The good, the bad and the ugly from Florida's loss to Georgia

JACKSONVILLE — Breaking down the good, the bad and the ugly from the Florida Gators’ 43-20 loss to the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday in Jacksonville.

The Good: Freshmen impact and experience

I touched on this in my Five Thoughts from the Gators’ loss to Georgia but the best players on the team are the ones that have been recruited by Billy Napier. On Monday, Kirby Smart went out of his way to mention freshman receiver Eugene Wilson. The Tampa native was on Smart’s radar but it didn’t matter. Wilson set a Florida Gators freshman record with 11 catches in the game. He tallied 75 yards and scored a touchdown on the opening drive.

The Gators are young — one of the youngest teams in the country. They have played nine true freshmen in all eight games this season. Twenty-four players ranging from true freshmen to redshirt sophomores have played in every game this season, third-most in the entire country.

Saturday’s game was David vs Goliath, as redshirt freshman Hayden Hansen tweeted. I still think Florida will be better for the growing pains they’re experiencing this season.

“I think that’s important for our staff, but it’s invaluable for young players. And I think that I’m hopeful that they’ll take what they learned today and go back to work,” Billy Napier said of the freshmen and young players from Saturday. “I think that our team will do that. I’ve got a ton of confidence. They know we care about them. This group will get up and go back to work.”

The Bad: Florida’s offensive line

Florida’s offensive line struggled to keep quarterback Graham Mertz upright. Mertz was sacked four times, fumbling on two of those and losing one of them. Asked about his offensive line after the game, Napier defended it better than the group defended Mertz.

“I think we struggled to protect them a little bit at times, but I also think they covered us pretty good. Some of those, we’re holding the ball. I think if we’re throwing the ball three hitch on time, there’s short edges, we’re climbing, guy gets a little bit of his elbow there, the ball comes out,” Napier said.

“They made him move a little bit, but, listen, it’s a combination of the rush and the coverage, right? It’s not one or the other. And I don’t think there was any just purely immediate sacks. I think it was a combination of the arresting coverage. This is the game we play, right? When you play a team that can cover you and good rushers and they have a good plan, the key to the drill is you try to avoid those. We don’t want to live in second-and-long, get back on track, third-and-seven, -10, -11-plus. Those are tough downs for any football team.”

The Ugly: The Gators’ defense away from home

This is the second game in a row the Florida defense hasn’t looked very good. Two weeks ago in Columbia, S.C., Gamecocks quarterback Spencer Rattler threw for 313 yards. He only managed 169 against Tennessee and threw for just 217 this weekend against Texas A&M. In fact, outside of the Utah game where the Florida defense had one bad play and gave up a short field touchdown but was otherwise acceptable, the unit hasn’t played well away from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Here are the Gators’ defensive numbers at home and away from The Swamp.

	Home	Away/Neutral
Total Defense	263.5 yards per game	404.75 yards per game
Scoring Defense	11 points per game	34.75 points per game
Rushing Defense	72 yards per game	189.25 yards per game
Passing Defense	187.6 yards per game	215.5 yards per game

They say “defense travels” but not Florida’s.

One tough pill to swallow for the Florida Gators

For better or worse, fair or unfair, the Florida Gators are going to be measured based on their performances against Georgia. Twice on Saturday night, Napier was asked a question that referred to Georgia as “the gold standard” in the league right now. It’s true. When Kirby Smart was hired, he could have been another Will Muschamp — another Nick Saban disciple that just doesn’t pan out as a head coach. Instead, Smart has built a college football powerhouse and has Muschamp on staff helping to design and call the preeminent defense in the SEC.

Even as divisions in the SEC go away, Florida will still retain Georgia on its schedule and will be measured against its rivals from up north.

Right now, Florida can’t compete with Georgia and the way the Bulldogs have recruited. Smart even took a jab, no, excuse me, threw a haymaker at Dan Mullen on Saturday night. The former Florida head coach picked the Gators to win. When Smart was asked about it after the game, he ended his response with “He didn’t like to recruit.”

“He didn’t like to recruit though”

Kirby Smart just bodied Dan Mullen 😂 pic.twitter.com/olwut9SG5P

— Jonathan Williams (@Dr_JWill) October 29, 2023

Florida’s roster doesn’t compete with Georgia’s. I’m not telling you that as something that you should just lay down, roll over like a good dog, and accept; it’s just a fact. Georgia has had significantly deeper, stronger and more elite recruiting classes. That recruiting played itself out on the field on Saturday and has played itself out every single year that Smart has been in Athens, outside of his first season and 2020 when Florida’s offense was elite.

Florida can get there with a class like the one the Gators currently have committed. Wins on the recruiting trail for players such as 5-star defender LJ McCray — especially beating Georgia out for those commits — have to continue to happen.