Can the Gators somehow salvage a season that most have written off?

Chimere Dike gets yards after the catch against UCF (Photo by Chris Spears)

Let’s start with the obvious. The Florida Gators (3-2) got a win they so desperately needed Saturday night at The Swamp. They didn’t go the white knuckles route nor did it require a shootout to beat UCF, 24-13. Once the game got to the second half, you could even say this was about as boring as it gets, but boring wins count just the same as the ones that leave you thinking your heart has launched from your chest and stuck in a thumping glop on the nearest wall.

If this had been a normal Saturday in the Southeastern Conference, message boards would have gone off the charts with nephews posting their uncle four times removed has inside information that Scott Stricklin is bowing to the pressure of go-zillionaire boosters ready to pull the plug on Billy Napier. But this wasn’t a normal Saturday.

Nowhere close.

The fact that perennial bottom feeder Vanderbilt, which had never beaten a top five team in its history, kneecapped No. 1 Alabama, 40-35, and Arkansas, whose coach always seems to be mentioned in the same breath as Napier on the hotseat lists, bushwhacked No. 4 Tennessee, 19-14, should have sent a ray of hope rippling through the Gator Nation. If Vandy can rise up and do a number on the No. 1 team in the nation and Arkansas can make Tennessee’s speed dial offense go back to the days of telephones with rotator dials is it possible the Gators can somehow salvage a season that nearly everyone has written off?

Consensus among the media Saturday night was UCF represented Florida’s last and only chance to get a win before the annual Florida State debacle on the last Saturday of November. By then, of course, Napier would be asking Jimbo Fisher for investment advice. At least that was consensus.

But, a funny thing happened on the way to disaster and the next nail in Billy Napier’s coaching coffin. The Gators got a win, which wasn’t entirely unexpected, but Florida’s defense actually showed up. That’s shocking enough that it should be repeated. Florida’s defense not only showed up but actually played quite well. In Napier’s 30 games on the job, we haven’t had many opportunities to say that.

Post game, Napier credited the bye week for making some necessary adjustments with the defense. Adjustments, great practices and complete buy-in by the team were talked about during the week prior to UCF.

So when edge rusher Jack Pyburn talked to the media Wednesday evening, it was as if he was channeling his inner Nostradamus. Pyburn said, “I'm telling you, I think there will be a different mentality when this defense especially steps on the field on Saturday.”

There was a different mentality that was abundantly clear because the Gators played confident, aggressive defense. The Gators stuffed UCF’s run game, holding the Knights to 108 yards and 2.7 yards per carry. They got after UCF QB K.J. Jefferson for five sacks. The combination of pressure on Jefferson and coverage limited the Knights to 165 passing yards. Of UCF’s four big pass plays, only one traveled more than 10 yards downfield, the others were all about running after the catch. The Gators held the Knights to 4-13 third down conversions, 0-2 on fourth down and Bryce Thornton picked off a Jefferson pass. Mistakes and missed tackles were held to a minimum.

The end result had to feel like sweet revenge for players who walked off the field dejected last year when K.J. Jefferson passed and ran Arkansas to an overtime victory. Given a second chance to face Jefferson albeit this year for UCF, the Gators spent the game in his face. The Gators hit Jefferson early and often, keeping him bottled up in the pocket. The secondary did its part so well that Jefferson rarely had receivers getting any measure of separation.

Granted, this was UCF, which should not be mistaken for Miami or Texas A&M, but the Knights run a funky scheme and their top two running backs have an extra gear once they get to the second level. Backs who get to the second level have been a stiletto in the Gators’ defensive hearts all season long, but Saturday UCF was able to squeeze off only three running plays that exceeded 10 yards. Miami, Texas A&M and even Mississippi State were able to constantly gash the Gators for big gains once they got past the line of scrimmage.

Overall, it was Florida’s best defensive performance of the year. UCF is going to struggle to become bowl eligible but the Knights do have some good skill people and the Gators held them in check better than any team has so far this year. That’s marked improvement over the team that Mississippi State pounded for 240 ground yards just a couple of weeks ago.

Can the Gators build off UCF and play an improved style of defense on Saturday against Tennessee in Knoxville? It will take Florida’s best defensive game of the season to leave Neyland Stadium with a win, but it should be noted that both Oklahoma and Arkansas have made the Tennessee offense rather pedestrian. Take away a 53-yard run by Tennessee and Arkansas held the vaunted UT running game to 3.5 yards per carry. Tennessee’s touted freshman QB Nico Iamaleava averaged only 5.6 yards per attempt. That highly regarded O-line gave up four sacks and enough pressures that Iamaleava was forced into numerous bad decisions.

Offensively against UCF, the Gators had an exceptional opening drive in the first quarter (15 plays, 75 yards and a TD), a great second quarter (17 points) and they didn’t allow a sack or turn the ball over. The second half was way too conservative to the point of being far too predictable. Some of that had to do with UCF keeping the clock moving by grinding away three and four rush yards per play. That kept the Florida offense off the field, but even so, the Gators played the entire second half like a team trying to run out the clock as a way of avoiding losing.

UCF stacked the box, especially in the second half. That effectively limited Florida’s running game, but it also left the middle of the field wide open. The Gators rarely attacked even though it could have and should have produced some big plays. As open as Elijhah Badger (3-41, 1 TD), Chimere Dike (4-88) and Tank Hawkins (7-60) were able to get against the Knights, it’s a shame the Gators didn’t run some mid-range to deep routes in the middle of the field.

Graham Mertz was exceptional once again, completing 19-23 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown while extending three drives with his feet. DJ Lagway’s only significant contributions were during the first half when he threw a 37-yard strike to Chimere Dike. He was 4-4 during the game for 100 yards. In the last two games, Mertz and Lagway are a combined 49-57 for 506 yards and four touchdowns without an interception.

Arkansas allowed only two sacks to Tennessee which had everything to do with the Razorbacks completing 21-30 passes for 297 yards. The Vols were supposed to be as good in coverage as any team in the country. Prior to Arkansas they were allowing just 125.5 passing yards per game. The secret for Arkansas was pass protection, which will also be Florida’s key to having a shot at an upset in Knoxville. The Gators have allowed only five sacks in five games, second in the SEC and tied for 16th nationally.

Beating the Vols in Knoxville will be a monumental task, but as Vanderbilt and Arkansas showed us Saturday, when you protect your passers, play solid defense and don’t turn the ball over, anything is possible.

Back in August, the Tennessee game was considered winnable. Perhaps it is winnable now if the Gators can follow the formula Arkansas used against the Vols or the one Vanderbilt used to beat Alabama. As Arkansas and Vandy proved, anything is possible if you have the right formula.

A couple of weeks ago, Graham Mertz was asked about Florida’s slow start to which he pointed out what happened in 2021 when he was the starting QB at Wisconsin. The Badgers came out of the gate 1-3, but they got a win over a bad Illinois team in game five, then won six more to stretch the win streak to seven games.

Improbable for the Gators to do it in 2024? Maybe, but stranger things have happened as we saw in Nashville and Fayetteville Saturday. And, lest we forget, a boring win in Knoxville will look every bit as good in the won-lost column as a blowout.

SEC FOOTBALL

Saturday’s games

FLORIDA (3-2) 24, UCF (3-2) 13

Vanderbilt (3-2, 1-1 SEC) 40, No. 1 Alabama (4-1, 1-1 SEC) 35

Arkansas (4-2, 2-1 SEC) 19, No. 4 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) 14

No. 5 Georgia (4-1, 2-1 SEC) 31, Auburn (2-4, 0-3 SEC) 13

No. 12 Ole Miss (5-1, 1-1 SEC) 27, South Carolina (3-2, 1-2 SEC) 3

No. 25 Texas A&M (5-1, 3-0 SEC) 41, No. 9 Missouri 10 (4-1, 1-1 SEC)

Next week

FLORIDA (3-2, 1-1 SEC) at No. 4 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC)

South Carolina (3-2, 1-2 SEC) at No. 1 Alabama (4-1, 1-1 SEC)

No. 2 Texas (5-0, 1-0 SEC) vs. No. 19 Oklahoma (4-1, 1-1 SEC) in Dallas

Mississippi State (1-4, 0-2 SEC) at No. 5 Georgia (4-1, 2-1 SEC)

No. 9 Missouri (4-1) at UMass (1-5)

No. 12 Ole Miss (5-1, 1-1 SEC) at No. 13 LSU (4-1, 1-0 SEC)

Vanderbilt (3-2, 1-1 SEC) at Kentucky (3-2, 1-2 SEC)