The No. 10 Gators fell to Kentucky 20-13 in Lexington on Saturday night for the first time since 1986.
Here are my five biggest thoughts on the week that was.
1. Why in the world did the Gators not go with a silent count on offense?
When you commit eight false start penalties in a game, it’s pretty obvious that you’re experiencing major communication issues.
You would’ve thought that after the third or fourth penalty that Dan Mullen or John Hevesy would’ve said, “Our guys cannot hear Emory Jones’ cadence; let’s switch to a nonverbal form of communication.”
Instead, they had Jones yell out the calls and clap his hands throughout the duration of the game. It was the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Mullen spoke all week about how hostile the environment was going to be in Lexington, so I’m not sure what happened. Did they underestimate the volume of the crowd? Do they not even work on silent counts in practice?
Regardless, it’s clear that this offense was ill-prepared to play this game, which was shocking for a Mullen-led unit.
2. Special teams have been an abject disaster this season.
Major errors on special teams have contributed to both of the Gators’ losses this season.
They missed an extra point and muffed a kickoff out of bounds at the 1 against Alabama. Against Kentucky, they had a field goal blocked and returned for a touchdown. They also had a delay-of-game penalty on a field goal attempt that they were fortunate to make anyway.
There have also been some punts that they’ve allowed to roll for an additional 15 or so yards instead of catching them, and they’ve made some poor decisions on whether to bring kickoffs out of the end zone or not.
Special teams were a strength of this team over the past couple of years, and the coaches seem to emphasize special teams a ton. Still, this is a major area of weakness this season.
3. I have no idea what Mullen was trying to accomplish with that game plan.
He displayed zero creativity in this game. Of Jones’ 31 pass attempts, it felt like 25 of them were thrown within five yards of the line of scrimmage. His longest completion was just 22 yards. I can’t even remember one deep shot that they took.
Instead of trying to get points at the end of the first half, Mullen opted to run the clock out despite having nearly two minutes left and all of his timeouts.
Even when they tried to mount a comeback in the fourth quarter, they went on long drives instead of trying to pick up yards in large chunks.
Mullen either doesn’t trust Jones as much as he claims to publicly, or he thought that the only way Kentucky could beat them was if they made major mistakes on offense and decided to go ultra-conservative.
This offense is supposed to be a spread offense that makes the defense defend the entire field, from sideline to sideline and from the line of scrimmage to the end zone. So, when you decide to play the game in a 10-yard box for most of the night, it shouldn’t be a surprise that these are the results that you get.
4. The defense played its most complete game in a while.
This is the only positive to take away from the game. They limited the Wildcats to 224 total yards, including just 87 passing yards. They allowed UK to convert just one of nine third downs and stopped them on their lone fourth down attempt. They intercepted a pass.
Really, their only blemish was the 41-yard touchdown catch and run by Wan’Dale Robinson where they missed two or three tackles. They gave up less than 200 yards and just seven points on the other 46 plays, and those seven points were a product of Jones throwing an interception and giving UK a short field.
You can’t blame Todd Grantham for this loss.
5. They’ve got to stop losing to an inferior opponent every year.
You can pretty much count on Mullen beating a team he shouldn’t and losing to a team he shouldn’t every year.
In 2018, the Gators beat LSU and Michigan but lost to Kentucky and Missouri. In 2020, they beat Georgia but lost to one of the worst LSU teams in years at home.
This cycle has to stop for this program to go anywhere. You’ve got to take care of business against the teams that you’re better than before you can start worrying about chasing down Alabama and Georgia.
Otherwise, they’re going to continue to lose two or three games every year but leave their fans with just enough reasons to be optimistic about the next season.
Preach it Ethan! No pulled punches, I like your honest assessment. I blame our multi million dollar coaching staff for another horrible debacle, just like the OU bowl game and as you wrote the LSU fiasco and others. Should not have lost to that KY team, we have way more talent than them, way more athletes.
Ethan- Nicely articulated!
The “D” was the strength last night. But offensively, ugh, a mistake laden lethargic sleep-fest. At least if a defender picks a deep pass it’s like a punt!! Expecting to win is one thing. Being creative and fundamentally sound in your game planning, preparation and execution is another. The game plan (or lack thereof) was eerily similar to some of Muschamp’s most famous debacles.
Winners go for it. They trust their guys to go for it. Playing scared and conservative in a hostile environment isn’t fair to the players. Leave it all on the field. And a big peeve of mine: The answers aren’t on that darn plastic cheat-sheet! Rant over. Always great to-be a Florida Gator.
Go Gators.