Rapid Reaction: Florida outlasts Mississippi State for 1st SEC win of 2024
Florida and Mississippi State put plenty of points on the board for Saturday’s “Dan Mullen Bowl” in Starkville. And to honor Todd Grantham, defense was mostly optional.
The Gators and Bulldogs, at the bottom of SEC power rankings everywhere, each entered Saturday desperate for a win. UF outlasted MSU for a 45-28 victory at Davis Wade Stadium, which had a surprising number of empty seats for an SEC contest.
Here are 3 quick takeaways from UF’s win over MSU:
Welcome back, 2023 Graham Mertz
Graham Mertz returned to his 2023 form on Saturday, a welcome sight for Florida fans. Mertz finished with over 200 passing yards. It was in UF’s 28-point 1st half when he particularly shined, going 15-of-16 for 147 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Mertz was the starter and took the majority of snaps, but did spend some time on the sidelines as DJ Lagway had a handful of planned series.
Mertz is a 6th-year senior in his second season as Florida’s starting quarterback. Lagway is a true freshman. Mertz’s maturity and comfort in the offense might have Billy Napier rethink his planned quarterback rotation.
Last week, it was every other series. This week, Lagway had set possessions regardless of the situation, such as the 3rd, 6th and 9th series. As UF’s schedule gets more difficult, Napier may want to let the flow of the game and the momentum dictate which quarterback plays.
Gators, Bulldogs run wild
Neither defense could stop the ground attack on Saturday.
Outside of garbage time, Mississippi State was more effective running the ball than passing against the Gators. UF’s inability to slow the MSU ground game, even with the backup QB in the game, is highly concerning as the Gators gear up to face UCF, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Napier is surely pleased that the Gators were balanced on offense, passing for 277 yards and rushing for 226. During ESPN’s halftime studio show, Mullen was critical of the Mississippi State defense, pointing to a lack of talent. For the Gators, a lot will depend on if they’re able to replicate the balanced attack against future foes.
Billy Napier likely delays the inevitable
There was some surprise that Billy Napier was not fired after Florida’s home blowout loss to Texas A&M in Week 3. It came out this week that one reason Napier held onto his job was because his bosses don’t see an obvious interim coach on staff to give the Gators a better chance the rest of the way.
It has been established that Florida has to pay Napier a lot of money, whether it is to coach or not to coach. Coming off an SEC win, Napier has likely bought some more time. (Jimbo Fisher, though, was infamously fired after beating Mississippi State 51-10, so…)
How much time? That remains to be seen. The Gators are on a bye in Week 5. Florida has the UCF-Tennessee-Kentucky stretch before the next bye, and then the Georgia-Texas-LSU-Ole Miss November gauntlet.
Pathetic defense.
Number 0 took it upon himself to destroy the UF defense …unfortunately he was on the UF defense..
But hey, nice win on the road.
That’s Denson. I think the defensive line made a much bigger contribution.
UCF will run for 500 yards in a couple of weeks if the Gators don’t improve their run defense.
Placing those safeties 12 yards off the LOS and have them backpedal doesn’t help at all.
Tackling and pursuit angles both terrible.
Cool! We don’t have to fire the guy now!
He should fire himself after the way his defense played. Especially since he spent the week working with the defense. What is it with UF’s defense against the run. Are they not filling gaps? State should have run the ball all game and the game would have been much closer.
Lack any sort of competitive drive or will to win. Has to be embarrassing for the alum greats of all those nasty defenses from the past.
Les, when the odds come out for next Saturday, I don’t expect the Gators to be favored against bye-week.
Well played doc, hilarious
Consensus seems to be that Napier jinxed the defense by spending time with them in practice during the week. Only reason that escaped Kiffin’s attention was because he didn’t have a towel hanging out of the back of his khakis when photos were taken.
500 yds of offense by state. Pyrrhic victory
The defense plays so uninspired. Just soft and lacking any physicality. I just don’t get it. Being a Bucs fan my whole life, I’ve watched a lot of REALLY bad football and honestly, this Gator defense is among the worst units I’ve ever watched. Just heartless. They did have the goal line stand but outside of that it was handoff by State followed by an 8 – 12 yard gain every play.
See Les’s comment above, re: competitive drive and/or will-to-win. The more talented team won today but did so on the basis of raw, native talent alone. That can possibly happen again a couple of times (UCF, Vandy), maybe three at the outside (FSU or Kentucky), but the critical variable Les identified will definitely need to be acquired by the t-e-a-m before success against the rest of this year’s gauntlet has any hope.
IMO there is a correlated, harsh variable in play as well: Superior or at least parity talent may indeed be present, but absent proper development, coaching, and game preparation it cannot be expected to always prevail. Put differently, the staff needs to get their collective heads out of their 4th point of contact and maximize the talent on hand – or at least die trying to do the job they were hired to do.
Doc there are so many things wrong with defense right now but effort shouldn’t be one. It’s the one thing they can control for every down. Let’s hope they give more effort against UCF’s run game. The coaching and schemes maybe atrocious but if they over compensate effort-wise maybe they can keep it respectable
Yeah – we saw moments of that yesterday, but it wasn’t anywhere near being consistent. With this much juice on tap, it’s up to the coaches to consolidate it into production. The old maxim still applies: Troops fight the way they are trained to fight. I can’t pin this on the players.
Yes, the Gator defense sucked, but the offense was fun to watch. Our family enjoyed the game, and Barber’s TD was fun. As Gator fans, we should be enjoying a win whenever we get one, who knows when the next one will be! ;)
8115, I hope that you and your son had an awesome time and were able to enjoy the offense at least! :)