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The Good, the Bad, & the UGAly
Senior Bowl invites, Vols meltdown, and Daniels 400+ leaves us with more questions than answers

Nick Knudsen

The Good

Defensive Progress

Two frustrating drives to open the game may’ve kept you in a sour mood about the defense throughout the day, but aside from one busted play in the second half, the Gators posted a solid performance on Saturday.

Vandy scored a touchdown on an 11-play, four minute drive to open the game and a field goal on a 12-play, five minute drive on its second possession. From that point forward, the Gators defense woke up.

Take a look at how well Grantham’s bunch performed through the final eight Vanderbilt drives.

The Commodores went three-and-out on three occasions, punted six times, and held the ball for more than three minutes on only two drives, both of which ended in punts.

Kyree Campbell, Gervon Dexter, and Mohamoud Diabete each posted career highs in tackles and Kaiir Elam’s fifth career interception shut down Vandy’s final drive.

There is plenty to continue to question about the Gators defense with the SEC Championship Game coming more into focus. Giving up the big play is still an issue with this unit. I’m not overly fired up about a decent performance at Vanderbilt, but it’s foolish to only focus on the concerns without taking time to acknowledge some positive progress on the defensive side of the football.

The Gators have a great opportunity to build on this performance against struggling Kentucky and Tennessee offenses. If Florida can keep the big play locked up through the next two games, hopefully, it will give the defense an extra boost heading into Atlanta.

Five Gators headed to Senior Bowl

This past week, Jim Nagy and the Reese’s Senior Bowl invited five Florida Gators to Mobile to perform for NFL scouts in January.

Last year, Tyrie Cleveland, Jonathan Greenard, Van Jefferson, Lamical Perine, and Jabari Zuniga took part in the Senior Bowl.

The Bad

Bluegrass Offensive Woes

In Kentucky’s last three games against teams not named Vandy, the Wildcats offense has been non-existent. The biggest issue has been the passing game. Quarterbacks Terry Wilson, Joey Gatewood, and Beau Allen have thrown for a combined total of 261 total yards against Alabama, Georgia and Missouri. The running game has not been much better racking up a total of 292 total yards in those same three games.

Florida’s defense will have a chance to make a statement next week in The Swamp.

The Life of a Tennessee fan

https://twitter.com/WACKOVFL/status/1330347149796765701?s=20

https://twitter.com/Peyton_Forrer/status/1330344494131245057?s=20

The UGAly

Well, it only took six games and intensely poor performances on the offensive side of the ball in two ugly losses for Georgia to decide to start Southern Cal transfer J.T. Daniels at quarterback.

In the leadup to the Florida-Georgia game, there were rumblings around the UGA program that Daniels had not played thanks to a slow-healing knee from his 2019 ACL injury.

Ok, so Kirby Smart was off the hook. No need to explain why you’d stick with Bennett and trot out Mathis, a promising prospect who needs a lot more development, over a transfer who started two season openers during his time at USC.

It was a bit surprising to hear Daniels would finally get a start this past weekend against Mississippi State. It was extremely surprising when he lit up MSU for 401 yards passing and four touchdown passes despite UGA only rushing for 8 total yards. But, the most surprising nugget of information we learned last night was that Daniels has been cleared to play since the second week of the season against Auburn.

I’m not trying to read too much into Daniels’ postgame comments. If Kirby Smart felt Daniels was good to go, I’m positive we would have seen him earlier in the season. However, Daniels’ little jab adds fuel to the question swirling around this program: does UGA know how to properly manage the quarterback position?

Yes, Jake Fromm was a solid starter for three seasons, but did he significantly improve by the time he left Athens?  The stats say no.

Fromm stats pulled from: https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/jake-fromm-1.html

Smart stuck by Jake Fromm as he ran off Jacob Eason, the top-rated pro style quarterback in the 2016 recruiting cycle, and Justin Fields, the top-rate dual threat quarterback in the 2018 recruiting cycle.  Eason went the in fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Fields should be the first or second pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, and Fromm was selected in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

This is not an anti-Jake Fromm piece. Fromm obviously had some great qualities that allowed him to hold onto the starting gig through three seasons. Forget how you feel about Fromm, Georgia fans, and ask yourself: has Kirby Smart maximized the quarterback position during his tenure in Athens?

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