The Game Was Won In The Red Zone. So Color It Orange & Blue.

The moment Burney jumped to his feet and began a sprint through his teammates to midfield insanity broke out in the stands and the decibels rose to something probably close to the 120 or so a 747 manufactures at takeoff.

By FRANZ BEARD

GatorBaitMedia.com Senior Columnist

If you were there – officially it was 90,799 jammed into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium but five years from now that number will have swollen to at least two million who will swear they were there for Billy Napier’s first game as Florida’s head football coach – then your ears won’t stop ringing for at least the next three days. So, get used to coming to grips with what people with Tinnitis have to deal with every day of the week.

It was borderline deafening from the very first play from scrimmage when Nay’Quan Wright burst through the Utah defense for nine yards, but that was vespers at your nearby monastery compared to the eruption with 17 seconds to go when Amari Burney made the play of his life, a diving interception in the end zone that sealed Florida’s 29-26 victory over the 7th-ranked Utes. The moment Burney jumped to his feet and began a sprint through his teammates to midfield insanity broke out in the stands and the decibels rose to something probably close to the 120 or so a 747 manufactures at takeoff.

The Swamp was loud and rocking. This was Lawrence Wright knocking Joey Kent into next week in 1996 loud. It was Dougie to Quezzie against FSU in 1997 loud. It was Jarvis Moss blocking the South Carolina field goal on the final play in 2006 loud. It made the win over Auburn in 2019 seem like Romper Room. That’s how loud it was.

Thirty minutes after the game ended Amari Burney was standing in front of the podium talking to the media after his best play ever as a Gator.

“My ears were ringing, I got a headache,” Burney said post game in the South End Zone meeting room. “People were on top of me. I was just trying to get away!”

Burney’s headache was nothing compared to Utah’s. Utah got to the red zone six times Saturday night. Three times the Utes scored touchdowns. Once they had to settle for a field goal. They were also stuffed on fourth down maybe six inches from a TD in the third quarter and then there was Burney’s pick, which was Utah’s only turnover of the night. Utah also failed on a two-point conversion after a third quarter touchdown.

Officially, the Utes were four-for-six in the red zone. Florida, officially, was three-for-three, but an honorable mention red zone success should be given to Anthony Richardson’s 45-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Richardson broke containment in the pocket and sprinted down the east side line, roaring through the red zone like one of the top fuel dragsters doing the quarter-mile during the GatorNationals every March.

Billy preached efficiency -- and he brought it. (Chris Spears photo)

You want the difference in the game, the reason the Gators have begun the Billy Napier era at UF 1-0 and why Utah’s College Football Playoff hopes took an MK50 torpedo to the bow on opening night, then look no further than red zone efficiency. The Gators made the most of their opportunities.

“We got touchdowns, I think, every single time, right?” Napier said. “That’s the difference in the game.”

Florida’s defense was pounded for 230 rushing yards, 115 by Tavion Thomas. When Cameron Rising wasn’t finding tight ends open all over the field, he was running for 91 yards while helping the Utes to a nearly five-minute advantage in time of possession (32:17-27:43). Yet, when Utah got too close to the shadow of the goal posts, Florida made just enough big plays to keep the Utes from scoring more than three touchdowns.

There was certainly a little bit of luck involved on at least one of the critical stops the Gators made. Utah had fourth-and-three at the Florida eight in the second quarter. The Utes lined up intent on going for it when their head coach Kyle Whittingham sprinted down the sideline to get a time out just prior to the snap. After the T/O in which the Utes changed the play call, they had a delay of game penalty that pushed the ball back to the 13, forcing them to settle for a 31-yard field goal that gave them a 13-7 lead.

On their first possession of the second half, the Utes rammed the ball down the Gators’ throats to within inches of the goal line. Of their 11 plays on the time-consuming (5:52 off the clock) drive that took them from their own 28, the Utes ran the ball 10 times, six of them by 238-pound battering ram Tavion Thomas. On his first four carries, Thomas rambled for 44 yards, leaving what seemed to be a string of Florida bodies behind him. On his last two – both of them inside the Florida one, Thomas was stopped for a two-yard loss by Trey Dean III and then on fourth down from inches away by Princely Umanmielen and Brenton Cox Jr. Sandwiched between the last two carries by Thomas was a 2-yard run by Rising where Ventrell Miller and Tyreak Sapp somehow managed to keep the Utah quarterback out of the end zone.

And then there was the final drive of the night when Utah took the ball at its own 25 with 1:25 to go in the game after Anthony Richardson had given the Gators a 29-26 lead on his third touchdown run of the night. It seemed nothing – certainly not the Gators – could stop the Utes as they marched eight plays to the Florida six, but on first-and-goal, Rising made a bad throw under duress from Gervon Dexter Jr. On the next play, his tight end fell down but it wouldn’t have mattered because the throw was low and Burney dived to come up with the pick.

While Utah came up short a handful of plays when it mattered most, Florida had Richardson repeatedly jabbing the Utes in the heart with a nine-inch stiletto. The whispers coming out of August practice that Richardson was regularly making almost superhuman plays apparently weren’t embellished in the least. He made the big plays with his legs and with his arm. Florida threw sparingly – Richardson was 17-24 for 168 yards – and only on a couple of occasions were the throws the kind that stretch a defense downfield, but Florida’s passing game was ever so efficient and the game plan called for the Gators to control the clock. The easiest way to do that was with short, quick throws.

Richardson did throw a 23-yard dart to Ricky Pearsall on a third-and-15 that salvaged a first down on Florida’s first quarter scoring drive that ended with a two-yard run by Richardson. On consecutive plays on the drive that ended with Richardson’s 45-yard touchdown sprint in the second quarter, Richardson hit Xzavier Henderson for 14 yards on a deep out and followed that up with a 15-yard laser to Pearsall. Those were NFL throws.

After Montrell Johnson scored from 14 yards out at the start of the fourth quarter the Gators elected to go for two to make it a three-point game. After taking the shotgun snap, Richardson did a Houdini escape from a possible sack when he faked a throw that got a Utah pass rusher in the air, spun away and then on the run as he rolled right, threw a rope to Ja’Quavion Fraziars who was standing in the southwest corner of the south end zone for the two-point conversion that put Florida ahead 22-19.

Most of Richardson’s 106 rushing yards (on 11 carries, 9.6 per attempt) were the improvisational type in which his feet showed minds of their own and a keen understanding of where to find open space. On what proved to be the game-winning drive, Richardson converted a fourth-and-two from the Utah 26. The Utes brought the house but Richardson felt the pressure from his blind side, tucked and squeezed through a narrow opening to his right, turning a potential drive-ending loss into a nine-yard gain to the Utah 17.

“Heck, my wife could call plays with that guy at quarterback,” Napier said. “Tonight, there is … I want to say at least four plays right off the top of my head where we’ve got a concept call. He works his way through it then he becomes that guy, right? His legs are – they’re a difference maker. You saw it tonight. The fourth down play in the last drive … the two-point conversion. I mean, come on! He did that exact same thing in practice one day. I’m talking about the exact scenario. So I think we’re figuring here that this guy’s a pretty special player.”

Aesthetically speaking, there were too many holes that will have to be patched to call this a beautiful masterpiece of a win, but painting a pretty picture wasn’t necessary on this night. What was necessary was to make the biggest plays when they were most needed. The Gators did that but in coming away with this win, may have left a potential blueprint for others to attempt to exploit.

Most of the time when you give up 230 rushing yards and 5.9 yards per carry, you lose the game. Florida’s lack of depth and overall size on the defensive line of scrimmage was an ongoing problem but especially in the second half. In the third quarter, Utah had the ball for 20 plays, of which 17 were on the ground and mostly between the tackles. The Utes held the ball for 10:57. Florida, on the other hand, had 10 plays and held onto the ball for 4:03. Future opponents are going to be testing the Gators to see if they can follow the Utah formula to grind away which will serve the dual purpose of keeping Anthony Richardson off the field.

The Gators were unable to put any kind of consistent pressure on Rising, who gained most of his yards on the ground by taking off when the Gators had all his receivers covered. UF didn’t get a sack and was credited with only five quarterback pressures. When there is no pressure on the opposing QB, the usual result is a record-setting day throwing the football. The Gators did have all sorts of difficulty with Utah’s tight ends – you can bet the ranch opponents will see if they can torch UF in the middle of the field with passes to the tight ends – but the Utes had problems getting their wide receivers open against Florida’s corners, who held them to a collective six catches for 51 yards.

For the most part, the Gators were able to offer enough speed bumps to prevent Utah from hanging more than three TDs on the scoreboard. When UF had the ball, there were enough big plays and third-down conversions to lead to four well-constructed scoring drives. The fourth and final scoring drive was the perfect example. The drive went 73 yards in 14 plays, 12 on the ground. The two passes were good for 12 yards.

Considering the Gators had so many problems stuffing Utah’s offense in the second half, the plan for the final drive was to play some defense with the offense, grinding away and eating up clock. From the moment the Gators got the ball with 6:02 left on the clock, the Gators were determined to keep both the chains and the clock moving.

“Once you got it under five minutes, it’s go for it,” Napier said. “You’ve got four downs the entire time.”

Richardson scored with 1:25 to go, essentially it was too much time left in the game, but Burney saved the day with his interception that set off the crowd one last time with Napier’s 17th one score win in 20 games since becoming a head coach.

This was a razor-thin margin of victory over a ranked team that is going to win a lot of football games this season. No one should be surprised if the Utes win a second consecutive Pac-12 championship although their chances of becoming the first Pac-12 team to make it to the College Football Playoff since Washington did it in 2017 took a hit.

From what we saw Saturday night, the Florida Gators are a good football team, too. It is way too early to predict a win total during the regular season, but if injuries can be avoided, Florida will have a chance to surprise so many critics who have the Gators with a seven-win ceiling.

You don’t have to convinced Utah coach Kyle Whittingham that the Gators are capable of winning a lot of games.

“The cupboard wasn’t bare when Dan Mullen left,” Whittingham said. “They have some great players, especially the quarterback. If they can keep him healthy, they are going to win a lot of games.”