Florida steamrolled its way to a 34th consecutive win in a home opener, pounding overmatched McNeese State 49-7 on Saturday night in The Swamp. The Gators did play cleaner football, on the whole, than they did in their 24-11 loss at No. 14 Utah in their season opener 9 days earlier. But UF was far from perfect, hampered early by a bad snap that spoiled an extra-point attempt and an offsides penalty that extended an early McNeese State possession. Still, the Gators were better, and they can take away plenty to build on as they move toward the SEC opener with No. 11 Tennessee next Saturday night.

Let’s take stock of the Gators as the ready for a rivalry game with the Volunteers in The Swamp.

Player of the Game: Ricky Pearsall, WR

The Florida senior hauled in 6 passes for 123 yards and 1 touchdown. Pearsall also scored on Florida’s longest play from scrimmage this season, a 50-yard pitch and catch from Graham Mertz to make it 40-0 — and send the Gators’ starters to the bench — in the 3rd quarter.

Pearsall credited the Florida run game for creating the type of personnel look that allowed the Gators to attack deep. But the bigger takeaway is likely that Florida scored on its first 6 offensive possessions and looked like a confident football team despite the Week 1 setback.

“Our confidence level is always good,” Pearsall said after the game.  “I think last week against Utah, we just kind of beat ourselves. I didn’t really think it had anything to do with the talent of the guys. I think it was more about executing and eliminating penalties, and obviously, I think we did a better job of that tonight. I think that’s going to give us a good amount of momentum going into the next week. We’ve just got to prepare for Tennessee.”

Pearsall has 14 receptions for 215 yards this season, big-time numbers for Florida’s best receiver as the Gators enter league play.

Freshman of the Week: Eugene Wilson III, WR

The consensus top-100 recruit dazzled again, collecting 54 yards on 5 touches (4 targets passing, 1 rushing play). When asked about Wilson — who has blazing speed and twitch in the open field — earlier in the week, coach Billy Napier said, “We have to find ways to use him because he’s incredibly unique with the football, for sure.” Mission accomplished, as the freshman earned his 1st career start and was involved early and often in the 1st half for the orange and blue. On a night when Florida’s freshmen class shined offensively (freshman running back Treyaun Webb scored 2 touchdowns), it was Tre Wilson who showed his future might be the brightest of a sterling group of freshmen playmakers.

Biggest surprise: Freshmen WRs were clearly ‘option 2’ in the passing game

Pearsall was expected to be Florida’s top option in the passing game in 2023.

Early in summer camp, despite a very talented crop of true freshmen, it appeared that sophomore Caleb Douglas and redshirt junior Ja’Quavion Fraziars would be options 2 and 3. Others felt Marcus Burke, another blue chip who has been on campus a while, would feature as a viable number 2. Burke’s nice opening half and Douglas’ nice touchdown catch at Utah seemed to cement that theory.

That’s why Saturday night was surprising.

Florida’s 2nd options in the passing game were clearly true freshmen, as Wilson (above) and his fellow blue-chip Aidan Mizell were targeted 7 times. It’s great that the duo of freshmen caught 6 of those passes and gained 61 yards in the process, but it is curious that the other receivers, from Napier’s transition class and the Dan Mullen era, seemed to disappear.

Tennessee doesn’t have a plus secondary, and Florida should take shots next Saturday night. The question is who, outside of Pearsall, gets the 1st bite of the apple when the Gators do take chances.

Stat of the Week: 112 yards

That’s all McNeese State gained offensively, as the Florida defense looked too fast and physical for the FCS Cowboys. All told, it was the best performance by a Florida defense since 2016, when a Gators defense that finished the season in the top 10 nationally allowed just 53 yards in a shutout of North Texas.

Austin Armstrong’s Florida defense is off to a promising start. Florida surrendered just 270 yards to Utah in defeat on Aug. 31, and 70 of those came on the game’s 1st play, when Florida’s safety and corner miscommunicated and allowed Bryson Barnes to connect for a touchdown with Money Parks, who was behind the defense. Take away that snap, and Florida has allowed just 3.47 yards per play in 2 games.

That’s promising stuff, but Tennessee is a different beast (see below).

What’s next: Sept. 16 vs. No. 11 Tennessee (7 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The Volunteers haven’t beaten Florida in Gainesville since George W. Bush’s first term as President of the United States. In case you are scoring at home, that’s a span of 20 years. Tennessee looked like it was peeking ahead Saturday, struggling to defeat lowly Austin Peay in Knoxville. The Vols eventually put the FCS Governors away, but it was a surprisingly lethargic performance from Big Orange considering Southern Illinois wiped out Austin Peay by 4 touchdowns the week prior.

Florida fans shouldn’t think that Saturday’s eyebrow-raising affair in Knoxville is anything more than an aberration.

Josh Heupel is an outstanding football coach and one of the sport’s best offensive minds. He’ll have a plan to challenge the new-look Florida secondary, and the Vols have shown the ability to run the football in both of their wins, meaning the Gators can’t just drop 7 into coverage and count on their front to stop the run.

Joe Milton hasn’t shined in his 1st starting role, but he’s still the first FBS starter Florida will have faced this season and by far the most naturally talented quarterback. Florida beat Milton decisively in his previous trip to The Swamp — a game that ended up becoming the beginning of the Hendon Hooker era at Tennessee. Milton’s revenge could be becoming the 1st Tennessee quarterback in a generation to win in Gainesville.

It’s an intriguing matchup that will answer early season questions for both fan bases. Is Florida’s defense for real, or is it just playing well against subpar talent (McNeese State) and backup quarterbacks (Utah)? Is Milton the guy who started 1-for-8 with 14 yards against Austin Peay, or the guy who looked the part of an all-conference talent in the 2nd half against Virginia?

It’s also a vital game for Napier.

Florida is 0-4 in the Napier era against rivals, and while the Gators haven’t been blown off the field in any of those games, “being competitive” won’t cut it with a fan base starved for a big win. If Napier extends the home winning streak against Tennessee, he’ll reduce the simmering speculation that he isn’t ready to lead Florida football back to national prominence. A win won’t answer every question, but it would buy Napier some time and goodwill. It would also show plenty of recruits on hand in The Swamp that Florida’s future is bright, no matter how darkly lit the road forward has seemed at times.

A huge, huge game on the 3rd Saturday in September?

That feels like Florida and Tennessee.