I can only speak for myself, since some here appear to consider themselves more spoiled than others. J
We are all spoiled in that we do expect to be in contention for the SEC championship every year and the MNC regularly. We may not actually play in those championship games every year, but we should always be in the mix. I don't see anything wrong with being spoiled in this way given the Gator Nation's commitment to the program and the quality of our university, facilities, athletic department and coaches. I am not spoiled in the sense of thinking we must win every game. We will certainly lose some games but the issue to me is how we lose them. In fact, and here is where Mike misses the point completely, it's also about how we win the games we win. I love the game of football and what I want to see is a well-disciplined team that plays well. It's like going to the ballet (okay, if I ever did). I wouldn't want to be seeing the dancers tripping over each other and falling down and I wouldn't consider myself spoiled if they did that and I was upset about it. If the Gators play well, and the other team just plays better, then I am willing to live with that. (I'm not saying I'll be happy, just that I don't get down on the coaches or players.) But when we go out there and look sloppy, commit penalties and turnovers, and generally do not play up to our potential, then I get irritated. We pay the coaches a lot of money to 'coach up' these players and I expect them to generally play well. So that's one side of things, but the other is probably the real issue. In anything we evaluate, expectations are critical. It's like with the political debates. I've heard lots of analysts say that a particular candidate will have done well if they just don't screw up. Or that another candidate will have failed if they do well but don't hit a home run. Well, we're that way too and it's Mike's fault and that of his counterparts in the media. How many times this summer did we read articles saying how this Gator offense was going to be the best in the history of modern football? I didn't think that up myself. I didn't attend Spring practice. I read it over and over and over again from Mike and others like him. Now I'm not stupid so I wasn't ready to give them that crown before the season started, but it still created a level of expectation that leaves me disappointed with the reality that we're just an average offense. So I think that Mike is way off base here in his attitude about the Gator Nation. First, I don't think we're any different from fans of any other successful program. Second, I note that all of the evidence he has that 'we' act this way is that his fellow journalists are acting this way. Finally, I think that some disappointment is called for when you have the returning Heisman trophy winner, a second player who is a legitimate candidate, and the fastest offense in the country and you still can't put it all together and play a complete game. I support the players either way, but yeah. I was looking forward to an offense that could hang half a hundred on the mangy dogs. Rob From: Gatortalk@googlegroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mary Weigly Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 12:56 PM To: Gatortalk@googlegroups.com Subject: [gatortalk] Re: FW: RE: [gatornews] You're what's wrong with Florida football, Gator fans Couple of points... We are, indeed, spoiled, and much of the reason for that was the smug cockiness of our Ol' Ball Coach that we could name our score (like "hanging half a hundred" on Georgia in Stanford Stadium). The 1990's were all about being so innovative and effective that we could basically tell the opponent what we were going to run and dare them to stop us. Well, everyone has caught up, and we don't want to admit that the level of coaching and talent throughout the SEC (hello Vandy!) -- and the rest of the country (insert OSU joke here) -- is exceptional (I wanted to write "as good" but couldn't do it :-)). As someone who suffered through quite a few years of Gatordom before the arrival of SOS, I can be happy just because we win, but I also suffer from the SOS hangover and am disappointed when we don't look good doing it. Second point: I have to take issue with this quote from Mikey's column: "Case in point: After Florida's 38-7 victory over Arkansas, the big headline in the Orlando Sentinel was, "Score Isn't The Story." Below the headline there were two articles. The first paragraph of one article began with, "If the Gators play like this next week, they'll lose to LSU." The first paragraph of the other article began with, "Something's missing."" Since when are newspaper articles and headlines evidence of Gator fans being spoiled? I guess the writers are also spoiled Gator fans? That's sloppy journalism, IMHO. Mary On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 11:12 AM, Oliver Barry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Yes, we have the best players, coaches and facilities in the country. So do the New York Yankees. But, even they don't win the world series every year. Gator fans don't have a realistic expectation level for the team. Part of Steve's own downfall was his penchant for running up touchdowns on poor teams. We all got to where we expected lots of long touchdown passes and 50 points. Even Steve lost at Mississippi State in 2000. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
