Florida took care of business (and covered the spread) against FCS Samford on Saturday, 45-7, but it wasn’t the kind of win the team can afford to celebrate for too long.
True freshman quarterback [autotag]DJ Lagway[/autotag] looked the superstar recruiting experts promised him to be and Florida looked better in all three phases of the game compared to last week, but that’s what good SEC teams are supposed to do against lesser opponents.
Florida needed a win badly to change the narrative surrounding the program, and Lagway provided some hope to a fan base that has imploded over the past year — six straight losses will do that to any SEC fandom. But like any good piece of chocolate, this win is bittersweet.
There’s a lot to celebrate, but there’s also a lot to fix over the next week before Texas A&M comes to town.
To keep the candy bar analogy going, Florida needs to make sure this win was simply breaking off a piece rather than downing the whole thing in one go.
In other words, this can’t be the team’s high point.
DJ Lagway is him
With [autotag]Graham Mertz[/autotag] in the concussion protocol, Florida was forced to start Lagway and he looked good with a capital G.
Lagway threw for 456 yards and three touchdowns on 18-of-25 passing in the win. He was near perfect; in fact, it’s hard to find a single blemish in Lagway’s performance against Samford. He set the school record for passing yards by a freshman, clearing Chris Leak’s 268-yard performance in 2003 by almost 200 yards. More importantly, he stepped up when the team needed him to the most.
The first quarter wasn’t pretty for Florida. The first drive of the night resulted in a turnover on downs, and a red-zone fumble in the second quarter kept fans on their toes.
Then, No. 2 settled in. Lagway started making tough throw after tough throw, all while taking a few hard shots from Samford’s defense. There was a scary moment at the end of the first half when he took a big hit and was forced to sit a play, but he returned in the second half and looked fine. All three of Lagway’s passing touchdowns came after halftime.
There is no question that Lagway is the future of this program after a performance like that, but Mertz is still the veteran leader of the team. Billy Napier has a tough decision to make if Mertz is healthy next week. At the very least, he’ll have to script a drive for Lagway against Texas A&M.
Defensive line looking much better
Florida’s defensive line consistently got to Samford’s offense behind the line of scrimmage, racking up 12 tackles for a loss and four sacks in the win.
The sacks belonged to Caleb Banks, George Gumbs Jr., Tyreak Sapp and Ja’Markis Weston. True freshman LJ McCray also recorded two quarterback hurries on the evening.
It was a much better performance from the front seven compared to the Miami game, even if it does come against an FCS club. Creating the same pressure against SEC linemen will be the key to future success on defense for Florida.
Although he’s not a defensive lineman, Cornerback Jason Marshall Jr. also deserves a shoutout for forcing the only turnover on the day. He stripped a Samford player on the first drive of the game to set the tone early. Florida allowed just 205 yards (144 passing, 61 rushing) all night.
There’s still some sloppiness to clean up
It’s easy to get lost in the thrill of a win, but Florida made plenty of mistakes against Samford.
Penalties and an overall lack of discipline remain an issue three years into Napier’s tenure as head coach. It’s something Napier vowed to clean up in Year 1 but has never truly taken in Gainesville. False starts and personal fouls will cost the Gators against an SEC team. So will fumbling within five yards of the end zone in the first half.
This game was the only “freebie” on Florida’s schedule. Week-to-week improvement is always good, but avoidable mistakes chip away at any goodwill earned by the team in this kind of win.
Practice should be grueling this week. To a degree, the missteps should be focused on more than the positives. They can’t happen again if Florida wants to string together a few wins before facing the second-half gauntlet — Georgia, Texas, LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State, in that order without a bye week.
Be happy, but don’t be satisfied.
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