The Florida Gators dropped an emotional game to the Tennessee Volunteers, losing 38-33 on Saturday night. It’s important to note that the Gators didn’t roll over and die, at least not offensively. The Gators fought until the clock hit zero; they were 39 yards away from an upset victory in Knoxville. This isn’t a team that gave up on their coaching staff or stopped fighting for each other. There’s a ton to take away from this game, but I’ve broken it down into four key takeaways.
DEFENSE HAS A LONG WAY TO GO
I’m not even sure where to start with the Gators defensive performance tonight. The Gators had no answer for Tennessee’s up-tempo offense; the Vols totaled 576 yards offensively. Tennessee didn’t punt the ball once tonight; you aren’t going to win many football games if that’s the case. We saw several veteran defensive players make rookie mistakes tonight. Trey Dean, Brenton Cox, and Amari Burney, just to name a few. Blown coverages allowed the Volunteers to find the end zone rather easily tonight. I’m not going to put all the blame on Patrick Toney just yet. Toney can’t cover Trey Dean’s assignment for him. It’s clear to me that the Grantham stink is ALL OVER this defense. The defense is going to take some time to repair.
The Gators sacked Hendon Hooker three times tonight and created two turnovers, but it just wasn’t enough.
WHAT A DAY FOR RICHARDSON
The bright side of the game was the Gators’ offense led by Anthony Richardson. The Gators outgained Tennessee 596 to 576 yards. Richardson had 515 of those yards to himself. Richardson wasn’t always accurate with the football, but he executed when the Gators needed him to. Richardson was fearless, which is what every Gator fan wanted to see from him tonight. If Richardson was nursing an injury, it didn’t seem like it tonight. Richardson was active in the pocket, extending plays with his legs while keeping his eyes down field. Napier made a point to test Richardson’s deep-ball tonight and he didn’t disappoint. There’s been a lot of talk about Richardson over the last few weeks; I think the bottom line is that he’s an extremely young and talented QB that’s going to have his fair share of ups and downs this season. Nonetheless, that was an incredible performance from the Gators’ quarterback.
SPECIAL TEAMS IS AN ISSUE
I’m going to crunch the numbers this week, but I would bet that the Gators are one of the worst teams in the country on kickoff returns. Under no circumstance should you start a drive that was kicked off to you at your own four-yard line. The penalties need to stop on kickoff returns. At this point, kickoff returns need to stop in general. If I’m Billy Napier, I’m telling my team to fair catch or take a knee every single time. If I’m the opposing team, I’m doing anything I can to allow Florida to return the kickoff. I understand if you don’t trust any other receivers to return and not fumble the football, but I don’t understand shooting yourself in the foot with something that is so easily correctable. Starting the ball at the 25 would be a breath of fresh air for Florida fans.
SCARED MONEY DON’T MAKE MONEY
You all knew it was coming when the Gators hired Billy Napier. Napier was 5 of 6 on 4th down conversions tonight. This was a gutsy gameplan from Napier and Richardson executed it. The Gators are nowhere to be found in this game if Napier isn’t aggressive. Napier called plays tonight that nobody in the country is calling. We’ve seen it every week and it’s not going to stop. I think part of Napier’s decision to be ultra-aggressive in this game stems from the fact that he knew his defense wasn’t going to get a stop tonight. Napier is going to be an aggressive play caller while he’s the head coach at the University of Florida.
There are a million takeaways from the game, but these are the ones that stood out to me immediately. The Gators have a ton to work on this season, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Gator fans are going to need to be patient with Billy Napier.