GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A Florida-Vanderbilt game is often an opportunity for Gators fans to spend a football weekend somewhere other than at the game.
You know, perhaps a night away at the beach or a trip to visit the in-laws. If you are really bored, maybe you paint that guest bedroom that no one ever uses.
Hey, they recall too many 1993s (Florida 52, Vanderbilt 0), 2001s (Florida 71, Vanderbilt 13) and 2019s (Florida 56, Vanderbilt 0).
But after what happened a week ago in Kentucky, the Gators could use one of those old-school Vanderbilt routs about now.
Florida (3-2, 1-1) hosts the Commodores (2-4, 0-2) on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in the annual homecoming game. Florida is coming off a 19-point loss at Kentucky that knocked the Gators from the national rankings and raised questions about the direction of the program under second-year head coach Billy Napier.
A get-out-of-my-way attitude has permeated inside the Heavener Training Center this week as the Gators sought to rewrite the narrative with a victory over the Commodores.
"There's urgency to do everything better," Napier said this week. "We need to come up with solutions. I'm hopeful we can do that."
Florida has dominated the series with Vanderbilt, but in Napier's first season, the Commodores upset the Gators in Nashville. The loss ignited a four-game losing streak that didn't end for Florida until the home win over McNeese four weeks ago.
However, the Gators' three-game win streak ended a week ago at Kentucky, and this week has been about restoring order and confidence at the midseason point.
"The message has been just to continue to not beat ourselves, basically,'' running back Montrell Johnson Jr. said. "I feel like the games that we lost, it was us beating ourselves. It was just execution issues, stuff like that, and things that we have to fix. We have the talent all over the board to make things happen."
In this week's edition of The Opening Kickoff, here is a closer look at the Florida-Vanderbilt matchup: THREE STORYLINES
The only plot the Gators care about in this game is getting a win. UF head coach Billy Napier and his program faced intense scrutiny from fans and the media following last week's 19-point loss at Kentucky. A victory over the Commodores on Saturday would help restore some peace.
Since the final three games of the 2020 season when things began to unravel for former Gators coach Dan Mullen, the Gators are 15-19. That stretch includes a 13-4 record at home, 0-6 at neutral sites, and 2-9 in true road games. They have played much better at home, including 8-2 under Napier. The annual Homecoming game takes on extra meaning in 2023.
Kentucky out-muscled Florida a week ago in Lexington. The Gators came out sluggish and missed a bunch of tackles in the first half. The Gators have a roster advantage over the Commodores, the SEC's perennial doormat. Still, they need to start fast and gain the momentum early in this one the way Kentucky did.
THREE PLAYERS TO WATCH
The loss of injured WR Caleb Douglas for an indefinite period opens the door for others to contribute, including the trio of freshmen Eugene Wilson III, Andy Jean and Aidan Mizell. Will any of them shine against the Commodores?
Gators CB Jason Marshall Jr. dropped a potential pick-six against Kentucky and had a pass-interference penalty called against him. Florida could use more positive production from the talented junior, who has only two interceptions in 31 career games.
Vanderbilt WR Will Sheppard caught five passes for 98 yards in last week's loss to Missouri, increasing his career total to 1,826 receiving yards and moving him into 10th in program history. Sheppard has 20 career TD receptions and became the first Vanderbilt player since at least 1996 with three consecutive games with multiple TD receptions earlier this season.
THREE QUESTIONS WITH … GATORS CB JALEN KIMBER
Q:What is the mentality of the defensive players to bounce back from loss at Kentucky? Jalen Kimber A: It's just basically look at yourself in the mirror and be honest with yourself and your team as a whole. Just got to be better, take accountability for what we did. We can't go out there and do that anymore, especially on the road. That's unacceptable. It's on us.
Q:What is something encouraging since the loss?
A: Knowing that we can be better, knowing we got another week. We still halfway through the season. We can always get better. Go watch the film and have a good mindset and not let this loss, and just this performance, like sit on us and dwell on us.
Q:What was message to defense afterward?
A: Fix what we can fix and control what we can control and keep moving forward. Coach Armstrong has a lot of belief in us and he thinks we can play better, and we know we can play better.
We just got to put our head down and work.
THREE DIGITS
33.3 —Points allowed per game by the Commodores, last in the SEC and 115th among FBS teams. 25.0— Points scored per game for the Gators, last in the SEC and tied for 93rd among FBS teams. 1 —Florida home losses to Vanderbilt since 1960, a 34-17 defeat in 2013. INJURY REPORT
GATORS — OUT: DB Ja'Markis Weston (upper body), TE Jonathan Odom (upper body), Caleb Douglas (leg), DL Justus Boone (knee, out for season), RB Cam Carroll (knee, out for season), TE Keon Zipperer (knee), OL Caden Jones (foot). QUESTIONABLE: RB Trevor Etienne (upper body), OL Austin Barber (lower body), Thai Chiaokhiao-Bowman (lower body), Kingsley Eguakun (ankle), S Miguel Mitchell (lower body), TE Dante Zanders (lower body). VANDERBILT —OUT: LB Kane Patterson (lower body), TE Josh Palmer (back), TE Cole Spence (knee, out for season). QUESTIONABLE: WR London Humphreys (ankle), OL Grayson Morgan (undisclosed), CB B.J. Anderson (undisclosed), S Jaylen Mahoney (undisclosed). PROBABLE: QB A.J. Swann (elbow). NEWS, NOTES, NUGGETS
Florida is 43-11-2 against Vanderbilt and has won 30 of 32 in the series.
The Gators have won four consecutive home games dating to last season. Over those four games, Florida has allowed only nine points per game and an average of 236.5 yards.
Vanderbilt beat the Gators 31-24 last season for its first home win over UF since 1988.
The Gators have won four consecutive homecoming games and are 28-5 in their last 33.
Florida RB Montrell Johnson Jr. needs 122 yards to reach 2,000 for his career. Johnson began his career at Louisiana and transferred to UF in 2022.
Gators WR Ricky Pearsall, who started his career at Arizona State, needs 126 receiving yards to reach 2,000 for his career.
Florida QB Graham Mertz has completed 79.1 percent of his passes, which leads the SEC and ranks third nationally.
Vanderbilt leads the SEC with 12 turnovers (8 interceptions, four lost fumbles) while Florida has managed only one takeaway through five games.
Commodores edge rusher C.J. Taylor has 5.5 tackles for loss and three sacks.
Vanderbilt QB A.J. Swann opened the season as the starter but was replaced last week by senior Ken Seals, who threw for 259 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a loss to Missouri.
THEY SAID IT
"If you evaluated every missed tackle in that game, a lot of those were early in that game. So, clearly, I think fundamentally we could have been better. But I think there's also an attitude to how you play defense and how you attack. So it's about actions. It's about attitude." — Gators head coach Billy Napier on missed tackles vs. Kentucky
"We're taking it day by day here. And obviously, we know that we've got two guys that are capable of doing it." — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea on his quarterback battle
"I almost cried. We know we were supposed to win that game, and we kind of went out there not with the right mentality. Just went out there like, 'We got this.' We didn't go out there with like, 'We gotta go out there and play hard.' I feel like that will change this year and we going to approach every game like that." — Gators RB Montrell Johnson Jr. on last year's loss at Vanderbilt
The Gators have outscored Vanderbilt 98-0 in the Commodores' last two visits to The Swamp. That is the kind of performance Florida needs Saturday. There is no guarantee an old-school romp is going to happen, but after last week's performance, the Gators need to beat Vanderbilt. I expect them to take care of business. If not, I think I'll stay off the internet Sunday.
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