Gators don't flinch, find a way to beat Miami in bizarre rivalry slop-fest
ORLANDO — Don’t flinch.
Those words appear on a sign the Florida sideline holds up when the defense faces 3rd down.
They are a favorite expression of Florida’s coaching staff, particularly strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage, and a mantra the team carries from Savage’s famously demanding offseason program right onto the football field.
“We have a saying in our program, ‘Don’t Flinch.’ Coach Savage, coach Grantham are always saying ‘Don’t Flinch.’ When adversity hits — and we know it will hit — trust your training, trust the work you put in, stay steady. We didn’t flinch tonight,” Gators cornerback CJ Henderson said following Florida’s hard-fought, ugly 24-20 slop-fest of a rivalry game win over Miami at Camping World Stadium.
There were plenty of chances for the Gators to flinch Saturday night.
The Hurricanes broke out the turnover chain 4 times, recovering 2 Florida fumbles and intercepting Feleipe Franks 2 times – the second an absolutely unthinkable throw by the 3rd-year starter into triple coverage with Florida nursing a 4-point lead with 4:20 remaining. Franks said he was hit. Mullen absorbed some of the blame, too, saying he shouldn’t have called the play.
Miami’s freshman quarterback, Jarren Williams, played beautifully, shaking off the occasional freshman mistake and standing up to a ferocious Florida pass rush to throw for 230 yards and a touchdown (and 0 turnovers) against an outstanding defense.
Florida missed 20 tackles, including at least 3 on a 50-yard touchdown run by DeeJay Dallas that gave the Canes the lead early in the 4th quarter.
Florida’s vaunted group of wide receivers had their moments, but not enough of them, with only senior Josh Hammond catching more than 1 pass out of the dangerous group of Hammond, Trevon Grimes, Van Jefferson and Freddie Swain.
Florida’s coaching staff got in on the crazy and ugly too.
Mullen and the offensive staff checked to a QB power on a 3rd-and-goal from the 8 in the 3rd quarter.
Mullen and his special teams coaches failed to consider that Miami might fake a field goal on a 4th-and-2 in the 4th quarter.
Most mystifyingly, Mullen and the offensive staff made the mystifying decision to only get the ball to Kadarius Toney 3 more times in the entire football game after the electric playmaker went 66 yards to the house on a screen pass on Florida’s first possession.
Finally, on Miami’s interminable, bizarre final possession, after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty started at the Florida 40 and included a 4th-and-34 from the Canes’ own 35, the Gators failed to recover 3 Hurricane fumbles on 10 plays and committed not 1, but 2 game-extending pass interference penalties (with a 3rd flag picked up).
In other words, there was adversity everywhere.
“We certainly didn’t follow our program’s plan to win tonight,” an exhausted, exasperated, but most of all relieved Dan Mullen said after the game. “We turned the ball over, failed to score touchdowns in the red zone, turned the ball over in the red zone, missed a bunch of tackles, committed critical penalties at critical times.”
But through it all, the Gators didn’t flinch.
Miami opened the game with a field goal and Mullen dialed up a perfectly called, well-executed fake punt to give the Gators a spark. Florida scored a play later.
The Canes rattled off the next 10 points, but Florida answered with 10 of their own in the 3rd quarter, cashing in on Miami’s lone turnover with a Lamical Perine touchdown on what that time was a beautifully designed 3rd-and-goal play. After airmailing a wide open Freddie Swain to give the Canes the ball again with Miami leading 20-17, Franks responded on the ensuing possession, making 2 of his best plays of the game on a 4-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that gave the Gators the 24-20 lead they would (somehow) not relinquish.
The first play was a laser beam throw to Josh Hammond for a 65-yard gain to the Miami 15. The second came on 1st-and-goal, when Franks executed a zone read perfectly and dived between two closing Hurricane linebackers for the decisive score.
A possession later, Franks made the mystifying decision that nearly cost Florida the game. Was that Franks career in a nutshell? Maybe. Would it have been easy for Florida to lose at that point? Absolutely. But the Gators didn’t flinch, and their defense picked up their quarterback.
Despite the pass interference penalties, the Gators held the line, limiting Williams and the Canes’ offense to 2 yards over 10 plays, despite four minutes that felt like 40 on the field.
A big reason Florida survived what at times seemed an absurd sequence of 4th-quarter events?
A ferocious pass rush that blistered a young Miami offensive line for 11 sacks and 16 tackles for loss. All-SEC defensive end Jabari Zuniga had 3 tackles for loss and 2 sacks and Louisville transfer Jon Greenard, along with nickel Trey Dean, added 1.5 sacks each.
“They have a young quarterback and a young offensive line,” Mullen said. “We have some veteran guys up front and we kept the pressure on them at the end of the game situation where they are forced to throw the ball. But some of that was also about the effort and strength of our guys. They were scrambling around on some of those sacks. I mean, if we did the distance tracker on some of our defensive line, some of those guys ran a bunch of miles chasing (Williams) around. A lot of our sacks were effort sacks, guys who just continued to strain to the ball.”
In the end, that resiliency, the willingness to keep fighting and competing and straining, especially with their backs against the wall, was how Florida survived to score only its 2nd win against the Hurricanes since 1985.
“We compete. We don’t flinch. We talk about the Gator Standard and that involves a plan to win,” Henderson said. “We didn’t follow that the way we wanted tonight, but we stayed together and came out with the win.”
The Gators came to Orlando a top 10 team, one with buzz about “catching Georgia,” an elite defense and hype about an explosive set of wide receivers and a vastly improved Franks.
We didn’t see those Gators in Orlando.
Instead, Florida turned the ball over 4 times, the defense missed a bunch of tackles and Franks limited the effectiveness of his electric wide receivers with maddeningly inconsistent play.
If those mistakes aren’t corrected, the Gators will pay for it, maybe as early as a September visit to Lexington. But for now, none of that matters.
What matters is the Gators left Orlando 1-0, the victors in a hard-fought rivalry game contested in the 100-degree August heat.
“We made a bunch of mistakes. But we competed and kept battling and competing. It seemed like we had to win the game four different times, but we continued to find a way to do that. I’m really proud of that,” Mullen said.
He should be. Ugly wins are still wins. And in Gainesville, wins over Miami are always beautiful.
A win is a win. And they get an extra week to clean things up
I don’t think it’s a case of how Florida found a way to win but more a case of how Miami found a way to lose.
Without that muffed punt and the subsequent score by the Gators, I think the Hurricanes just may have won that game.
At this point I think the big question is: Are the Gators that bad or are the Hurricanes better than we thought. We’ll need a few more games to get the answer.
Two takeaways from this:
It looks like we all know why the piggies sucked so bad on offense under the bert regime…Dan Enos sucks as an OC…the U offense looked like arky of 2015-2017.
Second, Felipe Franks is who we thought he was…
He threw for 254 yds with 2 TDs and a 63% completion percentage behind a line that wasn’t giving him a ton on time. Besides the 2 turnovers, it wasn’t a terrible game. The missed tackles and stupid penalties are a bigger concern than Franks. I’m chalking it up to first game rust. They’ll clean it up with a week off and a cupcake after that. Miami is one of the better front 7’s they’ll face this season. They came to play.
I actually thought the pass protection was decent for a first game against a good front seven.
Franks fumbled twice and threw 2 picks. He is who we thought he is. I hope he’s a better baseball player….
Don’t forget the false start that didn’t get called on feleipe Franks 65-yard pass
Didn’t flinch? Unnecessary pass interference penalties, weak attempts at arm tackling, throwing an interception with a 4-point lead and 4 minutes left. That’s Florida’s way of not flinching? Great. Bring it to Baton Rouge.
Florida definitely flinched. Miami just flinched harder.
Now, that is reality.
There is no transitive property from a first game to the rest of the season.
Sure, but it does offer insight into the team. There is absolutely time to correct issues, but there’s no guarantee that all or even some of the issues will be corrected. It isn’t unreasonable to expect a top-10 team to handle its business against a middling ACC team with a first-year HC and freshman QB.
I mean, when y’all spend all offseason saying they’re a top ten team and Franks is WAY better than guys like Kelly Bryant, etc. you can’t just ignore it when actually evidence makes both of those things look very much not true.
I expect Florida to get better, but the team that took the field last night doesn’t win many games at all in the SEC. If they want to be anything more than a team that’s still fighting for bowl eligibility in November, they need to improve quickly.
Not a UF fan but Franks is better than Bryant. Also, “when actually evidence”? Perhaps you meant “when actual evidence” or better yet, “when evidence actually “. Not sure why so many Mizzu posters feel it necessary to interject Missouri into every post. Even when the article has nothing to do with it. Isn’t it enough when Adam and Dan do it as staff writers
Hey, Darth. Go back to your sandbox and play Star Wars.
Bring it to Williams Brice
I question their ability to hold off on those “composure” mistakes–like turnovers and PI flags, when they’re in a real hostile environment–not Kentucky, but like LSU.
You’re reading too much into a first game.
I know, but everyone is, and it’s fun.
Franks is very average and very immature and it has nothing to do with it being the first game.
This entire week is about reading stuff into one game. I’ll be so happy when we have a full slate of games to “analyze”.
But you are quite right with your implication that extrapolating from one game to another is unwarranted. History proves otherwise. If games were predictable, nobody would attend or watch.
Hmm well Florida D line was the big positive by a long shot. The Miami o line looked terrible. Not sure if they are that bad or Florida is that good but lean towards the latter. Other than the Florida d line the rest of the team looked very inconsistent. It’s only one game and they say the most improvement comes between game 1 and 2 but franks looked the same as last season. Decision making was difficult for him. I think the secondary play was an anomaly but I hope not, lots of mistakes and missed tackles. that was not a top 10 looking team but have to see how much they improve. Have to admit I feel better about our chances in the swamp now than before but our o line vs their d line is a huge concern.
It cracks me up hearing Kentucky, SC, and UT fans talk about what a top 10 team looks like. As if you guys would know.
So gatorsplaylikesh$t u believe the gators did look like their # 8 ranking. Well dumba$$ that says a lot more about what you know than what we do. But please tell us how great your gators looked in dominating a great Miami team. Did u even watch the game.
Fuzzy he’s just in denial that his team very well might only win 6 to 7 games and in all honesty if they keep playing like that they won’t win any conference game this year.
Classic case of a Dumpster fire in the making
Somebody’s triggered^
You’re in denial
Well we know it not the Gators
62% completion rate, 2 passing TDs and 1 rushing TD. First int was a bad throw high over the middle, in his first game, against a quality front seven. Second int he was hit from behind while trying to throw out of bounds. He didn’t call the play. At most, one fumbled exchange might have been partially on him.
That performance was enough to score 40 against Tennessee.
Oh yeah I hope you playlike that against us. You keep telling yourselves how good your team played last night.
Not to defend Tennessee, but no, it’s not. Miami was about as bad and undisciplined as it gets. That performance doesn’t beat Vandy, let alone the better teams in the SEC.
Yep hope they play like that all season. They will end up losing every conference game if they do. Dumpster fire in the making
Georgia clinched last night.
Another preseason NC clinched by an UGA fan. Why not have the parade now.
That’s pretty funny. Let’s see how clean and perfect UGA is in its first game this Saturday in Nashville.
The UGA o-line will certainly be perfect enough to gain 52 yards rushing. Probably in the first quarter.
LOL!
Mullen looks to be out of place at Florida for some reason. He has gone from Mt Rushmore at State to Mt Flushmore at Florida.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Take aways from a guy who doesn’t have a dog in this fight. FL O-line is much improved. D-line is much improved. Franks is the weak link. HCDM has a ton of work to do with Franks just to achieve acceptable results. The true test of the O & D lines will happen in conference play.
I will disagree with both takes about the line. The DLine was excellent last season. They won’t go up against a worse P5 OLine than they did tonight. Miami’s OLine is beyond terrible. The Florida OLine is not better than the one they had last year. Their poor rushing total shows that. They have a lot of work to do on offense. Their DBacks need to learn to tackle. Florida has a lot of work to do if they want to match last season’s results.
Good call marine. Their o-line looked better than they did against MIZZOU last year, unless that offense does a 180 they are in store for a long season filled with angst. Guessing any SEC D-Line would have looked like world beaters against that cane O’Line.
I mean, Florida won, but it was just because Miami found a way to make 1 more mistake than they did. If they were playing a team that could have gotten out of their own way, this isn’t even a game going into the 4th quarter, to be honest.
Miami might have the worst offensive line I’ve ever seen. They didn’t even try to block anyone. And all those people saying Feleipe Franks is an elite SEC QB….yeah. He is not.
I don’t think anyone has said Franks is an elite QB.
No defending that game. The pass rush good, OL held up well and Special Teams a difference maker …aside from that – horrible.
You must not have read any of the comment sections of Feleipe Franks articles on SDS. Florida fans think Franks is in the same conversation as Tua and Lawrence.
I still think he’s better than Peyton Manning and Tom Brady
Name 3. NO ONE has ever expressed that Franks was in the Tua/Fromm class… Mond, Burrow, Bryant yes but I haven’t seen one post saying Franks was at the top level SEC.
What a terrible, wonderful, incomprehensible welcome back to college football.
A terrible, young, overmatched Miami OL inflated the stats of what will probably end up being a pretty good FL DL. (But still, 10 sacks???? I think uga had like mid 20s THE WHOLE LAST SEASON!! That’s absolutely absurd)
Some eager beaver refs from a notoriously poorly ref’d conference exaggerated some first game defensive issues.
Franks has the mouth of a baker mayfield, but will be have the stats? Honestly, not a bad showing for a first game rivalry match. Recovered well from a rough first half, but obviously made some bad decisions that the defense bailed him out of.
In conclusion? We didn’t learn anything about this Florida team
In full transparency, I’m a UF grad and absolutely love the Gators. With that said, I agree with you. I also believe that the Big 12 refs were horrible. especially early on. Many false starts were totally missed.
People forget how good Miami’s defense was last year and they may have the best linebacking crew in the country.
Franks is immature. Talented, but immature…his own head is his worse problem…Admittedly, I was hoping to see some Emory Jones regardless of Franks’s performance…I do think that first interception was not his fault though..it was the receivers…the wrong reciever went for the ball, but if you look closely, there was an open receiver past him…just saying..either way, he will improve..not worried….yet
Yeah I thought the receiver should’ve caught that first one. Bounced off his hands.
Seems like Mullen is committed to Franks for the time being. It didn’t seem like there was much debate about who was going to be playing QB over the offseason.
Some people never mature. Johnny Football, FF….
That game proved to me that Florida absolutely is ranked too high. They really should be ranked around #15. A team ranked #8 doesn’t play that sloppy regardless of the point of the season. Florida hopefuls have their excuses made but that game showed me Franks is still old Franks and he didn’t make these dramatic improvements like everyone was talking about.
Florida is not a #15. More like a #23.
“‘We didn’t flinch tonight,’ Gators cornerback CJ Henderson said”
No need to flinch when you whiff that badly on a tackle, lol.
Both teams definitely flinched. Uf just managed to flinch a little less.
Anyways, off to find real journalism.
All journalism is unreal.
I don’t think the evidence supports that
Most everyone is focused on the comedy of errors this game was and have decided to go ahead and write off the Gators. Do so at your own risk. I’m not sure Franks will ever be a consistent QB, and it will cost them at least one game (Georgia), probably two (LSU), possibly three (Missouri or Auburn). But the narrative Mullen can now sell as the coach, that despite of all the mistakes, blunders, inconsistences, and frankly, immaturity, they still won, can a get a team to focus more than a blowout would’ve. Take it from a Bama fan, blowing every team out of the water, not facing adversity, those things can come back to bite you in the worst way. See January. All I’m saying is Mullen now has a game he can use to focus his team, get them to understand the importance of the little things and mature. Whether or not he does, time will tell. For those who believed last season was a fluke, and Mullen isn’t one of the best coaches in the conference, his real test is just getting started. I’m excited for it because it means one thing: Football is finally back!
Well said
I didn’t watch game but it sounds really really ugly. First game or not. I couldn’t see UF as a top ten and so far that’s true. But it seems they needed another week as much as anyone. I can’t wait to play the lizards now. I’m curious if Mullens is as good as advertised or Florida has a coaching curse now.
Neil, you’re so far in denial, you’re in Egypt.
The muffed punt cost Miami the game and then no call for the False start on the 65-yard pass by feleipe Franks. Florida truly got Lucky to Come Away with this one
Pretty sure you aren’t allowed to mention any bad officiating that helped UF.
I still think Miami would have overcome the muffed punt if they hadn’t missed the FG. That forced them to go for a TD in the last series instead of a FG, which altered strategy significantly.
I can agree with that
Completely accurate
The play of both teams, as my Uncle Claude used to say, was “as useless as a one-legged man at an a** kickin'”.