Do you believe in love at first sight?
Fans of the Florida Gators do.
Give credit to new coach Jim McElwain. The guy knows how to say hello. His Gators rolled to a 61-13 victory over New Mexico State Saturday night in McElwain’s debut. For a night, the offense was back with the Gators, and both quarterbacks looked sensational.
The only nod to realism, of course, is that it was New Mexico State, which was rated 126th out of 127 college teams in a recent poll. But if you’ll remember, Georgia Southern wasn’t a powerhouse when it upset the Gators, either. This is better.
Will it transfer to games against Tennessee, against Georgia, against FSU? Who knows? But for a night, things look to be pointing upward.
What Saturday night didn’t provide was a lot of separation between quarterbacks Treon Harris and Will Grier. Both were sensational against the Aggies.
Harris was 14 of 19 for 215 yards and two touchdowns. Grier was 15 of 17 (with one drop) for 164 yards and two scores.
For Florida fans, the night was a keeper. Much of the era of Will Muschamp will be remembered as bad offenses and ugly quarterbacking. McElwain at least flashed a bit of promise. Fourteen receivers caught passes. There were 30 completions.
Things are a bit tougher next week, but only a bit, as the Gators play East Carolina.
FSU 59, Texas State 16: One night in, and it’s easy to like Everett Golson.
Golson threw for four touchdowns in the second half Saturday night in an easy victory. In all, he hit 19 of 25 for 302 yards in his debut as the FSU signal-caller. It was the seventh 300-yard day of Golson’s career. The only thing that slowed Golson down was a 63-minute delay because of lightning before the game.
Texas State trailed only 14-10 in the second period, but the Seminoles scored on seven of their next eight drives.
Running back Dalvin Cook, suspended most of training camp, had a big night with 156 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
FSU plays USF next Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m.
Miami 45, Bethune-Cookman 0: Yes, Brad Kaaya threw for two touchdowns, but this night belonged to the Hurricanes’ defense.
Miami smothered the outmanned Wildcats, limiting them to only 26 yards passing and only 1.5 yards per carry on the ground. Bethune-Cookman had only 79 total yards It was an impressive showing for a defense that improved last year and shows even more signs this week.
Kaaya hit 16 of 27 for 173 yards to lead the Miami offense, which scored 24 points in the second period.
The Hurricanes play Florida Atlantic Friday night.
South Florida 51, Florida A&M 3: The Bulls’ night was a huge one, the biggest victory that Willie Taggert has had since coming to Tampa. But it didn’t start off that way.
South Florida had its first three touchdowns negated by penalties, which reminded fans of some of the frustrations of a year ago. But once the Bulls started clicking, they didn’t stop. Quarterback Quinton Flowers hit 12 of 16 for 141 yards. Backup Stephen Bench hit eight of 10 for 140.
Running back Marlon Mack rushed for 131 yards as the Bulls outrushed the Rattlers by 275-12.
In all, USF gained 556 yards of offense.
Again, the opening-night win doesn’t really say much about the season to come. It just provides glimpses of what a team has. If you’ll glance back a year, you’ll find that teams that went on to have a good year, and those who went on to have a bad year, shared success on opening night.
