Florida’s embarrassing new low vs. Tennessee should serve as a reminder: A gut job awaits new coach in Gainesville
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It was gross.
Everything about what Florida put forth on Saturday night in its first home loss against Tennessee in 22 years should’ve given the non-orange audience a collective “ick.” Well, let’s leave Jadan Baugh out of that conversation. The Gators running back might be the only thing that wasn’t worth turning away from in disgust.
But a 31-11 drubbing at the hands of the Vols — it felt worse than that because Tennessee led by 31 at the break — should’ve sent a loud message to any potential buyers.
“The nation’s longest streak without a shutout resides in Gainesville!”
Kidding, though that was the only interesting element worth following in the middle of the 3rd quarter as Florida attempted a long field goal in hopes that it wouldn’t be staring at its first goose egg since 1988.
The loud message to any potential buyers like Lane Kiffin — or anybody else who might have some interest in being the new Swamp King — should’ve been simple.
This house? It’s a gut job.
Sure, maybe it’s got some good bones in the form of some promising skill players, along with a venue that can still bring it on a given night. But as Florida fans trickled out in the first half instead of sticking around to watch Tennessee celebrate its first such win since the first term of the George W. Bush administration, reality should’ve hit.
The 3-8 Gators aren’t getting one of those overnight renovations. Not in this era of the sport.
When Florida hit its previous 21st-century rock bottom in the wake of the disastrous Jim McElwain mess in 2017, it had a couple things working in its favor. For starters, it didn’t have the 30-day transfer portal window, which will be available to Florida players at season’s end as the result of Billy Napier’s firing. There wasn’t necessarily a mass exodus with that 2017 squad. In fact, it returned a whopping 17 starters. That’s why even on the heels of that 4-win season, all Florida had to do to crack the AP Top 25 in 2018 was beat an FCS foe in the first game of the Dan Mullen era.
(The irony is that the 2018 Florida team both lost that first game as a ranked opponent by falling to Kentucky at home for the first time since the pre-Steve Spurrier era, only to then beat Joe Burrow-led LSU in The Swamp a month later.)
Not a single player on the current Florida roster is a virtual lock to stay for 2025, regardless of who that new coach is. Would it help if the Gators pulled off an 11th hour miracle and got Kiffin? Of course. Nobody recruits the transfer portal as well as Kiffin, and the fact that he’s leading a Playoff-bound team with a Division II quarterback tells you everything you need to know about his ability to play the cards he’s dealt.
But any winning hand for Florida includes a gut job. That can’t be denied.
If you saw Tennessee run all over a banged-up Florida defense, which likely already has several key pieces protecting their respective futures, you know what I’m talking about. The Gators suffered their most lopsided loss in the rivalry since Year 1 of the Spurrier era. That 1990 Florida team was expected to be a gut job, but Spurrier worked his magic upon arrival.
Again, that was a different era of the sport. It’s a different era of the SEC, too. Tennessee was the 7th ranked foe that the Gators faced this year. The Vols weren’t a top-10 team like the other 6 ranked foes on Florida’s grinder of a 2025 slate, but they might as well have been. The 248 rushing yards against the Gators marked their 3rd consecutive game allowing at least 230 rushing yards. If that continues next week against Tommy Castellanos-led Florida State, it could mark the 5th time in the last 6 seasons that Florida failed to finish with a top-70 scoring defense.
That’s right. Top 70.
That defensive issue will be lost in the shuffle of whoever Florida hires, especially in the likely event that it’s an offensive-minded head coach for the 4th consecutive time. After all, Will Muschamp was a defensive-minded guy and his offenses were a walking gut job. Surely any Napier successor with a defensive-minded background will also be held to 20 points in a home loss to Georgia Southern.
One couldn’t help but wonder if Saturday’s loss was the lowest point in The Swamp since that home defeat back in 2013. Lord knows there have been other moments, like allowing Samford to put up half a hundred in the first game after Todd Grantham’s firing in 2021. There was the time that Florida lost an overtime game to an Arkansas team that was steering directly at a 4-8 season in 2023. And of course, who could forget the USF loss 11 weeks ago? The candidates are aplenty.
Amid all of that, though, Florida could always come back to beating Tennessee in The Swamp and chuckle whenever the Vols did anything of meaning. No more. Florida would do wild things to have what Tennessee has under Josh Heupel. As in, the Year 5 coach — something Florida hasn’t had since Urban Meyer — who capped off the best 3-year stretch of Tennessee football in 2 decades by leading the Vols to their first Playoff berth. Heupel won’t be going back there this year, but he’s at least living in an upper-middle class house that doesn’t give people the ick the second they walk in.
Florida can still throw a good party (the Texas game was fun), but the list of repairs is a mile long. It goes beyond the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been committed to renovating Ben-Hill Griffin Stadium at the end of the decade. Florida not being able to put together a presentable showing against a decent Tennessee team in The Swamp should tell you all you need to know.
Hard hats are required for whoever takes on the gut job in Gainesville.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
