AUBURN, Ala. — The Gators are a representation of first-year head coach Will Muschamp: young, emotional and undisciplined.
On Florida’s best chance for a win in the past three weeks, the Gators once again took themselves out of the game with mental mistakes. They entered Saturday’s game the most penalized team in the country, and that trend continued in a 17-6 loss to Auburn.
Trailing by eight points with less than six minutes to play in the game and facing a fourth-and-3 from their own 46, Gators’ left tackle Xavier Nixon was flagged for a false start. The penalty prevented Florida from attempting to go for it on fourth down and cost the team a chance at victory.
But the Gators’ defense stood up, holding Auburn and forcing a punt with 3:03 to play. However, wide receiver Robert Clark fumbled the high, booming kick and Auburn took over.
Clark had subbed in for running back Chris Rainey, who had muffed three punts of his own on the evening. Florida lost two of them.
“Turnovers killed us,” Muschamp said. “Three turnovers lead to 10 points and really cost you the football game.”
Auburn put its first points of the game on the board in the first quarter after Rainey muffed a punt and Daren Bates recovered the ball at the Florida 32-yard line.
After the play, Muschamp let each official have a piece of his mind for what he felt was an incorrect call. Instead of readying his team for a quick-change situation, Muschamp called a timeout and spent the majority of it berating the men in black and white.
“I can’t comment on that,” Muschamp said of the call in question.
Then, facing a third-and-3 situation at the 26, Florida defensive tackle Dominique Easley jumped offside, allowing Auburn quarterback Barrett Trotter to make one of his few plays of the game. Trotter tossed up a jump ball in the end zone to DeAngelo Benton, who came down with the pass over cornerback Cody Riggs for the Tigers’ only points of the first half and what amounted to be the game-winning points.
Also, Florida committed five penalties for 35 yards in the first half, and again, the flags came on procedural issues that Muschamp and other coaches insisted would not be tolerated after last week’s loss to LSU.
“We need to do a better job coaching, because, obviously, it’s not getting done and we’ve got to look at some other guys that can play,” Muschamp said. “That falls on my shoulders — nobody else’s.”
Florida had two false start penalties and two offsides calls in the first half, and set Auburn up for two scoring drives by virtue of penalty. Defensive tackles Jaye Howard and Leon Orr were called for a face mask and offsides penalty, respectively. Both flags came on third down, extending the Tigers’ drive.
But Auburn kicker Cody Parkey bailed out the Gators by missing field goal attempts from 42 and 45 yards.
After being called for six flags in all, Florida remains the most penalized team in the nation with 61 for 465 yards.
“We’ll figure out a different way to emphasize it and do a better job with it,” Muschamp said.
“That’s all I can say.”
Contact Matt Watts at mwatts@alligator.org.
The Gators are the most penalized team in the nation with 61 for 465 yards, including six against Auburn on Saturday. The most glaring was an offsides call on defensive tackle Dominique Easley that allowed Auburn a free shot at the end zone, which it converted for the game’s first points.
