FOUR BITS: Addazio, volleyball, soccer, Harvin

By Adam Silverstein
September 7, 2010

1 » When things do not always go as planned for the Florida Gators, the fan base seems to freak out. Like last year, fans’ frustrations have already been pin-pointed on offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Steve Addazio. But as both the Orlando Sentinel‘s George Diaz and The Gainesville Sun‘s Pat Dooley will tell you, it was only one game and Addazio may indeed deserve a break. “I wasn’t happy with some the play calls Saturday, especially the screen pass from the 1-yard line that should have been ruled a safety,” Dooley wrote in particular. “But with Addazio as coordinator, Florida is now 14-1. I think that has to count for something. Let’s see what happens the rest of the way. Off the ledge, people. Like I’ve said a million times, nobody suffers winning like Gator fans.”

2 » Facing a top-15 opponent for the third time in their first five matches of the 2010 season, No. 4/6 Florida volleyball (5-0) defeated the No. 13/15 Colorado State Rams (5-1) in four sets – 25-22, 25-19, 25-27, 25-21. The victory, which won the Gators the Campus USA Credit Union Invitational emanating from the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL, featured another brilliant performance from junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy. She, along with senior middle blocker Lauren Bledsoe, recorded 13 of Florida’s 10 kills. One day prior, in matches that took place earlier in the invitational, volleyball swept the both the Bowling Green Falcons (25-12, 25-11, 25-16) and Albany Great Danes (25-8, 25-21, 25-14) in three sets.

The Gators will host another tournament, the Nike Big Four Classic, beginning Friday. The other three teams participating in the event are No. 1 Penn State, Texas and Stanford, and all game information is available via OGGOA’s Upcoming Schedule table at the top right of your screen.

3 » Also running through the competition this year is No. 7 Florida soccer (5-0), which had six different players score while shutting out the Jacksonville Dolphins (2-3) 6-0 on Friday at James G. Pressly Stadium in Gainesville, FL. Junior forward Lindsay Thompson (27’), junior F/midfielder Tahnai Annis (30’), freshman F/MF Maggie Rodgers (45’), redshirt sophomore MF McKenzie Barney (50’), freshman defender Mary-Ann Krlin (80’) and sophomore F/MF Natalia Torosian (90’) all punched goals through. As a team, Florida had 30 shots on Jacksonville, 14 of which were on goal. UF is set to face Florida State next on the road Friday at 7 p.m.

4 » Though he missed most of training camp grieving two deaths and suffering from another severe bout of migraine headaches, former Gators wide receiver Percy Harvin says he is “ready to play ball” for the Minnesota Vikings beginning Thursday night in the NFL’s 2010-11 season opener against the New Orleans Saints (including former Florida defensive end Alex Brown and running back DeShawn Wynn). Harvin, who will be on of quarterback Brett Favre’s primary pass catchers along with the team’s kick returner, believes he is finally getting his migraines under control with the help of numerous doctors. “There’s no miracle solution for them,” he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “The people I talked to had them for 40-plus years. My mom had them for 35 years and is just now growing out of them. It’s just something you got to hope to maintain. […] I think we have a great plan.”

15 Comments

  1. Gatormiami says:

    Dooley is a GATOR BROWN-NOSE& DIAZ DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE! Gators have been consistent under OC Addazio…. consistent underachievers. Despite overwhelming talent, Gator opponents are always competitive… Addazio can’t even handle the O-Line effectively, let alone the entire offensive unit. INCOMPETANT! (The one team with comparable talent to the Gators, Alabama, embarrassed UF…. Thanks Steve!)

  2. Gatorbuc15 says:

    I’ll admit, I was upset with some of the play calls from Addazio. But I’m willing to lay off of him. Most of the things that happened Saturday were beyond his control, and that may have contributed to him calling some of the controversial plays that he did. So I’m willing to cut the guy some slack.

    On another note, the Gators Womens Volleyball team is just running over other teams! Hope they win their upcoming tournament!
    Keep rolling ladies!

  3. travis ritch says:

    I think the offense was just as bad last year, but there was enough experienced players left over from Mullen that they were able to make up for it. I’m going to hold off on judgment for now, but I wondered last year if the problems would get worse as these guys become all-Addazio. I’m hoping that is not where we’re going. I’m reminded of Terry Bowden at Auburn. Came in with a bunch of well-recruited, well-trained guys and looked really good. Undefeated season (probation though) right off the bat. But it just went downhill from there once it completely became ‘his’ team. Losing an excellent OC can be devistating…. just ask Bobby Bowden how things went after Richt left.

  4. brlgator says:

    I agree that as gators we tend to over react in these situations but i also agree gatormiami. I feel as if the offense has underachieved (even under tebow) since addazio took over. The first time i noticed it was in the last national championship game in which mullen wasnt there to fully prepare for the game, despite the victory i felt like our offense lacked rythme. And even in wins last year i felt uncomfortable with the play calling i.e. the arkansas game. And I also remember there being some questions as to the amount of carries our RBs got in the bama game.

  5. Aligator says:

    His play calling is not very creative and he does not know how to attack other teams defenses. those are facts. i know he is 14-1, but they bumbled and stumbled through last season. Yes we had good numbers, but that was because of the talent.

  6. Marky Mark says:

    If it was just Saturday then I give him a break. But it was all last year too.

    His lack of ingenuity in playcalling is causing our offense to consistently underperform.

    Luckily our D was so good last year we still won almost all of our games. I don’t think that will be the case this year

  7. SC Gator says:

    Underachieved, yes, but it is worth remembering that we only had 2 games under him that we didn’t win by double digits. The SEC champ game, of course, and the Arkansas game. I firmly believe we should have scored more… but as frustrating as it is to watch the play calling it, it isn’t really what’s to blame if/when we lose.

  8. npgator says:

    I say we wait and see next week how we look before we rush to judgement on this new regime.

  9. Mr2Bits says:

    SC Gator : His incompetence started almost immediately last year with the Tennessee game. We were favored to win by 30 and failed to score anywhere near that amount. It then ran into a poorly called LSU game, a near loss and offensive disaster at home verse Arkansas, an almost loss but thanks to the defense win at Mississippi State and a shellacking against Bama. Don’t forget to throw in South Carolina as that was no real gem to watch either.

    Stats
    In 2009 we scored 451 points in 14 games with 2 SEC games only having 30 points or more.

    In 2008 we scored 584 points in 14 games with 9 SEC games having 30 or more points

    Point being is he has no creativity or ability to game-plan effectively. He has retarded the offense to the point that I think Zooker is back. 4th and inches and he runs toss sweeps. 3rd and whatever and he runs bubble screens in the end-zone for should-be safeties. He is running the same plays over and over again allowing children to predict what we are doing. The hatred for Adazzio stems from last year to which we saw the same inefficiencies the entire year except for Cincinnati.

    Sure we may have gone 14-1 but we looked like crap doing it and still look like crap. All of this can be seen in us dropping 4 positions today in the AP. Hell, VTech lost and they only fell 3 so really how good are these wins getting us to where we need to be.

  10. swampbabe says:

    I have the worst feeling that we are headed for the big skid (ie: FSU – Mark Richt + uninvolved HC = mediocrity) There are long range implications to this game and others if we continue to play this way. Think of what offensive recruits (wideouts, especally) are thnking whle they watch that debacle, then hear Urban say he wasn’t aware that there was no fixed rotation fro our recievers, and that he didn’t realize Debose didn’t get on the field! Who the hell is driving this bus?

  11. Evan Cooke says:

    ….and breathe.

    Let’s continue this discussion on Monday.

  12. Will says:

    The funny thing is if the receivers would have blocked someone on those first two swing passes, they had a chance to bust a big play and then Addazio would have been a genius. The plays he runs are laid down by Urban Meyer’s offensive philosophy, which is run a lot, short passed and occasionally throw deep. Urban wants to run high percentage plays and control the ball. Fans seem to mistake his spread offense as another version of the Fun and Gun because we have 3-4 receivers on the field, but it’s more like Alabama’s offense that tries to grind it out on the ground. Most Gator fans have probably read Urban’s biography and it’s all laid out there in the “Plan to Win” section. Nobody seems to get it though.

  13. Drew 4 Orange & Blue says:

    That worked with Tebow, Mullen, Harvin & company but since Harvin and Mullen left the offense has not been in rhythm on a game to game basis & under 30 yards of offense for 3 quarters against any team let alone Miami of Ohio is pretty pathetic

  14. Aligator says:

    This is not like Bowden as he lost his marbles a while ago and did not care. It is also not like Richt, where he held on to Martinez too long. Trust me, if we lose three games this year, Addozzio will not be the OC next year, that is for sure.

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