Quick responses to Florida’s season-opening defeat in……

Florida ought to be relieved that the Pac-12 is on the verge of collapse.
The Gators began this season with a 24-11 loss to Utah and concluded the previous one with a humiliating loss to Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl.
As it happens, Cam Rising wasn’t necessary for the Utes.
Rather, they started the second half with a short-field touchdown and dominated the first half with two quarterbacks.

They only needed that on Thursday night to hand Florida coach Billy Napier his eighth defeat in his previous 14 games.
The Dooley Six Pack examines the defeat to Utah on opening night.

You probably would have believed that it was a good thing that Graham Mertz would throw for 333 yards in his Gator debut. Rather, it reminded me of many of the games from the previous season in which Anthony Richardson would score astronomical amounts of points while losing.
Mertz was awful in the first half and capitalized on Utah’s lax defense in the second half after Utah had taken a 24-3 lead.

partly due to the fact that Mertz completed 44 passes during the game, while the Gators only ran their two star tailbacks ten times. That’s a decent way to only get 11 points, but UF’s incapacity to elude formation and procedure penalties was one of the main issues.
Nine penalties were assessed against the Gators during the game.

In the end, Florida was only 1 for 13 on third downs. And Billy Napier is certain that they run the ball on third-and-10 if he knows they are going for it on fourth down.
What do you know? And the other team is aware of it. Compared to third downs, Florida converted more fourth downs.

who, as a result of poor special teams play (including two players on the field wearing the same number), managed to give up 10 points. Did I also mention the major errors and penalties that killed the drive? I take it that they are rehearsing behind those closed doors?