Florida Football: After giving up 701 yards, Gators should say less things

Unlike the NFL, players for Florida football have far less freedom to outwardly discuss things with the media. Interviews tend to be kept under a tight umbrella and players often seldom post on social media beyond putting things on their story.

So in one breath, it is refreshing to see Gator players interact and banter with prominent social media pages.

But maybe after giving up a program record for yards and a literal FBS record for QB passing and rushing, maybe now is not the time.

Florida Football: Bad day at the office

Jayden Daniels torched the Gators for the second straight season on Saturday. He became the first QB in FBS history to pass for over 350 yards and run for over 200 yards.

Ever.

In the history of the sport.

Since they used to wear leather helmets.

Ever.

And there are a wide range of reasons why Florida football gave up 701 yards against LSU, the most ever allowed by a Gator defense.

Ever.

Among the players catching the wrath of fans on social media was Jason Marshall. After being a potential first-round pick at the start of the season, Marshall hasn’t lived up to that billing.

The page In All Kinds Of Weather posted a clip on X from Saturday’s game that, from an optics standpoint, wasn’t Marshall’s best effort.

Upon seeing the clip and the post, Marshall took to the app to defend himself from the criticism.

From an outsider’s perspective, Marshall seems to take a bad angle and even if he hoofs it the rest of the play he probably doesn’t catch Daniels. And Marshall is far from the only person in this clip that could have done better.

The problem for Marshall is that this isn’t the first time this season he has had a moment like this.

The deeper problem is trying to defend anything online after giving up a literal FBS record on top of giving up the most yards in the history of Florida football.

Because there are only one of three possible explanations for what has happened to Florida’s defense over the last month:

1. The coaching is bad and the scheme isn’t good enough
2. The players are trying their best, they just aren’t talented enough
3. Florida has talented players who are severely underperforming

The truth is probably a combination of all three, but trying to pretend that there isn’t a problem after giving up 701 yards as a unit isn’t a great look.

If Marshall honestly believes that nothing else could have been done, then Austin Armstrong and crew should roll out some of the freshmen like Dijon Johnson or Ja’Keem Jackson.

They can’t statistically be any worse than what we saw Saturday.