OK, so life after Tebow didn’t get off to the best start. But don’t panic, Urban Meyer won’t. What Meyer will do, is have a different team on the field a week from now.

On to the game…

1st Quarter

The Gators’ defense took the field first. The first series for Teryl Austin’s unit looked solid; the unit swarmed to the ball and got a sack by Jaye Howard to force a punt by the Redhawks. The punt would be partially blocked by running back Jeff Demps and he came around the corner on the rugby-style punt attempt.

The defense would hand the ball over to John Brantley and the Gators’ offense with good field position only to see a terrible shotgun snap bounced at the feet of Brantley by soon to be former center Mike Pouncey. The defense would take over for the Gators, backed inside their own 20. However, the stout unit would hold Miami to a 33 yard field goal.

The offense would get a second chance to redeem themselves in the opening quarter. They would be saved from a turnover on downs on the fourth play of the series by an offside penalty by the Redhawk defense. However, two plays later they would make up for that good fortune by coughing the ball up on a Chris Rainey fumble.

The defense would tighten up once again and, on third down linebacker Jonathan Bostic would give the offense yet another chance when he grabbed a nice interception at the Florida 42 yard line.

The offense would take over once again, but after a few low snaps and a first down, Emanuel Moody would fumble on 4th down after an 11 yard loss. The offense was clearly not ready to play.

2nd Quarter

The Gators would start the quarter on defense and would not disappoint. After an extremely luck fake punt conversion by Miami, Janoris Jenkins would snatch a Zac Dysert pass and return it 70 yards for the game’s first touchdown.
The following defensive series would end on another fake punt attempt; this time it would fail and the Gators’ offense would take over possession deep inside Redhawk territory.

After three Jeff Demps runs and a Demps 2 yard reception, John Brantley would throw is first touchdown as a starter. Omarius Hines would reel in the pass for a 10 yard touchdown.

A few plays later, the defense picked up where it left off with an Ahmad Black interception which was nearly returned for a touchdown. It seemed like the defense would just go ahead and score the points for the offense. A Trey Burton rush would add 7 more points to the board and it looked like the Gatoers had righted the ship.

A long field goal drive by Miami would put a cork in the 21 – point second quarter.

Second Half

The third quarter would be a hot mess of low snaps, fumbles, a missed field goal by Caleb Sturgis and a bend, but don’t break defense which would allow the Redhawks to outscore the Gators 3-0 in the quarter; 15 minutes worth forgetting.

Moving on to the 4th quarter…

Miami would begin the quarter with a 33 yard field goal which would all but put an end to their meaningful scoring…

… On the ensuing drive, which would consist of two Jeff Demps runs, the gators would show their big play bite. Those two Demps runs would cover 75 yards, and the second of which would account for 72 of them. Demps took off around the right side and ran for daylight. There was no man on the field who would beat him to the sun. Caleb Sturgis would ruin the mood slightly, when he missed the uprights and the net all together on the extra point.

At the 3:35 mark in the 4th, Brantley would cap the scoring on a 3rd and 21, when he just heaved the ball into the end zone. After the ball bounced off two Florida players, Chris Rainey would come up with the ball for a touchdown.

Player of the Game: Janoris Jenkins. Jeff Demps came close to the honor, however, without Jenkins’s playmaking; the Gators may not have left the Swamp with a win today. His pic-6 was the turning point of the game.

This was a game that coach Urban Meyer would like to forget. You can bet he won’t let his players forget. The final score was 34-12, but the game was closer that the score would indicate. With the SEC schedule coming up fast, the Gators better be ready. Mistakes just won’t cut it.