Since Florida is off this week, it’s a great chance for Gator fans to look beyond the state and check out teams they might normally not watch because they are focused on Florida. Last night, JMU and App State played in a Sun Belt tilt. Florida’s former coach, who we will get to in a second, had JMU off to a 7-0 start before losing to App State last night in overtime.
We bring this up because there was a narrative brewing that Florida had an administration problem and not a coach problem the last four years. While there are fair critiques of the administration, last night proved that the last four years were, in fact, a coaching problem.
Florida’s former coach lays an egg against App State
If you are new here, we do not refer to Florida’s former coach by name at risk of Bettlejuicing him back to Gainesville. Instead, he is referred to as The Man in the Black Polo.
Prior to his game last night, that man appeared on Sirius XM radio and hinted that getting fired as early as he did last year was a good thing for this year:
“I joke around that Florida did me a favor and fired me midseason. So I got the second half of the season to kind of really do a deep dive into that entire four-year process, what we learned from that, and where can we improve?”
Never mind that The Man in the Black Polo would brag each offseason while he was still in Gainesville that he would do a similar deep dive; let’s see what his deep dive showcased last night:
- With 1:02 left in the 1st half, two timeouts, and the ball, JMU opted to run the clock out,
- Tied 21-21 in the 4th quarter, JMU lined up for a field goal and took an illegal snap penalty to push the kick back five-yards, just like we saw in Gainesville countless times.
- Down 31-24, JMU got stopped on third down and then had to back up even further when a JMU player took a personal foul penalty, just like we saw in Gainesville countless times.
- Still down 31-24, JMU sat on the ball for a minute while still at midfield. The drive did result in a touchdown with four seconds left, but it was not a drive that maximized expected value, just like we saw in Gainesville countless times.
- JMU didn’t go for two, opted for overtime, got the ball first, then opted for a convoluted trick play that no one was fooled by, just like we saw in Gainesville countless times.
- JMU had a halftime lead and lost, just like we saw in Gainesville countless times.
just like we saw in Gainesville countless times.
We’ve seen this film before, and we didn’t like the ending
They say time heals everything, but we’re still waiting.
The main problem that Gator fans have had with the rehabilitation tour that The Main in the Black Polo has gone on is that he has tried to paint a picture that his failures in Gainesville were due to factors other than himself. And as he got off to a 7-0 start at JMU while playing the 128th-ranked strength of schedule out of 138, others in the national media started to buy into this nonsense.
Because the ending of this game was a carbon copy of what happened in Florida’s loss to Tennessee in 2024. As one may recall, Florida scored a late touchdown, tried to line up for some weird two-point play, chickened out, and lost in overtime after missing their field goal in OT.
The question isn't whether or not the convoluted trick play worked in reality. The real question is:
If JMU had this trick play they thought would work, why not run it for two and win the game right there in regulation rather than save it for OT?
This is the scared money, don’t make money guy, right?
It is a microcosm of why he failed in Gainesville, and all we can say to those who thought the past four years were a Gainesville problem and not a coaching problem:
Do you get it now?
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