way to win that game they probably should not have beaten South Carolina the way that game was going maybe you could have said that there was a a flag that should have been thrown on a hold on Damien Pierce's long touchdown run well it didn't get called and maybe that was not right but again Florida found ways to come from Bad situations and turn them into wins Auburn ugly game Florida found a way to win it like Michael perine breaking a tackle going 88 yards for a touchdown Florida won that game so and Virginia Orange Bowl Florida did not play well in that game either found a way to win so there you go with another example of four games yeah and you know they lost to an an all-time great team in LSU and a team that maybe wasn't that level but still very talented in Georgia so you can't get too angry about that but there's another situation where all right six inflection point games Florida two out of three they're batting two out of three with winning versus losing those close games do you win or do you lose because of one or two plays types of games so we saw it work out in Florida's favor that year this year is the opposite Florida is actively finding ways to lose games that they should be winning yep and we'll I'm sure talk a lot about how we're going to overcome that in the next year how we can avoid those situations again where we win because look you look at the schedule next year there's probably going to be a lot of inflection point games given who we're going to be playing week in and week out we haven't seen the schedule in its order yet but we're starting to piece it together and Florida's going to have similar situations next year the question is will they be able to overcome the adversity and make those plays to win them you gotta quit quoting must champ man well you know what that quote is gonna live on from an infamy you know what in that game Florida did overcome the adversity on the field by the way we won 4411 against South Carolina so let's not forget that one that's a that'll be a classic and I'll never forget that so and he's right you always got to come the adversity on the field and good teams do that let's let's quickly get talking about this game though a little bit more before we get I think into theat the stats and the the numbers Neil we got to talk about our quarterback shout out to gr Merz for putting his body on the line Saturday he has been the heart and soul of this offense in this team a true leader a year ago almost a year ago 11 months ago when gram Merz made his visit a lot of Gator fans were not happy about it they thought that he was going to be a disaster in Gainesville he was going to be the reason why Florida didn't make a bowl game a lot of people pegged Florida as one of the worst teams in the power rankings they even power ranked our quarterback room as the worst because of him he has been anything but that he is now he threw for over 2900 yards 20 touchdowns three interceptions a 67% completion rate one of the best in school history he he broke timbo's record for consecutive pass attempts without an interception probably a record that's going to hold up for a long time he played his he played his his guts out last night and on that third down play where he looked like he was about to get beat and not get the first down bulldozed went through two tacklers and then uh was able to actually gain even more yardage after the first down and while play later I think the adrenaline finally wor wore off and he realized what had just happened left the game it is confirmed it is a a collar bone injury a fractur collar bone where he will miss the remainder of this season it will be a several months recovery for him if he does indeed decide to come back to gainville and certainly I think Gator fans would welcome that he would be a uh I guess a sixthe senior next year if he were to return to school at Florida I I do you know a I think a lot of people believe he will but that remains to be seen we don't want want to you know put words in his mouth or speculate but if he does he will be the starter next season he will get to Mentor incoming freshman DJ lague which will be a fantastic way to pass the torch from 24 to 25 but what he's meant for this team this year is something that a lot of Gator fans aren't going to forget and I think that it would be really remissive us not to recognize he his efforts this season what he's given to the University of Florida to the Gator football program he is a gator Legend he's a gator Legend and my mind he may never win a championship at Florida but he's going to go down as one of the better quarterbacks at Florida just on a team that just couldn't get the job down on the defensive side of the ball he is gonna go down in history I think very much in the same vein that Kyle tras is GNA go down minus minus two factors obviously one he doesn't have generational Talent like a Kyle piss uh I mean he's got very good help like Ricky peol and etn um and Eugene Wilson are are very good players but I mean they're not Kyle pits they're not cadarius Tony even for that matter um number two is he didn't have to come in in a terrible situation after the starter broke his leg like with Felipe Franks he was just the starter from the Geto and I think I mean a different kind of adversity maybe people didn't expect him to succeed from the start just because they didn't think he was that good versus Kyle tras I think a lot of people thought he was just thrown into a terrible spot and he couldn't possibly succeed because he was thrown to the Wolves right in their den but I mean similar type of quarterback similar guts similar you know toughness and just a a way that they make plays they just make things happen um I mean it maybe not not even always the prettiest I I don't know that he is necessarily the best deep ball quarterback that Florida could have had this year but you know what Florida moves the football with him at the controls he makes good decisions he gets the ball to The Playmakers he's accurate with those swing passes for the most part um you know putting them putting the ball right where it needs to be so that it leads the receivers that they're catching it in stride they don't have to slow up for it they don't have to die for it they can just keep running without even slightly breaking their stride and just keep moving on down the field like that so I mean that's that's kind of an underrated skill for quarterbacks nowadays because it's either you know you have the ball uh or you have the arm strength to throw the ball 75 yards and or throw it right through a brick wall or you can just truck everyone like you know Cam Newton or Tim TBO um but it's not really that talked about that merch can make a lot of the plays with consistency that when you have a Eugene Wilson when you have a Trevor etn when you have a Ricky piol that's all you need to do you don't need to be the Heisman trophy finalist you just need to be the guy that lets your teammates do their jobs he's going to go down in history as that guy yeah he put us in positions to win games like me if you look at it Florida did struggle getting off on offense this season obviously only scoring 11 up in Salt Lake City you know 49 y against an FCS pona but we only scored 29 against Tennessee 22 against Charlotte 14 against Kentucky and from that point on Florida has scored over 30 points in every single outing but Georgia 38 Vandy 41 South Carolina 39 Arkansas 35 LSU and 31 against Missouri those are solid offensive output numbers for scoring and a lot of it is attributed to him being being able to move the ball and get it to his Playmakers peaw Wilson etn Johnson boardingham even for that matter and he's done it with an offensive line that but even before the injuries occurred was not holding up their end for him and protection and I'm honestly shocked that he's made it 11 games without having to miss a game because he was getting absolutely de demolished back there from some gam especially the South Carolina game in in the Georgia game too sacked I think four or five times in that game he was getting pressured and he held up against this offensive line was able to get to the ball get his the ball to the playmakers that needed to make plays and put Florida in positions it's just unfortunate the defense has taken the opposite the defense was playing great they were top five defense at the beginning of this season and the offense was not doing that doing well and then it flipped right around the Vanderbilt game or after the Vanderbilt game then when we played South Carolina since then the defense has has just played awful they've given up at least points in every game since that point and that's why Florida's sitting where they are if they had just played a little bit better they would have won probably two or three more games on the schedule in that span and that's take a quick guess how many since Georgia I just before I forget what do you think the the numbers are for Florida's defense yards per game allowed since the Georgia game it's got to be over 500 oh it's well over 500 like 550 not quite 520 28 and a half that's that's awful that is historically awful again and again 1200 yards in the last two weeks 1210 yards in the last two weeks and let's not forget this too again gonna keep pointing this out the new clock rules in college football mean you get at least two or three fewer possessions per game depending on how quick the offense moves so that would be bad last year where or you know with with the clock rules that were in place before this year where teams would get those extra possessions where the clock would stop after first downs out of you know when players run out of bounds when you would get more possessions with the football per game that would be terrible with those old clock rules now it's just I mean if you don't I don't I don't know how to intellectually honestly discuss this defense without just saying words like terrible or pathetic or pitiful because again you're the product of the sum of your game tape and your statistics yeah it's true and unfortunately the defense has taken away what could be a really great season for GR meritz but we do wanted to shout him out and thank him for everything he's done this year and obviously we would love to have him back next year leading this team and and look I mean look look at the jump I mean it's it's a similar Arc to what happened with you know like Joe burrow had a really solid season coming from Ohio State to LSU made a huge jump in that second year you look at a guy like Bo knck this year solid season last year for Oregon he's the odds on favorite to win the Heisman next year even look at a guy like Kyle tras played really solid off the bench after the injury to Felipe Franks the following year had a Heisman finalist season and I'm not saying that gr mer is gonna be hyp in finalist year don't don't don't don't mix that up we I have no idea but that if he staying in the system one more year because I mean let's be honest I think we'll talk about this more with napor in his offensive scheme the scheme is going to stay relatively the same more than likely as far as the Playbook the concepts the execution of it might change the play calling might change the Personnel us might change with a new offensive coordinator a new play caller but by and large it's going to be the same thing that grey Mar is used to now for a whole year and he's gonna have the entire offseason to work with the go the receivers that are currently on the roster Trey Wilson boardingham you got guys like myel Andy jeene that hopefully step up next year maybe we pull a guy out of the portal will replace Ricky etn in the back field with Johnson as well the the the core of this offense is going to be returning with him and he could make a huge jump next year where Florida right now they're averaging right around 30 points a game if they start averaging let's say 35 points a game and the defense can improve marginally that's when you have the difference of five and six to seven eight wins right now and it's a shame I said going in the season if Florida just had an average defense somewhere in the 60s to 70s they probably would be just fine this season they would make a bowl game right now we're all the way down to 88th now in defense and that's a shame that we've wasted once again another good offensive talent and guys like rookie piol who's 52 yards now short of a thousand yards for the season he should get that against Florida State we'll see but a shame that we're that that Graham uh Graham's effort will go in vain last night because they they came very close to winning that game for him but Graham We Wish You a speedy recovery we thank you all that you've done for Gator nation and obviously we're rooing for you back next season all right well we'll quickly just recap the game here and then we'll get into a couple of key moments for it so the Gators obviously they lose 33-31 on a Harrison meeus field goal the Gators and Missouri basically were even an offensive production Missouri with 508 yards Florida right on the dot of 500 Florida had had one of their best rushing outputs of the season with 261 yards on the ground they averaged 6 and2 yards a rush and this was actually a tag team effort between Montell Johnson and Trevor etn Montell Johnson had his best game of the season I would say 12 carries 85 yards 7.1 averaging on the ground per carry very good effort for him etn solid as always averaging over five yards a carry five and a half to be exact did it with 82 yards on the ground and a touchdown and added a touchdown a receiving touchdown with with a great catch when merch was scrambling out and then went untouch to the end zone both guys played an incredible game piol solid game two catches 72 yards he had a touchdown on the ground on the reverse for 39 yards that put Florida up 2120 right out of halftime Florida the the numbers offensively were solid now of course defensively we all know that was not the case Brady cook 20 of 34 for 331 yards averaging nine almost 10 yards of reception or completion he had a touchdown he did not turn the ball over Cody shrer 23 carries 148 yards and a touchdown he actually had 123 of those yards at halftime so Florida kind of by and large kept him in check in the second half I think it was more of a shootout where the Missouri was kind of forced to throw the ball down the field a little bit more so that that's why the the numbers did drop off for Sher but that is sher's fourth consecutive game of 100 yards or more and I think one of the most impressive things about that stretch he did it against the Georgia Bulldogs one of the few running backs to do that in the Kirby Smart era and in the last few years so he's a special talent for a guy that was playing division two ball and to transfer over to Missouri uh if when if they do make a new year six bowl game he will be pretty much one of the main reasons why Luther Burton easily broke a thousand yards on the season nine catches 158 yards almost coming up with an acrobatic catch that was called back and thankfully was called back especially after the play that was called back against the gator the previous week that was a very obvious Bobble and drop but great game from him and then of course Theo whis only caught the ball one time but that's all he needed for the 77 yard touchdown run that put Missouri up by 30 to 21 before Florida was able to come back and get the game within one and then of course that is where the infamous fourth and 17 happened where Brady cook completed the ball to Luther Burton and it's it's kind of amazing Florida was able to step back into that zone and just let him pick his spot and stand there and catch the ball it is is truly unbelievable because up until that point Florida they have the fumble Missouri scores the next play they're up by nine Florida goes down the field with a back of quarterback and Max Brown who by by the way played very good himself he was four of five 56 yards through the air he added 42 yards on the ground that's something that we're going to talk about in the FSU preview is the fact that brown brings a new wrinkle to bilon aors offense where he's able to do more of those read option RPO Concepts that Merz does not do so that's something Florida state is gonna have to game plan against him for the next game whereas Merz is more of that drawback passer kind of the play action fake complimenting with the Run so this is a new wrinkle that Max Brown brings and he played very well though took Florida down the field multiple times after coming in the game was able to get the one touchdown that Montreal D had scored to put Florida within a few points Florida gets a stop on defense and then they are able to get a field goal the next Drive huge play there you know Unfortunately they I think we'll talk about kind of in the coaching corner here in a second why Billy Napier chose to kick the field goal and not go for the touchdown to maybe could have won the game for the Gators right there but the Gators offensively played great defensively once again Neil the same story as we said as we go through the statistics and we'll go now into we we'll dissect both moments here because we talked about multiple plays that Florida could have made but there were some coaching moments here that Florida also the coaching staff could have helped this team out a little bit more you had the moment before halftime where Florida was in a situation where they could have had two for one they didn't do they did not execute it they were getting ready to actually sit on the ball and run the clock out and if it weren't for Montreal Johnson's first down run to get it out toward Midfield that would have forced Florida to Just Knee it out but they almost then got into field goal range for trace Mack it did not work out because of the grounding penalty to Grant Merz so there's that one and then at the end of the game where Florida you know runs the ball down with brown on a read option we're down in toward the Red Zone Missouri starts burning their timeouts which is the right thing to do in that situation to preserve time for their offense but then Napier decides to run three consecutive plays up the middle no read options no roll outs for Max Brown nothing no screen plays to Eugene Wilson or Ricky peera nothing to get your Playmakers open in space to maybe make a play Miss a tackle break it because if Florida gets they don't even have to score a touchdown in that situation if they get a first down the game could end because you would then run the clock down to almost no time it'd be the situation like the eagles were in last year in the Super Bowl there was no time left when they got the ball back after the penalty same thing here Florida gets a first down game's over Florida kicks that field goal wins that game right there but I think it that's something that Neil let me ask you this are you critical of Napier in those two Moments One almost sitting on the ball before halftime and two the play there at the end of the game where we don't go go for the win the touchdown or another first down to ice the game because the reality is we can go get a new play caller next year but guess what Billy Napier is still the head coach and he's the one making those decisions yeah I I mean I guess I am critical of Napier but I can't be too mad because again it just goes back to what I said at the first at the top of the show the team is what it is you you can't be surprised when the team does a bunch of things over and over and over and over that's a coaching but he's going to make bad decisions he's a bad end game coach we knew that we knew that in his in the first game that he coached against Utah we can go back all the way there where he pissed away the timeout for no reason um after before the fourth and three we know but it doesn't matter what it's going to be it doesn't matter what the situation is he's gonna find a way to mess it up as an okay but that's then that's where I guess I want to take this this conversation if we know that and he hires an offensive coordinator next year and let's say that offensive coordinator is actually a good play caller then he has to be hands off and back off but naier is still making the decision to go for to either not go for it or go for it at the end of a half or go for the win in when the game is on the line there either he can't be trusted to do that he's got to let the offensive coordinator make that call so you're gonna let offensive coordinator decide in-game decisions not the head coach so Napier's just gonna sit there with a headset yeah basically I mean after because again do you honestly think that's going to happen though well if Florida's going to succeed that's the most likely course of action that's going to take place because again we've seen Napier make the wrong decisions with his tactical decision- making over and over and over again I don't know why you would expect him to make the right ones like you would you would have thought he would have learned after last year he didn't do it I I guess that's just my concern is that yes we'll have a play caller and maybe that'll limit those situations where you're even in that situation but we're still G to have end of half situations where we could either decide to go for a score or not and that's falls on the head coach to make or at the end of a game when you either Ki a field goal or you know try to run the clock out go for the touchdown whatever that that's the head coach makes that decision offensive coordinator isn't going to make that they're going to call different plays maybe but so maybe maybe that maybe that that situation changes but still I I think I guess that's my concern is that we have a head coach who's deciding to be ultra conservative when really you have nothing to lose other than the game you're already that's the thing I'll push back on he's not deciding to be it's who he is he is ultra conservative he didn't just wake up one day and just and decide yeah I'm gonna be ultra conservative today he that's just what he is it's who he is it's what he does like why again I don't know why you expect things to change in that respect next year the hope I have for the future banks on Florida amassing enough talent that they can put games away before they get to these situations where he has to decide at one way or another because I do think he's a great recruiter and I do think that he's going to bring in an offensive coordinator who can help him be an even better recruiter who can recruit in his own aspects but I mean again like if the if it gets to a close game and it comes down to a coaching decision I don't objectively know why you would trust him to make the right call I I don't know why you would there's not any evidence to support thinking that it's doesn't exist that's a scary thought going into next year when he is going to be on the hot seat and he's going to need a win multiple wins to get off of it and keep his tenure alive into year four I I just I'm concerned I I I really am because last night those were two situations where you you score a field goal before half you you know decide to maybe get another first down you win the game and actually you erase the the those plays that we talked about that we didn't make you limit the margin for error there because as a coach you have to realize too the team you have in that situation I know that I have the ball Missouri has one timeout if I get a first down here this game's over and I don't have to put my defense who time and time again has shown me that they cannot make a stop they cannot make a play when the game's on the line so I think for me I'm just a little concerned that he that he could trust them in the situation or his game planning his game game decision making implied that that is the concern moving forward in for the rest of this season and then next a staff I don't know that I agree with the hire of William pagler for example last year as a tight ends coach I think aside from that you can't really hate on any of his decis well and special teams obviously and and doing that but that coaches right so so I'm saying like the structuring of the staff there was bad but I'm saying in terms of like his ability to recruit other coaches not just athletes but like recruiting Corey Raymond to come join him you know getting Jabar jaluk to come join him um who I think is a very underrated position coach a very very hot commodity in the coaching World um you know getting Ki Colbert last year and then getting Billy Gonzalez this year um getting Mike Peterson on the staff I think Spencer um is a very good coach I don't know how much of the defensive line struggles are really his fault when you have guys like Jack purn and Tyreek Sapp injured and you have another bunch of true freshman like Kelby Collins and TJ cersi thrown in there but again I think that was a good a good hire there so I think for the most part he's very good at at amassing good people people who are good at their jobs to do those jobs that means players and coaches and that goes off the field too like I'm very high on the job that Katie Turner does in her role Bri Wade I think she's good at what she does um Savannah Bailey I think she's good at what she does you know the nutrition staff I think that that's all very good but the way that Dan Mullen was bad at recruiting the way Dan Mullen was was loyal to a fault he was also an an elite play caller he was a good in-game coach for the most part he made some questionable decisions here and there I think that you know the lack of urgency he showed down two scores against Alabama in 200 and uh or down down eight against Alabama in 2021 where you're throwing all your eggs in the two-point conversion basket and if you don't get it you're screwed and against Georgia in 2019 when you're down 2410 and you take a lot of time off the clock for that first touchdown but I think the some of his in-game coaching decisions were very good in terms of play calls so Napier is the reverse and I think maybe fans weren't expecting him to be this bad as an in-game coach but we did hire him in in every other sense to be the anti- Dan Mullen we knew he was very different than Dan Mullen in almost every aspect and well we got that we got a guy who is just not a good ingame coach who makes very questionable decisions both with his play calling which for the most part by the way against Missouri I thought was okay he made a couple of questionable ones here and there but the some of his play calls were good and never going to bat a thousand as a play caller so again I gave him a a perfectly fine grade as a pure play caller but again the in-game decisions the fact that the team still can't line up and get the play in right you have a FSE start and then a delay of game backto back in between two snaps you have both those things happen like those are just things that I think are going to be Staples of billion apier tenure at Florida and again this for those of you who were going to say in all kinds of weather you're not living up your name you're way too negative I'm not saying Florida can't win under Napier I'm not saying there's no path forward I think if Napier does amass a lot of talent if he hits home runs in the transfer portal I mean cbow don't grow on trees but if he has another home run hit on the offensive line if he gets a few big- time linebackers or defensive backs in the transfer portal Florida can win a lot of games and with the expanded college football playoff you just have to get yourself into that top 12 and then who knows if you're in a game with a Georgia or an Alabama and you're in enough of those games you could get the things to go your way and win them so I'm not even saying Florida can't win national championships under n I'm not saying it's likely my my confidence and my faith in that has taken a big hit this year but I'm not saying the sky is falling and Florida is screwed and Napier is not the guy and he's 100% going to get fired at year I'm not saying any of that I'm just saying that look this is the hand that were dealt with Billy Napier he is a bad in-game tactical decision maker how do we overcome that how do we survive that how do we compensate for that and maybe even with the offensive coordinator you express disbelief at this but maybe the question is how do we mask it how do we just get rid of that from the equation like I mean we we'll take Jeff Scott for as an example because I do think he is the offensive coordinator uh prospect that is the most similar to Napier and and this this could itself be a source of irritation for fans well why are you hiring the guy that's the most similar to you don't you want someone different who can install a new look to the offense which by the way I agree but Jeff Scott can recruit Jeff Scott I think can run an offense fairly well but the concern for me is like it's it's what you brought up if Jeff Scott is calling the place but Napier is going to be the one yelling in his ear saying hey hey hey hey hey we're going for it on fourth down here when it's Fourth and six I mean that's just not objectively not a good decision unless you know the game is literally on the line and you have no time outs and there's 14 seconds left and you're down four sure aside from that like he did against Kentucky by the way his first year second game he's ever he ever coached against Kentucky fourth and six you're down one score you're at Midfield one of the few games your defenses is actually playing well by the way will Levis did nothing that game bad idea to go for it he went for it cost Florida I'm saying he is going to have to just let his offensive coordinator make the majority of the calls and maybe just maybe if he wears fewer hats like if you take that hat away from him maybe if he's able to focus on just those little things that much more maybe he'll make the right decisions more that's my hope moving forward and that's what we've talked about is that if he is taking things off of his play then he'll be able to focus on other things that he is good at recruiting running the administrative aspects of a program assembling maybe a better staff filling it out and where the the voids or the weaknesses might currently exist and you allow people to make in-game decisions play calling have somebody on the field running the Special Teams it is going to help him and take a lot of stress off of his plate where he might perform better in other areas we need him to I don't think he's ever going to change you know he his aspects of going forward on certain fourth Downs or like he's gonna do that I I I think he will remain primarily a conservative coach but I suppose the hope is that if you have a really a much better offensive coordinator and you have better Playmakers on the offensive side of the ball those instances will become a lot fewer and far between and you'll win a lot more games I just hope that it just doesn't come back to bite us let's say even in we get to a point where we're actually playing for championships you're going to play in probably closer games and then what in those situations that's sort I mean that's that's kind of like the the the the more positive outlook on that Arc but in the in the interim where you're scrapping and trying to get by to get to a bll game it's just it's killing us right now and it's it won't it's like the jet going on the the runway it just won't get off the ground right now and that's sort of where we are with Billy Napier and his tenure and I think we until that we get off the ground and and we can actually start ascending and winning games we're just we're we're no we're going nowhere don't put that thought in my head because you know I have to fly home tonight to my parents house in New Jersey you're gonna get off the ground don't worry you you've got just that's just a very odly specific reference just just just pretend Nick savin's the pilot okay okay that's a good example or you know what how about this how about I pretend Kirby Smart is the pilot who by the way drew a lot of heat early in his tenure for some of his in-game decisions he made people at Georgia still think that he should have already won three national championships where if he was playing Jacob een over Jake fromom after Ean had recovered from his his injury um Georgia could have won another national championship and that Jake from was the reason that they didn't win um I don't know that it's really really fashionable to to to hate on Kirby Smart these days I think he's doing just doing a great job yeah and there was there was the knock that he could recruit but he couldn't develop you know I mean and all that's been alleviated so it there is a path I and that's what I'm saying that's what I'm saying because I know I know living in the moment right now well but that's the other thing too it's not the moment it's the season and it's the Billy apier tenure which by the way is looking a second straight losing season Square in the face this time not even getting to a bowl game which would be worse than last year all we asked for all I asked for all year was progress progress progress I need to see signs that things are heading in the right direction and instead I'm being being rewarded for my my patience this year with the worst defensive performance in school history and a fourth and 17 that probably tops anything we saw in that LSU game and there was some bad game tape against LSU but that fourth and 17 might top at all but again I'm not saying that it's all bad for Florida right now I'm not saying the program is screwed I'm not saying that the sky is just crumbling down on the program right now it's not there is a path forward but in the context of this Missouri game and in the context of this season the defense the in-game decision- making by Billy Napier the various special teams screw-ups which seem to have been fixed by the way but it shouldn't have taken that long to replace mahalik with Trey smack you should never have had the double Jersey penalty infraction you should have never had 13 guys lining up for a field goal block on one play and then eight the next time to overcompensate for it like that really works no it's 11 no more no less you have all those things happen so that when you say well we didn't line up with 13 guys well we didn't have a double Jersey penalty infraction you get to say well that's Improvement because we went from having that to not having it no you should have never been there to begin with you're you're not like it's it's an old psychology tactic that's called shaping like you take someone you you take a kid who is just absolutely terribly behaved like the worst behavior you can imagine like he's just he's throwing dishes at the wall he's taking like loaded guns and just shooting them off the wall for fun like not he's not a like a criminal he's just just badly behaved needs to be rained in so you take that and you go from him or or you go to him like just I don't know cursing and stomping his feet and like slamming his hat on the floor which is still like all right he's a misbehaving child but it's still technically better right than him just firing glass passes at the wall and at the ground right so you don't reward that behavior just because it is less terrible than where it started so I like the people who want us to want to see me uh you know more positive about the fact that Florida's special teams isn't committing you know horrifying mistakes every week and that the defense improved from giving up 71 yards to 508 you're not going to get it because that's still terrible performance yes I know that there's a lot of young guys out there I'm not even saying again I'm not even saying that Florida's defense is going to continue being this bad forever guys like Kelby Collins TJ cersi um and jacem Jackson are going to grow they're going to be a year older a year better a year stronger a year smarter next year and I think it's very possible that they learn from their in-game failures this year and use it to become better players next year I think that is very possible but that doesn't ex that doesn't mean it's okay to see us give up 1210 yards in the span of two games like there's the context of the future and the big picture which I think is is not all negative and then there's the context of this game this season this team and the billion aier era to date which Chris keep it respectful but keep it real has been disappointing agreed yeah I think we we had a lot lot more hope and we thought we'd be farther along at this point point blank we just did and right now this is not cutting it this is not good enough and on the trajectory that he's on he wouldn't last past year three so we really hope that he makes the changes that we've talked about at nauseum no need to rehash it everybody knows what they are we'll talk about them as they occur over the next couple of weeks but until then it's disappointing and the only way really I think to alleviate it is to maybe get an upset rivalry win over Florida State next Saturday which we will talk about in the show later this week but Neil I think that is a pretty good encapsulation of the Missouri game I think we hit on a lot of great points now it's time for the final verdict and to grade the team out so offense defense special teams and coaching what do you got I don't know how fair it is to really blame Max Brown for the fumble because again he was thrown into a very difficult situation it did happen it was bad you can't like ignore that but I mean aside from that you got to give the offense an A but with that happening I'll I'll ding it down to a B+ they did everything they could have done to win the game I I you know the last possession you could have maybe said be more aggressive but that's more coaching I do see both sides to that I'll get into that in a minute actually that's that's coaching not offense but um yeah offense gets a B+ they did a plenty to win the game defense I'm going to repeat the grade from LSU you you disrespected the University's tradition of great defenses again from 2005 to 2016 Florida had a top 10 defense in all but one year you had 11 of 12 Years where Florida has a top 10 defense ranked nationally and again I'll go back to the shaping comment just because it's ever so slightly less terrible than it was the week before which was historically terrible doesn't mean it's good the fourth and 17 is going to live on in infamy that play is an embarrassment to guys like Brandon Spikes who were on that sideline guys like an Ahmad black guys like jorris Jenkins a kiwan Ratliff who's now at FSU um you know DBU or you have a case for lbu even with guys like spikes um and even like a John bosk or or Antonio Morrison even like it's disrespectful to that level player David Reese probably just writhing in discomfort watching that happen disrespectful you get a zero um special teams smack did his job um croshaw I thought did okay I would have liked a couple of his punts to maybe been plac a little better but I mean the defense didn't give up any fake punt plays they didn't get a kick blocked or anything like that so I'll say that def the Special Teams gets a B minus coaching I'll I'll give it I'll give the coaching an F but not like not that F it's the kind of F that like you know a couple things here there go your way you could maybe flip it and maybe you can like go to the professor and get some extra credit and get it turned like into a d and just so you can get the pass um but all right I I didn't agree with the end of game scenario where you just run three straight plays up the middle I would have liked to have tried to go for a touchdown I know you've backup quarterback in I understand that it's not the most conducive situation to being aggressive just because if you fail it's it's very bad but because nobody expects it that includes Missouri doesn't expect it and that means you actually have a chance to catch them napping and score a touchdown because they're all expecting you to be conservative too so you can take advantage of that you can turn that into your advantage and use that to score a quick touchdown like the play for example the etn touchdown right the the second to last one where he just gets past onine his scrimmage and he goes untouched the last 10 yards Missouri was caught napping there was no linebacker there was no defensive back even in the same continent as him because he made a guy Miss and because he bypassed line of scrimmage Missouri's defense was caught asleep and he scored so that's where I go Napier you know you're five and five your team just isn't good you got to be aggressive it's the kind of situation where if you're down seven and you score a touchdown in the last minute you might want to go for two and end the game it's the same kind of thing like where the odds are kind of stacked against you but you've gotten enough things to go your way that you can say you know what I'm feeling it let's maybe take a chance and go for it if Florida's 8-2 Florida's nine and one I may be saying something different but then again this might not even have been a close game if Florida was that good so I digress I I see both sides to that I'm not going to ding him too much for that the end of first half was awful and that again is not a surprise we've seen Nate beard mess up a variety of scenarios like that with timing um with timeouts with some of his play calls we've seen him do enough of that that it's not even surprising but you know it did happen again so in this context of this game um f for that overall I give him like a like a 55 out of 100 defense found a way to lose the game um the offense played well enough to win but the defense found a way to make sure that they didn't can I let me ask you one thing what which game did the team play better in Arkansas or Missouri Missour is a better team and Missouri's on the road significantly yeah so I mean you got to say Missouri but I mean again if if Florida plays another quarter against Arkansas if like if the game is 75 minutes and not 60 I'm I'm more certain that Florida wins that game if Florida plays another quarter against Missouri I'm more certain that Missouri wins that game but like like with the way the first 60 Minutes had gone yeah if that makes sense fair enough you no it does all right so my grades for Florida offense I'm going to give a B+ as well I think the turnovers the two turnovers certainly hurt Florida especially the one with the fumble Exchange in that situation that's that's that's in large part to the fact that brown hadn't been really handing the ball off to those guys a whole lot he doesn't do it a lot in practice because he's not with the ones and he's thrust into a game like that there's going to be a difference between his touch versus mz's and actually on the last play were that forced etn to the corner to the edge that forced him out of bounds it was another almost bad handoff where he had to stretch even more so I think that you know those little moments right there by the offense really overshadowed a 500 yard performance which if they had won this game I probably would have given them an A so but for that reason they get a B+ defense they get another f a failure when your offense does this 500 yard performance and then once again you let them down with another five 100 yard performance you know you're failing this team you're literally failing this team you are the reason why Florida is losing games right now it's not the offense it is the defense and for that you know we're going to continue to fail you until you prove us otherwise special teams I'll give a b they were solid in the punting game I mean croshaw averaged almost 45 yards a punt he put one inside the 20 he even had a 55 y that flipped the field Trey smck once again perfect he would have had the game-winning field goal had the defense made the stop on four and 17 the one thing that I'll ding them on this year this week and they once again Kudos no plays with not enough men on the field once again that's two weeks in a row so we got a little bit of a TR now hopefully that continues when we hire a special teams coach the punts and I know the punts from Missouri were very easy to or not easy to field but it killed us in some field position moments especially when we did get the stop on defense and we had to then go 80 plus yards for a touchdown where we were just kind of letting it bounce around I would have loved to have seen Ricky maybe try to field one and and then get a couple yards back from that because that really hurt Florida in those situations that put two inside the 20 where Florida had to go to length of field and that's where a lot of those procedural penalties occurred limited our margin for error so special teams could have done a little bit better I think in the punt return game so that's why they get a B for me on that one coaching I'm not going to give it a complet I'm not going to fail them uh I think they probably get a c here it's a split grade I think they had a solid game plan for the offense and you know there were moments where the defense did what they were supposed to do like Austin Armstrong put them in positions to make plays uh but I'm gonna ding Napier for those the end of half situation and the end of game situation I think he needs to be more aggressive I'd like to see him be more aggressive and because he wasn't I think it costed Florida the game another reason why Florida lost so coaching not F like it was against LSU but not enough to win the game it's pretty average coaching and right now I think Florida kind of has average coaching so a c reflects that overall I would give the team a C+ grade I think that they played good enough to win they just didn't make the play at the very very end you're passing them for this game what's that you're passing them giving them a passing Gade I am gonna pass them I because look you know listen the offense put Florida in a position to win they didn't fold like when we went down by nine go through Twitter like everybody's like that's game and then I mean I put out a tweet that said hey chin up next drive you know and that's kind of like one of my little like I maybe I'll go on a soapbox like I am so glad that I don't work with some of you people in the in the real world because you guys fold like lawnchairs like just because the game was down by nine it was not over and I even said that too you did and and like I mean we're friends so like I kind of grown accustomed to the way you view things and I know I'm a I come off as a very passionate positive guy by and large but it was like come on like I am so glad that you aren't the people in that locker room because that team did not quit in that moment they didn't quit against South Carolina they didn't quit against LSU they didn't quit uh against Arkansas when they were down 140 and they didn't quit down nine with nine minutes to go against Missouri so look Florida has a chance to win next Saturday in the swamp we'll talk about it in our next show they do they had a chance to win this game I predicted Florida to win this game by three points they almost freaking did it and I was ready to come on here and gloat about the fact that I was the only one that called Florida to win the game so I'm frustrated almost by that point because we were this freaking close we were this close so back to my but back to my team grade I'm not failing them because I don't think they it was a failing effort they played a solid they played a good enough game to win they just didn't make the play at the end when it mattered so my frustration is not that Florida didn't fight I mean the defense did not fight I don't I don't know how else you want to look I mean you give up 508 yards that's that's still terrible I don't I don't want to hear that it's well it's least it's not 700 I just have no interest in that that cuts no ice with me that's still awful um the defense was was just pitiful but the team fought as a the hole the team didn't quit my frustration is not that the team quit it's that the team snatched defeat from the jaws of Victory flipping that old adage the team had the game all but one but you go out and you try your hardest and you find a new way to lose a game fourth and 17 is is an very inventive way to to screw up a Surefire win like the win percentage for Florida uh or the win probability for Florida was 99.9 on that fourth and 17 that is the highest it can possibly be because it obviously can't be 100 because that means it's mathematically impossible which you know obviously it's not so when you have a 99.9% win probability and you lose the game that cements your legacy as a team that finds ways to lose that's my frustration not that Florida didn't fight right not that Florida quit but that Florida will make sure that it loses a game in some way in some fashion at some point in the game they will ensure the other team has more points than they do yep well I think that about does it for this show we want to thank everybody once again for tuning in to another episode of in all kinds weather forecast if you have not already and you are watching on YouTube please help us out hit that subscribe and like button down below leave a comment about your thought thoughts of the Missouri game and what the gator got to do to beat Florida State so and if you're listening on audio form 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