Paul Finebaum backs Billy Napier after Florida loss at Tennessee

No. 8 Tennessee took down Florida over the weekend, winning just its second game in the annual rivalry series in the last 18 meetings. It was a massive win for coach Josh Heupel and the Volunteers, but has it started the grumbling in Gainesville?

The Gators are now 2-2 and also had a close call against USF in Week 3.

ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum, though, sees the weekend loss at Tennessee as a positive for the Florida program because of what he saw. He saw a team that played really hard and probably squeezed just about as much out of its circumstances as it could have.

“That was great for Florida,” Finebaum said on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning program.

“I think Billy Napier, he’s going to have an up-and-down season, but he had his team ready for that. And I think a lot of pundits look past that.”

After trailing 38-21 midway through the fourth quarter, Florida managed to make it a game until the final play. A banged-up Anthony Richardson led a 10-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a 5-yard Montrell Johnson touchdown run with 4:49 remaining to cut the deficit to 38-27.

Then the Gators came up with a defensive stop and managed to punch another touchdown in on a 3-yard pass from Richardson to receiver Ricky Pearsall. With Tennessee leading 38-33 with 17 seconds left, Florida improbably recovered an onside kick.

The game didn’t end until Vols defensive back Kamal Hadden picked off a Richardson heave toward the end zone on the final play.

Paul Finebaum backs Billy Napier early on

Regardless of the record right now, the ESPN personality likes what he’s seen out of Napier’s program. Even if he occasionally disagrees with a colleague who’s a former Florida player.

“I mean I’m with (Tim) Tebow every Saturday morning, so I’m always going to get the same, ‘You can never count Florida out,'” Finebaum said. “OK, well ask some of the last three coaches about that, who got fired.

“But in this case Florida showed up and they played extraordinarily well. As well as they probably can considering they’re not the most talented team either.”

Now Florida will get a chance to regroup after playing three teams in the first month of the season that have been ranked in the top-10 of the AP Poll at some point this year.

Is 2-2 the result many fans want? Probably not.

There are reasons for optimism, though, at least if you subscribe to the line of thinking used as Finebaum backs Billy Napier. And the road should get easier from here.

Before the annual showdown against No. 1 Georgia in Jacksonville on Oct. 29, upcoming games against Eastern Washington, Missouri and LSU loom, all at home.