Dooley’s Back Nine: Saturday’s Effort vs. Texas Was What We Have Expected
The Back Nine comes at you after a rare football Saturday when Gator fans left the stadium with smiles on their faces and Dallas Wilson in their hearts:
10. Yeah, it helps to get a five-star receiver back and that was the case even though Wilson hurt his other foot Thursday. But from the start of the game, Wilson looked like the physically talented receiver we heard about and who we saw in the spring game. Did one player make that much of a difference? Maybe. Or maybe Florida just doesn’t get started until the first month of the season is over. Maybe Florida should stop playing Tom Petty at the end of the third quarter and start playing Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends.”
11. All I know is that Florida dominated that game against a top-10 team and Billy Napier put it this way — “That’s the football team we thought we had in the very beginning.” Well, yeah, that’s the team you kept telling us we were going to see so it was nice to find out we were not hornswoggled in the preseason. The key stat — Florida had 11 explosive plays against a good Texas defense after having only two — two! — against Miami, And the defense was awesome with six sacks of Arch Manning, who did not pull his family even in The Swamp (the Mannings are now 1-3).
12. There was still the clock management issue and I got what Billy was saying about the end of the game. The clock stopped when Austin Barber’s helmet came off and Napier called timeout because he wanted to make sure he was in the game. That seemed to be a questionable move because of how much time would have come off the clock, but all’s well that ends with a W. Look, Florida won and only had 50 yards of penalties and held Texas to 52 rushing yards, so no bitching allowed, right?
Loading ...13. Anybody watching that game had to be yelling at the TV or in the general direction of the coaches saying, “I TOLD YOU!!. They gave the ball to Jadan Baugh 27 times. Napier said after the game he will give his prized running back a sponge bath Sunday. Ohhhh-kay, coach. “He’s a marquee back, and he deserves a number of carries each week,” Napier said. Well, duh. Baugh had more carries in this game than his last two combined. But the key was the offensive line looked like the strength of this team that it was supposed to be, which is why they scored 29 points after scoring only 33 in the last three games and averaged 7.0 yards per play on offense.
14. Special shout-out to former Florida assistant coach Tim Skipper, who was on both the Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen staffs. Skipper is now the interim coach at UCLA and pulled off the stunner of the year beating Penn State. He also unleashed Nico Iamaleava and the former Vol For Life had a big game. “It was like Mardi Gras in the locker room,” he said. Now, we’re living in a world where Florida, Penn State, Clemson, FSU and Texas have a combined 12 losses. So much for my preseason rankings.
15. At least I had a decent week on The Picks. Dr. Football went with the Gators all the way and cleaned up. And by going 3-2 for the week, we are at .500 at 17-17. Yay, Dr. Football. On to this week:
- The mighty Gators go back on the road where they have averaged 8.5 points a game and are an 8-point underdog (all spreads courtesy of MyBookie.ag) at No. 5 Texas A&M. I’ve been trying to be more positive so I will take the Gators to cover.
- The Red River Rivalry/Shootout is still one of the coolest games I have been to. The Texas State Fair has so many concessionaires that they can fry anything – Oreos, beer, sweet tea, avocados, Mark Stoops. Oklahoma is getting three and I like the Boomers to win.
- Georgia is only a 3.5-point favorite at Auburn, which I find surprising. I think the Doggies roll in this one.
- Really interesting game in CoMo where the Crimson Tide rolls into town as a 3.5-point favorite. Even those of us who don’t believe in the other Tigers know this is a chance to change our minds. I’ll take Alabama to cover.
- South Carolina is getting 10 points at LSU and I like the points against a team that struggles to score a lot.
16. Florida’s volleyball team just keeps struggling to string wins together. After the win against Auburn at home Friday, the Gators went to LSU and fought back to win the fourth set before getting waxed 15-4 in the fifth set. They will play host to Missouri on Friday night in the O-Dome while soccer will play host to Mississippi State at the Diz. The soccer team snapped a three-match tying streak (is that the best expression?) by beating Texas (who didn’t this weekend?) 2-1.
17. I am already eliminated from our WRUF Tailgate Survivor Pool because Arizona couldn’t hold an 18-point lead. But the stunner was the Bills not only losing but ending their historic streak of winning the turnover battle. You figured when the streak ended the winning would as well.
18. So, my wife and I were driving back from St. Augustine last Friday morning and she said nobody listens to albums anymore. She said to pick one, I went with “Wildflowers” and it made a fun ride home. That is one awesome album. This week’s playlist:
- * “Madalena” by Goose.
- * Speaking of Goose, I did see a version of this song with that group and the great Bruce Hornsby, but his solo effort of one of my favorite songs is the one I wanted to hear on my playlists, so “The Way It Is.”
- * And since we were listening to “Wildflowers” the oldie will be an underrated song off that album. “To Find A Friend” by Tom Petty.
WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.
Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Gators Football, Pat Dooley
