Sure it was McNeese, but the Gators Played Clean and Dominated

Let’s not fool ourselves here. It was McNeese State, a D1AA team that Florida could have beaten far worse than the final 49-7 score. If Billy Napier had left his starters in the game beyond the third quarter it could have been dial-a-score, but what they did the first three quarters would have been impressive even against the all-stars from a homeless shelter. It was domination on both sides of the football. The final margin of victory isn’t the story, though. What was important was eliminating all the mental errors and silly blunders that turned a very winnable game into a loss against Utah in Salt Lake City a week ago.

“I think last week against Utah, we just kind of beat ourselves,” wide receiver Ricky Pearsall said. “I didn't really think it had anything to do with the talent of the guys. I think it was more about executing and eliminating penalties, and obviously I think we did a better job of that tonight.”

The Gators had better talent than Utah, but Utah made only a handful of glaring mistakes while the Gators specialized in shooting themselves so many times in the feet they were lucky some of them aren’t walking with a pronounced limp for the next month or so. A 28-7 Florida win was entirely possible, but a 24-11 loss is what they got because they specialized in monumental screw ups at the worst possible moment.

From a strictly talent level, McNeese probably didn’t have a single player on its roster that could crack Florida’s two-deep, but everybody knew that coming into the game. The big question for McNeese was whether the errors of a week ago proved habit-forming or could the Gators focus on the task at hand to play very cleanly?

Now the nitpickers on the coaching staff who grade the film are going to find numerous errors that are typically overlooked by the average, every day fan, but the overall grades for the two-deep in the first three quarters should prove exceptionally high. The only mistake that could be tabbed a colossal blunder was a high snap that sailed over the head of holder Jeremy Crawshaw on the extra point after Florida’s first touchdown of the night, a 2-yard run by Montrell Johnson Jr. with 10:59 left in the first quarter that capped off a 9-play, 62-yard drive on the Gators’ opening possession of the game.

“Reality is as a coach and really as a competitor, and each individual player that plays in the game, you can live with some things,” Napier said. “Guy beats you, you run into a really good player, maybe he wins a match-up, but ultimately the things that have nothing to do with the opponent are the ones that keep you up at night. Certainly we had too many of those last week. To come back and play cleaner I think was a positive.”

The Gators scored their first seven possessions, all of them on lengthy, time-consuming drives. The first unit offense went six-for-six, scoring touchdowns on drives that covered 62, 99, 75, 74, 71 and 84 yards. It took 54 plays to cover the 465 yards, an average of 8.6 yards per snap. Graham Mertz completed 14-17 passes for 193 yards and a TD, an impressive 197.1 quarterback efficiency rating. Mertz also ran three times for eight yards and scored his first touchdown as a Gator on a 1-yard quarterback sneak with 28 seconds left in the first quarter for Florida’s second TD of the game.

McNeese spent the majority of the first half in a 3-2-6 cover three with the three safeties lined up anywhere from 20-30 yards off the line of scrimmage. That took away most of the downfield throws so Mertz just chipped away. With only five in the box, it was hat-on-hat for the O-line which spent the night beating up on the Cowboys. With the O-line grinding, the two-headed running back monster of Montrell Johnson Jr. (15-119, 2 TDs) and Trevor Etienne (11-84, 1 TD) spent most of the night running between the tackles to lead a 327-yard effort that saw the Gators average 6.4 yards per carry for the night. Freshman Treyaun Webb got snaps with the first and second team offenses, running for 71 yards on 14 carries, good for two touchdowns.

The first unit offensive line had no holding calls and a single false start two-thirds of the way through the third quarter. There was a false start against freshman wide receiver Andy Jean in the fourth quarter and an ineligible receiver call against redshirt freshman tight end Hayden Hansen, also in the fourth quarter. There was an offsides call against Princely Umanmielen when he jumped the snap in the first quarter.

That was it for penalties, which had such a key role in the loss to Utah. Eliminating penalties as well as all the other unforced errors that plagued the Gators was emphasized during practice leading up to McNeese.

“Yeah, we definitely harped on that throughout the week,” said wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, whose night included six receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown on a 50-yard bomb from Mertz with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter that made it a 40-0 game. “I think that was probably the main key point that we were going through as a team is we can't shoot ourselves in the foot. You're not going to be able to beat these good teams if you just continue to shoot yourself in the foot, get penalties, have certain mistakes that are just going to set us back.”

The defense, which played very well except for two chunk plays, a couple of blown coverages and a few missed tackles against Utah, dominated McNeese. The Cowboys managed only 112 total yards – 66 through the air and 56 on the ground on 40 snaps, an average of just 2.8 yards per play. The Cowboys’ only touchdown was a gimme with 1:38 left in the game, a fumble by Eddie Battle at the Florida eight. That was Florida’s third and fourth teamers going against McNeese’s weary but still first team defense. The recovery set off a celebration on the McNeese sideline. A second celebration ensued after Cowboys Coleby Hamm maneuvered his way eight yards into the end zone on the first play after the turnover. The way the Cowboys erupted on their sideline, it was like they had scored a game-winner. Awkward as it might have seemed, it was a victory for the Cowboys, maybe the only real victory they had the entire evening.

Such was Florida’s domination. This was a real beatdown. McNeese had only six first downs the entire game and only 2-10 converting on third down. Through two games, the Gators have allowed only five third down conversions in 23 attempts. A year ago, the Gators finished 129th out of 131 teams in third down defense.

The Gators got their first two sacks of the season, one for 12 yards by Scooby Williams in the first quarter and the other by Princely Umanmielen in the second. Florida’s pass rush was actually quite effective since the Cowboys only threw 14 passes the entire game. McNeese had only two completions for more than 10 yards – an 18-yarder from Nate Glantz to Jon McCall in the first quarter and a 15-yarder from Glantz to Cam Thomas in the third.

The run defense allowed only one run in excess of 10 yards, a 28-yard burst off the left side by D’Angelo Durham in the first quarter. Late in the third quarter when McNeese was backed up to its own goal line, redshirt freshman Jamari Lyons ran down Durham in the end zone for a safety.

“This week has been a big emphasis on just executing and dominating, and we did a pretty good job, but we can’t be satisfied with that,” said STAR Jaydon Hill, who had five tackles and a pass breakup to show for his night’s work. “We've got to bounce back next week and come even harder.”

Next week the Gators (1-1) get 9th-ranked Tennessee (2-0), which seemed to sleepwalk its way to a 30-13 win over D1AA Austin Peay Saturday afternoon. For a half, Austin Peay played the Vols evenly, but eventually Tennessee’s size, speed, depth and better athletes wore them down. Critics will spend the week debating the possibility that the Vols spent the entire game with Austin Peay (a) looking ahead to the Gators in The Swamp next Saturday evening, and (b) making sure nobody of significance was injured.

For the Gators to build on the McNeese win to score what will be considered a monumental upset over the Vols, it will take another practice week like the last one. Speaking to the players in the locker room after the game Saturday night, Napier made sure the players turn their focus to what they need to do to beat Tennessee next week.

“It's Sunday, what do we do on Sunday?” Napier asked rhetorically. “What do you do on Sunday? Let's do the best we can do today. I think we try to map out Sunday to Saturday for the players. That was the point of emphasis inside the locker room there with the players. Look, when we wake up tomorrow, let's go execute your plan each day, and that's every part of the organization, it's not just players. Ultimately to get to a place where you can go play with confidence, I think you've got to prepare a certain way, and ultimately that's what I think we're learning how to do. Hopefully we'll have our best week this week.”

Napier on the difference in last year’s defense and this year’s, which has allowed only 382 yards and 20 points in two games: “Well, I think we added good players in the portal. We added good players that are freshmen that are contributing at all levels of the defense. There's a lot of new players out there running around. I do think that we have veteran players that are doing a good job leading and setting an example, and I have to compliment the staff. Austin (Armstrong, defensive coordinator) is new, and obviously he's brought a lot of things to the table, but I can't say enough about the growth in year two from Mike Peterson, Jay Bateman, Sean Spencer and Corey Raymond. Not only the on-field guys but we have a lot of off-field guys that are in year two, too. It's year two in the system for players and also for that staff, and then obviously Austin has done a good job of connecting with players, connecting with the staff, putting his spin on things.”

Napier on the performance of Graham Mertz: “The guy is really bright. The guy is a really good communicator. He's one of the hardest working players I've ever been around in my career. I think his experience brings a steadiness. He has an awareness. It's not too big for him because he's played in big games and on big stages. He's made mistakes in his past, and I think he's taken ownership of that, but he's just in a good place. He showed some toughness last week. I think he's earned the respect of the players with how much he's improved. This guy has grown a lot as a player since the first day he got here.

“He's what you would want your quarterback to be. He is the standard bearer. He is the example about anything you want to talk about; if you said who sets the best example, he would be on the list.”

Hill on the importance of a dominating defensive performance: “That's just been our challenge this whole week. With last week with the loss, just this week, just attacking it and being consistent. As a defense, we feel like we have a chance to be pretty good for the defensive side. As a team, as well, but defensively speaking, I feel like just executing and just practicing hard every day and just putting it on tape really.”