Oh my poor misguided, bandwagon jumping Miami Hurricane fan friend, Toast. I understand that the now defunct Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale didn’t have a football team when you failed out of there, but was that really a reason to jump on this tropical depression of a team? The Canes years of Glory are WAY behind them, and frankly it’s going to be difficult to get back to your years of glory. You will spend time telling me how badly the Canes have beaten us over the past 20 years and I will give you that. The Canes have HAD our number, and that’s the key word: Had. The times, as Bob Dylan once said, “are a changin’”. There’s a new sheriff in town and it’s located at THE University of Florida and it’s the Gators. I didn’t jump on the bandwagon, I never got off. Been a season ticket holder for longer than I’ve known YOU. Graduated from there, learned radio there, member of the Journalism School Hall of Fame, my sister graduated from there, my oldest son, Nic graduated from there, my son AJ is a sophomore there now and on Saturday, we will raise the Orange and Blue victory flag once again.
You see, I think that Manny Diaz will ultimately make the Canes good. I think he’s the right guy for the job, but like Jimmy Johnson said in the Sun Sentinel this week, I’m not sure if Miami, with it’s financial limitations will ever be able to get back to championship level football again.
Here’s why UF wins:
We are a couple of years ahead of you, and as BAD as Jim McLwein was before we replaced him with Dan Mullen, he was recruiting great players. He just didn’t know how to coach ‘em up! Mullen does and is, and so is our Defensive coordinator, who makes more as a DQ than your head coach!
We have a veteran head coach, who has been coaching in the SEC as a head coach for 10 years and as an offensive coordinator for yeas before that. In fact, our coach HIRED your coach a couple of times, so he is your coaches mentor. As I am to you. J
We have a veteran QB, who last year was one of only 12 FBS QB’s to throw more than 20 TD’s and fewer than 7 INT’s last year, your guy was still trying to get a prom date.
Our skill position players are better than yours, from running backs to wide receiver’s, we are faster, better and have more depth.
Our defense and your defense are both pretty good, but I think our DB’s (we are DBU after all) will make things miserable for your freshman QB who just got the starting job an hour ago and his backup may play wide receiver this year. This is bad for you! Our Minister of Mayhem DQ will throw the kitchen sink your way.
Our offensive line and your offensive lines are young, but we will have more depth and a wily, creative QB who can and will use his legs and short, quick passes to ruin your day. You won’t get to Franks.
The game will start out close, but in the end the Gators depth and veteran players, knowledge of the offense and the pro gator crowd will win a reasonably close one in Orlando. 27-10
Why the Miami Hurricanes will beat the Florida Gators:
All we’re hearing from my buddy Paul and the various talking heads, is that the Florida Gators have too much experience for the young Hurricanes. I admit, Miami is the younger team, but experience only matters if it is also backed up by talent, and that is where I see plenty of Gator vulnerabilities.
Let’s take starting quarterback Feleipe Franks. The redshirt Junior had a pretty strong season, especially his last 4 games. But looking inside those numbers there’s an issue that Gator fans seem to ignore, when he was under pressure last season, his completion percentage dropped from almost 60% to 25%. The Hurricanes will be bringing the most talented defensive line the Gators will see all season, if they can get pressure on Franks, which I believe they will, that’s going to be a huge problem for Florida.
On the flipside, Gator fans are chirping about the lack of experience that Canes quarterback Jarren Williams has and they are correct. He saw very limited action last season. However, the last time he played regularly (senior season of high school) he compared favorably, and some experts say outperformed Clemson star QB Trevor Lawrence. Now I’m not saying JW is as good as TL right now, but Lawrence didn’t have too many growing pains his first year, no reason to think JW can’t play at a similar level his first year.
Lastly, this game will most likely be decided by turnovers and field position.The Canes have been the turnover masters ever since the Turnover Chain debuted two seasons ago. Also, they have added the most heralded punter of the last 10 years to help pin opponents way back…for these reason, the Miami Hurricanes will not only cover the 7.5 points, they will win this game on the field.
24-17. Book It.