Just when Florida fans thought the 2022 season couldn’t get any worse than it was before, it did Saturday evening against the Beavers. From an execution standpoint, the Gators failed to do anything right in Saturday’s loss other than record a few critical tackles and block a field goal before halftime.
Unfortunately, the entire offense looked worse than the defense for the first time all season. Florida’s run game, which has been the strength of this football team all season was non-existent Saturday. The Gators ended up finishing the day with 39 total rushing yards as a combined group.
Florida’s passing game however gave no support or push for the rushing attack to make any noise after the Gators completed 13 passes all game.
However, Billy Napier is proud of how hard Jack Miller has fought to get here and respects his approach to this game.
“I think Jack showed some grit today when you think about what he was asked to do,” Napier said on Miller. “Obviously had the thumb injury at the end of training camp. To get back four or five weeks ago. Really first time to start and just reps to get ready for this game. Guy hasn’t been taking any two reps for a long time. I thought he showed some toughness and grit, he made some plays but obviously there are some things that he can do better.”
“His approach, his work ethic, his attitude towards the opportunity. I think some good and bad,” Napier said. “Lot of grit there. Respect the approach he took.”
Ricky Pearsall also backed that up saying how confident Miller is in his approach to the game.
“He’s an Arizona kid, so I’m familiar with him,” Pearsall said. “He’s a smart kid, and went out there with poise and was comfortable and confident with what he was doing, but like coach said, it was his first start. I think he did really well, I’m proud of him.”
The biggest killer of the game however was the penalties. The Gators tied their season high for the most penalties committed this season losing 82 yards on 11 penalties.
Surprisingly, the Gators also committed 11 penalties in Florida’s near shutout win against South Carolina.
“I think we will know more when we watch the tape,” Napier said on penalties. “This is a team where we have made a lot of improvement. Procedure penalties are things that I think frustrate coaches and certainly I don’t know if we have had that many the entire season, much less one game. That’s something we need to take a closer look at and see what we can do to help the players.”
The Gators were without many key players in Saturday’s loss, with one being O’Cyrus Torrence who had one of the biggest impacts on the offense this season. However, Napier believes the offensive line issues don’t fall on the absence of Torrence.
“I don’t think it was going to be about that,” Napier said on the absence of O’Cyrus Torrence. “We lived in third and long today as a result of inefficiency, missed opportunities, and penalties.”
“When you live in third and long your percentages of having success are not good and that’s when sacks happen. I think some of that is protection and I think that it is not always the offensive line,” Napier said. “I think every player contributes. It could be the running back, the tight end, the receiver and certainly the quarter back. Those are team situations and all players contribute to a sack.”
This Florida football team continues to struggle with executing the play calls given. There wasn’t much Napier could do today with nothing falling on offense. Napier ran the ball when he should have, and Napier passed the ball when he should have. Execution is the issue, not the play calls.
The culture on the other hand is something Billy Napier isn’t even worried about anymore it seems like.
“I think our issues on the field are execution specific,” Napier said. “You are always working on the culture part but I do think we made a ton of progress in that area. What I observed in that locker room compared with some of the things we may have observed when I first got here is a completely different ball club.”
There’s no doubt that this season for Florida has been a major let down and feels very similar to the success of last year’s team, but the culture has been restored. This football program is in a much better spot than it once was.
“Yeah, there were a lot of emotions, but I’m mainly just proud of being here,” Gervon Dexter said. “Just seeing the transition from last year to this year. I’m just proud of it, honestly. I just feel like the senior class and as far as me leaving as well, we left it better than we got it. That’s been the biggest thing for me and I’m proud.”
In a way, players plan to view this season as motivation for next season. This team wants to succeed just as much as this fanbase wants it to and it’s time for them to hit the reset button and flip a switch.
“I think we’ll look back on it and see what we’ve been doing all year long and fighting to the end is something our team has been doing,” Pearsall said. “You can’t teach effort, and that’s something that’s really important that we can build off into next year. We have a lot of young guys that are excited to play, so I think Gator Nation should be excited for the future here and what is yet to come.”
It wasn’t the season anyone had hoped for after a disappointing year last season that led to Dan Mullen’s departure, but the future is bright. This program is in good hands with Billy Napier.
Time is key for this fanbase and its football team, as well as recruiting throughout that process and making the necessary changes. This football program still has a long way to go with many problems that still linger, but if Napier can adapt and keep recruiting, finding a football coach isn’t a problem this program has.