Jarrad Davis didn’t want to face the music but he knew it was coming.
The senior linebacker had just planted UMass quarterback Ross Comis after an incomplete pass on third and three but he knew he had gotten to his target late. The penalty, one of three penalties for 35 yards, kept the Minutemen’s drive alive and aided in their only score of the night
“I knew I came in late,” he said. “I looked at the referee. I knew it was coming.”
Davis’ penalty was just one of eight on the night, but also one of three personal fouls that the Gators were hit with in a sloppy 24-7 win over UMass.
“It’s not acceptable. What did we have, like eight of them for 80 yards? The thing that bothers you probably more than anything is they were unforced,” Jim McElwain said after the game.
The number of penalties wasn’t as high as some games last season, but the inopportune timing of them exacerbated the issue. Davis’ personal foul extended a drive that would have ended on that very play, as did Taven Bryan’s personal foul on the same drive.
Joey Ivie was hit for roughing the passers following an incomplete pass on 2nd and five, automatic Minutemen first down. A personal foul on Martez Ivey, when he ripped the helmet off of UMass junior defensive lineman Ali Ali-Musa created a second and impossible 23 for a Florida offense that stumbled.
The Gators have a razor thin margin of error. They were able to overcome it on Saturday night with a team that had an 8-40 record over the last six seasons and weren’t exactly welcomed back to the Mid American Conference, now playing as an independent.
They won’t win many games playing the way that did on Saturday night and they know it.
“We had to fight our tails off there to get a win, and I’m sure [Kentucky is] going to take a look at this tape and come in here and take a look at us the last whatever, three games of the season a year ago and say, ‘You know, we can beat these guys.’ I’m sure that’s what Kentucky will do,” McElwain said. “You know what, we haven’t given them any reason not to think that. Should be a lot of fun next week.”