It turned out to be a Happy Homecoming after all. The Gators won despite Billy Napier, and Gator Nation could celebrate both a win and the firing of Rural Meyer the next day. Talk about a win-win situation!
The game itself was a perfect microcosm of Napier’s stay in Gainesville. Weird and occasional mind-numbingly stupid play calls, an inconsistent performance by his QB, and what should have been an easy win at home turning into a last-possession game. But this time, the players overcame their head coach’s efforts at sabotage and escaped with a win. Fortunately, MSU played mostly like a typical Homecoming opponent for much of the game, or else this would have been just another loss.
Once again Jaden Baugh was the main actor for the offense. He was unstoppable all afternoon, yet (again) did not get nearly enough touches. He easily would have had 200+ rushing yards if he had been given more carries, and had not lost yards due to more holding penalties by the underperforming O-line, including a 60-yard TD run being called back. Even the game announcers wondered aloud why he wasn’t getting double the number of touches, and these guys rarely see Florida play. DJ Lagway had another roller-coaster day, hitting some sideline deep shots, but also throwing 2 bad interceptions in the red zone while being wildly inaccurate – again. Fortunately the MSU secondary is not good, and the Gator WRs were able to get open often enough to make some big plays to set up scoring drives. The one notable development in regards to personnel was the increased use of TE Amir Jackson, who appears to be an actual receiving threat and an athletic target. But Napier provided his own coup-de-grace with an incredibly dumb call on 3rd down and 2 on Florida’s last possession, when getting a first down would ice the game. He once again ignored Baugh, who was getting easy yards between the tackles against a tired Bulldog front seven, and instead chose to outsmart everyone – AGAIN – by having a hobbled Lagway roll out on a bootleg, where he was immediately tackled for a 6-yard loss. This forced a punt to MSU, who still had more than 2 minutes of game clock and 2 timeouts, and were moving the ball in chunks against the makeshift Gator secondary the entire 4th quarter. They immediately moved down inside the Gator 30-yard line, and everyone – fans and players – could feel what was about to happen. You can’t make this crap up, but Billy sure can – and did – for most of 45 games. A perfect and lasting image of his self-destructive career – the worst at Florida since the immediate post-WW2 years.
However……
Defensively, it was all hands on deck in the secondary for Florida. Only one starter out of five was available for the entire game – safety Byrce Thornton. CB Devon Moore left in the 2nd quarter, and it was left up to 4 true freshmen to fill in at both safety and cornerback – Lagonza Hayward, Ben Hanks III, Onis Konanbanny, and J’Vari Flowers. Somehow, some way, they were able to hold it together……barely. It was really ugly at times with blown coverages and missed assignments, but that was expected given the circumstances. Their athleticism – especially at safety – was a huge improvement. The real revelation, however, was the unexpected player of the game, Alfonzo Allen. The senior, who couldn’t even move beyond the scout team, was forced into action, and was flying all over the field, making 15 tackles and actually playing some decent coverage as well. Yet he could never see the field before this game? Wow. His play provided just enough stability in the secondary for the defense to hold on to the end……and it easily could have been a bitter one. But DT Michael Boireau made the play of the game, dropping into underneath coverage and intercepting a Blake Shapen throw inside the red zone. The Bulldogs were already in FG range after Napier’s final blunder as head coach, yet Shapen bailed out the Gators with a terrible read and throw. It was painful watching the defense start to run out of gas in the second half as the offense struggled, and they were getting gashed both by the run and pass in the 4th quarter. Props to Myles Graham’s great play and leadership at LB for helping hold things together – barely.
The boo birds came out after Lagway’s bad interception on a late throw in the red zone in the first half, as the chants of “Fire Billy” could be heard even through the television audio. But it crescendoed after Napier’s horrific last play call – a fitting end to his disastrous tenure. I’m so happy that the players got a much-needed win, as once again they won in spite of their dubious leader. But on an even happier note, Gator Nation finally got it’s wish granted on Sunday. I’ll have a separate article to chronicle the ignominious end of the Billy Napier Error at Florida.