this team has not given up on these coaches and that says something about these coaches.

I have stayed away from reading the board because it has turned into a group that is eating it's own. I did glance over the headers this morning though. Someone can say "what about that soccer team's 2-0 first round NCAA win over Jacksonville". There is inevitably a reply like "if Muschamp was coaching them it would have been.... (insert whatever bad soccer thing you wish)".

This staff and team did exceptionally well last night given the circumstances. Would I have done it a little differently? Sure. We all would put our spin on it. Doesn't mean we would do any better with a third string QB and an offensive line that is down 3 tackles.

I do find it funny that some said the Gators shut the offense down. The game plan never had the offense open the way I think they meant. If I am not mistaken, the Gators threw only two passes in the first half. At one point Skylar was 6 for 6 BEFORE that last drive. So they actually did open it up a little more in the second half.

The two plays. You know which ones. We punt on the SC 37 (I think) and and go for the trick play on the Gator side of the field. I have no problem with either play.

Let's look at the first one. There were 3 options: 1-Try a field goal. Is there anyone here that has confidence that either kicker would make a 54 yarder? Me either. 2-Go for it on 4th down. I forget what the yardage was but it was not insignificant. I might have taken this option given the point in the game, field position and how well the defense was playing. If nothing else we get it a little further down the field. 3-Punt it and hope it does not go in the endzone. If they went for the field goal I would have slightly questioned the thought process. Coach took the third option and they pinned them at the 10.

Now the slightly more controversial one, the fake punt. I hope we all realize that coaches do not put plays in the game without some thought behind them. You can either agree or disagree with what you think thier thought process is but your disagreement on that is not what I am going to address. I think we were down by 2. It is also late in the game and your defense is playing very well but you are on your side of the field. You have maybe one more drive after this, possibly two but no matter what SC is gonna use every bit of the play clock. The other thing to consider, we have no confidence in our kickers so we know we have to score a TD to win. So 2 points or 5 points really makes no difference and you can feel confident based on how the game has played out that you can hold them to a field goal at worst. However, you also remember what happened at the end of the UGa game. The downside of the fake is not that bad and the upside has the potential to not only swing momentum your way but dishearten the other team. You also know that Orr was a hell of a tight end in high school (I saw him play in high school and he was a hell of a tight end). You also know that you worked on this play and it worked in practice.

The fake punt, for me, is a microcosm of the season. It was there. It should have worked but it didn't. This time because the player did not catch a catchable pass. Other times it may have been a missed block or a hold or a...whatever. Things have been there and everything that can go wrong this season did go wrong.