Florida football: A reality check for the rest of the Gators’ season

Florida football didn’t look great in their season opener against Utah on Thursday night on their way to a 24-11 loss.

From a couple of sloppy mistakes to coaching issues, the Gators simply didn’t look as clean as they claimed to be throughout fall camp.

But the overreactions have been running wild, and a lot of people are already out on Florida this season.

Here’s a reality check if you’re one of those people.

Florida football: It’s not a four-quarter season

Treating game one of the season, where you go on the road across the country against a team looking for revenge, as the end all be all for a team is just ridiculous.

Did the Gators look really bad at times and make some critical mistakes? Yes.

But they were one play away in the fourth quarter from making it a one-score game. It wasn’t as bad as everyone has made it seem.

Graham Mertz, the guy everyone wanted to see, had a great game, going 31-44 in the air for 333 yards and a touchdown, with the interception being more on Ricky Pearsall not catching a ball that hit his chest.

In terms of the false starts and penalties, we’re talking about an OL with a lot of new faces playing their first game as a unit in a hostile environment. Let’s relax on all the worries about that unit in the long term.

We also know the Gators are going to run the ball better as the season goes on. That was the best defense in the PAC-12 last night that swore they wouldn’t let the Gators run up and down the field the way they did last year. The ground game isn’t gone.

Looking ahead to Florida’s schedule, they’re staring down a 5-1 record.

If they take care of Tennessee at home, which they’ve been historically very good at doing, 4-1 is pretty much guaranteed. And the Vols are not the same team they were last season.

Playing in Lexington could be a challenge, but even if they drop that UF hosts Vandy the next week looking at 5-2 before they go to South Carolina, another winnable game.

So while the coaching and decision-making left a lot to be desired in Salt Lake City, let’s quit acting like the season is over.

There are 12 games in the season. Not one.