If there’s anyone who knows what good Florida Gators football looks like, it’s Steve Spurrier. After winning the 1966 Heisman Trophy as quarterback for the Gators, Spurrier became their head coach between 1990 and 2001, winning six SEC championships and one national championship while there.
Today, the Gators are 4-3 and enter the weekend against the No. 1 team in the nation, the Georgia Bulldogs, with very little expectation of being able to win. Dan Mullen’s team put up a good fight against Alabama a few weeks back but they’ve backslid quite a bit since then than now appear to be headed for the middle of the SEC pack. Coming off an 8-4 season that was, itself, a step backward, it’s a troubling sign for the state of the program.
While there are certainly plenty of reasons the Gators haven’t been able to put it together, Spurrier told Paul Finebaum a very specific and succinct answer when asked why Florida is struggling.
Steve Spurrier, when asked by @finebaum why Florida has struggled since the Alabama game: “Well, we don’t tackle very well.”
Miss that refreshing, yet simplistic honesty.
— Brandon Zimmerman (@BZSEC) October 27, 2021
“Well, we don’t tackle very well,” said Spurrier.
Fair enough and, you know, probably correct. Can the Gators figure out their tackling issues in time to defeat Georgia? Probably not. But they’ve still got time to put it all together and still go to a bowl game this season, which might be the goal at this point.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.