College football is back and we had an absolutely perfect game to remind us why we love this incredibly dumb and amazing sport. The #8 Florida Gators beat their rival Miami Hurricanes by a score of 24-20 in a mistake filled opening matchup. Let’s take a look at just how dumb and amazing this game really was.
Miami penalties
The Hurricanes were breaking in a new head coach, offensive coordinator and starting quarterback and it certainly showed. The offense was called for delay of game three times and had to burn three timeouts to prevent three more. In total they committed 14 penalties for 119 yards and it really could’ve been worse, but a couple of those were only half the distance to the goal.
The best sequence of penalties came when they started a drive with a false start, gained 1-yard on two plays, had an illegal substitution, another false start and then were forced to punt. However, the most devastating flag came late in the third quarter when Miami was leading 13-10. They motioned Tate Martell across the formation which created enough space for a huge gain by running back Cam’Ron Harris:
But there are two separate holding calls against the Hurricanes on this play. Tight end Brevin Jordan is the one who gets called for it and it happens way after Harris might have needed that block:
Instead of looking at a 1st and goal inside the 5-yard line, Miami was forced to punt two plays later.
Another devastating penalty came just a few minutes later, early in the fourth quarter. They were facing a 4th and 1 and instead of using the offense to try to pick up the single yard, the Hurricanes went with a fake field goal. And it worked! Kicker Bubba Baxa ran for more than enough to get a first down and was pushed out inside the 10-yard line.
But tight end Will Mallory — the player you can clearly see holding a Florida defender — gets called for a hold. Miami still gets a first down because of the late hit at the end of run, but the holding call moved them back enough that they eventually have to settle for a real field goal attempt — that Baxa misses.
Florida fourth downs
Both teams were awful on third downs. Miami went 2/13, while Florida was 2/10. However, there was a stark difference on fourth down. Miami was 0/2 while Florida was an impressive 4/4.
Dan Mullen was aggressive from the start, calling a fake punt on fourth down during the Gators’ very first drive. This one saw senior punter Tommy Townsend beat starting cornerback Al Blades Jr. around the edge for the first down.
Miami thought they had forced a three and out, but instead Florida scored off a 66-yard screen on the very next play.
Mullen went for it on fourth down from his own territory for a second time on just the second offensive drive of the game. This time receiver Kadarius Toney took a handoff to the outside and used his speed to get around the edge:
This play ultimately only ended up helping win the field position battle because of…
Turnovers!
The Gators made a couple of completely unforced errors that kept Miami alive in the first half. The first one happened on the same drive as Toner’s fourth down conversion. Franks and running back Lamical Perine both tried to take the ball on a read option, resulting in this:
On the very next drive, Florida makes another unforced error and fumbles again after either a miscommunication or a poorly executed awkward fake:
Scoring on either of these drives would’ve put the Hurricanes in a big hole early. If Florida had managed to score on both of them, it would’ve seemed like an insurmountable deficit for Miami. Franks also threw two bad interceptions in the second half, but the Hurricanes were only able to produce a single field goal off of the four turnovers. On the flip side, Florida scored an easy touchdown off of the muffed punt that they recovered at Miami’s 11-yard line.
Defensive mistakes
When either of these offenses broke through, it was usually because of missed tackles or penalties… or both.
Florida’s first touchdown came partially because Toney is incredibly fast, but also because Miami missed at least four chances to bring him down.
The best example of this however, was the Hurricanes’ final scoring drive. Defensive pass interference and unsportsmanlike conduct calls gifted them two automatic first downs. Then running back DeeJay Dallas took the snap from the wildcat for what looked to be a short gain. But Florida didn’t actually bring him down and he broke off a 50-yard touchdown.
Miami also made mistakes on what would end up being Florida’s game winning touchdown drive. First they gave up a 65-yard pass on a seam route to receiver Josh Hammond. Then they let tight end Kyle Pitts sneak inside the 5-yard line off a bubble screen to set up the game-winner on the next play.
This game had everything we love about college football. It had two rivals who love to hate each other, but rarely play. It had dumb penalties, weird, inexplicable turnovers, a fake punt and a fake field goal. This was the perfect game to welcome this amazingly stupid sport back. And week one still hasn’t even started yet.
