Late in the first quarter against UMass, Jarrad Davis swarmed into the backfield on third and 3.
The linebacker tackled Minutemen quarterback Ross Comis as Comis attempted his pass, a deep incompletion that should have brought out the punting unit.
But as the ball sailed through the air, so did yellow flags.
Personal foul. Roughing the passer.
First down UMass.
“We were off the field,” Davis said, “and to extend drives like that, that really hurts you.”
Defensive lineman Taven Bryan was called for a personal foul of his own two plays later, another free set of downs for the Minutemen offense that scored its lone touchdown on that drive.
By game’s end, Florida amassed eight penalties — including three personal fouls.
“That’s not how you’re going to play winning football,” UF coach Jim McElwain said after the game, “and that’s a little bit disappointing.”
With Kentucky coming to town on Saturday to open Southeastern Conference play, McElwain said he is stressing discipline on the field this week and hopes it sticks for the rest of the season.
“We’ve just got to play smarter, and we can’t put ourselves in holes,” McElwain said. “That was a big thing when we got here. We did a good job of kind of eliminating some of those. But when you have three majors like that in a game, that ain’t right.”
But it’s not uncommon for the Gators.
With the exception of the 2009 season, Florida has accrued either the most or second-most penalty yards per game in the SEC since 2008 — the team’s last national title run.
Even so, it’s a trend McElwain hopes to buck this year, especially after the UMass game.
“He just brought it to the table,” defensive lineman Joey Ivie said. “He was like, ‘Look you guys, you know, you guys have gotta be more disciplined.’ … (UMass) had some big plays for a lot of yards. And I think those are the mental errors that gotta be fixed.”
Davis said his third-down penalty against UMass created a trickle-down effect on the team.
His one mistake forced the defense to stay on the field. One mistake cost UF a shutout.
“I have to be able to kind of have a threshold on how to gauge myself to make sure that things like that don’t happen,” Davis said, “because that started something that shouldn’t happen.”
He expects more from himself. And when the Gators take the field on Saturday against Kentucky, Davis said they will learn from it and move on.
And, maybe, the defense will get off the field.
“Things like that are things that we have to clean up on,” Davis said. “We’ve been working on that all summer, all offseason to make sure that we play fast but we play clean at the same time. So we need to make sure that we just continue to do what we’ve done all offseason and we’ll be all right.”
Contact Jordan McPherson at jmcpherson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @J_McPherson1126.
UF linebacker Jarrad Davis tackles Florida State running back Dalvin Cook during Florida's 27-2 loss on Nov. 28, 2015, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
