The Florida Gators have accepted mediocrity. Saturday’s 17-to-16 loss against LSU was a wake-up call to some fans, but in reality this has been a long time coming.
An honest fan like myself will tell you that the Gators have been uncompetitive, boring and frankly, almost impossible to watch since Tim Tebow left. The offense has been pathetic and the defense has ebbed and flowed. I remember growing up knowing the culture that surrounded Gator football demanded success. Anything short of a national championship game berth was considered failure. Now? Not so much. A disgraceful loss to LSU’s worst team in a decade will still warrant chants of, “It’s great to be a Florida Gator,” from students as they exit the stadium. It seems that our football team and our Student Body will settle for average seasons and meaningless bowl games.
This culture of losing starts from the top down, and Gator fans should demand better. I’m looking at you Coach McElwain. In your third year, what have you done to improve the offense? Our team looks no different from when you took over. For all the criticisms surrounding Will Muschamp’s offense, at least he did his part as a defense-minded coach. McElwain, supposedly an offensive guru, can’t say the same about delivering on his specialty. Florida ranks 114th in the nation in total offense and 101st in points. That’s inexcusable in the third season of an “offensive-minded” coach.
There are those who will point to McElwain’s record as Florida coach, specifically in his first two years when he led the Gators to two SEC championship games. On paper, McElwain has a decent 19-8 record in those two years. However, it’s not just winning that matters. It’s winning convincingly. As Marty Cohen of 247Sports puts it, the Gators fail the eyeball test. McElwain may have his wins, but in how many of those have fans left The Swamp thinking the team played well? It doesn’t look like good, exciting football. Moreover, it seems that most of McElwain’s wins have come against teams that he was supposed to beat anyway— teams to which it would’ve been embarrassing to loose to. In fact, I can only think of the win against Ole Miss in 2015 as an exception.
“But what about the two SEC championship berths?!” some fans will ask. Well, were they really great accomplishments? Did the Gators win the SEC East because we were a good team? Or was it because the SEC East was historically bad? Maybe the Gators were better than the rest, but again, as weak as the SEC East has been over the past few years, that’s not saying much. Either way, the Gators never had a real chance of beating Alabama in either of those games.
Personally, I’m tired of hearing excuses from the coaches about how losses like the one against LSU are just “life in the SEC,” or the line, “it’s still a long season.” Really? Does anyone actually think we have a chance of beating Georgia this year? Even if we did, have we closed the gap with Alabama? Not a chance. In fact the gap may have even widened.
Gator fans should demand more from our football program. Fans (like the ones I sat next to on Saturday) who defend McElwain and blame “the real culprit,” offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, or the numerous suspensions are also part of the problem. Where is the accountability? But perhaps therein lies the problem: There is no accountability, and Gator fans have embraced a losing culture.
In order to see a change, fans must demand it. With the season practically over, barring miraculous wins against Texas A&M and Georgia, McElwain should try something different and spice up the offense. Throw the ball downfield, play with a sense of urgency or literally do anything different than what the Gators are doing now. The only thing McElwain has to lose is his job, and it’s not like he’s making a great case to keep it anyway. If he can’t show some serious improvement then perhaps it’s time for him to go. Gator Football fans deserve better.
Eduardo Neret is a UF finance senior. His column appears on Wednesdays.
