One week is all the Gators will get.
After finding a way to stink it up in a 22-point win to open the season, Florida will be granted a mulligan from its fans — but only one.
But you should know one thing: This isn’t something new.
Under Urban Meyer, the Gators are 5-0 in their openers, but that’s only because they have played some terrible teams.
If the first game is omitted from those five seasons, you have a better indication of how flat UF comes out of training camp.
In 2008, the year Florida won the championship, Meyer’s team began with a game in which it committed 13 penalties and could only muster 151 passing yards against Hawaii. It also fumbled once.
The next game of that season, the Gators only scored nine points through three quarters until they broke loose for 17 in the fourth against Miami.
Two games after the grind-it-out battle against the Hurricanes, UF lost to Ole Miss in The Swamp.
In 2006, another national championship year, Florida quarterbacks began the season with a combined three interceptions against the likes of Southern Mississippi and Central Florida.
Now, this isn’t an excuse for Florida’s poor offensive performance against a team that won just one game last season, but it is something to pay attention to.
The next question is, why is this becoming a trend?
If you look at all of the early season struggles, they all sprout from the offense.
This is because the spread is heavily based on timing. With an offense that works out of the shotgun and uses option plays, jump passes and wildcat packages to keep defenses off balance, it takes game experience to perfect it and get it right.
It’s no coincidence (no, it wasn’t Tim Tebow’s speech after the game that did it) that UF’s offense followed its 2008 loss to Ole Miss by averaging 52 points per game in the last eight contests against teams such as FSU, LSU and Georgia before winning the national championship to end the year.
Last Saturday’s performance was merely just a continuation of Florida’s poor early season play.
Let’s break down the mistakes the Gators made against the RedHawks.
Mike Pouncey’s inability to snap the ball is the first thing that stands out. I doubt that happens again.
We aren’t talking about some freshman or sophomore making his first start at center. Pouncey is a senior who is part of the watch list for the Rimington Trophy. He will get it fixed.
The second thing on the stat sheet that stares back at you is the eight fumbles.
That should never happen on a rainy day, let alone a nice one like this past Saturday.
Some of those fumbles were derived from the botched snaps. If those get fixed, the number of fumbles will already be on its way down.
The third thing that was alarming from the win against the RedHawks was the play of the running backs.
Jeff Demps ran for 102 yards, but 72 of those came on one run. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Moody gained just 16 yards on five carries against a defense the Gators were supposed to gash.
This is a concern. But when 17 passes are completed for an average of about six yards, that really doesn’t help stretch the defense and help open up the run.
Moody struggled in the season opener, but five carries weren’t enough to get going.
He is the type of back who will get stronger with work because of his bruising style.
All of these things are correctable.
If Florida focuses on fixing these fundamental mistakes, they shouldn’t carry over.
Now, if UF is in its eighth game of the season and botching snaps, then it’s time to worry.
For now, let’s cut the Gators a little slack for their poor play to start the year.
Why shouldn’t we? We have for the past five seasons.
