The college football season nearly started with a top 10 team being upset, but instead of folding, the Gators came through in the end and defeated Miami 24-20 in Orlando to kick off the 150th CFB season.

Florida did not make it easy on itself, turning the ball over four times and surrendering several costly penalities to give Miami life late into the fourth quarter but two defensive stands were the difference in the game on Saturday night.

Following the final whistle, Dan Mullen was clearly fired up following the display his defense showcased late in the game to hold the Hurricanes out of the end zone. The Gators finished the game with an incredible 10 sacks on the night.

“I’ll tell you what, what a game! College football is back, this is the best! Hell of a job by Miami and Manny (Diaz), you can see what he’s going to be as a head coach and how he’s going to get his guys to play,” Mullen said after the game. “I love our guys. We had some veteran guys not flinch, we made a lot of mistakes, lot of things we can coach up and clean up and we found a way to win, which is fantastic. Really proud of our guys.”

After seeing the resiliency of his team, Mullen was quick to praise his strength coach for getting the Gators ready for the season.

“They kept battling, kept battling, kept fighting. Coach Savage runs our offseason training and conditioning, he has them going for us for these types of situations,” Mullen continued. “We found a way to finish the game, found a way to win. Man, this is awesome! College football is back I love it

Finally, on the performance of Feleipe Franks, Mullen wasn’t down on his starting quarterback despite the fact he threw two interceptions and was involved in two lost fumbles on the night. Franks finished the night completing 17 of 27 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns. He also added on rushing score on the night.

“I think he made a lot of good plays. He’ll know he can do a lot better,” Mullen added. “I think he knows the faith we have in him, we are going to put the ball in his hands, try and let him go win the game for us. We did and — wasn’t exactly how we drew it up but he knows we are going to keep giving him the ball and let him make decisions and try and go win games for us.”