No moral victories but Gators showed something in Knoxville

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The pocket collapsed around Florida Gators quarterback Anthony Richardson, who was left to throw a prayer in the general direction of the end zone while being tackled. His pass landed in the waiting arms of Kamal Hadden. The game was over.

Nearly 102,000 fans in Neyland Stadium exhaled in relief. Florida had lost to Tennessee for just the second time in the last 18 years.

There are no participation trophies.

The Gators are 0-2 in the SEC under Billy Napier. It is the first time Florida has lost to both Kentucky and Tennessee in the same season since 1953. That was Bob Woodruff’s fourth season. Florida finished with a 3-5-2 overall record and a 1-3-2 in the SEC.

The Gators are 2-2 after the first month of the season. There was no moral victory in the post-game press conference.

“When you combine offense and defense and special teams today, we didn’t do enough to win. We gave up a few cheap ones. We left points out there on offense. In the kicking game, I think we didn’t do anything that changed the game today. So a lot of credit to Tennessee,” Napier said after the game. “I think when we go back and watch the film, there’s going to be 12-15 plays where Florida beats Florida tonight. When you think about that, you think about coaching, right? That’s my responsibility.”

Gators growing up

Florida trailed Tennessee 38-21 with less than eight minutes in the game. There was a real chance that it could have been a larger deficit.

There were many times and opportunities for Florida to roll over like Tennessee’s Bluetick Coonhound mascot, Smokey X. Before you say they shouldn’t, which you’re right about, don’t say you haven’t seen it. Their coach quit on them in 2021 and the team followed suit.

It’s why Napier is in Gainesville right now. That’s a mentality that one can easily slide back into when things get tough. Quitting gets easier the more you do it and that’s a mentality Napier had to eradicate.

“What type of football team do we want to have here? We’re going to start with the things that we totally control,” Napier said during his introductory press conference. “Our trademark will be our physicality. We will be in great condition. We’ll be known for how hard we play. We’ll be disciplined.”

The discipline is a work in progress. The Gators average 6.5 penalties per game, ninth in the SEC. What we have seen in four games is the third tenant Napier addressed — effort and toughness.

You’ll rarely hear a coach call out his team’s toughness publicly. Now, he may do it on a random Tuesday after practice behind closed doors, but that’s different than a press conference. Playing on the road, in front of more than 100,000 people, Napier watched the beginning of the program that he wants to build.

The Gators were tough. They were physical, and they fought until there was no time left to fight.

Napier probably walked away from Neyland Stadium feeling better about the program than he had when he walked in. In a loss, nonetheless, he was witness to a group of 70 young men who have bought into his program and his idea of what the Florida Gators should be.

“They’re going to show up. They’re loyal to each other. They want to do their very best for their teammates. I think that their attitude, they haven’t flinched. If there’s one thing this group does, they respond to adversity,” Napier said. “I think we got to help ‘em do the technical things better. Our football team needs to do the simple things better. I  think we know what winning football looks like. We’ve got a collective effort of our offense, defense, and special teams we have to do things better to position our team to have success and win.”

How will they finish?

The Gators lost a football game on Saturday. What Napier and his football staff saw was the beginning of a program. Florida will never look at a loss to Tennessee and be content.

Looking at the Gators’ schedule heading into the season, 8-4 would have been a fantastic year. Florida sitting at 2-2 at the end of September wasn’t a crazy assumption. Florida beating then No. 7 Utah — which has outscored opponents 142-27 since losing to UF — might have reprogrammed some fans’ expectations.

The fact of the matter remains that Florida is in a rebuilding phase. Plain and simple.

If there can be any positive from Saturday night’s 38-33 loss to a bitter rival, it should be that the team continued to fight. They refused to lie down. The team Napier inherited is flawed. It will put a ceiling on their success this season.

The foundation is being laid for the future. That began in the spring. Some players got a taste of what would be expected of them and decided to transfer. Those who stayed have bought in and in their first road test, Napier saw that the plan he put in place last December is beginning to take shape.