Gene Frenette: Gators playing No. 7 Utah only adds to anticipation of Billy Napier era
During the 12-year Steve Spurrier era at Florida, the Gators feasted almost entirely on a dozen season-opening cupcakes, rolling over them by an average score of 47-16.
A similar rent-a-victim scheduling philosophy applied at UF to begin every year until Jim McElwain’s last season in 2017. That’s when Florida agreed to face No. 11-ranked Michigan at Cowboys’ Stadium, one of the few times in program history that it dared to go up against a nationally prominent team right out of the gate. The Gators’ offense sputtered in a 33-17 loss.
In Dan Mullen’s four seasons, Florida went cupcake (Charleston Southern), Miami in Orlando, at Ole Miss and cupcake (Florida Atlantic). Thankfully, starting with a highly-anticipated home meeting Saturday against No. 7-ranked Utah to begin the Billy Napier era , the Gators will refrain from a season-opening pastry for the foreseeable future.
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With the possible exception of South Florida at home in 2025 and at Cal in 2027, all of UF’s openers for the next decade — unless the Gators add an earlier opponent — are against Power 5 teams not considered gimme putts.
Napier’s debut being against Pac-12 champion Utah, the first time in Florida history it starts off facing a Power 5 team that won its league the previous year, is a refreshing matchup that should have UF fans stoked for 2022.
When the home-and-home series became official three years ago, the expectation was Mullen, who worked with Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham when Urban Meyer was their boss, would still be coaching the Gators.
But Mullen’s passivity as a play-caller in last year’s overtime loss at Missouri was the culmination of a stunning 2021 debacle, which led to his firing. So now Florida and its passionate fan base, starving to reclaim a place among the national elite, gets to see how Napier will capitalize on the opportunity of landing one of the top 10 jobs in college football.
Since realistic expectations are likely no better than 8-4 this year, and the Napier honeymoon got off to a good start in recruiting, why not play a “formidable” opponent like Utah?
Knocking off a top-10 team would be a huge confidence-builder, and if it’s a bad outcome, at least Napier has given the program a stern early test for the fairly demanding path that lies ahead.
What, you think 90,000 screaming fans would be showing up Saturday night at The Swamp if the Gators were playing Duquesne or Bethune-Cookman?
UF needs greatness from Richardson
Utah is probably the strongest season-opening opponent for Florida since the Gators got spanked 31-4 by eventual national champion Miami at the Orange Bowl in 1987. That game ended an annual series for the next 15 years as UF used suspect excuses to stop playing the ‘Canes.
The Utes under Willingham have six double-digit win seasons in 17 years, going 11-4 in bowl games over that span. Utah is coming off a heartbreaking 48-45 Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State, and most of its prolific offense is returning, led by quarterback Cameron Rising and productive, 238-pound running back Tavion Thomas (1,108 yards rushing, 21 TDs last year).
You can’t ask for a much sterner challenge for Florida’s maligned defense, which was 85th against the run (163.9 yards) and tied for 112th in takeaways (12) in 2021.
“Utah is a run-heavy offense,” said Gators’ senior linebacker Amari Burney. “They come in 12, 13 (one RB, 3 tight ends) personnel and try to run the ball. We’re going to get grimy and dirty and stop the run.”
That’s about the closest thing to trash-talking any of the Gators got Monday in discussing the Utes, who haven’t played a true SEC road game since losing at Tennessee in 1984 (they did knock off No. 4-ranked Alabama 31-17 in the 2008 Sugar Bowl).
While Florida is a 2 ½-point underdog, the advantage of playing at home in the summer humidity cannot be ignored. Whatever talent gap exists between the Gators and Utah can easily be offset by the Utes’ defense possibly getting winded chasing dual-threat UF quarterback Anthony Richardson all over the field.
Tight end Dante Zanders lights up talking about the Gators’ “explosive offense” and its 6-foot-4, 237-pound leader.
“Expecting to see great things,” Zanders said of Richardson. “The only things I can say about Anthony, everybody was crazy with [former UF receiver] Kadarius Toney and how he can stop and do all that stuff. He’s Kadarius Toney at the quarterback position.”
Nothing would get the Gators’ home-field advantage kicking in more than seeing Richardson producing big plays, and avoiding costly mistakes, areas where he was too inconsistent last season while time-sharing with Emory Jones.
Can Napier turn things around?
Beyond the excitement of seeing how much Richardson has evolved since the spring, there’s the general anticipation of seeing what kind of product a promising young coach like Napier will put on the field.
Given how quickly last season disintegrated, the consensus seems to be Napier has hit the proper reset button, albeit nobody knowing how long it’s going to take for Florida to be a national player again.
“I think all of us around here like Napier simply because of the attitude and accountability factor this team will be playing with, from the pre-game stretch to everything, just organization and accountability,” said Spurrer, who remains on the UF payroll as an ambassador and athletic department consultant.
“I don’t think we’ll see Anthony Richardson doing back flips before the game. We’re serious, so just let everybody be accountable for their assignment.”
Napier is all about self-discipline and maintaining focus. If the Gators can consistently adopt those traits, maybe they won’t be losing games over somebody throwing a shoe in game-deciding moments. Or racking up 15 penalties in losing at Kentucky for the first time since the Reagan administration.
Truthfully, there probably hasn’t been this much excitement for a home season opener since Spurrier’s debut in 1990 against Oklahoma State, where a 50-7 UF victory proved to be a harbinger of the “Fun ‘N Gun” offense on display for a decade-plus years.
Now Utah is a lot better than that Cowboys’ team, which went through a serious down cycle after future Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders left for the NFL.
Florida wants more than anything to ignite a new era of greatness with Napier. Beating Utah in a raucous Swamp atmosphere could be a significant tone-setter. Maybe it’s a spark to push the Gators toward eventually closing the large gap existing between them and Alabama/Georgia.
So what if Utah sends the Gators back to a sobering reality like Michigan did five years ago. Isn’t it more fun and entertaining to take this kind of risk than devour another cupcake?
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540
Gene Frenette Sports columnist at Florida Times-Union, follow him on Twitter @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Opening season against No. 7 Utah gives UF, Napier a gauge on progress
