Florida better than expected?

[mitzustu]

Unbelievable? How many did they score again?

They averaged over 7 yards a carry and had two guys over 9. The dude was untackleable. No sacks. Guys fell off of him like he was Vince Young.

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

Well, it's week 1 and the PAC12 is almost eliminated from the CFPs. uscWest squeaked by Rice.

 

[mitzustu]

Y’all are severely under rating the mental block we have against UF. We lost to Driskell, Treon Harris, Will Grier, Feliepe Franks, Kyle Trask, etc.

Richardson is better than all of them.

 

[ACvol3]

They averaged over 7 yards a carry and had two guys over 9. The dude was untackleable. No sacks. Guys fell off of him like he was Vince Young.

Lol they scored 20 something points. Utah obviously didn’t gameplan for his running at all. Every time he took off, there wasn’t anybody even close. He’s a good open field runner, but there are plenty of those. We have a couple.

 

[bpalmer28]

Same Utah team that lost to Oregon State, BYU, and San Diego State last year. Sheez. If we did that we would fire our coach and be ranked 60th.

I don’t watch much football outside the SEC. If this is true, color me confused as to how they were #7. I mean I figured they were overrated just because it’s Utah but jeez.

 

[Volmac2022]

How is it that no matter what Tenn loses to barely good teams on stupid things like ref calls (Pitt last year) and Florida magically wins big games with brand new coaches lol. Tenn isn't beating them. Whatever curse Tenn has had, Florida has the opposite affect.
I also think it shows somewhat of a talent gap when it comes to the bare min. Florida keeps firing their coaches too, and somehow beats top 10 teams and backs into back to back East titles. They complained about Mullens recruiting. Unless napier is a HOFer then the talent left behind wasn't bad at all.
Meanwhile, Butch and Pruitt and especially Heupel gets left with a bad hand comparably.

Florida has always recruited good idk why people think otherwise. Idk how they do it but they seem to always have a decent to good defense and they always seem to play great in the first half of the season. If they beat a team that they play to the wire then they play lights out all season. I've said this before but Florida looked like trash at the last half of their schedule because the team lost confidence in mullen along with some other things as well.

 

[njvols]

They played a solid game today and beat the #7 team

Utah over rated but can’t take anything away from solid win. Pitt no slouch either. We are going to have to play well to win both

 

[barrylee]

Took Florida all of one game to get a marquee win under Napier. We’re still waiting on one.

I see where Jaws liked your post. Tell me what makes a Florida fan come directly to a Vol site immediately after their game?

Never will understand coming to a rival fan's site..

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Well, it's week 1 and the PAC12 is almost eliminated from the CFPs. uscWest squeaked by Rice.

Lol.

Brother, I'm a huge fan of giving other conferences grief, but 66-14 is not what I'd call "squeaking by" another team. USCw handled Rice just as they should have, based purely on the score.

PAC lost most of their chances at getting to the CFP yesterday (Oregon down, Utah down), yes. Yes. But USCw is still in the hunt.

 

[Clad in Big Orange]

We have a good QB, some nice WRs and decent RBs. Outside of Hooker/Tillman, no all-SEC candidates. Every other position group is made up of "serviceable" players as starters. After the starters, no depth. The offensive/defensive lines and the secondary are going to be problems in most games.

 

[Clayton]

I am sure someone else will point this out, but Florida doesn't scare me. - Not predicting a win, but they are pretty much a one trick pony. Who worries you besides their qb? Shut down or contain him and you shut them down. They will get stomped by Alabama and Georgia, yet to be seen how they do against us, and how they handle a rowdy Neyland and a fired up Tennessee team. They are pretty much who I thought they were - yet to be seen who we are and how much we have progressed or not progressed. We will have our hands full at Pitt - that should be our focus this week.

You could literally substitute Hooker for your one trick pony remark...Florida after falling apart last year came out a beat a top 10 ten. Utah is a good team who returned the vast majority of their starters. They traveled to the swamp and put up a very good fight against a motivated talented Florida team. Florida will not be an easy win for anybody this year. Florida will be motivated after this win and will have the attitude they can compere with anyone. Everyone needs to remember it was their first game and Utah was no cupcake like Utah State or Ball State for that matter. First games like this build character and confidence. I would be worried about Florida at this point

 

[BLUTickbusdriver]

Our 4 down linemen are going to have to find a way to pressure the QB…this is how you beat the read option. GBO!

 

[Fullfillmer]

You could literally substitute Hooker for your one trick pony remark...Florida after falling apart last year came out a beat a top 10 ten. Utah is a good team who returned the vast majority of their starters. They traveled to the swamp and put up a very good fight against a motivated talented Florida team. Florida will not be an easy win for anybody this year. Florida will be motivated after this win and will have the attitude they can compere with anyone. Everyone needs to remember it was their first game and Utah was no cupcake like Utah State or Ball State for that matter. First games like this build character and confidence. I would be worried about Florida at this point

It may very well come down to qb play when we play Florida, I like our chances because Hooker can run and pass, it's at Neyland, and I like our receivers better than theirs. Alabama and Georgia will shut Florida down completely on offense. Book it. Florida's qb runs were half their offense - that will not happen against top tier sec defenses of which Alabama and Georgia currently play at a different level than just about everyone else. Utah had a nice little team, but it was at the swamp and Utah probably should have won the game. We will see in 3 weeks exactly where we are and exactly where Florida is. At least we have a top tier qb to trot out there this time. Should be a lot of fun, Neyland will be on fire.

 

[savannahfan]

So comical we declared Gators inept etc before the first snap of season. I thought they looked really good tonight against a good team. If Richardson continues to play like he did tonight….we’ll have our hands full!

Hell!! it's Fla. We will have our hands full Richardson or not!

 

[Johnnyreb#VFL]

How is it that no matter what Tenn loses to barely good teams on stupid things like ref calls (Pitt last year) and Florida magically wins big games with brand new coaches lol. Tenn isn't beating them. Whatever curse Tenn has had, Florida has the opposite affect.
I also think it shows somewhat of a talent gap when it comes to the bare min. Florida keeps firing their coaches too, and somehow beats top 10 teams and backs into back to back East titles. They complained about Mullens recruiting. Unless napier is a HOFer then the talent left behind wasn't bad at all.
Meanwhile, Butch and Pruitt and especially Heupel gets left with a bad hand comparably.

Because the state of Florida has much better and faster high school athletes than the state of Tennessee and Florida 9 times out of 10 is more talented than us.

 

[franklinboy]

If our boys can score often enough on them to make them play catch up and make them want to abandon the run, I could see where Richardson would have less success. But with the lack of pass rush and 3rd and Swiss cheese I'm not buying a good showing.

I not even concerned about Fla right now we need to worry about Pitt first. The D line has room for improvement no doubt

 

[Jaws]

I see where Jaws liked your post. Tell me what makes a Florida fan come directly to a Vol site immediately after their game?

Never will understand coming to a rival fan's site..

It was 3 or 4 hours after the game, not “immediately.” I came here because it’s a thread about Florida, and I’m a long-time member here. I enjoy reading what smart people have to say. Why do fans travel to away games? Why are some of the most popular threads here, and on every message board, the “what other sites are saying about us” threads?

But go on..

 

[17Vols]

Or, maybe Utah isn’t as good as people thought

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

Lol.

Brother, I'm a huge fan of giving other conferences grief, but 66-14 is not what I'd call "squeaking by" another team. USCw handled Rice just as they should have, based purely on the score.

PAC lost most of their chances at getting to the CFP yesterday (Oregon down, Utah down), yes. Yes. But USCw is still in the hunt.

true, it was close early.

 

[VolKnight9]

Our 4 down linemen are going to have to find a way Tom pressure the QB…this is how you beat the read option. GBO!

Go back and watch the game. We got pressure pretty much all night on ball state. No, we didn’t get a sack but I don’t think most people understand how quick their qb was getting the ball out. I tried to watch the game last night and solely focus on defensive line. We had 4 down linemen most of the night and didn’t blitz hardly any with maybe a couple stunts all night long. There was pressure all night just not the results everyone was wanting to see. That’ll change this week.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I don’t watch much football outside the SEC. If this is true, color me confused as to how they were #7. I mean I figured they were overrated just because it’s Utah but jeez.

They had a weird season last year, with the cards falling in the right order to get ranked higher than they probably should've been

-- They lost those three ugly games (BYU, San Diego State, Oregon State) in the first half of the season. At 4-3 they didn't look like much. But then again, both BYU and San Diego State spent much of the season ranked, so there was an excuse for AP voters west of the Rocky Mountains to qualify those as "understandable losses."

-- Then they started a run. Beat UCLA 44-24. Then beat Stanford 52-7. The numbers seemed impressive. They weren't back in the Top 25 yet, but were getting votes at the #29 spot.

-- The following week, having beaten Arizona, they popped back into the Top 25, at #24. The stage was set for the Utah Hype Train to start rolling.

-- On the 20th of November, Utah beat #3 in the nation Oregon. This is the same Oregon who beat Ohio State in week 2 (but then lost to Stanford in week 5). In any case, Utah suddenly went from being the PAC's second-best chance at the CFP to being either their first-best, or at least 1-B. The AP pollsters shot them up to the #16 spot (while dropping Oregon from #3 to #11).

-- Two weeks later, they beat (now #10) Oregon again in the PAC championship game. That decided it. They were the PAC's golden goose. Utah took Oregon's Top 10 ranking, while the Ducks fell to #15. Utah might not make the CFP, but they'd get into the Rose Bowl. And maybe, just maybe, earn the conference some respect.

-- About that: they lost to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. But it was a very close game, 48-45. And Ohio State was the #6 team in the country. The reasoning went, Utah could hold their own among Top 10 competition. They were deserving of living among the elite.

-- They finished the season #12 in the AP poll, the only 4-loss team in the Top 20 (heck, most of the 3-loss teams were lower than them!). That's the power of an entire region of the nation focusing their votes on one team. And so Utah were set up for a very favorable viewing the following year.

And here we are.

It's a long, sordid tale, but the TL;DR short version is, they were over-rated. Mostly by West Coast poll voters, with some help from the B10 voters in the mid-west.

Should Utah have been #7 in the country to start 2022? Probably not. Probably around the #15-#20 range would've been more reasonable.

So if you want to look at it that way, Florida beat a ~ #15 or #20 ranked team in a close one. It's not as impressive as the PAC pollsters would have you believe.

But granted, the Gators did look good doing it.

WGWTFA in three weeks, but let's take care of Pitt first.

Go Vols!

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

Florida has always recruited good idk why people think otherwise. Idk how they do it but they seem to always have a decent to good defense and they always seem to play great in the first half of the season. If they beat a team that they play to the wire then they play lights out all season. I've said this before but Florida looked like trash at the last half of their schedule because the team lost confidence in mullen along with some other things as well.

Pretty simple they have 70 4&5 stars in state every year. They can miss on 50 and have a good class and get to cross the border like everyone else for fits and legacies. Even if you divide by 3 to allow for FSU and MIA that is 20+. But being in the SEC and THE state university that should give them a leg up.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

I think it's safe to say that both offenses are gonna score. Four things make me confident about this game.

1. Hooker is a seasoned vet. He plays smart and he doesn't turn the ball over. He also pretty damn good with his legs.

2. We have 3 legit WRs that I don't think Fla can handle. That Utah WR was open all night.

3. Floridas D Line is not very good. They are particularly bad in the middle. We gonna be able to run the ball.

4. It's in Neyland and the crowd will be INSANE. Richardson will make a mistake or two. All our D has to do is bend but don't break. Our Offense is gonna score and score a lot.

Our Defense is gonna be better than some here think. They won't be world beaters. Not even close but all they have to be is average against teams like Pitt and Florida. Florida is gonna score a bunch of points. We are gonna score even more.

Florida had 15 points in the 4th quarter against Utah. Their offense doesn't scare me that much. As long as we don't beat ourselves I still think we win. Neyland needs to be absolutely unbearable that night.

 

[NighthawkVol]

Utah was definitely ranked too high but man it really sucks to see them get a top 10 win year 1

They’re definitely lacking in athletes.

Also, Florida got a lot of luck in that game:
1) Utah scored a TD on the opening drive of the 2nd half but was ruled not to have scored.
2) Wright’s late fumble on his long run late bounced right back to him. He was the only Gator near the play and if he doesn’t get a perfect bounce back, the game is over.
3) Utah’s dumb decision to chase points early. That ended up being the the difference in the game. Just kick there and both teams kick PAT from there on out and Utah is just setting up a FG to win at the end.

 

[KeyVol14]

We have a good QB, some nice WRs and decent RBs. Outside of Hooker/Tillman, no all-SEC candidates. Every other position group is made up of "serviceable" players as starters. After the starters, no depth. The offensive/defensive lines and the secondary are going to be problems in most games.

This is wrong but carry on