Gene Frenette: Gators' self-inflicted errors in Utah loss indicator of long reconstruction job

As much as Florida football fans hate the P-word, a proven opponent missing eight starters and playing its two backup quarterbacks Thursday night showed the Gators how a complete program with a ton of patience can pay dividends.

What 14th-ranked Utah did to Florida at Rice-Eccles Stadium in a 24-11 victory wasn’t so much dominate a young, inexperienced team still trying to find some kind of groove. All the Utes did really was not beat themselves.

More: Gene Frenette: Napier's challenge with Gators is getting most out of limited QB Graham Mertz

Utah managed to avoid the killer penalties, special-team gaffes and pass-protection breakdowns that methodically put the Gators in a 21-point hole, exposing Florida for the work-in-progress operation it remains under second-year coach Billy Napier.

Don’t be fooled by UF outgaining the Utes 346-270, including 213-38 in the second half. Or the Gators’ Graham Mertz putting up respectable passing numbers (31 of 44 for 333 yards) and showing occasional signs of being a competent SEC quarterback.

Until the Gators can stop the untimely errors that sabotaged them possession after possession, then the oddsmakers who have their over-under win total at 5.5 this season are going to be pretty much on target.

Florida going 1-for-13 on third down, scoring three points on a combined four red-zone penetrations before Mertz connected with Caleb Douglas on a 19-yard TD in the fourth quarter, and picking up a slew of 5-yard penalties in critical situations ruined any chance of pulling off the road upset.

A sequence of events on back-to-back series in the second quarter revealed why Utah is a two-time defending Pac-12 champion, and why Florida might be headed for another losing season.

The Gators, trailing 7-3, had a first down at the Utah 18 and looked primed to take the lead. But a delay-of-game penalty made it third-and-12, followed by an 11-yard Mertz scramble to set up a manageable fourth-and-1.

Instead, a false start by right tackle Damieon George (the first of three flags he incurred) forced the Gators to attempt a 31-yard field goal, which Adam Mihalek pushed wide right.

On Utah’s ensuing possession, the Florida defense got a stop, but gave the ball back on the punt when the Gators’ coaching staff failed to notice that two players wearing No. 3 — returner Eugene Wilson and cornerback Jason Marshall — were on the field at the same time.

That 5-yard penalty gave the Utes a first down, which proved costly when third-team quarterback Nate Johnson (starter Cam Rising is still recovering from a torn ACL) juked linebacker Shemar James on a 27-yard keeper for a touchdown and a 14-3 Utah lead.

No need to go too deep into all the other self-inflicted wounds like a 21-yard Jeremy Crashaw punt that led to a Utah field goal.

Or receiver Ricky Pearsall not turning around fast enough for a Mertz pass that got deflected and picked off by safety Sione Vaki, setting up Utah’s last TD on a Bryson Barnes quarterback scramble for a 24-3 lead. Or a young offensive line struggling to contain the Utes’ pass-rushers, especially Jonah Elliss, and giving up five sacks that only added to the misery.

“You find out who you really are in difficult times,” Napier said in his postgame news conference. “I think this group is going to respond. I know that group in there, there’s fight in that group. … Our players will continue to improve as they gain more experience in their career.”

But it’s also fair to wonder whether the head coach and his staff will improve along with them? While the Gators rallying to beat Utah in the season opener last year might have been Napier’s finest moment, this coaching display was quite the opposite.

Napier was badly outclassed by Kyle Whittingham, who rotated two backup quarterbacks, endured injuries to key defensive starters, and still walked away with an easy victory because his buttoned-up program ran the ball effectively and kept its QB2 and QB3 upright.

Be patient, Florida fans, if it’s at all possible. You probably don’t want to be reminded that Florida State’s Mike Norvell needed a third season before the Seminoles began turning things around.

For the Gators, that’s now looking like a best-case scenario.

Bigger SEC presence for Jaguars

During Shad Khan’s first season of owning the Jaguars in 2012, then-general manager Gene Smith took a lot of heat for having a dozen non-FBS (small school) players on that roster. What was overlooked was the minimal presence of players from Southeastern Conference schools.

Incredulously, the Jaguars played that season with only two SEC players under contract, seldom-used running back Richard Murphy (LSU) and starting defensive end Jeremy Mincey (Florida). It’s hard to fathom any NFL roster would have only two players from the best conference in America, so maybe there’s a reason that 2012 team went 2-14 and the franchise spent most of the next decade floundering.

The Jaguars have come around to being a more SEC-centric team with 16 players on the current roster, double the amount of Big Ten and ACC players. Nine of those SEC players are starters — including Travon Walker (Georgia), Christian Kirk (Texas A&M), Calvin Ridley (Alabama) and Evan Engram (Ole Miss) — and 11 were acquired since Trent Baalke took over as GM after the 2020 season.

DJ Stewart resurgence.

When outfielder DJ Stewart signed a minor-league deal with the New York Mets in February, after parts of five pedestrian seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, there was a lot of uncertainty whether he could resurrect an MLB career.

But more than a month after the Mets called him up to the big leagues on July 4, Stewart’s bat has exploded with eight home runs in his last 13 games, including a pair of homers in Wednesday’s 6-5 win over the Texas Rangers that ended with him getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Stewart, a 2015 first-round draft pick from The Bolles School, has taken advantage of the Mets’ fluctuating roster and been given more playing time by manager Buck Showalter, who managed him for one season in Baltimore.

After hitting .199 in 361 big-league at-bats from 2020-22, Stewart is batting .279 with the Mets, albeit a small sample size in just 86 at-bats. Still, his resurgence could open eyes and give Stewart a chance to extend his MLB career for several years.

More: Gene Frenette: Final tuneup win over Miami shows Jaguars' offense ready to roll in 2023

Smart close to SEC Mt. Rushmore

There’s little doubt that if Georgia wins a third consecutive national title, head coach Kirby Smart moves into consideration for a place on the Mount Rushmore of SEC football coaches.

With an 81-15 record and being a heavy favorite in Georgia’s first four games, Smart likely winning 85 games in his first 100 would be the most in history for any coach at an SEC school.

The winningest coaches through 100 games in the SEC at one program are Robert Neyland (84-9-7) at Tennessee, Nick Saban (84-16) at Alabama, Steve Spurrier (83-16-1) at Florida and Paul “Bear” Bryant (81-12-7) at ‘Bama.

JT one questionable Ryder Cup pick

It’s hard to quibble too much with the six captain picks Zach Johnson made for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. With one notable exception: Justin Thomas.

The world’s former No. 1-ranked player is in a horrific slump and continued to play poorly while being hyper-focused on reviving his game to make the team as a captain’s pick. So when the pressure was at its highest in his mind, Thomas came up woefully short by not even making the FedEx Cup playoffs and missing five of his last eight cuts.

Johnson picked him anyway, mostly on his experience, since he beat Rory McIlroy in singles during the last Ryder Cup in Europe (2018) and has a 6-2-1 overall record. It was interesting Johnson justified taking Brooks Koepka because of how well he performed at three of the four majors this year, winning the PGA Championship and finishing second at the Masters.

Yet Thomas missed two of those four cuts and did no better at any major than tied for 54th at Augusta, but still made the team over Keegan Bradley, a two-time winner this season. Expect a lot of second-guessing on this if Thomas struggles in Italy.

Quick-hitting nuggets

A phenomenal piece this week by Zac Keefer of The Athletic on 84-year-old Tampa Bay Buccaneers senior offensive analyst Tom Moore, whose NFL career began with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1977 coaching the likes of Hall of Fame receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. This was a chilling anecdote: Moore, known mostly for working with Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, is so obsessed with coaching football that he skipped his brother’s funeral because he didn’t want to miss a Colts’ practice. …

Not sure what’s more amazing — Nebraska attracting an all-time record for any women’s sporting event of 92,003 fans at a volleyball game Wednesday against Omaha at its football stadium or that the initial allotment of 82,900 tickets were gone in three days? Sure, Nebraska is a long-time volleyball power, but that’s more spectators than the highest-attended Florida game at Ben-Hill Griffin Stadium, which was 90,948 against Florida State in 2015. It also exceeded Nebraska’s best football attendance of 91,585 against Miami in 2014.

Pigskin forecast

Florida State over LSU by 3 (Jordan Travis Heisman pitches); North Carolina over South Carolina by 1 (Drake Maye highlight); Miami over Miami (Oh.) by 13 (underwhelming reviews); Hawaii over Stanford by 3 (Aloha Pac-12 banners); TCU over Colorado by 24 (slices of Prime Time humble pie).

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @genefrenette 

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Utah shows Gators, Napier that UF program still has ways to go in rebuild