Two years ago, Florida football coach Billy Napier energized the fanbase with his mantra, “scared money don’t make money.”
Before a sellout crowd on Saturday night at The Swamp, Napier continued his more recent trend of coaching scared. Those decisions came back to bite the Florida Gators, as UF was unable to hold an early 12-0 lead in an eventual 24-15 loss to rival No. 5 Florida State at The Swamp.
Early in the second quarter, UF chose to take three points on a 35-yard field goal rather than go for it on 4th-and-1, which put the Gators up 10-0. ‘
Scared money? Not sure Billy didn’t leave some spare change on the field in first half when his defense was humming and his offense had run up a 131-2 advantage in yards at one point. He settled for a field goal and punted on 4th & 1— left some $ on field with only a 12-7 lead.
— Buddy Martin (@buddyshow) November 26, 2023
In the third quarter, Florida went with three straight run plays on first-and-10 from FSU’s 23-yard line, gaining just three yards before settling for a 37-yard field goal that put UF up 15-14.
Grading the Gators: Florida studied up but ultimately flunked in the fourth quarter against FSU
Fourth quarter fade:: Florida football fades in 4th quarter in loss to No. 5 Florida State
Florida again ran the ball three straight times late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter, gaining just seven yards on a three-and-out series.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Max Brown, who completed 7 of 10 passes in the first half, attempted just six passes in the second half in his first career UF start.
“There’s no question we’ll be able to look back at this thing and say, hey, maybe we should have taken a different approach,” Napier said. “But at that point defensively we were really humming. I think we held them to like 85 yards in the first half. I’m not exactly…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/playing-close-vest-came-back-090152506.html
Author : The Gainesville Sun
Publish date : 2023-11-26 09:01:52
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