Since taking over as interim coach, Billy Gonzales has said and done a ton of things that have been refreshing compared to Billy Napier. He's tried to make tweaks to the offense, he has spoken on the real flaws that have plagued Florida, and he seems to grasp the value of the logo in Gainesville.
But despite spirited efforts against Georgia and Ole Miss, the Gators looked lifeless against Kentucky and looked downright apathetic against Tennessee. And while Gonzales has tried to keep the train on the tracks, it seems clear he is also out of answers as Florida's season has just one week left.
Florida gets smacked by Tennessee
Tennessee drove right down the field and scored a touchdown. Florida looked like it had some juice up its sleeves with a wheel route to Jadan Baugh, only for it to get called back due to a holding call.
From there, Saturday night was just an exercise in futility.
Gonzales was asked about the fight he felt Florida still had. Gonzales went through a ton of platitudes without pointing his finger at any ability to fix it:
"I think our players want... we want to continue to fight, continue to win.
I just got done telling them. I said sometimes life has to break you completely before you truly discover who you are. And that kind of resonates with me in talking to the players.
And you’re searching, obviously. There’s been a lot of change and a lot of different emotions that have went on through these last five weeks.
The one thing is the players are going to continue to keep going. There’s not a negativity. There’s nobody in there complaining to each other and throwing things around the locker room and fighting.
But, yeah, it hurts. Anytime you want to have an opportunity, this is the last SEC game. We’ve got one more game here coming up against Florida State, another rivalry game. We’ve got to go back and obviously try to figure out what we can to get a victory here."
It's not really the fault of Gonzales that he has been thrust into this role. This squad was long lost prior to Napier gettingfired.
But it's emblematic of a season that was lost the moment USF kicked a game-winning field goal.
The only good news is that it will all be over in one week.