On this disappointing Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee, the Florida Gators squandered an opportunity to extend the momentum they had built over the last several weeks. Instead, they took backward steps in most measurable areas. In his post game comments, Billy Napier, made the obvious observation that this week was a bit of a reality check. As I’ve commented in previous blogs, rebuilding a program is an arduous process. Ultimately, it becomes mostly about whether teams can be consistently and sustainably productive. Rebuilding teams, like Florida, will inevitably have bad days. The Vanderbilt game was clearly one of these.

In recent weeks, the Gators had been able to run the ball for an average of about 250 yards per game while having zero turnovers. Against the Commodores, Florida turn the ball over twice and rushed for less than 50 yards. The turnovers were especially costly, because one was in their own end zone, and the other was inside their own 25 yard line. They compounded these challenges with 80 yards in penalties, several that extended scoring drives for Vanderbilt. Every single Commodore point was either a direct result of a turnover, or of a Vandy scoring drive enabled by Florida penalties.

As has been the case in every SEC game this year, Florida was brutal the last four minutes of the first half. For the season, the Gators were outscored 0-52 in the last four minutes of the first half of SEC games.

Perhaps the most disappointing component this week was the squandered opportunities to seize control of the game early. Florida settled for a short field goal on their first drive after being in a first down situation at the Vandy 11 yard line. They enabled the Commodores first scoring drive with two third down and long defensive penalties. They followed this with the muffed punt to give the Commodores an additional free 7 points. In the first half, the Gators had three dropped passes and Anthony Richardson missed several open receivers with errant throws.

The Gator offense continues to go as Anthony Richardson goes. When he’s willing to run the ball, the Florida offense succeeds. He has to be willing to keep the ball on read options even if just to keep the defense honest. This week, he ran the ball only 4 times. Richardson also hasn’t figured out the he must throw a catchable ball on game ending, desperation plays. For the third time this season, his last pass was thrown out of bounds instead somewhere that would have at least given a Florida receiver an opportunity to make a play.

To maintain perspective, the Gators are still inside Billy Napier’s first year. Ten months ago, Florida fans knew there was work to be done on the roster and the culture. No rational fan would have expected these two priorities to have been addressed this quickly. It’s just that last week, it seemed the Gators were ahead of pace and this week’s reality check was hard to accept. To be clear, however, the Florida culture is changing and recruiting looks good thus far. This point next season will be the better barometer of progress. Ideally, the local sports media and social media will understand this and resist damaging the effort and momentum with impulsive negativity.

Next week’s game, in Tallahassee, against a surging Florida State team will be a formidable challenge, but also an opportunity to make a statement.