Quick hits: Florida Gators offense embarrasses as Florida State nearly shuts out UF 27-2

By Adam Silverstein
November 28, 2015

The No. 12 Florida Gators (10-2) put together another stellar defensive effort, but their embarrassing offense fell well short of effective as the No. 13 Florida State Seminoles (10-2) nearly shut out the hosts 27-2 on Saturday night at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida.

In front of a record crowd, the Gators offense was unable to muster a single point with Florida only scoring on a fourth-quarter safety created off a forced fumble by freshman defensive end CeCe Jefferson. Though UF avoided its first shutout since 1988, that was about the only positive to take away from the affair.


Can’t throw, can’t win: Sophomore quarterback Treon Harris continued regressing Saturday. After starting the game 6-of-8 for very little yardage, he threw seven straight incompletions and finished the first half just 11-of-22 for 64 yards. Harris did not do much better in the latter 30 minutes, going 7-of-15 for 65 yards. He missed wide open receivers and threw low, lackadaisical passes all night, giving UF little opportunity to move the ball offensively.

Aiding and abetting: Florida’s defense was tremendous for nearly the entire contest, but it was not without its slip ups. A kick-catch interference penalty on special teams, followed by an offsides call, allowed Florida State to jump on the board early by scoring a 45-yard field goal on only a 13-yard offensive drive. Later in the half, the Gators gave up two big chunk plays – a 21-yard Dalvin Cook run and 45-yard Sean Maguire completion – as the Seminoles moved 74 yards on just seven plays. FSU capped off that drive with a fourth-down touchdown conversion as Maguire stunningly threw across his body into the end zone for a tough score to a player who had never caught a pass before.

Stuntin’ like his daddy (again): On a night when the legendary Fred Taylor was honored by The Swamp with a standing ovation, his son showed out once again. Junior running back Kelvin Taylor registered his fourth 100-yard game in five tries, rushing for 136 yards on 24 carries and picking up 18 more yards on three catches. Taylor was basically the entire UF offense on Saturday, and though he was not enough in the long run, his effort is certainly worth commendation.

Freshman comes through (again): Leave it to Jefferson to make another big play on defense. The five-star freshman sensation’s forced fumble of Maguire resulted in the Gators’ only points Saturday – a fourth-quarter safety. The score allowed Florida to avoid a shutout at the hands of Florida State for the first time ever. The Gators continue their no-shutout streak, which is the nation’s longest (dating back to Oct. 29, 1988), and avoided an even worse embarrassment than the offense already provided.

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21 Comments

  1. .?? says:
    November 28, 2015 at 11:21 pm

    Offense needs to be fixed next year. No excuses for what we saw today. We’re Florida and we haven’t seen a decent offense since 2009.

  2. Michael Jones says:
    November 28, 2015 at 11:31 pm

    Watching Treon is just brutal. Nothing personal, but, wow . . . . Hard to believe we don’t have a better QB behind him. Every spring we hear about Jacob Guy and how good he is. . . so where is he?

    Too bad Gator Nation ran off Driskel and Mornhinweg. Much better QB’s than what we have on the field right now.

    • Jeff L says:
      November 29, 2015 at 8:45 am

      Michael,
      The problem with this year’s defense started three years ago after that 4-8 record. Champ brought in Brent Pease and Pease signed Mornhinweg instead of the Memphis QB, Paxton Lynch from Deltona. Lynch wanted to be a Gator and Pease signed the son of one of his coaching buddies instead. Lynch is now in the top 10 in several national QB categories and trending up (see last night’s stats for the SMU game). His coachjust got a big time job because Justin Fuente knows how to evaluate and develop talent. Something our previous staff did not know how to do on the offensive side of the ball. Not to mention the O-Lines woes.
      McElwain is on the right track and will get this problem fixed. It did not happen overnight and will not be fixed overnight. But I like our future. Without Driskel nor Mornhinweg.

      • Michael Jones says:
        November 30, 2015 at 3:57 am

        Thanks for the info. Did not know that. Agree with everything you said except and unless that last statement was a knock against Driskel or Mornhinweg (not saying it was. . just not sure). Driskel is also playing very well right now and he was as much a victim of Muschamp, Weiss, Pease and Roper as anybody or anything else on the program. Hated and still hate the way Gator Nation treated him. It was not our finest hour. Far from it. Also Skyler is head and shoulders over Treon.

        But, like I said, agree with everything else. Definitely like the direction we’re heading in. Definitely agree that Muschamp & Co were poor evaluators and developors of talent. Big Coach Mac fan.

        Go Gators!!!

  3. Mike The Red says:
    November 28, 2015 at 11:31 pm

    We certainly did not play great offense. At the same time, KT was averaging over 5 years per carry. Why didn’t we just put the ball on the ground and grind it out?

    We also had two TD called back.

    Having said all that, we have exceeded what anyone (other than McElwain) expected this season. Remember how bad things looked last Spring.

  4. jimmee 1975 says:
    November 28, 2015 at 11:34 pm

    YA SAY – IT’S GREAT TO BE A FLORIDA GATOR, YES, IT’S GREAT TO BE A FLORIDA GATOR!!!

  5. Sharon Milner says:
    November 28, 2015 at 11:42 pm

    Gatora need a new quarterback.k. He is just not good enough.

  6. 1974Gator says:
    November 28, 2015 at 11:48 pm

    We had 3 legitimate chances to score a TD in the redzone and failed each time. Pathetic is the only word that adequately describes the offensive performance tonite. Treon isn’t the answer BUT what else do we have? Brissett had a great year at NC State. Why couldn’t we convince him to stay in case Driskell failed? OSU has three pro QBs suited up. What an abortion we have been left with at QB. Poor Austin Hardin. No excuses are necessary. We can’t use him as a weapon. It’s past time to try someone else as an option. Can’t get worse. The only redeeming factor was that the beer was good at DBA BBQ.

  7. Mac_supporter says:
    November 28, 2015 at 11:53 pm

    Adam, I Know we have overachieved, but is there any shot of Del Rio can beat out Treon in the spring? Is there really any type of hope that Treon can get better because he is bad. I don’t like being negative or bashing our players, but he is just bad. I just don’t understand how he can be so bad at progressions and recognizing blitzes and getting rid of the ball.

  8. Fatback says:
    November 28, 2015 at 11:53 pm

    Harris has no business as a Div 1 QB. Spurrier would have had the walk-ons playing.

  9. Ken (CA) says:
    November 29, 2015 at 12:00 am

    OGGOA stopped responding yet again I was posting a comment. started posing it 30 mins go, and was waiting for it to respond and it finally forced me to refresh as just at there sending me data. Your provider seems very frustrating in either the way it is pushing ads, or the way it is trolling for information. I have been trying to make a comment to your post for almost an hour now, and your provider keeps me held up.

    • 1974Gator says:
      November 29, 2015 at 10:51 am

      Sounds like a similar problem that I have when on my Mac desktop using Safari. It would take forever to post a comment on Only Gators. I have found that I have no response related problems when I use the Chrome search engine. Hope that helps.

  10. uf_84 says:
    November 29, 2015 at 12:01 am

    Man is there any way we could just concede the SEC championship to Alabama and save ourselves the embarassment of actually playing the game?

  11. SW FL Joe says:
    November 29, 2015 at 8:50 am

    From Mac’s presser it sounds like the locker room is starting to split. There is no way the conference brass is going to let UF win in Atlanta thereby shutting the SEC out of the playoffs.

    • 1974Gator says:
      November 29, 2015 at 10:59 am

      What are you insinuating? Both of your statements seem strange. It’s not like we should expect to win the SECC game but the “brass” has no control over the outcome of the game.

  12. liveoak87 says:
    November 29, 2015 at 2:13 pm

    Why does it seems coach Mac is scared to make a change and take a chance. There are plenty of team that have had success with backup QB. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It’s been evident for 4 games now that treon is simply not the answer. IMHO at least let Grady come out in the third quarter and see what he can do.

    • Norman Hall says:
      November 29, 2015 at 5:30 pm

      Why could they not at least try Jason Guy. He didn’t play that badly in the spring and he is certainly taller than Treon.

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