This past weekend’s game against Kentucky wasn’t the outcome many people were expecting, especially for Justin Shorter and the Florida Gators. Mistakes were made, confidence was lost, and the Gators unfortunately just couldn’t get the job done Saturday night.
This Florida football team is still trying to find its identity early in the year with a first-year football staff. “Our main goal is to go 1-0 each week,” said Shorter.
The Gators look to continue to improve and do just that this weekend in The Swamp when Florida takes on USF.
“I would say definitely taking a loss is a hard thing for everyone,” Shorter said. “I couldn’t even sleep last night. It’s a new week. I feel like our main goal is to go 1-0 each week. We weren’t able to get that done last week.”
“In order to have success you have to fail as well, so we were able to go back and watch the film and really see all the mistakes we made. Those are like the simple stuff we could’ve fixed up. I’d say we just went back to the drawing board, and now we’re going to focus on this next game going 1-0. That’s the goal every week,” Shorter said on moving past Saturday’s loss.
Quarterback Anthony Richardson mentioned how he lost all confidence early in the game during Saturday’s post-game press conference.
Getting back to work, and back on the practice field will be the key for Richardson and the Gators to have success. The competition on both sides of the ball only makes these players better.
“Confidence is built in repetition,” Shorter said on Richardson losing confidence. “So, I’d say in practice, you know, going out there every day and really giving it your all in practice even though we did lose last week. Just really focusing on a brand new week and trying to go 1-0 every day and trying to win every day in practice, every rep going hard, because I get to go up against Jason Marshall every single day at practice and Devin Moore. They make me ten times better, 50 times better.”
“So it’s just really taking it rep by rep and just going as hard as you possibly can,” Shorter said.
Saturday’s loss wasn’t easy for Richardson or anybody in that locker room, but there are many more games left to play this year.
“I would say definitely all of us,” Shorter said about Richardson looking distraught after the game. “I feel like it just wasn’t him. We win as a team and we lose as a team. Everyone, we were in the locker room trying to help each other out, talk each other up, and stay positive. That’s a big thing, because teams can lose games and just go down in the hole, but you can also lose and come back next week and be 50 times better.”
“It’s just one loss,” Shorter said. “There’s a lot of championship teams with one loss, so we’re just going to come back next week and try to put up huge numbers and really win.”
The future is bright for the Gators, and there’s so much talent to be excited about if you’re a Florida fan. Many freshmen have already made significant impacts on both sides of the football, and not just on the field but off it too.
Specifically, running back Trevor Etienne, and defensive back Devin Moore, have made noise early on this year.
“He is a different character,” Shorter said on Etienne. “He’s a different, different person. I would say, definitely, when he first got here for workouts over the summer, just watching him run and really seeing how he cuts and stuff like that, I was like, okay, this is going to be special. When we finally got there in camp, he puts the pads on, and that proves to everyone he’s that guy.”
“He loves everyone that he’s around. He’ll walk in a room and pick up everyone around. Everyone is going to know that he’s in that room, which is what everyone needs, I feel like,” Shorter said.
Etienne, who’s already racked up 110 yards on 14 carries in two games this season, scored his first touchdown in Saturday’s loss. The freshman currently leads the running back room averaging 7.9 yards per carry.
On the defensive side of the football, Devin Moore is already popping pads and locking it up in the secondary for the Gators in his freshman season. Someone who Justin Shorter mentioned earlier in the press conference makes him a better receiver, even at such a young age.
“I always call him Mr. Patient because he’s very, very patient,” Shorter said about Moore. “We go one-on-ones every day, going out there seven-on-seven, and I’m just so thankful I’m able to go up against DBs to that caliber because it just makes me honestly better.”
“I’ll never forget my first time going one-on-one with him when he first got in. I like did a little move on him, and he didn’t do nothing, just stood there. So I was like, okay, I know how to play against him. I just get out and go. I just call him patient because, if you see him in games and people run slants on him, he just sits there and holds tight. So, I feel like that’s a good trait for defensive back to have,” Shorter said.
A major threat so far in the air when targeted has been wide receiver Ricky Pearsall. Pearsall, who currently leads the team with 106 yards on six catches, has been an eye opener for players around the facility.
“I love Ricky, man. That’s my brother,” Shorter said on Pearsall. “He’s been here for a short amount of time, but he’s very, very talented. He’s probably one of the best receivers I’ve ever seen, just what he can do. And his work ethic speaks for itself. That just adds on to everything else. I can’t wait to really see when he really gets open and do his thing.”
Pearsall’s work ethic is something that gets talked about quite often by players, who often join in on drills at the new practice facility. Twice a day, Pearsall will catch 100 footballs with a jug gun every single day. If he drops one, he restarts.
“I would say definitely the culture here has changed drastically. I feel like now you can go down to the indoor facility. I was just down there,” Shorter said. “I think I saw eight guys down there, linemen, running backs running, doing drills, linemen snapping balls, kids over there catching jugs.”
“I think I saw Bowman, Daejon Reynolds, and I was just down there catching, playing a little bit,” Shorter said on Pearsall’s work ethic rubbing off on players. “It’s just work, so I feel like it’s definitely rubbing off, and we’re going to be a great team.”
These players want to win, and they’ve constantly put in the work for months. Napier has restored a certain identity within this program for which players, fans, and everyone that rep the orange and blue have been longing.
Compared to teams of the past under Dan Mullen, and the atrocity we saw last season, I’m not too worried about this team in terms of bouncing back.
The Gators beat themselves in the air Saturday night. The defense had a very strong showing. The key will continue to come down to Richardson and the passing game, that will have to get cleaned up quickly if the Gators are to find any success this football season.
Even faking the QB run would have put Kentucky’s defense on their heels after Richardson’s performance against Utah. By not even faking the run, corners and safeties became more and more comfortable dropping into coverage with our receivers. Their defensive front line all but completely neutralized our offensive line as far as opening up holes for the tailbacks, and so it became a predictable offensive scheme where a major component that was used last week was hardly even attempted. We essentially gifted the game to Kentucky by not being who we were the week before last.