Week by week, the margin for error is shrinking.
A mountain of mistakes — eight fumbles, bad snaps, a largely inept offense — weren’t enough to cost the Gators in their season-opener against Miami (Ohio), but they know that kind of performance won’t fly when they host South Florida on Saturday at 12:21 p.m.
As embarrassing as last week’s game was, it did bring one positive: Florida learned exactly what not to do.
“We didn’t want it to happen that way, but I believe it’s a blessing in disguise,” UF running backs coach Stan Drayton said. “It really woke our players up. We had a nice sense of urgency going into this week preparing for South Florida, and I expect to see a better performance out of everybody.”
That shouldn’t be a tough threshold to cross, as UF posted just 25 yards through three quarters and trailed 3-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Meanwhile, the Bulls looked much more in sync, gaining 563 yards in a 59-14 rout of Stony Brook.
Quarterback B.J. Daniels was the engineer of that outburst. He completed 15 of 22 passes for 264 yards with two touchdowns and ran for another score. He’ll be the main focus of the Gators’ defense, and he drew comparisons to dual-threat quarterbacks Seneca Wallace and Michael Vick this week.
“He’s almost like Vick back there,” UF cornerback Jeremy Brown said. “He can move really good. He’s very versatile and can [bootleg] both ways, where most quarterbacks usually boot to the strong side. He’s talented, and we’re going to have to somehow keep him in the pocket.”
Defensive line coach Dan McCarney said his linemen have to strike the delicate balance between getting a solid pass rush and over-pursuing, which would give Daniels open running lanes.
While the Bulls may not have the roster-wide talent of some of the other teams on the Gators’ schedule, Florida coaches and players agree that the teams will be close in terms of speed.
“This is an SEC-caliber team we are playing,” UF coach Urban Meyer said.
That’s debatable, but actual Southeastern Conference opponents are on the way.
USF is the last non-conference foe before the Gators open their conference slate, and a trip to No. 1 Alabama looms on Oct. 2, meaning Florida doesn’t have much time to get its ducks in a row.
And the Bulls would be all too happy to play the spoiler.
Coach Skip Holtz has brought a new attitude to the program after replacing Jim Leavitt, who was fired amidst the fallout from accusations that he struck a player in the locker room.
Holtz set about lightening the mood right away, stopping a fall practice to take the team swimming and organizing an Olympic Games for his players — even winning the free-throw shooting contest.
Fresh off turning East Carolina’s losing program into a back-to-back Conference USA champion, Holtz’s track record is a cause for concern. In 2008, he led the Pirates past Virginia Tech and West Virginia to start the season, and UF coaches had to dig deep to study the tendencies of him and his staff.
“When we turn on South Florida film, we’re looking at athletically what they’re capable of doing,” Drayton said. “From a schematic standpoint, we have to go back and study those coaches, and we may be looking at other teams.”
