#15 Florida Gators Dominate Long Island

The #15 Florida Gators did exactly what they needed to do against the Long Island Sharks. They dominated in every facet of the game, didn’t turn the ball over and they didn’t commit a single penalty. The 55-0 win was the largest margin of victory in the Billy Napier era. They were able to play a lot of young players, and that’s what the fans were looking forward to seeing.

The Gators defense got off to a great start as junior safety Bryce Thornton recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown to give them an early 7-0 lead. They then forced a punt and had a great drive, moving the ball down the field with sophomore running back Jadan Baugh being a key factor. Baugh capped off the drive with a touchdown run. Eugene Wilson III caught a touchdown pass from D.J. Lagway on the next drive, and the rout was on. Lagway didn’t practice a lot during fall camp, so you can tell he was a little bit rusty. It didn’t take him very long to knock the rust off as he was able to find a rhythm and distribute the ball to his playmakers. He finished the game 15/18 for 120 yards with 3 TD and didn’t play in the 2nd half.

Both Jadan Baugh and Ja’Kobi Jackson were able to find holes and break off some big runs and wear down the LIU defense. Baugh finished with 9 Carrie’s for 105 yards and a touchdown. Redshirt freshman K.D. Daniels and true freshman Walter “Duke” Clark were able to see a good amount of playing time as well. The future of the running back position is very bright.

The defense turned up the heat on LIU quarterback Ethan Greenwood and the Sharks offense. They were able to get in the backfield and held them to a total of 86 yards for the entire game. They got pressure on Greenwood and dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and took a 38-0 lead into halftime. George Gumbs Jr. was relentless with his pressure and ability to play the run.

Normally we’re used to seeing Billy Napier get conservative in the 2nd half, but that wasn’t the case last night. They wanted to continue to run the ball and control the time of possession, but they also wanted continue scoring when they had the opportunity. Florida played without a number of key contributors in last night’s game. WRs Aidan Mizell and Dallas Wilson sat out along with Caleb Banks, Hylton “Drake” Stubbs and Grayson “Pup” Howard. The offensive line played really well for the most part, but need to improve on their pass blocking.

The Gators return to The Swamp next Saturday night as they host the USF Bulls, who are coming off of a dominating 34-7 home win over #25 Boise State. It'll be another opportunity to clean a few things up, but also get some players back that didn’t play last night against a tougher opponent. The fan base has been waiting for a game where they can put up a lot of points against an inferior opponent and refreshing for them to see it. The schedule will get a lot tougher after the USF game, but if they can continue to put improve from last night, it'll be another step in the right direction for what they want to achieve

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