The Gators came up two plays and 12 inches short against Georgia

(Photo by Chris Spears)

JACKSONVILLE – Forget the final score for a moment. If you simply go by points, the Florida Gators lost 24-20 to 5^th-ranked Georgia Saturday at EverBank Stadium. In reality, it wasn’t four points that separated the Gators and the Bulldogs. It was maybe 12 inches.

Twelve inches. Maybe ten inches more on a fourth-and-1 at the Georgia 18 with 8:06 left in the game. A straight handoff from DJ Lagway to Jaden Baugh off the right side. As strong as he is, Baugh was unable to break the grasp of what seemed like half the Georgia defense that was on the field. Florida players thought Baugh had the first down. The linesman on the zebra crew disagreed, but even with a more favorable spot he might have come up an inch or two short. It was that close.

The Gators had a 20-17 lead at the time. A Trey Smack field goal from that range – he had already delivered a 54-yard bomb that gave the Gators the lead with14:52 left in the game – was as close to automatic as it gets. It would have given Florida (3-5, 2-3 SEC) a little more of a cushion, but interim coach Billy Gonzales wanted to deliver a dagger to Georgia’s collective hearts.

“We had to go for it,” Gonzales said. “If you kick a field goal you're still down. If they go down and score you're still down a point. We will take a look and see where we went wrong, but no second guessing as far as the play that was called.”

Baugh came up about 10 inches short. Another play call might have gotten the distance needed to keep the drive alive, but Billy G gave the ball to his stud, trusted his O-line and didn’t convert. Georgia took over on downs, drove the length of the field and grabbed the lead on a 36-yard Chauncey Bowens run with 4:36 remaining.

Then there was the DJ Lagway throw to J Michael Sturdivant. It was third-and-5, the ball on the Florida 31. Georgia brought the house and chased Lagway out of the pocket. Rolling left he kept going through his progressions. Spotting Sturdivant wide open at the Georgia 20, he tried to square his shoulders to the line of scrimmage and get enough oomph on the ball for a completion that probably would have resulted in a touchdown.

He came up two inches short. Sturdivant put on the brakes, tried to come back to the ball. He dived, stretched out his arms and to probably every Florida fan in the stadium and millions more watching on television, got his hands under the ball for a catch.

The back judge saw it differently, ruling the pass incomplete. Several of the replay angles seemed to support a catch, but the people in the booth saw it differently. No catch.

Was it a catch?

“No,” answered Gonzales, who had a clear view of the play from the sideline.

There was still a chance for a first down, but on fourth-and-five, Lagway’s pass to Tre Wilson was high and away, off target just enough that Georgia’s Ellis Robinson got a hand on the ball to break it up.

Two plays. Twelve inches. The difference between a statement win for the Gators playing their first game with Gonzales in charge following the dismissal of Billy Napier.

Another close call of a loss. Since 2022, which was the start of the Billy Napier era at the University of Florida, there have been far too many close call losses. Florida has played 46 football games (22-24 record) since Napier got a win over Utah in the first game of his tumultuous tenure.

Of those 24 losses, the Gators have been within a touchdown or a field goal of either tying the game or taking the lead in the fourth quarter 15 times. The people who set betting lines in Las Vegas would almost certainly tell you odds are the Gators would have won some of those close calls.

All of them? Probably not, but some of them? Probably. And who knows, with a few of those close calls, Billy Napier is probably still gainfully employed as Florida’s football coach instead of figuring out how quickly he wants to jump back into the fire of being a head coach now that he has a $20 million buyout to cushion the fall.

For defensive end Tyreak Sapp, who spent the day applying the pressure to Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton, this close call loss hurt worse than the others.

“It stings … it stings … it hurts bad,” Sapp said. This is his final year of eligibility so he will never experience a win over Georgia in his collegiate career. He wanted to beat the Bulldogs desperately. “It hurts bad knowing that this is my last time that I’ll ever get to play in this game in this stadium with my brothers. It hurts bad. It hurts a lot.”

Billy Gonzales did the stiff upper lip thing. His voice, his demeanor made it abundantly clear that this hurt down to the core of his being, but there is no time for healing. He has four games to go and no time to dwell on the past. The two bye weeks have come and gone. Florida focus turns immediately to Kentucky, whom the Gators play in Lexington next week. That will be followed by a road trip to Ole Miss, coached by Lane Kiffin, who makes Florida fans salivate at the possibility that he could be the head coach of the Gators next season. The last two games are in Gainesville against Tennessee and Florida State.

Win three of the last four and the Gators could make it to a bowl game. A 6-6 record probably lands the Gators in an exotic locale such as Birmingham or maybe Shreveport, but all things considered, finishing the regular season bowl eligible would be quite an accomplishment in light of the firing of Napier and a staff re-shuffle in its wake.

The staff changes are significant, but overall the circumstances aren’t all that much different than they were last season. When the Gators hit the 5-loss mark in 2024, they had a reversal of fortune in the final three regular season games, which they won to finish 7-5. Then they won the Gasparilla Bowl for an 8-5 record that was the only winning season in Napier’s time on the job.

Napier is history now. The head honcho of this team is Billy Gonzales, who has never been a head coach before. Other than the obvious question of why he chose to go for it on fourth down at the 18 instead of letting Smack make it a 6-point lead, Billy G spent the day making solid decisions.

In the first quarter, for example, with the Gators already trailing 7-0, he had a fourth-and-1 at the Florida 42 on the Gators’ first possession. Fans wanted Gonzales to go for it but instead he sent in Tommy Doman to punt. It turned out to be an excellent decision, however, because Georgia couldn’t move the ball and incurred a false start penalty. When punter Brett Thorson shanked, the Gators got the ball on the Georgia 40.

Lagway wasted no time finding Tre Wilson wide open at the Georgia three. The pass was perfect, Wilson made the grab and backed his way into the end zone.

After Bryce Thornton picked off Stockton on a deflection on Georgia’s ensuing possession, Gonzales had to make a fourth-and-goal decision at the Georgia four. It had been a 28-yard Lagway to Wilson pass that put the Gators in position to go a touchdown ahead, but instead of gambling, Gonzales brought in Smack who nailed the chip shot from 22 yards out.

The Gators got a touchdown in a third quarter they statistically dominated. Florida had a 15-play 79-yard scoring drive that ended on a Jaden Baugh touchdown run. On the 54-yard field goal that sailed through the uprights on the first play of the fourth quarter, the defense gave the Gators good enough field position that Gonzales didn’t have to hesitate sending in Smack to launch the ninth field goal of 50-plus yards of his Florida career.

It was a good effort. A solid effort. Considering the circumstances of a head coach going down and an interim coming in to add principles of verticality to the offense along with another good game from the defense, Gonzales graded well.

He didn’t exactly look at it that way, however.

“Obviously we’re not here for moral victories,” Gonzales said.

He didn’t make any excuses. He didn’t sugar coat anything at all. He talked about how his team was hurting but emphasized that the season isn’t over. In his mind and the mind of the players, there is still plenty to play for.  

No matter what happens in the final four games, Gonzales made it a point to emphasize that this team isn’t going to have a slow death experience on the football field.

“They want to win,” Gonzales said. “This team is not here to play. They want to win. I'm proud of them. I'm proud of them. Again, like I said, we got to go back to work as a staff to put them a better position so we can be successful and walk out of here as a winner.”