Billy Napier won his 50th career game as a Division I head coach in his 71st game, becoming the 10th coach with 50 or more wins since the start of the 2018 season: Nick Saban (66), Kirby Smart (65), Dabo Swinney (63), Lincoln Riley (59), Luke Fickell (57), Brian Kelly (58), Jim Harbaugh (51), Ryan Day (50) and Josh Heupel (50).
Florida (4-2, 2-1 SEC) improved to 22-1 against Vanderbilt in Gainesville since 1960 after a dominant win in front of a sold-out homecoming crowd.
Gator Country provides five early takeaways from Florida’s week six victory over Vanderbilt.
MONTRELL JOHNSON RUNS WILD
Montrell Johnson ran for 135 yards and a touchdown on 7.5 yards per attempt against Vanderbilt, posting the seventh 100-yard rushing game of his career and his fifth as a Gator. Johnson eclipsed 2,000 rushing yards in his collegiate career on a nine-yard rush late in the third quarter.
Johnson had to handle most of the workload on Saturday evening as Trevor Etienne did not suit up due to an upper body injury. Johnson had 18 carries in week six.
“If Trevor can’t go, I trust the coaches to put me in the right position to make the right plays. If that means getting an extra load, I’m down for the challenge,” Johnson said on Wednesday.
Johnson has not quite had the year he would have hoped for, but the New Orleans native made a statement in week six.
“He played big today,” Billy Napier said on Johnson. “He’s a 217-, 18-pound back, but I thought he played with an edge today. He was tough to tackle.”
Johnson was disruptive out of the backfield all game long and should only get better when Trevor Etienne returns from injury.
Freshman RB Treyaun Webb broke off a career-long rush of 43 yards to end the third quarter, finishing with 70 yards on four carries.
TE1 ARLIS BOARDINGHAM
Through five games of the 2023 season, Florida has not seen a tight end emerge at the position; those question marks may have been answered by Arlis Boardingham. The redshirt freshman set career highs with seven receptions, 99 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns against Vanderbilt.
“Arlis Boardingham really showed the growth that we’ve been seeing,” Napier said postgame. “That guy is a very capable — he’s a mismatch type player. Made some really unique plays today.”
Boardingham accounted for four of Florida’s 12 explosive plays in the contest, including four receptions of 15+ yards.
Although young, Boardingham has proved to be the best receiving threat in the Gators’ tight end room. The upside Boardingham brings to the table makes him the top tight end on the roster moving forward.
STOPPING THE RUN IS KEY
Florida’s defense forced Vanderbilt to be one dimensional for the entire game, holding the Commodores to just 58 yards rushing on 19 attempts. No Vanderbilt ball carrier exceeded 25 rushing yards.
“That was amazing to see, just being a part of that, holding those running backs to the least amount of yards as possible,” LB Shemar James said postgame. “We still had that bad taste in our mouth from last week, and we just wanted to come out this week and execute.”
While the Gators allowed 334 yards in the contest, they allowed just 97 yards of offense in the second half.
Florida was elite again on third downs, holding Vanderbilt to just one conversion on ten attempts. Vandy was also 0-3 on fourth downs, which Billy Napier considers turnovers for the Gators’ defense.
NEARLY PERFECT IN THE REDZONE
The Gators were nearly perfect in the redzone against Vanderbilt, scoring touchdowns on five of their six trips. Their lone miscue was after a series of offensive penalties, and the Gators were still able to find three points on a 40-yard field goal from Trey Smack.
Florida met their quota in both statistics against Vanderbilt as the Gators want to be above 80% touchdown rate and score on 100% of their trips to the redzone.
PASS PRO / INNACCURATE DEEP BALLS / HOLDING THE BALL TOO LONG
Florida continued to struggle to get the ball downfield with longer pass plays. The reality is the Gators’ struggle to push the ball downfield against Vanderbilt stemmed from a combination of poor pass protection, inaccurate passes, and Mertz’s decision to hang on to the ball too long.
“I want him to get rid of the ball sometimes,” Napier said on Mertz. “But I think when we look at it, some of the things that happened today, he’s holding it a little bit too long probably. We want to blame others, but I think he’s going to look at it and say, man, I’ve got to get through this thing and get it out.”
When Mertz was able to get the ball off for deep shots downfield, he was inaccurate.
“That’s definitely a part we’ve got to hit,” Mertz said on completing the deep ball.
This is an area Mertz and the rest of the Gators’ offense will need to clean up moving forward.
Florida is set to take on South Carolina on the road in week seven.