"It's embarrassing to be quite honest with you" -- Billy Napier

Billy Napier paces the Florida sidelines, hoping for answers (Photo by Chris Spears)

The people who make the betting lines in Las Vegas made the 19th-ranked Miami Hurricanes 2.5-point favorites to beat the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Saturday afternoon. After the 41-17 beatdown Miami delivered to the Gators we can conclude the following: (1) Given Miami’s ACC schedule the Hurricanes might find it difficult to win fewer than 10 games; and (2) given the difficulty of Florida’s schedule, the Gators are going to struggle to hit the over on the 5.5 wins predicted by the oddsmakers.

Miami looked the part of a team playing with an asteroid-size chip on its shoulder. Miami’s men played fast, physical and angry, particularly on both lines of scrimmage where they took particular glee in manhandling the boys in blue jerseys.

Yes, Miami looked and played like grown men. The Gators, who were supposed to at least look like grown men for the first time in Billy Napier’s time on the job, looked like boys and they played like boys.

They were dominated.

“It’s embarrassing to be quite honest with you,” Napier said.

Montrell Johnson Jr. turns the corner on a 71-yard touchdown run (Photo by Chris Spears)

No arguing with that assessment. It was embarrassing the way Miami’s defensive line overpowered what was supposed to be a much-improved Florida offensive line. The Gators gave up 39 sacks and averaged just 4.27 yards per rush attempt a year ago. Other than a 71-yard sprint to the end zone by Montrell Johnson Jr. in the second quarter, the Hurricanes held the Gators to 68 rushing yards on 27 carries. Miami’s defense registered eight tackles for loss of which three were sacks for -18 yards.

Miami was in Graham Mertz’s face all day long before they finally knocked him out of the game (concussion) in the fourth quarter. The left side of the Florida offensive line held its own. The right side did a dandy impersonation of a sieve on an afternoon best forgotten.

Over on the other side of the ball, Florida’s lack of a pass rush gave Miami quarterback Cam Ward time enough to carry on a cell phone conversation with his girlfriend while waiting for Florida’s coverage to finally break down. Florida pass rushers kept bouncing off Miami’s O-linemen like pinballs while Ward drifted left, sprinted right, backed up and often threw sidearm off his back foot. On most of the 11 big plays of 17 or more yards in the passing game, Ward simply had to wait patiently because it was impossible for the Florida secondary to keep the receivers locked down for what seemed like an eternity.

Ward deserves all the credit in the world for waiting for a receiver to break free instead of impatiently forcing the ball into coverage. Without any constant, nagging pressure Ward completed 26-35 passes for 398 yards and three touchdowns. Eleven of his completions went for 298 yards. He was 15-24 on his other passes for 100 yards.

The Gators sacked Ward once for -3 yards and when Kamran James got in his face in the first quarter, the result was an interception by linebacker Shemar James that the Gators converted into a 41-yard Tre Smack field goal that cut Miami’s lead to 7-3. On two other occasions when the Gators sprung a rusher free, flags flew for late hits on Ward. Justus Boone’s first quarter hit negated what would have been a third down stop. Two plays later Ward and Cam McCormick hooked up for a 9-yard TD pass for Miami’s first score of the game.

Miami didn’t exactly set the world on fire with its running game (33 carries, 144 yards) but it didn’t have to. The running game kept the clock ticking, the end result a 34:30-to-25:30 time of possession differential.

Basically, whether it was throwing the ball, running it or defending, Miami didn’t do anything complicated. The Canes lined up, knocked the people across the line from them into next week and then repeated the process.

Over and over again. Offenses and defenses are as innovative as they have ever been, but no matter how sophisticated the game is still decided by who blocks and who tackles better. Saturday, the Gators didn’t block particularly well and they missed too many tackles.

“I think they had a handful of wrinkles that were new,” Napier said. “There's no question about that, but overall I think the game comes down to fundamentals. It comes down to good communication, good execution. At times out there we did not do that.”

There is no denying the Hurricanes are a very good football team, too good to be beaten by a team that can’t execute fundamentals. Miami is talented, fast, physical and well coached. With a schedule that won’t see another tough game until mid-October when they visit Louisville followed by a home game the next week against Florida State, Miami could very well run the table. Miami’s optimism cups should be running over when looking at that schedule.

And then there are the Florida Gators, who were supposed to be much improved in 2024. Florida was supposed to be better in every facet of the game, but the only area in which the Gators looked competent was the kicking game where Jeremy Crawshaw averaged 47.6 yards on five punts and Trey Smack hit his only field goal and both extra points.

Instead of improved, the Gators looked like a re-run of the past two years. The same problems that plagued Florida’s offensive line a year ago reared their ugly heads against Miami. The Gators couldn’t protect Mertz nor could they establish the running game. Defensively, it was like 2022 all over again because the Gators couldn’t get off the field on third down (Miami converted 5-10), missed a lot of tackles and couldn’t pressure the quarterback, which led to 15 big plays (11 in the passing game, 4 in the running game good for 63 yards).

Had this been a close, competitive game, there would be room for optimism that Napier indeed has the Gators on the right track. One loss doesn’t doom a season, but a beatdown in game one in which signs of progress are few and far between is a red flag that seems to signal Florida is in for more of the same problems of the past two seasons.

That’s not to say the season can’t be salvaged but there is very little in the way of wiggle room. With only 11 games remaining the Gators have to go 7-4 the rest of the way to guarantee a winning record for the first time since 2020. That is a very tall task.

Of the 10 Division I games remaining on the schedule, seven have already won their season openers by a combined 375-16 margin. This is a schedule that includes No. 1 Georgia (34-3 winner over No. 14 Clemson); No. 4 Texas (52-0 winner over Colorado State); No. 6 Ole Miss (76-0 winner over Furman); No. 15 Tennessee (69-3 winner over Chattanooga); Kentucky (31-0 winner over Southern Miss) and UCF (57-3 winner over New Hampshire). No. 13 LSU plays Southern Cal tonight. In two weeks UF plays host to No. 20 Texas A&M (lost to No. 7 Notre Dame, 20-13).

The only game on the schedule that seems a sure thing is next week’s encounter with D1AA Samford, a 38-29 loser to West Georgia Saturday. West Georgia was playing its first D1AA game in school history after toiling for years in the Division II Gulf South Conference. Under most circumstances this would be considered a get well game for the Gators, but Mertz might miss this and some games into the future if his concussion doesn’t heal rapidly. That would mean playing true freshman DJ Lagway, who got the Gators on the scoreboard after Mertz went down, taking the Gators 58 yards on nine plays. Lagway showed off a quick trigger release (3-4 passing for 31 yards on the drive) and big time wheels (2-17 including a 16-yard scramble) on the drive, but it’s not like a game was on the line. Lagway is a magnificent talent, but he’s still a freshman and the Southeastern Conference is famous for chewing up freshman quarterbacks and spitting them out.

No matter who plays quarterback, the Gators look fragile right now. In his post game press conference Napier didn’t go on any rants or point fingers. He didn’t make a hundred excuses for everything that went wrong. It wouldn’t have done any good because 90,554 in the stadium and a national television audience on ABC saw a Florida team that had the look of a team heading for troubled waters.

“I think that I felt strongly that we would perform better,” Napier said.

Everybody did including the oddsmakers in Las Vegas. The Gators aren’t the only ones who look silly about now. When the spread is -2.5 and the final outcome is a 24-point differential someone in charge got it very, very wrong. That will work to Miami’s benefit, but it will sow seeds of discontent among a Gator Nation whose confidence in the head coach seems a bit frazzled right now. The team leadership, of which Napier has spoken in glowing terms the entire offseason, and the coaching staff have their work cut out to restore belief that this is a team capable of winning.

“I would tell you that I still have confidence in our team,” Napier said. “I think we've made progress … I think today is disappointing, not only for myself but for the entire team and organization and for our fans and for all the people that care about this place. Like I said before, I've got conviction about the young men that we have on our team. I think we have better football in us. But we have to go prove that. We have to go do that. Ultimately there's a lot of football left, and we'll have an opportunity to prove that over time.”

Time is growing short. They need to hurry.