Florida Football: Steve Addazio Saved the Worst for Last

I thought that coming into this game that there would be a new look of some kind. I mean, you only have 35 days to come up with SOMETHING new.

And Addazio did not disappoint.

His new look was...trimming his mustache?

Really. After FIVE WEEKS OF PREPARATION, Florida had absolutely NOTHING NEW TO UNVEIL ON OFFENSE.

The Hines reverse had been used multiple times already this season, so don't say that was a new play.

I think it's fair to say that Florida's final offensive performance under Steve Addazio was his worst, in two years worth of games.

Let's do a recap like I did for the South Carolina game (on my previous account).

Drive 1: Brantley's play-action pass is the first play-call of the game. This was actually a decent play-call—for Steve. Sadly, he just couldn't come up with a good play-call without doing something stupid along with it.

The pass route that he drew up was a designed 12-yard out pattern for Hines—while Hammond ran a 10-yard in pattern at the same time. Of course, nobody on that play was designed to go downfield at all, leaving Brantley to accurately throw a pick into triple coverage.

Drive 2: Two Jordan Reed dives in a row, then a 3rd-and-6—could be a passing situation, until Brantley comes back in. Now it's an obvious passing down. Addazio's extremely predictable, repetitive and conservative gameplan has been caught on to by DC's everywhere, and Penn State dropped back into coverage for Brantley to throw an incompletion. UF punts.

Drive 3: Florida is set up at PSU's 15-yard line thanks to Ahmad Black (the hero). Lo and behold, UF actually picks up a first down—on a PSU penalty. Then, Addazio sends in Burton (hmmmmm, I wonder what Florida will do now, run or pass) at the 4-yard line.

What did Addazio dream up during the layoff? Some kind of option? Another jump pass? A reverse? A shovel pass? A play-action bootleg? A shotgun snap, take one step forward like it's a run and then lob it over everybody's head for an easy TD? Nope. Dive up the middle. With six defenders all going for the ball, Burton fumbles and PSU falls on it.

Drive 4: Eight-yard pass to Hammond, Reed dive, 18-yard pass to Burton, Reed dive, screen pass for no gain, dive to Rainey, bad snap by Pouncey (why even bother touching on that) and a bubble screen to Rainey for 15 yards—on 3rd and 27. Really? A screen on 3rd-and-27?

Never mind that the QB you're working with was voted National Player of the Year in high school, for throwing the ball. Never mind that he broke Tim Tebow's TD record in high school. Why would you ever want to actually use his golden arm? Henry has to punt.

Drive 5: Starting at the PSU 15-yard line, a dive to Rainey gets nothing, then a reverse to Hines (we could have used that the first time we were in the red zone, but whatever) gets a TD. Addazio turns away for a second and gets excited in his pants.

Drive 6: Sweep to Demps, dive to Demps, incomplete pass to Hines on a two-yard crossing pattern, incomplete pass to Thompson on an identical route. Repetitive, predictable and conservative. Florida punts.

Drive 7: After Florida blocked a punt for a TD (thank you, Soloman Patton and Lerente McCray), UF gets the ball back and does the following: Incomplete pass to Hines on a two yard hitch, dive to Rainey that goes nowhere, and a bubble screen to Rainey that goes for four yards—on 3rd-and-10. I mean, really, how did Temple fall on THIS GUY?

I won't really call it a drive, because it was one play, but Brantley gets sacked on the final play of the half.

Drive 8: Rainey gets loose for the first time all day, for 51 yards. But alas, that's all Florida can do. Reed dive, bubble screen to Demps, and an incomplete pass to Robert Clark all for a grand total of minus-1 yards.

Drive 9: Probably the only half decent drive of the game. Reed throws a 21-yard pass to Hines, runs outside for seven, runs outside again for nine—and that's about it. Dive for nothing, bubble screen to Thompson for six yards, Brantley comes in to throw an incompletion to Hines.

Drive 10: Minus-two-yard bubble screen, seven-yard rush by Reed to the outside, bubble screen for nothing to Robert Clark. Henry fakes a punt and gets nowhere. I could go on and on about how awful this play-calling is, how he fails to adjust, but I've done it all year to no avail.

Drive 11: This drive started at PSU's 45. Demps dive for a loss of one, incomplete hitch pass and finally, FINALLY, Brantley looks to throw it downfield. What happens? A beautiful bullet to Deonte Thompson for 17 yards and a first down. But that's followed up by a bubble screen that's knocked down, Reed mishandling the snap and Chas Henry drilling a field goal.

Drive 12: Another drive set up by the defense, at PSU's 25-yard line. Like always, Addazio takes it two yards at a time, but here it actually works—remember, for 25 yards—and Mike Gillislee, a tiny but elusive tailback, dives into the end zone from the two inch line- just barely.

Again, I could go on and on about how Gillislee had been missing all game, Mack Brown never played a snap even though he's the bruising tailback; it just goes to waste, Addazio never listened to me or anybody else. A perfect example of not using players to their strengths and getting lucky. An eight0play drive that was aided by a pass interference penalty on 3rd-and-long, congrats, Steve.

Drive 13: This drive started on UF's own 43. It consisted of seven dive plays, one reverse, one sweep and two screens, not to mention a costly offsides on 3rd-and-5 on PSU. Henry nails another field goal.

Drive 14: Same old, same old. Except this is the time to do it: up six, four minutes to go. Three Reed dives, a Demps dive, another Reed dive and then a beautiful 59-yard punt by Chas Henry.

Ahmad Black's turn to save the day.

Matt McGloin never saw Black coming, and he stepped in front of the pass out of nowhere, and pick-six city soon became party city. Addazio smugly talked about how his offense had put up 37 points, "sending me off with another great performance" making me want to punch the TV.

Really, this was so bad that a pair of offensive recruits left at halftime. That's right, the offense was so bad that in URBAN MEYER'S LAST GAME, in a BOWL GAME AGAINST JOE PATERNO AND PENN STATE, ON NATIONAL TELEVISION, the recruits couldn't take any more and left.

I would have done the exact same thing if Addazio had stayed next year.

But seriously, doesn't all the stuff in bold seem kind of familiar?

Oh yeah, it does. They've been written about a bunch of times a FEW MONTHS AGO. Ryan, the creator of firesteveaddazio.com wrote about it, and in mid-November, I wrote about it in my previous account.

But Gator fans, Addazio did teach me—and all of us—a very valuable lesson: anything is possible. I mean, if Addazio can get a head coaching job, then anybody can.