The Florida Gators may not be back.
For one evening, it certainly felt that way.
The Gators didn’t just upset the third-ranked Ole Miss Rebels Saturday night. They drubbed them. They ran them out of the Swamp in a 38-10 victory in which they completely dominated a team that figured to come in and win as easily as they had when they went to Tuscaloosa.
After all, this was Ole Miss, a team that had scored more than 70 in its first two games, a team that scored 43 against Alabama.
And the Gators spanked them so severely it left fans wondering when the last win of this level was? The 2012 victory of FSU? The upset of fourth-ranked LSU in 2012? The national championship game over Oklahoma after the 2008 season?
In other words, coach Jim McElwain’s era could not have started more strongly. He has restored the offense that was missing in the Will Muschamp era, and he has restored the expectations.
It also left fans wondering just how high the Gators might climb in the AP poll. West Virginia and Georgia lost. So did UCLA and Notre Dame. Oklahoma State and Cal barely won. At 5-0, Florida seems to have won itself some consideration to move inside the 20, perhaps the 15.
Quarterback Will Grier had been battling illness before the game, but he has never been sharper, hitting 24 out of 29 passes for 271 yards and four touchdowns. And the vaunted Ole Miss offense? It gave up four sacks and had four takeaways and Florida harassed the Rebels throughout.
In the first half alone, Florida built a 25-0 lead as Grier threw for 220 yards.
FSU 24, Wake Forest 16: It was harder than many people expected, and it was costly, but FSU managed to remain undefeated Saturday.
The Seminoles beat a testy Wake Forest team, 24-16, in a game in which Seminoles’ star Dalvin Cook pulled a hamstring. He had a 94-yard run early, but he was injured soon afterward.
Quarterback Everett Golson threw for 202 yards on 20 of 31 passing. But Wake Forest wouldn’t go away. FSU outscored Wake 10-0 in the third period, then relied on its defense (which held Wake Forest to three field goals and one touchdown).
It wasn’t as satisfying as many might have wanted. But with Miami coming up Saturday, the Noles are 4-0.
With Cook hurt after two carries and Mario Pender out recovering from a collapsed lung, the Seminoles struggled to run the ball. Even with Cook’s 94, the team finished with only 127 yards as a team. It continued a season where the offense has sputtered.
Tulane 45, UCF 31: The beer might flow free around UCF for a while.
The Knights fell to 0-5 on Saturday afternoon, losing to Tulane. The Green Wave scored 28 of their points off of UCF turnovers.
At The Basement, the bar that is giving beer away for free until the Knights win, they probably noticed.
Tulane built a 38-10 lead after three periods, then hung on as UCF turned to backup quarterback Tyler Harris, who threw for three touchdowns in the final quarter to make the final margin closer. By then, however, the damage was done. Starter Bo Schneider threw three interceptions, and leading rusher Taj McGowan gained only 11 yards on nine carries.
For the game, the Knights had minus 35 yards rushing.
Tulane had been 1-2 coming into the game, but the Knights’ offense continues to sputter as it has all season. Out of their five losses this season, three are to FIU, Furman and Tulane.
D’erren Wilson caught seven passes for 114 yards and three touchdowns for UCF, while teammate Chris Johnson caught six for 113. UCF held a 7-0 lead, but Tulane outscored the Knights 38-3 afterward.
UCF plays against UConn Saturday at home.
UMass 24, FIU 14: The UMass Minutemen victimized the FIU secondary to win their first game of the season.
Quarterback Blake Frohnapfel threw for 363 yards and three touchdowns to lead UMass past the visiting Panthers, who had an uncharacteristically tough game through the air. Quarterback Alex McGough hit 22 of 34 passes but only for 115 yards in the loss.
For UMass, wide receiver Tajae Sharpe caught 15 passes for 159 yards and one score. Marken Michel caught seven for 113.
The Panthers were able to come back from a 14-0 deficit to close within 17-14 going into the fourth period, but UMass closed out the game.
FIU is at home against UTEP Saturday.
Memphis 21, USF 14 (Friday): The defense of the South Florida Bulls can feel pretty good despite a defeat this morning.
They gave up 24 to a team that is averaging 53.6. They at least slowed a high-powered Memphis team down. They entertained the thought of beating the undefeated Tigers.
The offense?
Maybe the Bulls of Willie Taggart don’t want to talk as much about that.
The Bulls fell to 1-3 on the season, losing a 24-17 decision to the Tigers on a night when the USF offense could not play well enough to take advantage of a 10-point head start.
USF threw the ball 10 times over the first three quarters, a paltry amount even for a team that considers itself a running team. Now consider this: In Memphis’ last game, it gave up 620 yards passing, leading to the suspicion that Memphis has no idea what to do when the opponents throw the ball. It is the secondary that is the reason the Tigers are 104th in the nation on defense. The Tigers were 89th in the country in points allowed.
As for the Bulls, they tried to run off-tackle.
Memphis has been much, much better when teams try to run this year. The Tigers are 34th in the country. Which means, in short, that USF’s game plan played right into their hands. Again, you would expect USF to lean toward running the ball – that’s what they do – but USF threw four times in the first quarter, three in the second and three in the third as the Tigers took over the game.
“In hindsight, I’d like to do a lot more, especially from a play-calling standpoint in the third quarter,” said Bulls’ head coach Taggart. “We probably could have loosened the defense up a little bit to help us run the ball a little more.”
In the final quarter, Taggart finally decided to throw the ball a bit. Quarterback Quinton Flowers threw 16 times, completing 10 for 104 yards and a touchdown. Maybe if the Bulls had tried it a bit earlier, it would have helped.
In the fourth period, for instance, USF had a third-and-one at the Memphis 44. It tried to run the ball. Nothing. It tried again. Nothing.
It all makes Taggart wish he had thrown more.
“I would have,” Taggart said. “There are some things I would take back and wish we could have done better. I told our team to put that one on me. I could have done some things better to help them in that game. That’s hindsight. We’ll get better.”
The Bulls travel to Syracuse next week.
Cincinnati 34, Miami 23 (Thursday): After this, University of Miami fans may want to hire a whole lot of airplanes to pull banners.
The heat is sure to increase on Hurricanes’ head coach Al Golden following his team’s loss to the University of Cincinnati Thursday night.
Golden had been been under fire from his fans despite his team’s unbeaten standings, but lost to an underdog Cincinnati team that was playing with its backup quarterback. UM had won 11 straight over the Bearcats.
UM lost despite 255 yards passing from Brad Kaaya and 113 yards rushing from Joe Yearby.
The fans are sure to talk about a defense that gave up huge plays and two drives inside the Bearcats’ 10 in the fourth period. On the first, the ‘Canes trailed 27-20 but had a third-and-six at the Cincinnati 10 and chose to run the ball with backup Mark Walton, who gained only a yard. In the second, the ‘Canes were down by 11, but Kaaya threw three straight incompletions.
For Cincinnati, Shaq Washington caught eight passes for 106 yards. The Bearcats averaged 4.9 yards per rushing attempt.
The numbers are not kind to Golden. His team is only 3-19 when trailing at the half. They are 10-15 on the road. They are 0-12 against teams that finished ranked in the top 25.
Miami travels to Florida State on Oct. 10.
