The Florida Gators took the spotlight of college football after their week one upset in the Swamp, moving all the way to #12 in the AP Poll rankings. Gators will drop back down in the rankings after an ugly performance against the #20 ranked Kentucky Wildcats.
There’s a lot to break down from the Gators performance; here’s my takeaways from the game.
RICHARDSON IS INCONSISTENT
Richardson has never been a very accurate passer since stepping foot in Gainesville. He’s come a long way as far as fundamentals go, but he still only made his third career start Saturday night. I don’t believe injuries had anything to do with his performance last night. I think he’s a young QB that lost confidence early on in the game and couldn’t get it back.
Richardson has always displayed inconsistencies. Last year’s LSU game comes to mind. Richardson was either scoring on every drive or throwing an interception. He finished that game 10-19 passing with 167 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He also ran a TD in.
Another performance that was eerily similar to last night was Georgia last season. Richardson was 12-20 passing, 82 yards, and two interceptions. Richardson even said his 2nd interception of the game reminded him of the Georgia game.
“The second one is flashbacks of the Georgia game. Same thing, I just threw it right to the dude,” Richardson said.
It’s become clear to me that Gator fans are going to have to deal with the growing pains of Anthony Richardson.
DEFENSE SHOWED UP
One of the lone bright spots was that the Gators’ defense played a terrific game. The defensive line mauled Kentucky’s offensive line all game long. The Gators did get pushed around a little in the 4th quarter, but the offense was giving the defense zero favors. Even on the last two possessions the defense held strong and forced two field goal attempts.
They did struggle defending against the tight ends early on in the game, but I thought they made a nice adjustment as the game went on. Patrick Toney tasked Trey Dean with covering the tight ends on a few plays and he was doing a far better job than the linebackers.
The long TD pass to Dane Key wasn’t bad coverage by Jalen Kimber, he just needs to find the inside and get to that ball. If Kimber knew where the ball was, he would have been able to make that play.
Kentucky’s offensive line is just not good, but it was nice to see the Gators’ defense play with some confidence in week two.
MORE DISCIPLINED FOOTBALL
The Gators only had three penalties for 28 yards last night after seven penalties in week one. This is an improvement, especially because two of the penalties were questionable calls. I know the Gators offense was non-existent yesterday, but it’s good to know the offense isn’t shooting themselves in the foot with holding calls or false starts.
PLAY CALLING NEEDS TO BE BETTER
I don’t believe the play calling was as bad as many are making it out to be. Richardson had open receivers that he missed or just didn’t even see. However, I do believe that Napier needs to play to Richardson’s strengths, which is his running game. I thought there was several RPO’s that Richardson could have kept for a big gain.
I don’t agree with Napier’s decision to go for it on 4th down, but I don’t get paid the big bucks to make those play calls. Napier stood in the paint when asked about his decision to go for it.
“At that point in the game, you have to be aggressive,” Napier said.” You think about where you are on the field, four minutes left in the game. You are only going to get so many opportunities to get it back. They were chewing it up pretty good. No question, that was the right decision.”
GATORS’ HAVE YOUNG TALENT
Trevor Etienne is the real deal. Nine carries for 46 yards and his first Gators’ TD in his 2nd career game. Montrell Johnson is just as good. The Gators have two great running backs they should be excited about moving forward.
Devin Moore played another great game. We heard all offseason about Moore, I think he’s showing us why. Moore has shown the ability to tackle in open field during his first two games.
Shemar James might see a huge uptick in playing time in the coming weeks with Ventrell Miller injured. Scooby Williams was also flying around the field last night and is a player to watch going forward.
SPECIAL TEAMS IMPROVED
The Gators still need to figure out how to not hold on kickoff returns, but outside of that, the unit had a good day. Adam Mihalek is a really good kicker. We saw his leg in the spring game and we saw it again yesterday. Mihalek connected on a 50-yard field goal in the Gators’ loss. Adam Crawshaw had a really good day too, averaging 47 yards per punt. Gators almost got their hands on a few punts as well.
Two areas I need to see more improvement in are kickoff and punt returns. Henderson didn’t impress me last season and he isn’t this season. I’m starting to wonder if he’s the only one they trust to catch the football.
I mentioned this yesterday, but I don’t understand why Adam Mihalek puts every kickoff all the way in the corner of the endzone. It was going to end up hurting the Gators at some point, and we saw it last night.