Three things Florida Football fans learned on Saturday

Florida Football had the week off for their first of two bye weeks, which did free up Gator fans to watch a slate of games around the country that wound up being an eventful week five within college football.

The following are three things Florida fans learned while checking out the action around the country.

There Are No Perfect Solutions For A Head Coach

A couple of weeks ago, we had fun with "Five Red Flags" Florida should have seen before hiring Billy Napier. The most egregious in our minds was the fact that Napier's 2021 squad at Louisiana kept eeking out victories against teams they were double-digit favorites against.

The truth is, though, that if/when Napier is let go and someone is tabbed to replace him, we could probably run that piece again on the new coach, and this weekend was emblematic of why the Gators are in a rough spot with the potential upcoming coaching carousel.

It started on Friday with Washington coach Jedd Fisch, who did graduate from Florida in 1998 and keeps having his name floated. Friday did not go well for the Huskies, though as they fell to Rutgers 21-18 and in the words of the Seattle Times were "Sloppy."

USF coach Alex Golesh has a mindset a lot of fans like, and his Bulls stood toe-to-toe with Alabama a couple of weeks ago for 3 1/2 quarters and for one-half against Miami, which is more than what Florida did. But USF was steamrolled in the second half against the Hurricanes and then looked lifeless on Saturday against Tulane as USF lost 45-10.

Then there is the pipedream for a lot of fans, Lane Kiffin. Ole Miss felt like a lock to take down Kentucky and continue their march to the playoffs, but the offense for the Rebels felt off all day as Mark Stoops pulled another rabbit out of the hat to hold Ole Miss to 17 points.

UCF Isn't Good

Don't get it twisted: Florida isn't good either, and every Gator fan still has the memories of KJ Jefferson coming into The Swamp last year and running over the Gators.

But after needing a minor miracle to come back against TCU, it felt wild that UCF was a 14-point favorite against Colorado.

Here is the most glaring flaw from the Knights that should give Gator fans a glimmer of hope for next week:

Colorado is the fourth-most sacked team in the country, and Shedeur Sanders publicly criticized his offensive line after losing to Nebraska. UCF managed a grand total of two sacks on Saturday and is currently tied for the least amount of sacks in the country.

We saw against Mississippi State that if Graham Mertz and/or DJ Lagway are given time, they are capable of picking teams apart. Combine this with the fact that KJ Jefferson has now been under 60% completion rate in three of UCF's four games after only dipping under 60% three times in all of 2023, and there is a pathway one can envision Florida winning in six days.

Florida Is In Better Shape Than FSU

For as downtrodden as we feel about the Gators, for as despondent as we feel about Billy Napier, for as much vitriol as we have spilled on our site over the last month, it is still safe to say that Florida has a brighter future than FSU.

If you take out the 2023 campaign, Mike Norvell is now 19-20 in his other four seasons at FSU, and that includes the 10-3 2022 campaign. Even after going 13-0 in the regular season last year, FSU finished one spot ahead of Florida in the 247 Recruiting Rankings, indicating that even at their best, they can only recruit as well as Florida at their worst.

The Seminoles are now 1-4 on the season and have mortgaged their future to Norvell, so at least Gator fans can dream of a realistic pathway of things being better in 2025.