Putting things in perspective: One game, one 66-21 win for the Florida Gators
The goal was to win the week, which the Florida Gators did with plenty of room to spare Saturday night when they opened the season with a 66-21 win over Florida Atlantic at The Swamp. In so many ways, the win far exceeded Sumrall’s expectations but as he spoke to the media post game, he already knew what lies ahead when the coaches meet Sunday afternoon to dissect every play and grade the film.
They will see an offense that scored on ten of 11 possessions, racking up 624 yards, 281 on the ground, 343 through the air. By no means was it perfect, but mistakes were few and far between, earning a certain amount of lenience when handing out grades.
The defense? That’s when it will get interesting because there were times when the Gators couldn’t get Florida Atlantic off the field.
Sumrall wasn’t trying to understate when he said, “Our defense was atrocious at times quite honestly.” Nothing remotely close to cute or dishonest about an assessment that will probably seem worse when the last play is graded. The film doesn’t lie. The same effort against a better opponent could have been disastrous.
Florida Atlantic converted 11 of 22 third downs, four of seven fourth downs and ran 90 plays that gained 396 yards. There were no quick strikes, just lots of four or five yard runs coupled with dink and dunk passes that kept the chains moving and the Florida defense on the field. Compounding matters were countless whiffs on tackle attempts or failures to wrap up a ball carrier and put him on the ground.
“I’m a little bit frustrated about how we played defensively at times,” Sumrall said. “I don’t think we’re as good as we think we are. I think we got some guys who feel like, you know, we’ve arrived in some spots and that will be addressed. We have got a lot of room to grow on defense. If it doesn’t happen real fast we’re going to get embarrassed and exposed handily in some spots because that wasn’t a great performance by us.”
No, it wasn’t great. If you look for positives, then the Gators allowed only three pass plays of more than 15 yards and two running plays that covered at least 10. There were interceptions by DJ Coleman and Dijon Johnson, a decleater hit by Bryce Thornton that knocked an FAU receiver into another time zone and a fourth down stop at the goal line late in the fourth quarter that kept the Owls from hanging a fourth touchdown on the Gators. But this was Florida Atlantic, projected at best to finish middle of the pack in the American Conference, not an SEC opponent like the Gators will face on the road in two weeks at Auburn.
Two weeks, yikes!
If this had been a greased pig contest that once was a staple of county fairs and rodeos, there would have been an excuse for all the missed tackles that extended FAU drives. It is not a difficult concept to grasp, this notion that the job of a defense is to halt the progress of the ball carrier by driving him into the ground, but Florida’s defenders might have had a better understanding of Galileo’s theory of heliocentrism. There were times when the lack of a pass rush made it seem as if the Gators were dropping 11 into the coverage scheme. No matter the defensive call, the FAU slot receiver kept running the same fade and quarterback Caden Veltkamp kept pitching the ball his way for those nickel/dime gains that turned into a fresh set of downs. How many slot fades can be run before someone figures out (a) the ball is going that way and (b) it would be a great idea to find someone capable of neutralizing coverage?
One must wonder.
This was not a live re-enactment of the Dallas defense they called Doomsday back in the 1970s nor the one in Pittsburgh labeled the Steel Curtain. It was bad. That is fact and there is no way to get around it, but it could have been worse and there is time to make corrections, not to mention goal number one was accomplished.
“1-and-0 was the goal this week and we got there,” Sumrall said. “As of tomorrow at about 5:00 in my mind we'll be 0-0 again. Just another game. Focus on a game one at a time. I know that's coachspeak, but that's how we operate.”
Grading the defensive effort, using the film for teaching moments and then flushing it out of the system are priorities in the week ahead as the Gators begin prep for D1AA Campbell. The offensive priorities make for a far shorter to do list of things that must improve. The Gators were so efficient that they didn’t have to punt. There was only one turnover and that was a ball that a Florida receiver should have caught but deflected into the hands of an FAU defender. Rather than the usual first game rash of false starts, holds and delay of game penalties, there was only one offensive penalty the entire game, a third quarter false start by right tackle Emeka Ugorjie. An offensive line that featured four transfers among the five starters allowed only one sack, zero quarterback hurries and zero quarterback hits. Besides catching all but two of the 20 pass completions by Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones, Florida’s receivers had a brilliant game with their downfield blocking.
“I will tell you the thing I'm most proud of tonight offensively is our perimeter blocking,” Sumrall said. “Our receivers blocked their ass off. The run game we created tonight at times on the perimeter, our receivers were competing to make blocks. That says a lot about who they are. The character of a football player sometimes isn't revealed by when they're getting their opportunities production. It's what you're doing to serve your team. Those guys I thought really blocked with edge and competitiveness.”
The receivers helped spring Jadan Baugh for 160 yards on 14 carries that included runs of 25 and 61 yards. He scored touchdowns on runs of 12, seven and eight yards, breaking the 2,000-yard barrier (2,003) for his career on the third TD run. On plays up the gut, Baugh moved the pile. Outside the tackles, he showed nifty moves and once to the second level, breakaway speed.
Asked what he saw on the 61-yard run in the fourth quarter, Baugh responded, “Grass, green grass. That’s it. Green grass. Seen my receivers blocking and I was just like ready to go.”
Yards after contact will be figured once the coaches watch the film, but Baugh made it a habit of breaking tackles throughout the night. “I don’t know how many tackles he broke tonight,” Philo said. “Probably can’t even count.”
Philo, making his first start as the Florida quarterback and second of his collegiate career counting a start against Gardner-Webb last season at Georgia Tech, accounted for four touchdowns, three passing and one on the ground. Philo completed 16 of his 23 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns, plus ran one in from three yards out in the second quarter. He connected with Vernell Brown III for a 49-yard TDP on Florida’s first possession, his first touchdown pass as a Gator and the first touchdown Brown has scored in his Florida career. Brown finished the game with six catches for 117 yards. The second Philo TDP went 12 yards to Bailey Stockton on the second possession and the third was a 20-yard connection with backup running back Duke Clark, who also had 68 rushing yards.
The touchdown connection with Stockton was special since they have been connecting since their high school days in the Atlanta burbs when Philo was setting Georgia state passing records at Prince Avenue Christian. They signed with Georgia Tech out of high school and when Philo transferred from Georgia Tech to Florida, Stockton followed.
Describing the touchdown pass to Stockton, Philo said, “I saw him in the end zone and, you know, it's like just cool, man. Just coming from high school and then you're here playing in The Swamp, throw a touchdown and throw it to Bailey and we've done it so many times.”
Tramell Jones took over at QB in the fourth quarter, completing four of his five passes for 68 yards including a 6-yard touchdown pass to tight end Micah Jones. Jones spent the prep week for game one toiling on the scout team so Sumrall was particularly pleased his freshman got a catch for a TD.
“He is on the scout team all week right now,” Sumrall said. “He's a young player that needs to get better for the development of himself and for our football team to continue to grow.”
The Gators came into the game 26.5-point favorites, so a 45-point margin of victory is impressive even if it is against a team that went 4-8 as a bottom feeder in the American Conference last season. But, a win is a win, even against an inferior opponent. In two weeks, the Gators will begin a 9-game gauntlet of Southeastern Conference teams so there is an urgency for this very young team to grow up, particularly on the defensive side of the football.
“A lot to work on, a lot to grow from,” Sumrall said. “I told them just now a journey of a thousand miles starts with single step and that was step one. The goal this week was to be 1-0, and we got to go back it the drawing board and get a little bit better each day this week to keep improving.”
ELSEWHERE IN THE SEC
Sunday’s game
No. 24 Louisville (0-0) vs. No. 9 Ole Miss in Nashville
Saturday’s scores
No. 3 Georgia (1-0) 63, Tennessee State (0-2) 3
No. 5 Texas (1-0) 59, Texas State (0-1) 7
No. 8 Texas A&M (1-0) 50, Missouri State (0-1) 0
No. 11 LSU (1-0) 51, Clemson (0-1) 10
No. 13 Alabama (1-0) 48, East Carolina (0-1) 10
No. 20 Tennessee (1-0) 56, Furman (1-1) 9
South Carolina (1-0) 57, Kent State (0-1) 0
Kentucky (1-0) 45, Youngstown State (1-1) 13
Auburn (1-0) 17, Baylor (0-1) 16
Arkansas (1-0) 31, North Alabama (1-1) 14
Vanderbilt (1-0) 28, Austin Peay (1-1) 9
Mississippi State (1-0) 62, Louisiana-Monroe (0-1) 13
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