The Good, the Bad and the Ugly from the Gators' Sluggish Win
Photo: Florida kicker Trey Smack; Credit: Alex Shepherd
Billy Napier’s Florida Gators took the field on Saturday night with the opportunity to produce the program’s first three-game win streak since the 2020 season.
It didn’t come smoothly, but the squad reigned victorious over Charlotte in Florida’s final tune-up contest before entering the heat of their SEC slate.
To recap the Gators' 22-7 win over the 49ers, All Gators analyzes the good, the bad and the ugly from the performance.
Good: Kicker Trey Smack
The Gators have found their kicker.
It may have taken longer than desired, given UF's well-documented special teams woes so far this season, but sophomore Trey Smack solidified himself as Florida’s placekicker with his performance against Charlotte.
Adam Mihalek’s struggles reached a head during Florida's victory over Tennessee. Seeing his first extra point and field goal attempts blocked, the Gators switched him out in favor of Smack — who proceeded to knock through his two extra point attempts and a 27-yard field goal.
The in-game shakeup created a kicking competition ahead of UF’s Week 4 bout against the 49ers between Mihalek and Smack. The latter was announced as the starter pregame.
He was thrust into the spotlight due to Florida’s offensive struggles (which you can read more about in the Bad section) on Saturday, proving his worth as a strong-legged, reliable contributor. Smack knocked through all five field goal attempts, including a 54-yarder, to post 15 of the Gators' 22 total points.
His display did more than win the contest. It seemingly reconciled a crucial area of the otherwise substandard special teams unit.
Bad: Red zone offense
Field goals highlighted Florida’s night. That fact was created by the Gators' inability to close drives.
Despite scoring on all five of its trips to the red zone, UF struggled mightily to turn in six points across those possessions.
The Gators came away with just one touchdown on the first offensive drive of the contest as quarterback Graham Mertz found tight end Arlis Boardingham from six yards out, falling below the desired rate of touchdowns by Napier and Co.
“I think ultimately there will be some things that we can learn from this game,” Napier said postgame. “We talk about red zone touchdowns all the time. We want to be 70% touchdowns in the red area, but we want to be 100% red zone scoring, and it was a factor.
The absence of three starters on the offensive line and highly skilled freshman wideout Eugene Wilson III likely impacted the inferior performance in that area, due to the lack of rhythm and cohesion in those situations.
Week 1 against Utah presented a similar issue as Florida made four trips inside the Utes 20-yard line but failed to convert twice, although the problem was nonexistent in the next two outings.
While it’s relatively easy for any team to move the football between the 20s, the job gets significantly more difficult when the field shrinks nearing the end zone.
Florida embodied that reality on Saturday.
However, Napier is confident the woes will subside with a simple fix moving forward into Kentucky in Week 5.
“We moved the ball really effectively. We've got to score touchdowns when we get it down there," Napier stated. "I think it's all easy to fix.”
Ugly: Inability to sustain momentum
Immediately following the Gators' upset victory over the Volunteers in Week 3, Napier harped on the importance of sustaining momentum in his post-game address to the team.
He emphasized the message further throughout the week when speaking to the media, expressing his concern for the unit’s ability to handle success after not being able to do so throughout the 2022 campaign. The candid comments from the head coach initially seemed to be a way to temper expectations.
In hindsight, it was an honest assessment of the Gators squad as it once again looked sluggish despite producing a resume-defining win the week prior.
“Everybody wants to crown the Gators,” Napier memorably remarked after Florida took down No. 7 Utah in his coaching debut for the program as a way to express the need for extensive progression before they were deserving of the praise.
He echoed the sentiment just over a year later after the win over No. 11 Tennessee.
Similarly, Florida paired the emotional high of taking down a top 15 team in the nation with a sluggish, uninspired outing on Saturday. It may not have resulted in a loss as it did a year ago — a byproduct of the level of competition — but it was the exact performance the Gators wanted to avoid.
The words were warranted, considering Florida’s losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt a season ago under comparable circumstances.
However, the action didn’t support the idea that the team is beginning to turn a corner as Florida proved once again it doesn’t yet know how to sustain or compound momentum.
The outing suggests a dangerous trend moving forward in the 2023 campaign.
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