Florida Gators

QUICK SLANT
No. 17 Oregon State 30, Florida 3

WHAT HAPPENED: Oregon State quarterback Ben Gulbranson threw for 165 yards and posted touchdowns both rushing and passing, tailback Deshaun Fenwick ran for 107 yards, and the 17th-ranked Beavers completely dominated the Gators on both sides of the ball Saturday during a 30-3 rout in the Las Vegas Bowl at Allegiant Stadium. The lone Florida highlight came with 37 seconds left when Adam Mihalek kicked a 40-yard field on a fourth-and-23 to avert what would have been the first scoreless performance by a UF team since 1988. Instead, the Gators increased their NCAA record of not being shutout to 436 games. As far as the good, that was about it, as Florida exited the 2022 season and first under Coach Billy Napier with a 6-7 record. Gulbranson threw a 15-yard score to wideout Silas Bolden and ripped a 7-yard scoring run, both in the third quarter, as the Beavers turned a 10-0 halftime lead into a 23-0 bulge seven minutes into the third quarter. They easily finished things off from there against a Florida team that went west without 21 players who appeared in games this season, including quarterback Anthony Richardson, sixth-year linebacker and defensive leader Ventrell Miller and first-team All-America guard O'Cyrus Torrence, all of whom opted out of the game after declaring for the NFL Draft. Minus Richardson, the Gators turned to junior Jack Miller III, the Ohio State transfer, for the first start of his collegiate career. It was a rough one. Miller completed 13 of 22 passes for 180 yards and was under pressure (four sacks) throughout the game against an aggressive Oregon State defense, and with no semblance of a rushing attack to lean on, as the Beavers limited the Gators to a season-low 219 yards of total offense (only 39 on the ground). At one point, spanning its four offensive possessions that bridged the second and third quarters, UF ran 15 plays over those four series and totaled zero yards. The Gators, though, had a chance to score early, even take the first lead, when Miller drove the offense to a first down at the OSU 36, but after a 5-yard run came a 1-yard rushing loss and back-to-back false-start penalties that ultimately led to a missed 52-yard field goal by Mihalek. The Beavers took advantage right away with an eight-play, 65-yard drive, the big hit being a 36-yard completion from Gulbranson to Bolden (6 catches, 99 yards, TD) and the final play being slot receiver Tyjon Lindsay's 8-yard TD run on an end-around. Miller and UF had another promising drive stall in the OSU territory, turning the ball over on downs at the Beavers' 35 early in the second quarter. Ten minutes later, Everett Hayes booted a 27-yard field goal to make it 10-0 with 4:32 to go in the half. Oregon State had a chance to make it 13-0, but Hayes' 33-yard attempt on the final play before intermission was blocked by UF's Jordan Young. Instead, the Beavers took the second half kickoff and went 64 yards in 10 plays, including a successful fake punt and a couple more UF penalties, with Gulbranson hitting Bolden for a 15-yard touchdown and 17-0 lead. That score started an Oregon State run of three straight possessions that ended in touchdowns, as the Beavers finished with 353 yards of offense, went 7-for-12 on third down and did not turn the ball over.  WHAT IT MEANS: A tough one to go out on, obviously. But equally obvious was that the Gators were handcuffed as far as their ability to be competitive, given the amount of defections and turnover on both sides of the ball. As such, for the first time in 43 years Florida has back-to-back losing seasons, a stat that speaks to the roster issues inherited by Napier and his staff just over a year ago. The 1978 Gators went 4-7 in the final season under Coach Doug Dickey and 0-10-1 in the first under Charley Pell. This is just the third sub-.500 season for the program since 1980, joining 2013 (under Will Muschamp), '17 (Jim McElwain) and and '21 (Dan Mullen). The Gators have now lost three straight bowl games for the first time since the end of the 2002-04 seasons.  

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The Beavers, who three weeks ago capped the regular season with a huge win over rival and ninth-ranked Oregon, finished off just the third 10-win season in the program's 129-year history and could very well end up sniffing the Associated Press Top 10 in the final rankings.

STAGGERING STATISTIC: Tailbacks Montrell Johnson Jr. and Trevor Etienne combined to carry 19 times for 28 yards. That's 1.47 yards per attempt. Johnson and Etienne came into the game averaging 5.7 and 6.4 per carry, respectively, on the season. 
 
UP NEXT: The offseason, starting with Wednesday's early signing day, which is expected to yield a top-10 2023 class. After that, Napier's program will go right into Phase 1 of what he calls "The Journey," which means evaluations and goal-setting meetings that will soon give way to offseason conditioning when the players return from holiday break in January.