WHAT HAPPENED: On a night the Florida offense was held to a single touchdown, sophomore placekicker Trey Smack picked his team up by making five field goals, including a 54-yarder, and the 25th-ranked Gators did enough to a put a 22-7 victory in the books before a sellout crowd at Spurrier/Florida Field. The win, not to mention the atmosphere, was a far cry from a week ago when UF upset 11th-ranked Tennessee in one of the most electrifying nights in the "Swamp" in years. But when it was over the Gators had their first three-game winning streak under second-year Coach Billy Napier, as well as the program's first since winning six straight during the 2020 season. Redshirt junior quarterbackGraham Mertz, the transfer from Wisconsin, passed for 259 yards and a touchdown, while the tailback tandem of juniorMontrell Johnson Jr. and sophomore Trevor Etienne combined for 111 yards on the ground and senior wideout Ricky Pearsall caught six passes for 104 yards, as the Gators did a lot of moving the ball between the 20s, but struggled to find the end zone. UF opened the game with a bunch of energy and its lone touchdown drive to match. After forcing a punt and starting on their 5, the Gators went 95 yards in nine plays with Mertz hitting redshirt freshman tight end Arlis Boardingham for a 6-yard scoring pass, the first TD of Boardingham's career. After that, the Florida offense moved the ball but stalled each time it threatened in Charlotte territory. UF was stopped inside the 49ers' 10 twice and again at the 28, with Smack nailing field goals from 27, 23 and a career-high 54 yards to put his team ahead 16-0 in the second quarter. Charlotte capitalized on UF's inability to finish drives by making it close with a scoring march of its own. Quarterback Jalon Jones, once a UF signee, hit a 50-yard completion before running through UF arm-tackle attempts on a third-and-goal for a 7-yard touchdown that cut the lead to 16-7 to cap the first-half scoring with 2:30 to go before intermission. Florida took the opening drive of the second half, reached the Charlotte 20 and again was turned back. Smack's 36-yarder made it 19-7 midway through the third quarter. That's how things stood over the sloppy balance until, one last time, UF failed to convert a third-and-1 at the Charlotte 6 and called on Smack, whose fifth field goal, another chip shot from 23, wrapped the scoring with 2:28 to play. Mertz finished 20 of 23 (that's 87 percent) for the game and UF totaled 395 yards of offense to Charlotte's 210. Smack's field goals were the third-most in a game in program history.
Sophomore Trey Smack (29) watches his 54-yard first-half field goal sail through the uprights Saturday night. (Photo: Jay Metz/UAA Communications)
WHAT IT MEANS: Not much at all. Charlotte came into the game with one of the worst defenses in the country, after giving up 568 yards of offense (466 passing) in a home loss last week against Georgia State. The Gators were hoping to build off the momentum from the Tennessee game and add another jolt of confidence as the team heads back into Southeastern Conference play next week. It didn't seem like the Gators got much of either, but they did get the victory, which was the bottom line.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: A week ago, Smack was second on the depth chart behind Adam Mihalek. That changed when Mihalek badly missed a 41-yard field-goal attempt and had an extra point try blocked in the win over Tennessee. Napier turned to Smack, who went perfect on all three of his kicks in relief (two PATs, one 27-yard field goal) to help secure the victory. He's still perfect after going 5-for-5 against the 49ers and became the first UF kicker to boot at least five field goals in a game since Eddy Pineiro nailed five against UAB in 2017.
STAGGERING STATISTIC: Other than Pineiro and Smack, you have to go back four decades to find a kicker to make at least five field goals in a game for the Gators. Bobby Raymond holds the school record with six, doing so against both Florida State in 1983 and Kentucky in 1984. Brian Clark kicked five against Ole Miss in 1980.
UP NEXT: The Gators (3-1, 1-0) fall back into their SEC schedule for the first of seven straight league games. This one will be on the road at Kentucky (4-0, 1-0), which defeated Vanderbilt 45-28 earlier Saturday at Nashville. The Wildcats, who have yet to beat a team with a winning record, own a two-game victory streak in the UF-UK series for the first time since 1976-77 and have won three of the last five in the series after Florida rolled up a 31-game win streak from 1987-2017. Kentucky broke that run in Coach Dan Mullen's first SEC game, a 27-16 upset win at the "Swamp" in 2018. The Wildcats beat the Gators 20-13 in 2021 in their last game at Lexington, then came to Gainesville last season and left with a 26-16 triumph in what was Napier's conference debut.
