(Photo credit: Florida Gators)
It was underwhelming, it was average, and it was downright ugly at times, but the Florida Gators did get the victory over Charlotte, 22-7. As a payday game, you of course would’ve liked to see a lot more dominance from the Gators, but the most important thing is that Billy Napier’s squad will move on to the brunt of the SEC schedule with a 3-1 record.
What stood out in the Gators’ victory?
What’s the deal with Kamari Wilson?
One of the most notable things to take place on Saturday had to do with who wasn’t playing, as opposed to who was. And I’m not even talking about Florida’s suspended offensive linemen, following their role in the fight against Tennessee last week. No, I’m talking strictly about former five-star prospect Kamari Wilson, who made waves when he flipped from Georgia to Florida as part of Napier’s inaugural recruiting class. The details aren’t entirely clear yet, but what is clear is that Napier and Florida don’t seem to have a role for him on this team. He showed flashes as a true freshman last year, but reported to camp this offseason at 220 lbs (compared to 208 lbs last year), was beaten out for reps at safety by Jordan Castell, RJ Moten and Miguel Mitchell, and, well, that’s that. He’s also scrubbed all mention of Florida off of his Instagram profile, which is not usually something players do when they’re invested in a program. It’s a shame to watch this all unfold, as he’s clearly talented, but Florida appears set to move on without him.
Austin Armstrong’s defense keeps impressing
You’ve obviously got to pump the brakes somewhat when lauding “Coach Ham” for this defensive performance because of the level of competition, but it’s more than just the pure stats- and the stats are pretty damn good, by the way- that have me impressed. (The Gators currently have the 5th ranked defense in the country and the best in the SEC.) It’s the way this defense communicates. Shemar James and Scooby Williams are quietly becoming one of the best linebacker tandems in the country, and with them teaming up with CamRon Jackson, Princely Umanmielen, and Caleb Banks up front, this defense completely shut down Charlotte’s mobile QB Jalon Jones (yes, that Jalon Jones) by playing assignment-sound football and sticking to their gaps, holding Charlotte to just 211 yards. And gap-conscious football is gap-conscious football, no matter the level of competition. Sure, it’ll be more challenging to maintain that against better opposition, but this defense looks like it very well might be special.
The Florida Gators have found their kicker
If Trey Smack hadn’t usurped Adam Mihalek after the Tennessee game, he has now. That battle is over and will never be revisited, not after Smack drilled all five field goal attempts, including one from 54. What little hope Charlotte had of making a game of this was killed the death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts way, as his five field goals amounted to a two-score deficit from which the 49ers could not recover. And not to cause anybody additional nausea, but those kicks came with more pressure attached than many may have realized at the time. If Florida’s kicking situation continued to struggle in this game, and the Gators had only converted two of their five field goal attempts, Charlotte would have had the ball late in the game, with a chance to take the lead and even win. Of course, the game didn’t come down to that, but that’s just a fun tidbit for anybody who wonders how Smack operates under pressure. Not quite Adam Vinatieri-level nerves of steel on display, but considerably more was on the line for Smack and the Gators than just any old scrimmage.
Ricky Pearsall. That’s it. That’s the takeaway.
How could I begin to describe Ricky Pearsall’s one-handed catch in a way that possibly does it justice? Spoiler alert: I can’t. So I’m just going to take this opportunity to stick another outbound link into this article for my site’s SEO purposes, and give everybody a chance to watch it one more time before we all move on to Kentucky. Here it is, once again, in all its OBJ-esque glory. You’re welcome. But before we move on, one quick side note on Pearsall: he reeled in six catches for 104 yards in this game. That gives him 26 receptions for 362 yards on the season. He’s got a bit of ground to make up if he wants to become a player in the Biletnikoff Award conversation, but if Florida opens up its downfield passing attack in the final two-thirds of the season, a real case could be made.
Old questions and frustrations re-emerged; are they anomalies or data points?
If you’re even somewhat active on social media, you know that the Florida Gators fanbase is, on the whole, highly irritated by this game. And they have a right to be- because in a lot of ways, Florida looked like the team we saw beat itself against Utah. The special teams still can’t count to eleven, this time lining up for a field goal with ten players. The offensive play-calling was vanilla and downright boring most of the night, aside from one well-drawn play design that sprung Arlis Boardingham for the Gators’ lone touchdown. Even some of the very designs of the plays were bad, as Florida receivers routinely cluttered up into the same area, giving one Charlotte defender the ability to cover them both without even trying. And the offensive line regressed and just looked plain bad- sure, blame the missing starters if you want, but even the usually reliable Austin Barber missed a block that led to a strip sack. This all followed warnings from Napier that the team’s practices all week had been subpar, which I can’t really decide it it makes it all better or worse, but should be noted. Now: beat Kentucky and nobody cares about this, as the 22-7 score will happily be written off as an emotional letdown following a big rivalry win for a rebuilding program. But the Florida Gators are out of cupcakes now, and won’t be able to get away with playing that kind of lackluster ball again.
