Two truths and a lie for Florida Football following its win over Kentucky

The vibes are high for Florida Football following its win over Kentucky on Saturday inside The Swamp. The Gators pulled away late to blow out the Wildcats 48-20 and are now 4-3 on the season and 2-2 in SEC play.

With the Gators entering a bye week, here are two truths and a lie for Florida moving forward.

Truth: DJ Lagway Can Drag Florida To Seven Wins

We have said throughout this season that while Graham Mertz was a constant professional and the frustrations surrounding Florida's offense weren't his fault, the reality is that DJ Lagway had the much higher ceiling to get Florida over the hump against tougher competition.

Lagway's stat line from Saturday might be one of the crazier stat lines in Florida history: 7/14 passing for 259 yards. He also ran ten times for 46 yards.

Five of his seven completions were for over 40 yards, making him the first QB in 20 years to have a game with such a designation. Florida had 205 air yards on the day (total passing yards minus yards after catch). Against Mississippi State, Florida had 121 air yards. Versus UCF, they had 92 air yards.

There is more to life than air yards, but they do represent the ability for instant offense. Rather than needing 10 plays to go correct to gain 50 yards, Florida just needs one to go correct when going vertical with Lagway.

Florida will be a massive underdog against Georgia and Texas, but given the wackiness of the SEC in 2024, it wouldn't be insane if Lagway somehow drags Florida past LSU, Ole Miss, and FSU.

Truth: The Cormani McClain Gamble Has Paid Off

Bringing Cormani McClain onto the team was a much talked about topic back in May. There were plenty of Gator fans who wanted nothing to do with McClain after he spurred Florida in recruiting, in addition to his time at Colorado not being a good one.

We wrote at the time back in May that:

"As long as there is a plan in place to keep McClain on track and consequences that are made clear up front if he doesn't follow through, McClain is the type of high upside prospect Napier could use on the roster to go along with guys who might have a higher floor than McClain, but also a lower ceiling."

With Florida's secondary ravaged with injury, McClain was called into action, and he rewarded the coaching staff with a highlight reel pick-six that officially put the game to rest on Saturday.

Depending on the long-term status of Jason Marshall, McClain looks like he will be called into action to close out the remainder of the 2024 campaign.

Lie: Billy Napier Has Turned A Corner

We will state that Florida continues to look like a team playing hard with something to prove. This is a continuation of what we saw during the back half of last season when the year started to go south.

And at this point, the bulk of the guys who are on the roster are Napier-picked guys, so when someone like Lagway, McClain, or Jadan Baugh has a big night, Napier does deserve credit for adding those guys to the squad.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves that beating Kentucky 48-20 is proof that Napier himself is the best option to lead this roster. As we noted yesterday, his ultra-conservative nature heading into halftime was maddening. Had the Gators not gotten the benefit of an early whistle on their goal line stand in the first half, combined with Kentucky missing an extra point, there is a very real world where this game would have been 28-27 midway through the 3rd quarter in favor of Kentucky.

This is also the same Napier who botched last week against Tennessee and who had his squad woefully unprepared against Miami and Texas A&M.

This is the same Napier who botched Arkansas and FSU last season.

This is the same Napier who is still 15-17 as head coach of the Gators. His four wins this year are all against teams who currently have a losing record. In fact, of his 15 wins as head coach of the Gators, he has only beaten three teams who wound up with a winning record (Utah and South Carolina in 2022 and Tennessee in 2023).

We will see how the closing stretch plays out, and as noted above, there is a pathway for Lagway to drag this team to three more wins. But until Napier can consistently beat teams with winning records, and not get in the way of letting his players be successful, we aren't willing to say this program has turned a corner.