Yet Another Disappointing Offensive Season for Gator Football

I'm a football fan of sorts and follow certain teams, professional and college, over the years.  Predictably, my favorites tend to be my hometown teams...first the Miami Dolphins from my childhood in south Florida, and then the University of Florida in my adopted Gainesville.  We Gators, frustrated over the years at never having been able to win a Southeastern Conference Championship...the situation aggravated by the 1984 team's title being forfeited because of rules violations...finally not only won repeated conference titles under legendary coach Steve Spurrier with his trademark exciting razzle-dazzle offense, but even the national championship after the 1996 season.  When Spurrier left in 2002 to try his hand at coaching in the National Football League, Ron Zook was hired and, while moderately successful, was vilified by the fans as simply not good enough...he got the axe after just three years and then monumentally successful (and very ambitious) Utah coach Urban Meyer came on to replace him.  All he did was win two national championships during his second and fourth of six seasons at Florida.  And then, beginning with Meyer's final season in 2010, the Gators passing offense disappeared...

From 2011 through 2014 defensive-minded Will Muschamp coached Florida through one impressive year (2012) and one disastrous year (2013), sandwiched between two yawners before he was canned and our present leader, Jim McElwain, was hired.  McElwain is now in his third season and inherited his predecessor's recruits...meaning a great defense and a stagnant offense.  Will Grier was the starting quarterback early in the 2015 season and was effective while improving in his position, until he was suspended for having taken performance-enhancing drugs.  After Grier was gone (he's now playing for West Virginia), the Gators faded but still managed somehow to win their conference's East Division.  In 2016, Luke Del Rio, unpolished but intelligent, looked as if he could be a quarterback to lead the team to success throughout the season...but he was injured in midseason and that was it for the Gators, although once again they defied the odds and took home another division title.  This year, though, everything was going to be different.  We not only had Del Rio coming back healthy, but there was a new freshman, Feleipe Franks, who was supposed to have done great things in high school and could end up as a superstar.  Only he didn't develop as well as hoped after recruitment and, although initially named starter and even responsible for a game-saving last-second 63-yard bomb to beat rival Tennessee, was finally benched in favor of Del Rio.  But once again, Del Rio was injured for the year and Florida has had once again to struggle with a horribly inconsistent offense.  Add to that the fact that several Gators were suspended at the start of the season for credit card fraud and it seems that Coach McElwain is always finding himself shorthanded...either from injury, violations, or the lack of his players' improvement...

Looking back, I think that Ron Zook should have been given at least a couple more years to see whether his own recruits could bring glory back to Florida.  When a new coach is hired he is more or less at the mercy of how well his predecessor's recruits do, although there is a lot more to how well a team does than just the sheer individual talent of its component players.  Jim McElwain might be regarded on one hand as extremely unlucky...or he may on the other be too undisciplined and disorganized.  When he was hired he was to bring high-powered passing back to the Gators, but we're now in season number three and it doesn't look any better than it did when Muschamp was struggling.  And the defense is nowhere as good as it used to be...

I doubt that Florida will be able to win their division again this year...they're only 3-3 and next play a special Georgia team that could well compete for the national championship this year.  I think that Jim McElwain should get at least two more seasons to turn this team around, but he has to develop his players' skills, be more involved in their personal conduct...and, frankly, do a better job with recruitment, both on offense and defense...

As far as I'm concerned, I don't need for Florida to win the national championship every year, as some unrealistic fans seem to feel.  But I do want them to be competitive, interesting and at least be contenders as the season approaches its culmination in December.  Injuries happen to every team: it's a part of the game, but while some coaches seem able to compensate for them, with others...well there's always excuses and "wait'll next year"...