Montrell Johnson keeps it real after Gators' win over USF
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Billy Napier scoffed on Wednesday when he was asked if “these types of games” could provide an opportunity to get some younger players experience. After the game, Napier continued to credit USF and once again took exception to a reporter’s question that could have been perceived as slighting USF.
“The South Florida team that I watched tonight is a high-quality team, so I don’t know that I agree with you,” Napier said. “The team we played tonight showed up and executed pretty well. They were coached well, good design, a good handful of skill players that blocked us, made it hard on us at times.”
Winning football games is hard and you only have so many opportunities to play with a team. You’re guaranteed 12. You hope to get to the conference championship and a bowl game, maybe the College Football Playoff. That’s a maximum of 15 games. Only 15 opportunities to play a game with your team. Any win should be celebrated but that’s not what the Florida Gators’ locker room looked or felt like on Saturday night.
“It was kind of like we lost,” running back Montrell Johnson said of the locker room after beating USF 31-28. “Everyone knew that we could have played better, you know what I mean? Nobody was really excited about the win.”
Johnson was asked if he was surprised that USF kept it close.
“I was really surprised,” he said.
It’s not a matter of the Gators coming into the game overconfident or overlooking the Bulls. USF played well. Florida had some penalties that hurt them and a couple of turnovers that USF immediately turned into points.
But so did Florida.
So what happened?
Give the Bulls some credit, but Gators need to be better
USF (1-2) delivered their best performance of the Jeff Scott era. They deserve credit for having a chance to beat a top-20 team. The announced crowd of 88,496 is the third-largest USF has ever played in front of.
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And the Bulls didn’t merely show up and play with the Gators, they outplayed them most of the night. South Florida had more yards (402-329), more first downs (23-17), and 286 rushing yards against the Gators on Saturday.
Florida benefitted from a couple fortuitous refer decisions. One, an unsportsmanlike penalty that looked simply like two players playing through a whistle, led directly to a Florida touchdown.
South Florida players were disappointed following the loss. Florida players were disappointed with the way they won.
Only one team could leave Ben Hill Griffin Stadium winners on Saturday night but neither team left the stadium feeling good.
