Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In the wake of Florida's 41-7 loss to Michigan on Friday in the Citrus Bowl, a lot of familiar criticisms emerged from disappointed fans who turned to social media to air their grievances.

You probably heard them too after the Wolverines scored 34 unanswered points to hand the Gators their second-worst bowl loss in school history.

The Gators haven't had a quarterback since Tim Tebow. The offensive line played soft as a pillow. The defense checked out at halftime. Florida needs more playmakers to have a dangerous offense. The kicking game is atrocious.

Nothing really new from recent years other than the complaints about the defense, which had its worst performance since a 42-21 loss at Alabama early in the 2014 season.

The reality Friday was that Michigan was clearly the better team, the more motivated team, and the team that executed at the highest level. First-year Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh called it the Wolverines' most complete game of the season.

The Gators finished 10-4 in Jim McElwain's first season, losing their final three games by a combined score of 97-24.

While that's certainly not the way McElwain envisioned the Gators to finish down the stretch, he has said all season Florida remains a program in transition and far from having all the pieces in place. He reiterated that point three days before Friday's loss.

"It's a long ways away,'' McElwain said. "There's a lot of short-term solutions that end up backhanding you later in life. There are a lot of short cuts you can take to make it look prettier early, but if you don't have everything set -- including everybody in the organization -- which we are still in the process of making sure we understand where we need to be as a total program."

Soon after McElwain arrived after three seasons as Colorado State's head coach, he began to place his stamp on the Gators in a variety of ways. Perhaps his greatest impact was rebuilding the team's confidence after the Gators lost 13 of 24 games in the previous two seasons.

To help implement his vision, McElwain added several quality control assistants in addition to a veteran coaching staff, revamped the program's recruiting efforts and added some real-guy personality to the mix in his meetings with the media and fans. He took over a roster with obvious holes and maximized its potential until superior teams exposed roster deficiencies during the late-season fade.

Regardless of sport, maximizing the talent you have is usually a sign of a good coach. It's hard to argue that McElwain and his staff didn't squeeze the most from what they had available.
 

The defense was projected to be the Gators' strength, led by senior defensive lineman Jon Bullard, senior linebacker Antonio Morrison and junior cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III. Florida finished sixth nationally and didn't miss a beat under first-year coordinator Geoff Collins.

"We tried to build on things that were already there,'' Collins said. "We inherited a great group of defensive players."

Offensively, the Gators faced a difficult challenge from the first snap due to inexperience at quarterback, a lack of depth on the offensive line, and a lack of firepower at receiver.

The emergence of redshirt freshman quarterback Will Grier through the first six games helped alleviate some of the offensive concerns. Grier was at his best in the fourth quarter against Tennessee and the first half against Ole Miss, providing hope that Florida's quarterback woes were coming to an end.

In addition, freshman receiver Antonio Callaway turned into the team's most dangerous weapon and young offensive linemen Martez Ivey, Tyler Jordan and David Sharpe helped fill some key spots on a patchwork offensive line.

"It starts up front, end of discussion,'' McElwain said. "You turn on film and it's pretty simple: whichever line is going in the direction they want to go, you're usually going to dominate the game.

"In our case, we've got some guys that are really learning by trial by fire."

And then everything changed when Grier was suspended midseason for testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance, drawing a one-year suspension from the NCAA. Sophomore Treon Harris returned as the starter and Harris made enough plays to help the Gators win four of their first five games after Grier's suspension, but whatever progress the offense had made to that point stalled.

The Gators scored just 24 points in their last three games, the same amount as Michigan scored in the second half of the Citrus Bowl.

"We're young,'' offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier said. "We need to grow."

The Gators walked off the field Friday ready to look ahead and build on their season of surprise. They were picked to finish fifth in the SEC East but became the first East team to sweep the division since the 2009 Gators.

While they lose key players such as Hargreaves and 1,000-yard running back Kelvin Taylor to the draft, and prominent seniors Bullard, Morrison, Trip Thurman and Jake McGee, the Gators won't be picked to finish fifth in the division next season.

There is too much talent returning and quarterback help on the way in transfer Luke Del Rio and incoming freshman Feleipe Franks.

"Had a pretty good year, but got a little lacking down the stretch,'' sophomore cornerback Jalen Tabor said. "It's a learning lesson. Just like we learned from that 7-5 team to get to the SEC East championship, we're going to learn from this."

McElwain will spend much of the next month finalizing what shapes up to be a strong recruiting class. For those players who made his first season a success, he is confident they can continue Florida's climb back to elite status with some help.

"Our guys are starting to see what success is,'' he said. "And that's a great starting point, and yet we've got a long ways to go. But I'm sure excited to see where we're going to end."