Florida football: 5 takeaways from the Gators win at South Carolina

2. The SEC officiating was terrible

Like I’ve said before, I am not one to complain about officiating.

I know a lot of football officials at different levels and their job is certainly a thankless on. Even when you do it right, you are wrong.

But Saturday was just, well, I don’t even have the words.

Missed pass interference calls, a defensive pass interference call when the ball was 20 yards away from the receiver.

I guess the main takeaway is that the officiating was bad on both sides and I can’t say anyone really won the game because of it. Of course, hindsight is always 20-20 and we can throw theories around all day about what could have been and what should have been.

The one thing that is absolute is that the officiating crew struggled to say the least. Oh, they didn’t make a friend out of Muschamp either.

I think we are pretty clear about how he felt about the officiating. Gators’ fans probably felt the same kind of frustration earlier in the game.

3. The defense showed some moxie

While they didn’t in the first half, the Florida defense seemed more active and alive in the second.

Despite the absence of edge rushers Jonathan Greenard and Jabari Zuniga, the Gators were able to fluster South Carolina freshman quarterback Ryan Hilinski into overthrowing his receivers on several occasions.

For its part, the defensive secondary also provided solid mismatches for Gamecock receivers.

As for the run, while Feaster did get 175 yards rushing (I mean, it was raining), the Florida football defense managed to give up just two rushing touchdowns.

Again, all of this without the services of Greenard and Zuniga — both who are nursing ankle injuries.

David Reece was big again with a team-high 13 tackles while the Gator defense notched three sacks on Hilinski and seven tackles for loss on the day.