The “Holy God Yes YES YES!!!!11one” Award

To all Gators everywhere. National champions. Joy.

Also, put Chris Leak in the Ring of Honor, he has earned it.
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The “ZOMGOSH I CAN’T BELIEVE IT” Award

This goes to the entire team. SEC Champions, BCS Championship Game, general badassosity (it’s a word–maybe). Wow, just no words (except for all the ones filling this article). I am so very happy.

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Chris Leak’s legacy has now been firmly cast in stone.  Unfortunately Leak will be known as an underachieving quarterback (QB) who never lived up to the potential, was afraid of contact and who could be as much a liability as an asset in a big game.  This is not to say that I don’t appreciate Chris Leak, far from it.  I believe Leak is a survivor and possesses tremendous mental toughness. 

Chris Leak is a guy who can keep his poise no matter the crisis.  I think Leak could have been a very good college QB in the right system but now he’ll forever has an asterisk by his name.  Whenever someone says that Leak is the leading passer in school history and won an SEC Championship his senior year the counter response will be, “Sure an SEC championship Florida won DESPITE his trying to give the game away with his stupid interceptions.”

And its true, Florida opened the half with a 10 point lead and in two plays Chris Leak gave Arkansas the ball deep in Florida territory setting up a Hog touchdown and also made a bad decision on a shuttle pass which was returned for a TD by the Hogs.  At that point the momentum had shifted completely and a 17-0 lead had turned into a 21-17 deficit.  However ‘chance’ is a fickle mistress.  As quickly as Leak had given the lead to Arkansas . . . Arkansas turned around and gave the game right back on an ill advised muffed punt turned into a TD for the Gators.

If this game showed anything it shed more light on a continuing pattern of questionable coaching from the sidelines.  Chris Leak had been dissecting the Hog secondary in the first half and only the poor performance of our wide receivers (WR) kept our offense from being even more effective.  Yet in the second half it seemed as if the Gators stubbornly decided that the option was the way to go.  Forcing Chris Leak to operate as an option QB and then complaining about the results is sort of like forcing Woody Allen to block Jevon Kearse and then complaining about a sack. (more…)

Saturday, the Florida Gators clinched the SEC Eastern division and a berth in the SEC Championship Game. Of course they didn’t know that until LSU’s late game comeback against Tennessee early Saturday night. According to Urban Meyer, the team found out they won the division after their plane landed in Gainesville. “It was a relief,” said Meyer. He could easily have been referring to winning the East and beating Vanderbilt.

This isn’t the same Vanderbilt team that took Florida to double overtime in Gainesville a year ago. In some respects, it’s better.

Although he isn’t as polished as his predecessor, Jay Cutler, Chris Nickson showed spectators his potential and his toughness as he stood in the pocket under duress. He delivered accurate bullets to his wide receivers snap after snap, and when forced to scramble — or when running on designed plays — displayed some of his pure running ability. Defensively, the Commodores have improved their team speed and are allowing almost 100 yards per game less than last season. Their defensive line has improved, too, allowing a linebacker corps as good as any in the country to make plays.

But ultimately, this game wasn’t as much about what Vanderbilt did, but what Florida couldn’t do.

As improved and competitive as the Commodores might be, are they really within a touchdown of the Florida Gators? Should a team like Vanderbilt be a failed onside kick away of trying to steal a win from the Florida Gators? Would this game be close 9 times out of 10? My analysis is… yes, and here’s why.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly… (more…)

Sometime during the first half of the Florida-Georgia game, something happened.

What was it? Did Chris Leak get “dinged” when he got flattened running the ball on an option play? Was his bell rung? Was it a concussion? Or was it just a headache and blurry vision?

Or all of the above?

No one’s really sure.

The first report of a potential problem came from Urban Meyer. “Chris came up to me after the game and he thought he had a concussion,” said Meyer in a post-game press conference.

Later, however, Leak, Meyer, and the UAA (University Athletic Association) toed the same line: no concussion.

“I just got dinged and that was it,” said Leak.

But Meyer also let it slip that Leak had “missed three or four calls” during the second half, which led to Florida burning all three of its timeouts. Any neutral observer watching the second half would confirm that Leak’s play was, to put it lightly, less than crisp.

Then again, Leak has had a number of halves in this year’s football season during which his play wasn’t at its highest level.

Christopher Nowinski of SI.com points out that “… the combination of a headache, blurred vision and confusion are sure signs of a concussion.” Nowinski goes on to take Meyer and the medical staff to task for failing to diagnose the condition, then recommends that Leak’s brain be given time to heal.

Meyer made it clear that his quarterback has to be more forthcoming in the future about such issues — on the sideline, not in the locker room, after the game.

“We have to be smart,” said Meyer.

Whether or not Leak had a true concussion, he was clearly affected by the hit. Perhaps it served as a bit of a wakeup call for the coaching staff: Meyer stated this week that the decision has been made regarding Tim Tebow getting a chance to run the entire offense… which means he’ll do more than run out of the shotgun.

Maybe that’s what Chris Leak was afraid of when he kept quiet about his injury during the Georgia game.

Quietest Crowd Ever Award

This stands in direct contrast to the Loudest Crowd Ever Award given out a few weeks ago after the LSU game. Alumni section, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Actual quote taken from an audience member in the alumni section “Could ya’ll please sit down.”

This happened while the Gators were on defense. Pathetic.

Old Alumni, this just in: when Brandon Siler is waiving his arms in the air commanding the crowd to stand up and make some noise, stand up and make some noise! For most of the second half, the Georgia side of All-tel stadium was signifigantly louder than the Florida side. When the Gators are on defense, it is the crowd’s job to make some noise. Even if it’s hot, even if the team seems to be collapsing, the crowd has to do its part. Otherwise, you may as well just watch the game from home.

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Swampy’s post on Tebow and Leak seemed oddly familiar. It was, in some ways, reminiscent of last season. At this time last year, the UF offense was both stagnant and innocuous. There was a rising call for Leak’s benching — a call which began in the preseason and grew to its zenith by the Florida-Georgia game. At that time the beloved second stringer was a true freshman named Josh Portis.

Everyone could see that Josh was a talented runner. When able to show flashes of his talent during a game, he was the most exciting player on the field. And, of course, the numerous reports in practice delivered similar tales of Portis’ talent and the future of the UF offense.

As that season progressed, the chorus grew louder (and I admit that, at times, I too was perplexed as to why a change wasn’t made). While it’s true that the talent displayed — in mop-up duty during a few early season blowouts — wasn’t as consistent as Tebow’s has been this year, neither was the offense as effective last year. It has been said that the backup quarterback is always the most popular player on a team. For the Florida Gators this seems to be the case during Meyer’s tenure. But if Leak is the weak spot on the Gators offense . . . why has he remained the starter this year, and even last year when the offense hit rock bottom? (more…)