This morning I said I’d take a win of any kind with no big injuries and that’s pretty much what we got. It’s nice to be able to win despite making so many mistakes and poor decisions. It’s also nice having a week off and a soft opponent up next. Hopefully, by September 14th (in Lexington) things will be much cleaner.

Felipe regressed at times, but didn’t tank. He battled thru adversity and did just enough good things to win. The first quarter fumble at the Miami 7 yard line was a huge momentum killer. A 14-3 lead would have been demoralized for the Hurricanes. Instead, Florida gave away control of the game with the back to back turnovers. Overall, the offense was mediocre. Take away the two long pass plays and there wasn’t much else to like. Perine ran hard for 42 yards in his ten carries. The rest of the running game averaged about one yard per carry. Florida just couldn’t quite hit the seems. The offensive line needs to keep their feet moving better on run plays, but did pretty well in pass protection for a mostly new unit. Other than a couple bad routes, the receivers were good. No dropped passes and blocked well downfield.

The defense got incredible pressure up front on passing plays. Ten sacks is a bunch. On the other hand, the poor tackling in the secondary allowed TEN+ “big plays”. I was impressed by the depth and energy on the defense. Just disappointed with the dumb penalties and very poor tackling. Henderson was great as always. David Reese was quieter than usual, but stabilized and led the defense. Greenard is an awesome addition. Zuniga is a beast. It was impressive how the defense, despite all the late game penalties, saved the day.

Special teams were excellent excepting one thirty five yard kickoff return. Townsend averaged nearly 45 yards per punt and left all three of his punts inside the Miami 13 yard line. His foot speed on the fake punt was impressive. We covered our own punts very well. Jefferson’s fumble recovery may have been the biggest play of the day. Placekicking was perfect, as usual.

It was an interesting day in terms of the coaching. Winning always makes a coach look smart. Four for four on the fourth down tries was huge. I was surprised at how aggressive Mullen played things. Speaking of aggressive, the first down pass attempt on our end of the field with a four point lead and only four minutes left could have lost the Gators the game. Not a bad idea if your QB was a good decision maker.

I was surprised a couple of times when plays should have been reviewed. Overall, not a great day for the (Big10) zebras. They missed a huge illegal procedure penalty on the Gators that really hurt Miami. They were also inconsistent on what constituted pass interference. The late hit call on Tre Dean was questionable. Malik Davis’ covered his own fumble and dropped it again (from his knees) when he tried to stand up. At the least, it should have been reviewed.

On a side note, two of the three suspensions hurt. Brad Stewart is a better tackler than Juwan Taylor and could have helped in the secondary. Slaton’s absence (combined with the Confiffe injury) left us thin at DT and contributed to Miami’s success when they ran the wildcat package. Wells wasn’t missed. By the way, these were second suspensions for Wells and Stewart. Slow learners, I guess.

At the end of the day, any win against an in state rival is a good thing.