Sunday Hash: Breaking down Florida football’s win over McNeese State
The opponent was pretty irrelevant on a glorious Saturday night in the Swamp. Heck, the media members and UF staff workers are still arguing over whether to call it McNeese or McNeese State.
But Florida certainly needed a feel-good game.
After four straight losses, the Gator Nation just sought out a game with no stress and gaudy stats.
McNeese and McNeese State both offered that.
And after a week of the Gators and Billy Napier being treated like low-hanging fruit by the so-called experts, it was nice for UF fans to walk out of that building with a smile.
We also were not fooled. We know what is coming.
Today’s Sunday Hash looks back at Florida’s 34 straight wins in a home opener, this one 49-7 against McNeese.
Billy heard the noise
There were a lot of shots this week taken at UF and Napier after an opening loss that was littered with mistakes the way the East River is littered with dead bodies. Napier worked his team hard to get the mistakes corrected. He heard some of the noise in the system.
“One of the things about college football and I would say the University in Florida in particular is it gets noisy sometimes, good and bad,” Napier said after the game. “If it’s bad, then it gets loud, and if it’s good, it gets loud.” So, Saturday night, it was good loud.
The players definitely responded
I was certainly interested in how the players would respond to the negativity directed at the program. They seemed to block it out pretty well. Personally, I would have a team meeting and tell my team this week, “Don’t get cocky and don’t disrespect Tennessee. No “duck can’t pull a trick” comments.
No talk of the home winning streak against the Vols. But that’s just me.
He's no Fred Mertz
We are two games into the great Graham Mertz experiment and may need to quit gazing lovingly at other transfer quarterbacks who went elsewhere or those who stayed at their schools. Mertz is the guy Napier hoped he would be and this one stat says it all – he has completed 73.8% of his passes.
Chasing the great quarterbacks
Which means he is on pace to break Wayne Peace’s 1982 record (minimum 150 passes) of 70.7% for a season. Or Kyle Trask’s 200-pass minimum record of 68.9 percent set in 2020. He also has 526 passing yards, the second most for a Gator quarterback in his first two games behind Shane Matthews (599).
By the way, Shaner had 238 in his third game if you are keeping track at home.
The guy knows what to say
If you have seen any of the videos of practice, you know that Mertz is trying to be a verbal leader as well.
“Personally, for myself, when maybe I’m not feeling as hyped for a game or something, I’ll hear Graham in the background yelling for all the guys, and that just motivates me,” said Pearsall. “Everybody in the room respects him.”
Things Florida did right
Let’s look at the checklist of things to clean up in Week 2:
1. Get the running game going. Check.
2. Eliminate penalties (mostly a check, 4 for 20 yards)
3. Don’t have two guys with the same number on the field. Check.
4. Oh, and improve third-down efficiency.
It was definitely efficient
The best way to have a good third-down efficiency is to have a lot of third and shorts. Florida only had six first downs, two of them after the starters sat down. On the other four, Florida needed a total of 17 yards and converted each one.
“I think third down was manageable for the most part all night,” Napier said. “That’s where you’re essentially playing with odds on your side, and ultimately that’s where you want to live as a play caller.”
The defensive test is Saturday
I’m still going to play a wait-and-see role with Florida’s defense because Utah was missing its quarterback and McNeese was, well, McNeese. The test will come on Saturday, but it is amazing to watch a defense with no seniors running around with so much energy.
“There’s a lot of young cats running around out there,” Napier said. “This is a good thing for the Gators in the future.”
I believe that is worth two points
Hey, the defense even scored which is something we’d like to see a little more of. Jamari Lyons made a quick move into the backfield to tackle D’Angelo Durham.
“Oh, yeah, that was lit, yeah,” said defensive back Jaydon Hill. “I haven’t seen a safety… when was the last time we had a safety? I don’t know, but it was really cool to see a younger guy Jamari getting that and just celebrating.”
The last Florida safety was two years ago against Kentucky.
It was wild man
This was a new one for me. The crowd was into the game and happy to have one of six home games, even if it was an FCS team. The crowd was announced at 88,163, which is certainly an argument against reducing capacity.
But the way Hill described the atmosphere was, well groovy. “You know, the Swamp, the vibes are immaculate,” he said. I have seen people make the sign of the Cross in that stadium.
The explosives were there
Florida had 13 of them and none more beautiful than the 50-yarder from Mertz to Pearsall for a touchdown. “Our confidence is through the roof,” Pearsall said. The Gators also limited McNeese to 116 total yards, the fewest since 2016.
One more thing...
Pearsall wanted to take the blame for the interception Mertz threw at Utah… nine days after the game.
“I’d like to take responsibility for that just because it’s me, but it was just timing purposes that we were off a little bit” Pearsall said. “They sent pressure, and I had an option route, and I needed to hurry up my route, and we just weren’t on the same page during that rep.”
Read more
Pat Dooley’s Six Pack: Quick takes from Florida’s blowout win vs McNeese St.
Good, Bad and Ugly: Gators Wire looks at Florida’s win over McNeese State
PHOTOS: Highlights from Florida football’s win over McNeese State
PHOTOS: Look at Florida football heading into home opener vs McNeese State
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