There are times when 2 things just don’t fit, no matter how hard you try. Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford, for example. Who’d have thunk that would fail? Huh? Huh?

Such is the case, it would seem, down in the land of Jorts and Gators.

Their thesis: That the sum of their parts does not add up to what it should. In other words, coaching and personnel, while both excellent, don’t fit together very well.

And voila! There you have the Gator offense 2005-2006: two potentially lethal things put together in an inefficient and odd construction.

And immediately the ND fans of the world have flash backs of a highly-anticipated West Coast Offensive system under Ty Willingham & Co. and an uber-athelete named Carlyle Holiday.

And it all just snowballs from there…

On the frustrating in-game pattern of the Gator offense…

In fact, little’s changed from last year save the protections and the fact that for the first two to three drives of the game, Florida shows actual creativity and ability to move the ball. Beginning with the fourth series, you see:

1st down: ineffective run up the middle off the qb read thingy.

2nd down: second ineffective run/curl route for 3-5 yards.

3rd down: dropped pass no more than 12 yards down the field or WR screen for little gain.

4th down: punt.

Without fail the Notre Dame Collective Conscious reflects on the first bits of games against opponents like USC where the offensive line looks unstoppable, and Darius Walker looks all-world. Then suddenly a peculiar thing happens. The other team has adjusted! The other team has taken our best shots and adjusted, and Ty Willie has no answer!

Still, the Gator fan chooses an interesting path at this fork in the road. Neither laying all blame on players or coaches, he straddles both sides of the argument, making one wonder if he’s brilliant or just really flexible. And if he’s that flexible, is he really just sort of wishy-washy?

But the salient critique hasn’t changed: Leak at quarterback has passed, but not excelled in his final exam, a ballbreaker of a test designed by instructors who themselves may not know the answer to the questions they write. In the handbook of cliched fanboy analysis, we choose combo #21, “wrong personnel” with a side order of “novice coaching.” The offense didn’t adapt far enough, and Leak hasn’t maximized potential. (Or maybe he has–the kind of unprovable proposition that two pitchers of beer and a spirited discussion about football usually generates.) And Meyer/Mullen haven’t adjusted the scheme adequately to Leak’s talents. Somewhere between the two, there’s the intersection point where the dysfunction begins.

Perhaps the lack of direction and focus for this frustrated fan is a result of a lack of losing, something that gave both sides of the argument a lazer-like focus and a glacier-like certainty for Notre Dame fandom.

Or perhaps this fan has tipped his hand a bit during the dialogue and is, in fact, putting a little more weight into one foot.

It’s cruel, it’s unfair, it’s the kind of thing talk radio will love to reheat over and over again when the lines go dead: Chris Leak’s 7-1 as a starter this year, and Meyer’s upping the minutes of an 18 year old with zero starts in the SEC. He’s either a genius spinning string theory in his head between black-belt judo sessions in his underground dojo, or a complete fucking imbecile grasping at straws. Or potentially both.

Either way, 2 things are clear:

1. Florida Fans, despite having won all but one game this season, are not exactly thrilled.
2. Urban Meyer just needs time to get “his players.” Then you’ll really see.

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