Week 12 Prediction: Florida Gators vs. Idaho Vandals

Week 12 Prediction:
Florida Gators VS Idaho Vandals
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
Steve Spurrier — Florida Field
Gainesville, FL

The annual “tune up” game the week before FSU is here as we have reached the caboose of the college football regular season. The Florida Gators are coming off of a second half comeback in which they finally played inspired and, well, acted like they actually cared. The narrow escape against South Carolina put the Gators back into the win column, and had they not woke up and fought back or had they fallen just short, this would be a totally different conversation after what would be a 3-game losing streak. But instead, Florida welcomes Idaho on senior day and makes the two-hour bus ride to Tallahassee next week to finish out the regular season coming off of perhaps a season-saving victory to finalize SEC play. And the Gators are now back in line to at least be in the discussion for a New Year’s Six berth. At the very least, UF is looking at a glorified January bowl game and will likely get to stay in the sunshine.

Obviously, this is a little bit of a different prediction topic because Florida should win this game handily. Idaho is a member of the Big Sky Conference and comes to Gainesville with a 4-6 record. Idaho QB Mason Petrino leads the Vandals charge and has had a productive season under center. The junior has passed for nearly 1,900 yards and 14 TD’s while completing 62% of his passes. Petrino also brings a threat with his legs— rushing 65 times for 158 yards and 3 TD’s. Petrino spreads the football to multiple targets and will provide at least maybe a sweat for this UF defense, and well we never know what team is going to show up, especially on that side of the ball. The receiving cast that Petrino will look to collaborate with are— David Ungerer (66 catches, 692 yards, 4 TD’s); Jeff Cotton (46 catches, 618 yards, 4 TD’s); and Cutrell Haywood (48 catches, 468 yards, 6 TD’s). Senior running back Isaiah Sanders has 189 carries on the season for 878 yards and will carry the bulk in the backfield for the Vandals. Now obviously, Idaho has not seen the loads of speed and athleticism that will be on the field Saturday, and I don’t think it will even matter much if the Gators do indeed come out flat.

On the other side, Idaho has had issues stopping Big Sky teams, and Florida shouldn’t have any problem moving the football at will. The Gators should be able to do whatever they want passing or running the football, even with Feleipe Franks up-and-down play.

I’m intrigued to find out how Dan Mullen handles the Emory Jones situation. If Kyle Trask had not been injured last week in practice, it’s a no-brainer to bring him in after UF gets a commanding lead. But with Trask now done, does Mullen stick with Franks for the duration and save Jones for FSU and the bowl game? Or does Mullen bring in Jones and sit him out of in one of those games? I feel like Mullen probably plays Jones and gives Franks the complete game next week in Tallahassee, but I’m interested to see how he handles this dynamic.

No matter if we see Jones on Saturday or not, it’s clear that many freshman newcomers will likely make debuts like for example— prized recruit, Jacob Copeland, who’s suited up for games this year but hasn’t seen any action yet. With three games left this season including the bowl game, Copeland and 9 other true freshmen can play in at least 2 of the remaining 3 games and can still claim redshirts. I believe we’ll see a glimpse of Florida’s future when the Gators get a comfortable lead. True freshman defensive end/outside linebacker Andrew Chatfield, one of Florida’s premier defensive recruits; linebacker David Reese; defensive end Malik Langham, who was the top recruit out of Alabama and chose the Gators over the in-state Crimson Tide; freshman tight end Dante Lang; and freshman running back Iverson Clement, who’s an electric athlete, have only appeared in the opener and still have three games that they can appear in. Watch out for all of these freshmen to play on Saturday against Idaho and probably in the remaining games at certain points.

There’s no need for me to break this game down any further as we all know that the Gators should wipe out the Vandals on Saturday. It’s hard to predict who will have breakout games because I think that some of the weekly names that we’re used to will be out of this game by halftime. But this will be a nice glimpse of the future of Florida football and for some pup Gators who have just been waiting their turn.

Prediction:

Florida will have no problem racking up points and padding stats against Idaho. Look for Jordan Scarlet and Lamical Perine to each break off multiple big runs and Franks to look like Tom Brady at times against a bad defense. But we all know that Idaho isn’t Alabama. And then I think Mullen will check in some new pieces and manage the game pretty conservatively after the half.

Florida 46
Idaho 7