BUDDY MARTIN: What Could Have Been ‘Swamp Magic’ Became Another SEC Loss. And Now What?

Anthony Richardson flew through the air with greatest of ease on a near-miracle finish. (Chris Spears Photo)

Florida’s third down defense is trending toward its own horror movie here on the Ides of Halloween. You’ve heard of Nightmare on Elm Street? This one could be titled 'Nightmare on Lemerand Boulevard'…

By BUDDY MARTIN

GatorBaitMedia.com Editor

There’s an old saying in the South: Never take a knife to a gunfight. In SEC football, the equivalent of that is trying to compete in Big Boy football without a defense. Therein lies the problem with Billy Napier’s Florida Gators.

Only half of Napier’s team has showed up for the first half of his first season. And he can’t seem to muster the right combination of players, coaches or a defensive scheme to stop anybody on third down, a category where the Gators are FBS bottom feeders.

“It’s not just one thing,” Napier insisted after the bitter 45-35 loss to LSU, combing through the ashes for answers after his team’s third loss of the season. And yet it really is one thing: The inability to get off the field from almost any place on any down and distance against any opponent. The result of which is a bruised and battered, tuckered out defense holding on for dear life.

Meanwhile, Gator fans need to drive through the Golden Arches, because they deserve a break today – and they've got one all week with this open date. I suggest Napier trade that knife for some more defensive firepower when action resumes in Jacksonville against the nation’s No. 1 college football team. If he could only do that.

Once again on Saturday night, Patrick Toney’s defense was humiliated on third down as LSU ran roughshod over the Gators with 528 yards of offense, including 125 of those yards on third down, making a mediocre quarterback look like All-World. Jayden Daniels gave Hendon Hooker and Bryce Young a run for their Heisman money.

Lawd, how they gonna stop them Vanderbilt Commodores – let alone those Big, Nasty Dawgs?

Florida’s third down defense is trending toward its own horror movie here on the Ides of Halloween. You’ve heard of Nightmare on Elm Street? This one could be titled “Nightmare on Lemerand Boulevard," Part2, Producer Patrick Toney (having already seen Part 1, produced by Todd Grantham.)

Leaving frustrated Gator fans looking for a scapegoat. Which is too bad, given the good things Napier has done in trying to get the Florida program back on the right track while developing a splendid young quarterback with the heart of a lion and the talent of a potential superstar.

Taking nothing away from the Tigers, who have now beaten the Gators four straight seasons in this now-bitter cross-over inter-division spat, this game was close to a beatdown – and yet almost flipped by the Gators. At halftime, with LSU ahead by one score, about to receive the second-half kickoff and looking unstoppable on offense, I turned to my colleague Franz Beard in the press box and said: “This could get really ugly in the second half."

And it did – until it didn’t. Almost.

For those of you who buy into such things as waking up the echoes and stirring up spirits in The Swamp, there was a near-magical moment that seemed to emanate from Tom Petty Day/Night karma. And it was aggravated into existence by the rudeness and disrespect of the LSU band, which trampled all over singing of the I Won’t Back Down anthem by over 85,000 Gator faithful. It was beyond tacky and horrible sportsmanship.

TV didn’t show it and some even in the stadium didn’t notice, but in your life (as Verne would say) you’ve never heard such a vociferous vocal protestation as the loud chorus of boos cascading from the South, hurtled toward the opposing team’s band.

On the very next play to begin the fourth period, almost as if on cue, Richardson exploded down the sideline for a 81-yard touchdown, tight-roping to keep his balance, almost stumbling forward and then, finally, diving into the end zone for the last few steps to make it a two-score game.

It was downright inspirational. Then another near-miracle: The Gators stopped the Tigers on third AND fourth down, forcing a punt. Suddenly A.R. discovered he had another receiver and completed five passes to Xzaiver Henderson on an 80-yard drive concluded by two short running bursts from Trevor Etienne. 42-35! And on the precipice of something remarkable.

Could this be happening? One could only imagine what a transformational win like this would have been for Napier’s challenged program. A signature win? Now all Florida needed was a break. A turnover perhaps?

Sure enough, with just over five minutes to play, the elusive Daniels dropped back to pass with big Gervon Dexter bearing down on him, released the pass and it was picked in mid-air by Jason Marshall Jr., giving the Gators possession around mid-field with plenty of time to score, go for two and pull off a colossal comeback.

Do you believe in Swamp Magic?

A yellow hankie was spotted nearby. Apparently the textbook wrap-up of Daniels and subsequent takedown, with the 312-pound Dexter landing on top of 200-pound LSU quarterback, was egregious enough for the zebras to snatch defeat from the Gators’ jaws of victory. Honestly, that call in today’s climate of QB over-protection could have gone either way. This time it went for LSU, ruining a possible storybook finish.

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“There’re many times out there tonight where they could’ve folded their cards and they fought back in the game and got it to a one score game,” Napier said. “We did a lot of good things tonight, but ultimately not enough to win the game. It’s my job to position the team to win, to have success, and I could do my job better. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Noble and romantic as it sounds, as Napier said his team didn’t get it done, falling to 1-3 in the SEC. It also means Florida goes into the off week with the prospects of being 4-4 after the Georgia game, conceding nothing, of course, but being realistic.

While we admire the spunk and fight, and the appreciate the encouraging words, if Billy Napier and his Army of 100 can’t find some answers pretty soon, an appreciative-but-impatient fan base isn’t going to look kindly on his success -- or lack of. He may be building on a five-year plan of sorts, and understandably so, but the fans’ calendar is good for only one year at a time. And they just can’t live on near-miracles alone.