Tyler Murphy or no Tyler Murphy, this is who the Florida Gators are.
A pretty good SEC team.
Nothing more, nothing less.
They can beat the bad teams and play with the good teams.
But they will never be mistaken for a great team.
Not after an offensively offense-less 17-6 defeat to 10th-ranked LSU on Saturday.
So much for Murphy being the cure-all for all that has ailed Florida’s offense during the past four seasons. It turns out, he was like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet hole. Once again, Florida’s offense is bleeding this team and its fan base to death.
“I’ve never thought of myself as the miracle (cure),” Murphy said after Florida’s offense failed to score a touchdown against a LSU defense that was giving up 466 yards per game against SEC competition.
No, he is just the latest caretaker of an offense that has been holding this program back for years now. We’ve seen offensive coordinators come and go — Steve Addazio, Charlie Weis and now Brent Pease. We’ve seen quarterbacks come and go — John Brantley, Jacoby Brissett, Jeff Driskel and now Tyler Murphy. And still the offense continues to flop around like a hooked mudfish in the bottom of the boat.
Here’s all you need to know about Florida’s offense Saturday: The best pass of the game was thrown by the punter, and the best punt of the day was kicked by the quarterback.
Florida’s offense was so inept Saturday that Florida’s players and coaches were in a state of denial afterward. Murphy was sacked four times and pressured nearly every time he dropped back to pass, but afterward he actually said: “I thought my offensive line did a great job. I thought my backs did a great job helping out within the protection. The receivers did a good job getting open.”
Really? Seriously?
Meanwhile, linebacker Michael Taylor was shouldering the blame himself. “As a defense, we didn’t do enough to win this game.”
Huh? What?
The Florida defense was plenty good enough to win. The Tigers were averaging 45.5 points and 488.8 yards per game. They ran up 59 points on Mississippi State a week ago, 41 on Georgia the week before. Florida held LSU to 327 yards and 17 points.
Florida coach Will Muschamp, being the grind-it-out, defensive-minded coach that he is, went into his usual spiel about how the key to winning football is running the ball and stopping the run. Yawn. That may be true, but the elephant in the room is that Florida’s rinky-dink passing game still can’t throw the ball down the field with any consistency. At one point Saturday, the dink-and-dunk Gators completed three consecutive passes for a grand total of 1 yard.
Murphy said the Gators were trying to “nickel and dime” the Tiger, but that is being too kind. Florida’s offense looked more like a couple of stray pennies at the bottom of the washing machine after a load of laundry.
The Gators fattened up on SEC Moon Pies like Tennessee, Arkansas and Kentucky — a combined 0-8 in league play — to give everyone this delusional sense that the Florida offense had turned the corner. Arkansas gave up 52 points to South Carolina on Saturday. Tennessee gave up 59 to Oregon a few weeks ago. Kentucky gave up 35 in a loss to Western Kentucky earlier this season.
Statistically, Florida’s offense is better this season, but how could it really be worse than a unit that was ranked No. 103 in total offense last season? The Gators entered Saturday’s game with the 78th-ranked offense in the country; 11th in the SEC. Not good enough in a league with LSU and Georgia and South Carolina and Florida’s opponent next week — Missouri.
When you think of the elite programs in the SEC, you, of course, think of two-time defending national champion Alabama. And you think of LSU. And you think of Georgia. And then maybe you think of South Carolina and Florida … or Florida and South Carolina. In the end, though, you just don’t think of the Gators as championship material.
Until Muschamp significantly upgrades the offense, the Gators will just be a pretty good team in the SEC.
Pretty good is not good enough for a fan base that once expected greatness.
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