Onside kick call backfires for UF

The onside kick and penalties were a huge blow. I don't blame Coach Muschamp for trying it as there was space to make it happen.

This. Defense was turned up at this point too. Had we kept them at the 25, who knows what could have happened.

Call seemed to be a product of having zero confidence in offense and to some extent defenses ability to stop teddy

JD6 ...was painful watching him run offense under any durress, think pease realized how out of sorts he was and we went to milk clock and not turn it over to teddy mode to keep score from being 65-27 type event

An atrocious play call. Defense is our strong-suit (at least, it was for the previous 12 games). We were only down 2 TDs. Pin them, most likely, inside the 25. Get a 3-and-out and favorable field position on the punt. An onside kick is statistically too risky.

But this game came down to more than an onside kick.

The second I saw what we were doing I knew it was over. We have been a second half team all year. The call was desperate and showed that we didn't have confidence in our defense. We completely abandoned our identity. Kick it to them and the defense sets the tone for the second half like it has all year. Try something fancy and we end up in an even bigger hole. We could have still won the game at that point if we did not attempt that onside kick.

This is a common fallacy. Calls should be judged not on whether the work or not but the relative probability of success compared to another move.

This was a really strange call because if our D forced a three and out, we'd be right in there with plenty of time. We were down 14 at the half, not 28 or something.

How many 3 and outs did the D force?

You gotta go with what has worked all season. Our defense has stepped up in the second half consistently.

I hear you man. The whole damn game was frustrating.

I mostly agree with this. The call reminded me a lot of Jim Tressel's desperate decision to run a dive on 4th and short against UF in the 06 title game (which was promptly stuffed and the game effectively decided). It told me that Muschamp didn't see many strategic answers to the Louisville attack and that he was reduced to "swinging for the fence" to turn things around. In that light, I don't totally blame him, but I still think it was a bit foolish to risk giving Bridgewater a short field with such a big lead. Also, when I read that his half-time comments were that we would "put a spy on Bridgewater", I knew he had no answer. Spying a guy who is lighting you up in the passing game at 15 yard a pop is not a viable solution. I won't overanalyze the reasons for the defeat, but in short I think we ran in to a better prepared team, with a better scheme, led by a QB who had the tools to exploit us.

It was a poor decision given the score and how we'd been playing. Make them drive the field, not get ball at the 50. Double PF calls blew it up.