College Football
Grounded War Eagles
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Auburn wrapped up their five-game home stand to start the season. Auburn prepares to travel to No. 2 Georgia and No. 9 Ole Miss in back-to-back travel weeks.
Offseason discussions centered around what the Tigers needed to produce during the first five games to position themselves for a successful season. The consensus was no worse than 4-1.
After Auburn blew another double-digit lead, they finished their five-game stretch at 3-2, with two of those wins being single-digit victories over San Jose State and Missouri.
Auburn is one of the worst turnover margin teams in college football, sitting at -9 for the season. The Tigers’ average of -1.80 per game has them 129th nationally, ahead of only Temple and Stanford.
Looking to the near future, it’s time for Athens: a place Auburn hasn’t won since 2005 off a last-minute kick off the foot of John Vaughn.
In total, the Tigers are 3-14 in this rivalry, including their recent five losses. Auburn has lost eight of nine games in the series, and has failed to top 14 points in each of their eight losses.
To make matters worse, Auburn hasn’t scored more than 10 points in Athens in any of their last five trips. The last time the Tigers scored more than 10 points in Athens was a 31-24 loss in 2009.
Nobody predicted Robby Ashford would throw for 337 yards and 2 touchdowns in his second career start, one week after throwing for barely over 100 yards. Eight completions accounted for 270 of Ashford’s 337 yards. Ashford’s other 11 completions accounted for 67 total yards. Also, to note, six of those eight big plays came in the first half.
Can Auburn’s offense create more big passing plays? Was the first half indicative of confusion in the secondary (does LSU ring any bells)? We will certainly know more after playing the 18th-ranked pass defense in Georgia. The Bulldogs allow 175 yards per game through the air and have six interceptions in five contests.
Auburn’s defense in their last two games (Missouri and LSU) produced an average of 3.5 sacks per game. If this were compared to the national average, it would rank top ten.
In the same two games, the Tigers have 15 tackles for loss, which would rank them top 15 nationally by the same comparison.
Auburn takes positive defensive momentum facing Georgia, who ranks 12th nationally in sacks allowed (4 total) and 11th nationally in tackles for loss allowed (16 total).
We’re entering week three of negative noise surrounding Bryan Harsin’s job security as Auburn’s head coach. When the clock hit all zeroes following the 41-12 loss to Penn State, Harsin’s fate appeared all but sealed.
The most common question is: when will a change be made? Auburn faces two tough road tests before a bye week.
Auburn returns home against Arkansas following a bye week. If a change is to be made during the season, and if minds are made up (which we believe they are), heading into the bye week looks like a logical inflection point.
The Dawgs come into this next game as 29.5 point favorites over Auburn.
Georgia doesn’t like looking bad, and this game against one of their biggest rivals should fire them up.
UGA is still probably the most well-rounded team in the nation, yes, Georgia will still be the team to beat in the SEC East. Let’s watch Kirby put the last nail in Harsin’s coffin.
Georgia 52 Auburn 13
The Miami Sprinkles
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
At his lowest point of his time at Miami, Mario Cristobal, down three touchdowns to Middle Tennessee State (the 2022 edition of 2019’s FIU debacle) he decided to welcome a quarterback controversy.
And there it was, at the 7:55 mark of the third quarter, “finally” in the minds of the freaked-out fans in attendance- screaming and chanting for Jake Garcia; Cristobal benched Tyler Van Dyke and brought Garcia into the action.
You can’t make this drama up. Garcia came in absolutely on fire. He threw a 39-yard pass in stride to Keyshawn Smith (Smith also had a kickoff return for a touchdown).
Garcia was one of the few Hurricanes to show individual skill progress this week. Thad Franklin scored on a one-yard run the very next play and Miami was down 31-17 with 6:08 left in the third quarter.
The Garcia show continued to some degree for the remainder of the game – he finished 10-19 for 169 yards – but by now we all saw; it was not enough.
Miami lost 45-31 to Middle Tennessee State in a complete, utter and embarrassing organizational failure. This loss negated much of the hard work Mario Cristobal and his staff have put in since arriving in December.
Teams lose a game like this, and frankly, it ends up not being the end of the world- as long as they bounce back. Texas A&M lost to Appalachian State at home and then beat Miami and Arkansas.
If the Hurricanes rally to still win the Coastal, this nightmare will be washed away. Right now, however, the nightmare is piercing the soul of fans wondering if that will happen because of the way the week has evolved.
Here’s some real talk: Van Dyke really is the same guy who had six 300-yard games to end the 2021 season. Nothing else from 2021 to now is the same. Absolutely nothing, and dealing with that has been the key component in this mass decline of QB performances.
New head coach. New offensive coordinator. New offensive system. Best receivers from last year, Charleston Rambo and Mike Harley, gone without suitable replacements.
Even with the encouraging improvement Saturday of Key’shawn Smith and Frank Ladson, it’s not working.
All the quarterback talk has masked the fact that Miami seemed to have nothing in the tank at the line of scrimmage. Some will call that an excuse, but these were the same guys who got pushed around last week against Texas A&M.
The issue in the game was that the passing game wasn’t there. Chemistry and depth are the main receiver issues. That’s compounded by a new offensive system by Gattis, not to mention, it is still quite early in the season.
The cloud looming above Coral Gables is the Gattis offense. Let’s see if it’s a good fit for Van Dyke or if the transfer portal is on the horizon.
So far, through four games, the answer seems to be leaning toward the second option.
That, however, can change quickly if Van Dyke can get things back on track with the rest of the offense.
It doesn’t get any easier for Miami, who begins conference play with North Carolina after a bye week.
Luckily, the Hurricanes will avoid heavy hitters like Clemson and Pittsburgh until the final weeks of the season, yet nothing is guaranteed for Miami after losing to Middle Tennessee State.
Is this the most embarrassing loss in modern Miami history?
Buzz Kill
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Geoff Collins era at Georgia Tech has ended. Athletic director Todd Stansbury was also fired.
Collins was in his fourth season as the head coach in Atlanta. He has a record of 10 – 28, with no better than three wins in the previous seasons. This is the lowest winning percentage (.263) of the team’s 13 full-time coaches. Stansbury’s tenure as the department’s ninth athletic director is complete after six years.
The Yellow Jackets are off to a 1 – 3 start this season. They lost Saturday at Central Florida, 27 – 10. Tech played well enough to win but made enough mistakes to lose.
“I just think that critical situations, have to make sure we’re getting points on the board, and we’re not doing it, and obviously that falls on me as the head football coach,” Collins said.
They got in the red zone five times and did not score on any of those possessions. Tech missed two field-goal attempts, fumbled the ball away twice and turned it over once on downs.
The Yellow Jackets averaged 7.2 yards per play against UCF. Since the start of the 2000 season, before Saturday, ACC teams had averaged at least 7.2 yards per play 438 times, according to sports-reference.com. None had ever scored fewer than 17 points.
“Outgained them by over 100 yards, but when the other series of events happen, it’s hard to win games against a really good football team. Obviously, credit to UCF, but not the result we wanted,” Collins said.
The head football coach and the athletic director being relieved of their duties on the same day with more than half the season remaining is a highly unusual scenario for Tech.
Collins had several shortcomings that caught up with him. In his 38-game tenure, the Jackets lost six games by 40 points or more. Previously, Georgia Tech had lost by 40 points or more six times over 42 seasons.
Tech allowed four blocked punts in the first four games, all of which led to touchdowns. Ironically for Collins, he oversaw the punt unit and was not able to fix the issue.
Stansbury is a Tech grad that also played football for the Yellow Jackets. He’s the first Tech AD to not leave the post on his own accord. He was hired in 2016 from Oregon State. He hired Collins in December 2018 from Temple to succeed Paul Johnson.
I thought Collins was a bad hire from the beginning. He was only 15 – 10 in his two seasons at Temple. He pitched his idea to Stansbury that he would use branding and culture to land top recruits. He’s from Rockdale County and he worked under former coaches George O’Leary and Chan Gaily.
Collins is contractually due the full amount remaining on his final three years, $10.5 million.
I saw some of the candidates for the job and honestly, I do not think they can land them. Deion Sanders is at the top of the list. Coach Prime is at FCS Jackson State and he has landed several four and five star recruits. That includes the top recruit in the class of 2022, Travis Hunter, who is from Metro Atlanta.
Sanders played for the Falcons and Braves. After a 4-3 record in his first COVID-19 shortened season with the Tigers, he led JSU to an 11-2 record (9-0 SWAC) in his second campaign. The Tigers are 4-0 to start 2022 while outscoring opponents 190-37.
Shawn Clark, Appalachian State’s head coach is also a candidate. Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken should also be considered.
Stetson For Heisman
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
2017 seems so long ago. The Georgia Bulldogs won the SEC Championship, Rose Bowl, and were a blown coverage away from winning the national championship.
At the time there was the walk-on QB that was giving Roquan Smith and company fits on the scout team all during that championship season. That QB was Stetson Bennett.
After a brief stint away from Athens, and a global pandemic the former walk-on led Georgia to a national title in 2021. He lit up an Alabama defense for fourteen points in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.
Still during the lead up to the 2022 season there were doubters. The doubters said UGA won despite Bennett. They do not remember the 40-yard strike to AD Mitchell and the capping TD toss to Brock Bowers facing an Alabama blitz to end the 41-year championship drought.
Then something amazing happened and Stetson Bennett torched 11th ranked Oregon for a career high 368 yards and a 49-3 curb stomping.
Then he has backed it up with great performances against Samford and South Carolina. Now Georgia is the top ranked team in the country, and you are hearing the impossible being said and that is STETSON FOR HEISMAN!
Wait one second Kipp what are you saying? I am saying Stetson for Heisman. Why not?
As of now Bennett sits high on the list of favorites. He is playing better than the media darlings that he trails in the current odds.
If the award were given today Stetson Bennett would be your 2022 Heisman winner based on performance, and if you base it on team accomplishments who is better than Georgia right now?
Brock Bowers is in the mix as well. Who throws Brock the football?
Bennett is a dual threat for the UGA offense this season. His grasp of the Todd Monken system makes the offense look unstoppable at times.
UGA scored in their first seven possessions against Oregon. Georgia put on an offensive clinic against South Carolina. UGA rolled up almost 550 yards of total offense against an SEC defense.
If you look at the UGA schedule from now until the Cocktail Party in Jacksonville, you see the likes of Kent State, Missouri, a down Auburn team, and Vanderbilt.
Bennett should put up some substantial numbers in those contests. UGA should enter the Florida game at 7-0.
Then you have Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Georgia Tech. If Georgia can run the table and go 12-0, then how can Stetson not be invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony?
If UGA was to be a 13-0 SEC Champion and Bennett has played as well as he has during the first three games of the season, then he will have earned the Heisman Trophy.
Folks this thing could happen because Stetson is the leader of a complete football team in Athens, Georgia.
This story has the makings of a Hollywood movie script. The Stetson Bennett story would be an impressive movie. I know about ten million fellow Georgians who would agree.
The season still must play itself out, but Stetson Bennett is already a Georgia Legend.
The only real question that remains is, which actor would portray Stetson Bennett in a Hollywood adapted movie in the next 5 years?
Move over Rudy the Stetson Bennett story will be coming to the theaters soon.
New Chiefs
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Here are my latest observations about the Seminoles after their 3-0 start this season.
1 — This team’s toughness is legit. Every time things begin to look bleak; these guys find a way to fight back. Whether it’s the defense making a stop or creating a turnover or the offense stepping up to make a play.
Remembering Norvell’s Memphis teams, when we learned that FSU was targeting him for their vacant head coaching job in late 2019, what stood out most was how hard Memphis competed snap by snap.
They were physical on both sides of the ball, and seemed unfazed by the score or situation. Whether ahead or behind, Memphis seemed to play with the same high level of energy and intensity.
It’s such a positive thing to see a strong program battle back after challenging years. FSU fans should be falling in love with this team.
They know there will be times this season when the offense sputters or the defense has major lapses — heck, that’s already happened in the last two games (double heck, this ain’t even pro football! Kids mess up all the time). However, toughness is something that shouldn’t come or go. You have it or you don’t. Grit is absolute.
2 —Trey Benson’s break out. Even though he had 100-plus yards in the season opener against Duquesne, I didn’t think we saw the real Trey Benson in either of Florida State’s first two games.
I don’t know if maybe it was taking a little time to get acclimated to the speed of the game against teams like LSU and Louisville. If that was the case, it would be understandable. Remember, he missed nearly all of last season due to a catastrophic knee injury when he was at Oregon.
Maybe he’s just still getting comfortable with Norvell’s offense. Whatever the case, the guy is 6-foot-1, 215 pounds and built differently than everybody else FSU has in the backfield.
FSU got game(plans). As much credit as Florida State’s players deserve, the coaching staff prepare excellent strategies.
Despite the fact that QB Tate Rodemaker struggled several times in critical situations, Norvell was convinced that he would eventually turn the corner. Rodemaker may have actually done just that.
Injuries + Recruiting. Florida State has been dealing with several injury concerns. Then the list got much longer during the trip to Louisville, with QB Jordan Travis, DE Jared Verse, DL Malcolm Ray, OT Robert Scott, LB Tatum Bethune and others either leaving the game completely or missing time.
I also see the drop off in recruiting the past three years costing the Seminoles for the remainder of this season. With injuries mounting, the lack of depth will hurt the Seminoles as they navigate the remainder of their schedule.
FSU is off to a great start. The was the last time FSU had a 10-win season was 2015.
Will Norvell lead the Seminoles back to glory or will their lack of depth have them come up short?
Hurricane Warning
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Following a humbling defeat at the hands of Appalachian State, Texas A&M dropped all the way to No. 24 in the AP Poll this week.
You won’t hear Miami Hurricanes Coach Mario Cristobal talking much about that, not before Miami makes a ‘business trip’ to College Station this weekend.
The first-year Miami head coach harped on that term repeatedly in his press conference on Monday ahead of Saturday’s big road game.
Miami, of course, has been excellent through two weeks. The Hurricanes have smashed both Bethune-Cookman and Southern Miss.
Neither will present the kind of challenge Texas A&M will, but the Aggies have not been firing on all cylinders so far this season. The Hurricanes are aware of that, yet seem primarily focused on themselves this week.
Cristobal was quick to heap praise on the Aggies, even though their starting quarterback Haynes King has struggled mightily (even Jimbo Fisher stated there may be a quarterback change).
To that end, Cristobal simply needs to show players A&M’s recruiting results.
Even if the talent hasn’t gelled just yet at Texas A&M, it’s clear the Aggies have it in spades. Texas A&M’s 2022 recruiting class ranked No. 1 nationally.
Whatever happens Saturday, one thing is sure: Cristobal will learn a lot from Miami’s business trip.
The Miami Hurricanes have won 5 of their last 7 road games. Tyler Van Dyke is completing 73.9 percent of his passes for 456 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception.
Xavier Resterpo and Michael Redding III have combined for 248 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns, while Brashard Smith has 6 receptions.
The Miami Hurricanes ground game is averaging 241 yards per contest, and Henry Parrish Jr. leads the way with 217 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Defensively, Miami is allowing 10 points and 286.5 yards per game. Corey Flagg Jr. leads the Miami Hurricanes with 10 tackles, Jacob Lichtenstein has 1 sack and James Williams has 1 interception.
The Texas A&M Aggies have won 5 of their last 6 home games. Haynes King is completing 64.7 percent of his passes for 461 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
Ainias Smith and Evan Stewart have combined for 290 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns, while Yulkeith Brown has 4 receptions.
The Texas A&M Aggies ground game is averaging 99.5 yards per contest, and Devon Achane leads the way with 108 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Defensively, Texas A&M is allowing 8.5 points and 256.5 yards per game. Antonio Johnson leads the Texas A&M Aggies with 17 tackles, LT Overton has 1 sack and Jardin Gilbert has 1 interception.
Neither team looked great last week, but I’ll chalk some of it up to both clubs looking ahead to this game, which has playoff implications.
With that said, there’s some real concern for the Texas A&M Aggies, who haven’t gotten any offense going through 2 games. Texas A&M can’t run the ball and is 102nd in total offense and 102nd in scoring offense.
The Miami-FL Hurricanes have one of the better quarterbacks in the country, and he currently has a top-20 rushing attack supporting him.
Texas A&M is currently 86th in run defense. Miami will steal this game on the road.
Miami 27 Texas A&M 17
Eagles Shuck Huskers
By: Joe Delaney
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
WOW………. Almost a million and half is how much The University of Nebraska paid Georgia Southern University to come be a sacrificial lamb of a football team in Memorial Stadium in Lincoln Nebraska.
Well, I don’t know if they have Eagles in Nebraska but I can tell you the Cornhuskers don’t want to see the birds from Statesboro again, ANY time soon.
Georgia Southern football took a giant step forward by handing the Cornhuskers a shocking home loss 45-42 earlier in the month.
How shocking? After the game Cornhusker Coach Scott Frost said “we can’t let this divide us” ………. The next morning, he was no longer the coach. And the school paid him 15 million to leave!
While this Nebraska team might not be feared in college football the way they were in the past. They were prohibitive three touchdown favorites.
I guess everyone wants to know how many yards the Southern option attack rolled up right? Uhhhhhhh, those days are long gone sports fans. Behind the revamped offense of Clay Helton and the play of QB Kyle Vantrease the Eagles rolled up SIX HUNRED and FORTY TWO yards against the BIG 10 school.
Vantrease, who I wrote about in the season preview was spectacular. He was 37 of 56 for 409 yards and scored the winning touchdown on an 8-yard run with 36 seconds left.
Southern had a great all-around effort on offense with Gerald Green running for 132 yards on only 10 carries and 2 scores and Jalen White added another 85 yards and 2 TDs.
Derwin Burgess led the potent Eagle receiving corp with 12 catches for 119 yards. While the Eagle defense had to fight the bigger Cornhuskers all day and gave up a lot of yards and points, they held at the end and forced a 52-yard field goal attempt that went wide left. The party was on in Statesboro and the visitor’s locker room at Memorial Stadium.
Kudos have to go out to the job Clay Helton has done in a very short period of time at Georgia Southern. That’s a BIG 10 school that the Eagles just took down ON THE ROAD.
First is not the fact that they beat Nebraska……. The deal is they were just better. Nebraska had no answer for the Eagles offense. GSU, actually led most of the game in Lincoln.
It seems that the Eagles have gotten themselves a very good head coach. Clay Helton has coached at the highest level of college football. Many wondered how he would adjust to the smaller school, smaller budgets and small-town atmosphere of Statesboro, as opposed to the glam of Los Angeles.
Well to see him on the sidelines at the end of the game Saturday you woulda thought that this guy is all in. I did.
It’s a long season and there will be ups and downs for this Eagle team for sure. They face a tough schedule ahead. In my preview of the Eagles last month, I said that after last year’s debacle the Eagle nation needed to have some patience with this squad. I think that still holds true………. but WOW! Just WOW!
I Have The Power
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
1)Georgia (1-0): Did everyone enjoy the Duck hunt in Atlanta? The Georgia faithful sure did. UGA dismantled Oregon 49-3. Could have been a lot worse. After week 1 Georgia is the best team in the country.
The defending national champions looked as if they could repeat. I am not going to say it but #13 looked like the best QB in the country last weekend. Yeah, I did say it.
2) Alabama (1-0): Alabama beat Utah State 55-0. Good solid opening day win for Alabama. Alabama and Georgia are the class of the country now.
The Tide is preparing to issue a beatdown to the Texas Longhorns on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
3) Florida (1-0): Yes, Florida goes right here after week one. The Gators playing in front of a raucous Swamp crowd on Saturday night beat the team everyone said would blow them out in Utah.
Utah was never coming into Gainesville and getting a win. BTW, I called this outcome.
The Gates land here. Billy got snubbed by LSU in the hiring process after building the best program in Louisiana. They called him Sunbelt Billy in LSU circles. Bet the power brokers in Red Stick are kicking themselves now after the Brian Kelly debacle against FSU.
Anthony Richardson looks like a Heisman front-runner.
4) Tennessee (1-0): The Vol offense looked world class, but can they stop anyone with a pulse. But today they land in the four spot. Look at the SEC East rising to the top of the current power rankings…
5) Arkansas (1-0): The Hogs beat a College Football Playoff contestant from a year ago at home last weekend in Cincinnati. That is enough to land in the top five of my initial SEC power rankings for 2022.
6) Mississippi State (1-0): The Air Raid is in full effect in year 3 of the Mike Leach era in Starkville. This could be a dangerous team in 2022. Alabama and Georgia are you listening?
7) Kentucky (1-0): The Cats looked ok in week one. Business picks up this weekend in Gainesville. I mean business really picks up. The Cats will not be ready to handle Anthony Richardson and the Gators.
8) Ole Miss (1-0): The Ole Miss defense looks solid. The offense will come around soon. Lane Kiffin will see to that.
9) Texas A&M (1-0): I am not a believer. Do not get upset by Appy State at home this weekend Aggies.
10) Missouri (1-0): The Tigers looked like you would expect Mizzou to look and that is the look of an SEC bottom feeder.
11) South Carolina (1-0): The Gamecocks had to block two punts for TDs against Georgia State to pull away.
Spencer Rattler looked rusty. Carolina better get better quick with Arkansas and Georgia coming up during the next two weeks.
12) Auburn (1-0): Auburn should never be in this position which is a formal accusation on everything associated with Auburn at this moment in time. This is unacceptable.
13) Vanderbilt (2-0): This may be the high-water mark for Vandy in 2022. Vandy looks good on offense currently. Enjoy it while it lasts.
14) LSU (0-1): What in the blue hell LSU?
You looked like hot garbage against Florida State. Offense was horrible. Players were unmotivated, coaches lacked emotion.
The culture in Baton Rouge right now is rotten. For week one you land right here where you deserve.
Florida looked impressive with Billy Napier in his first game. LSU looked awful under Brian Kelly in his first game.
Absolutely no reason for LSU to look this bad with the talent on that roster.
Chomping Gators
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Florida Gator football started out strong in its season opener against Utah on Saturday, in which the Orange and Blue put up a gritty, 29-26 win.
The victory represents the first for the program in the Billy Napier era, while extending the Gators’ longest-active home-opener win streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision, which stands at 33 straight games.
With the big win now in the rearview mirror, Napier and company turn their attention to their SEC opener against the Kentucky Wildcats at home this coming Saturday.
The ‘Cats, led by Heisman Trophy hopeful quarterback Will Levis, represent another top-25 matchup for the Gators that will test their revamped squad.
The main concern the Cats have going into Gainesville, however, will be the play of the running back and the offensive line.
Let’s first start with the running backs. With the absence of Chris Rodriguez due to suspension, I didn’t think the Cats’ running backs would struggle against Miami of Ohio. On the night Kavosiey Smoke led the rushing attack with seven carries for 32 yards, while the other trio of Ramon Jefferson, JuTahn McClain, and La’Vell Wright all combined for 11 carries and a total of 36 yards.
That won’t be enough to help push the Cats over Florida. Here’s why:
For the offensive-line, it seemed their youth played a huge role against Miami of Ohio. After giving up four sacks on the night, the question now changes to; can they hold up against the Gators front seven?
It will be interesting to see, but Coach Zach Yenser has his work cut out for him this week as he tries to help the young O-line process through the different schemes and stunt recognition they will see Saturday night.
Defensively, it comes down to whether the Cats can contain the run game or not.
Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson stole the show in week one. The highly-touted recruit from Gainesville was only used sparingly as a true freshman under Dan Mullen.
In his first start for Napier, Richardson completed 17-of-24 passes for 168 yards, while he rushed for a team-high 106 yards and 3 touchdowns.
For Florida to reach their ceiling, the young quarterback has to carry the team.
Utah was unable to slow Richardson down and wasted a solid offensive performance due to the defense’s inability to limit quarterback runs.
Kentucky must find a way to make the NFL prospect play strictly from the pocket. With that being said, it’s way easier said than done.
In many ways, the game on Saturday will come down to Kentucky limiting Florida’s ground game. That is only done if the Wildcats can get Anthony Richardson on the ground.
The Gators O-line performed well opening holes for the running game and allowing no sacks.
Florida went 31 years without suffering a loss to the Kentucky Wildcats but has a 2-2 record in the last four games. Credit to Mark Stoops. He took over a program that was second-fiddle to basketball and has built a culture that they recruit and play to consistently win. Stoops has two 10-win seasons and more wins over Florida than his six predecessors combined.
With that said, it is going to be a battle on Saturday night. The crowd, weather (heat, rain & humidity) and overall team talent leads me to pick the Gators by 2 scores.
Florida 31 Kentucky 20
Gator Bait?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
There is a new era beginning for the Florida Gators football program.
Billy Napier’s era will officially begin on September 3, as the Gators host the No. 7 Utah Utes.
Utah finished the 2021 campaign as the Pac-12 Champions. Kyle Whittingham’s team finished the regular season with a 9-3 record. They beat Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship game and fell three points short of beating Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. They finished 10-4.
Whittingham has a small connection to UF. He took the head coaching job at Utah in 2005, replacing Urban Meyer.
Meyer, of course, left Utah to accept the head coaching job at Florida and went on to win two National Championships in Gainesville.
The Gators don’t have a coach entering their 18th season at the helm, like Whittingham at Utah. Billy Napier was hired 276 days before the game kicked off. There are much easier ways to begin your tenure, something Napier jokingly acknowledged at SEC Media Day.
One of the biggest question marks for the Gators in 2022 is: Can they stop the run? Last season Florida finished 10th in the SEC allowing 163.92 yards per game. That was nearly 100 yards more than Georgia and nearly 78 more than Alabama.
The Gators have a ton of pass rushers but they’re thin on the interior defensive line. Is Florida stout enough to plug up the middle and stop Utah from running it up the gut? It won’t take long to find out what kind of defense the Gators will have this season.
Cameron Rising and Tavion Thomas are a very tough combo to beat. Rising was a 64% passer last season with 20 TDs and just five picks, while Thomas added a school-record 21 rushing touchdowns, third-most in the FBS last season, with a 5.4 ypc average.
Returning that core, which tortured Ohio State’s D in the Rose Bowl, is vital in a cross-country road opener, especially against a soft Gator front.
This game is incredibly conflicting to me. If we know anything about the Pac 12 in recent years, it’s that they will eliminate themselves from playoff contention as soon as possible. The best team in the conference suffers a big loss at the beginning of the year almost every year. This would be that spot.
Last year, however, Florida was one of the worst teams against the spread because they were simply given credit for being Florida; even though they were a bad team. They went 6-7 and played in the SEC, yet they were only a home underdog once.
Now, Billy Napier comes to town after an incredible run at Louisiana and has Anthony Richardson at quarterback. Richardson only attempted 64 passes last year and is already considered a potential first round pick in the NFL draft. That’s how good he is.
Napier brought in a lot of transfers from Louisiana on the offensive line and in the backfield. The team should become familiar with his system quickly and the offense could hit the ground running.
The Swamp will be sold out and the weather should be welcoming. Game time temperature is expected to be 81 degrees with 88% humidity and 50% chance of rain with close to 89,000 hyped up Florida fans.
The weather, crowd and The Gators will make this a miserable trip for the Utes.
The Utes Don’t Care About The Weather or The Crowd, this is the most important opening game in Utah’s history. UTAH 31 FLORIDA 24
