Over the past four years, giving up two touchdowns in a game seemed to be something of a death sentence. After all, the 13 points the Gators gave up last night would have been enough for the other team to win nine games in Will Muschamp’s four year tenure.
But enough about Muschamp and his failures. This is a new era, and from a pure numbers standpoint, one that started better than any other in Gator history.
Florida used both QB’s to combine for over 400 yards of offense, Vernon Hargreaves picked off his seventh pass as a Gator and Florida hammered New Mexico State, 61-13. Those 61 points were the most scored by any Gator coach’s team in his inaugural game as Head Gator. Only Ron Zook (51 against UAB in 2002) and Steve Spurrier (50 against Oklahoma State in 1990) have even come close. Take from that what you will.
As you probably heard, the Gators were staging an audition for the QB position throughout this game. Will Grier and Treon Harris both played pretty well, I thought, but there were some significant differences. (Much more on that tomorrow.) However, as McElwain stated several times, the QB position wasn’t the most important thing last night. Winning the game was. And Florida took care of that pretty quickly.
Harris got the start, and Florida opened the game by going nowhere thanks to an awful snap from center Cam Dillard that cost the Gators 12 yards, but after that, things quickly got out of hand. On the next drive, receiver/running back Brandon Powell lost himself behind the Aggie defense, and Harris found him:
TOUCHDOWN GATORS!!! Treon Harris to Brandon Powell, 38 yards! https://t.co/d38n2WNaZZ
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) September 5, 2015
In a cosmic sort of way, that touchdown pass was probably what hurt Harris the most. Better defenses aren’t going to bust coverages that badly, and even if they do, their defensive backs are going to be fast enough to recover to break that pass up or pick it off. Harris floated that ball. I mean, he just put up a rainbow. Instead of giving DB’s the time to make up for getting beat by getting over to the ball’s landing spot as it harmlessly sails through the air like a frisbee, you’ve got to punish them for being so out of position by getting the ball to your receiver as quickly as you can. The right throw on that play is a bullet that Powell catches in stride, so he doesn’t have to break his route and then twist back around and dive for the pylon. But I’m nitpicking. Back to the game.
Kelvin Taylor scored on the next drive from 10 yards out, and then it was time to switch quarterbacks. With Grier at the controls, the Gators went flying right down the field, and the drive ended with this:
TOUCHDOWN! Will Grier with a laser to C'yontai Lewis. 21-0 Florida https://t.co/QsO0jkSvVA
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) September 6, 2015
That’s the right throw. Tight window, but C’yontai Lewis was open enough for Grier to fit it in there and he didn’t hesitate and stuck it in there. Great job.
New Mexico State would fight back, sort of. On the next drive, the Aggies forced a fumble by collectively beating Florida’s offensive line, (yep, here we go) strip sacking Grier and then recovering the fumble; running back Larry Rose scored a few plays later. Grier answered by guiding the Gators down the field for another touchdown to make it 28-7, but the Aggies responded again. QB Tyler Rogers led New Mexico State down the field, but the drive stalled in Florida territory and the Aggies faced a 4th and 6. Aggie coach Doug Martin elected to go for it, and Rogers paid it off with a 31 yard touchdown pass to Teldrick Morgan behind the Florida secondary.
But then the Gators put the game away, as Will Grier found a streaking Lewis behind the New Mexico State defense for the second time to make it 34-13 at halftime (NMSU missed their PAT, Florida had theirs blocked). And that was pretty much that; New Mexico State had no more answers.
Grier stayed out there to begin the second half, leading Florida to a touchdown and a field goal to make it 44-13 before turning the reins back over to Harris. The touchdown came after Vernon Hargreaves made an incredible play, high pointing a deep lob down the middle of the field to grab his 7th career pick, and then returned it 43 yards deep into NMSU territory. That set up Jordan Cronkrite’s first touchdown as a Gator.
TOUCHDOWN GATORS!!! Jordan Cronkrite runs over even more Aggies https://t.co/3Pf3VsW5Au
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) September 6, 2015
Harris then came back out to finish the game. He led the Gators for a field goal, and then drove them all the way down the field, where the other prized freshman running back named Jordan got his first touchdown as a Gator:
Jordan Scarlett has his first touchdown of his college career! https://t.co/QQ3zK41Fgv
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) September 6, 2015
OK, we get it. Florida won by a lot. Now for some general analysis.
Florida’s defense was fine, for the most part. I didn’t really like watching the Gators get burned on a 4th and 6 for a 31 yard touchdown, as it brought back memories of last year, but I can’t complain about giving up exactly 200 yards of total offense, even against such a bad team. The touchdown aside, there were very few busts in coverage, and the defensive line was outstanding. On one play, Cece Jefferson literally threw an offensive lineman to the ground on his way to the backfield, which was awesome. And when the Aggies did get the ball to playmakers in space, the Gators’ defenders did a great job flagging them down and making the open field tackles. So that’s always good to see.
Offensively, I was pretty happy with the way things went. Florida gained 606 yards of total offense. That should tell the story right there, even though- again- New Mexico State’s defense is notoriously awful. Both QB’s looked good enough to lead the team to a successful season (Grier looked a little better, but again, more on that tomorrow). Florida also appeared to find two quality running backs who are ready to contribute right away behind Kelvin Taylor. We know Taylor is a great running back, and we know the two Jordans are very talented and have a great chance to someday be very good, but I wasn’t sure how good they’d be as freshmen having to learn on the fly. But both of them really impressed, combining for 58 yards on 13 carries and looking more than adequate in pass protection.
The passing game (despite a meh performance from the much maligned offensive line) also looked good. Not only does Florida seem to have two adequate-or-better QB’s, but we saw several playmakers emerge last night. Antonio Callaway, CJ Worton and Alvin Bailey all stepped up and made multiple receptions. As a matter of fact, fourteen different Gators caught a pass. Fourteen. How about that?
Specifically, the Gators appear to have three tight ends capable of inflicting heavy damage in the passing game in Jake McGee, C’yontai Lewis and DeAndre Goolsby. Each of them caught at least two passes, and two of those were touchdown passes to Lewis. Gooslby also impressed with this video game esque move:
DeAndre Goolsby tho 👀👀👀 https://t.co/QW5cwQrOmS
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) September 6, 2015
And finally, how about the discipline showed by the entire Gators team? I ragged on our previous coach for the myriad of penalties his team committed on a weekly basis, which, sure enough, would eventually prove to cost them some games. I even noticed it in the very first game he coached. Last night, however, the Gators had just one penalty marked off against them. One. That, maybe even as much as the offensive explosion, is a good sign as we move ahead.
The 61-13 win, despite being the most points scored in a Gator coach’s debut, was by no means perfect, and it by no means indicates that Florida is ready to compete for championships. What it does mean is that the Gators are off to a good start. There’s some growing to do, and some improvements to make. But the growing and improvements are going to be made off of a good starting point. We are moving forward from a very good beginning.
And that, more than the lopsided win, is something to be happy about.
