OGT 2024 Week 1: Florida Gators vs #19 Miami Hurricanes 8/31/24

[Escambia94]

Overview​

Aug 31, 2024 at 3:30 PM
Gainesville, Fla. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Steve Spurrier Field
ABC: Joe Tessitore, Jesse Palmer, Katie George
Gator Sports Network: Sean Kelley, Shane Matthews, Tate Casey (SiriusXM 132 or 192)

History​

The mighty Gators of Florida seek to preserve an NCAA-best, 34-game win streak in home openers that traces back to 1990. The Gators have only lost two season openers since 1990: 2017 vs Michigan at a neutral site and 2023 at Utah. Florida is 87-30 all-time in season openers featuring a 71-6 mark in Gainesville. The 2024 match-up marks the 57th all-time meeting between Florida and Miami in a series that dates back to 1938, with the Hurricanes leading, 29-27. From 1938 to 1987, the two teams played every year except 1943 due to a surge in draftees for World War II. Some memorable games (good and bad) include the following:

• 8/24/2019, Florida 24 - Miami 20. After a missed Miami 27-yard field goal, QB Feleipe Franks marches the Gators 80 yards in 4 plays over 90 seconds starting with a 65-yard strike to Josh Hammond, then a 2-yard quick-out to Lamical Perine and a 10-yard pass to Kyle Pitts. Franks scampers in from 3 yards out with the go-ahead score. For the next 7 minutes, neither team seems to want to win the game as the Hurricanes turn the ball over on downs, the Gators toss a pick on their first pass after the turnover, then the Canes turn the ball over on downs again with 12 seconds left on the clock.
• 9/7/2013, Miami 21 - Florida 16. The Gators nearly doubled the Canes in offensive statistics, but turned the ball over an abysmal 5 times. Jeff Driskel threw for 291 yards to Scott Morris' 162. Matt Jones, Mack Brown, Valdez Showers, Solomon Patton, and Jeff Driskel ran for a combined 126 yards to Miami's 66 yards.
• 9/1/1984, #10 Miami 32 - #17 Florida 20. This was ESPN's first broadcast of a college football game, which happened soon after ABC purchased the company. The Canes were the reigning national champions and both teams were loaded with future NFL stars. Miami handed Florida its only loss of the season in what should have been Florida's first SEC championship and its first claim to a national championship.
• 11/22/1980, Miami 31 - #18 Florida 7. Just under a year away from its abysmal 0-10-1 season, the Gators were ranked again. Miami QB Jim Kelley dominated the Gators and taunted the students, leading the Gators fans to toss oranges at the Canes.

Coaches​

Billy Napier is 11-14 (6-10) in three years at Florida. Mario Cristobal is 12-13 (6-10) in three years at Miami. Overall, Napier is 51-26 (66.2%) with 2 Sun Belt championships and Cristobal is 74-73 (50.3%) with 1 Sun Belt and 2 Pac-12 championships.

Players​

The Florida 1st team is slightly behind the Canes in terms of both talent and experience, which is probably why the Canes are favored by 2.5 in the Swamp. The good news for the Gators is that the defense is more talented than Miami's, and the youngsters coming off the bench on both offense and defense are upgrades who will get better over time. The Gators will have four new starters: Pup Howard, Elijah Badger, Asa Turner, and Chimere Dike. TJ Searcy, Kam Waites, and Des Watson were promoted to 1st team after being predicted as backups. The Gators will be leaning on two 5th-year seniors, five seniors, and nine juniors for experience.

Player	Pos
Jason Marshall​	RCB​
Eugene Wilson III ​	WR-Y​
Shemar James​	MIKE​
Grayson “Pup” Howard​	WILL​
T.J. Searcy​	JACK​
Justus Boone​	F​
Caleb Banks​	END​
Kamryn Waites​	RT​
Austin Barber​	LT​
Damieon George​	RG​
Elijah Badger​	WR-Z​
Graham Mertz​	QB​
Montrell Johnson​	RB​
Sharif Denson​	STAR​
Arlis Boardingham​	RTE​
Devin Moore​	LCB​
Asa Turner​	SS​
Desmond Watson​	NT​
Knijeah Harris​	LG​
Chimere Dike​	WR-X​
Jordan Castell​	FS​
Jake Slaughter​	OC​
Rocco Underwood​	LS​
Hayden Hansen​	LTE​
Trey Smack​	PK​
Jeremy Crawshaw​	PT​

The Miami 1st team is only slightly better on paper, with six new starters coming via transfer portal. The Canes will be leaning on five 5th-year seniors, six seniors, and four juniors for experience.

Player	Pos
Francis Mauigoa​	RT​
Samson Okunlola​	LG​
Reuben Bain, Jr.​	LDE​
Mark Fletcher​	RB​
Elijah Arroyo​	TE​
Cam Ward​	QB​
CJ Clark​	NT​
Wesley Bissainthe​	WILL​
Damari Brown​	LCB​
Samuel Brown​	WR-X​
Jalen Rivers​	LT​
Tyler Baron​	RDE​
Francisco Mauigoa​	MIKE​
Mishael Powell​	NB​
Jacolby George​	WR-Z​
Jaden Harris​	SS​
Daryl Porter​	FS​
Zach Carpenter​	OC​
Simeon Barrow​	DT​
Xavier Restrepo​	WR-H​
Anez Cooper​	RG​
Andres Borregales​	PK​
Dylan Joyce​	PT​
Mason Napper​	LS​

Prediction​

Las Vegas has the Hurricanes favored by 2.5 points with an over/under of 54. I will pick the underdog and the under. I predict a sloppy, low-scoring affair where the Swamp is the X-factor leading to a 27-20 victory for the Gators, which is a slight adjustment to my earlier prediction of 21-19.

 

[Escambia94]

Official visitors:
List of recruits visiting for the Miami game

2025:

* 5CB DJ Pickett - LSU
* 4️LB Ty Jackson
* 4️DL Malik Autry - UTx
* 4️WR Vernell Brown III - UF
* 4️WR Joshua Moore - UF
* 4️DL Jalen Wiggins - UF
* 4️TE Tae’shaun Gelsey - UF
* 4️RB Waltez Clark - UF
* 4️WR Cortez Mills - OU
* 4️ATH Demetres Samuel - UF
* 3️DL Jarquez Carter - OSU
* 3️DL Jeramiah McCloud - UF
* 3️ LB Myles Johnson - UF
* 3️RB Chad Gasper - UF
* 3️DL Joseph Mbatchou - UF


2026:

* 4️EDGE Trenton Henderson
* 4️S J’Zavien Currence
* 4️EDGE Jake Kreul
* 4️LB Izayia Williams
* 4️OT Canon Pickett
* 4️OT Johnnie Jones
* 4️S Kaiden Hall
* 4️RB Amari Clemons
* 4️WR Jayden Petit
* 4️IOL Chancellor Barclay
* 4️DB Jaelen Waters - UF
* 4️QB Will Griffin - UF
* 4️DL Kendall Guervil
* 3️DL James Johnson
* 3️ATH Zion Legree
* 3️S Devin Jackson - UF
* 3️TE Landen Miree
* NR OT Chancellor Campbell

 

[DRU2012]

Meanwhile, the latest headlines have "former Florida Coach Urban Meher" (and yes, it IS about time that particular qualifying description is forsaken, lazy and dated as it is) picking Miami to BEAT UF in its home opener, streak or no.
More billboard material? Not that we shoukx need it, at this point.
He has no better idea of how this will turn out than any of us. The TRUTH is that the man is a gaunt shadow of the laser-focused Head Coach he once was.
Not that this one is easy to read, coming into the season and all obscured by hype, pro and con from both camps--never mind the ocean of bs all the fools masquerading as "experts" over at "The World Leader" and elsewhere are peddling.
No, I have no special insight...
"Hoping for a coupla touchdown trouncing, but more than happy to take the "nip 'em at the end" late win of ANY kind.
If ever there were an Al Davis-type, "JUST WIN, BABY"-season, this is the one for UF.

 

[DRU2012]

(All in all, prob comes down to the two QBs' overall performance here to start the season.
I just know, and like what I see/hear from Graham Mertz.)

 

[Leakfan12]

No predictions, just hope the Gators pull it off.

 

[Escambia94]

This game is really a make or break game for Billy Napier. He has done all the right things off the field to fix the program, but on the field he needs to win. If he loses this game then it is a sign that he is a good off-field coach but not a good on-field coach, and that the Florida program is behind schedule with little hope of returning to the top of the SEC--especially this new SEC with 16 teams and no divisions.

 

[DRU2012]

This game is really a make or break game for Billy Napier. He has done all the right things off the field to fix the program, but on the field he needs to win. If he loses this game then it is a sign that he is a good off-field coach but not a good on-field coach, and that the Florida program is behind schedule with little hope of returning to the top of the SEC--especially this new SEC with 16 teams and no divisions.

Agreed. At this point, all the talk has gotten like politics--I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT ANYMORE!!!
I damn near dread even watching the game...
I am almost at "wake me when it's over and tell me who WON" stage.
BUT of course: I'll be here, and parked in front of my flat screen at 3:30pm Eastern, 2:30pm Central tomorrow, Saturday Aug 31. Hopefully for the duration, obviously.
(Don't even wanna consider the circumstances under which I'd have "long since turned away".)
This HAS to be "The Sign", the clear publicly-aknowledgeged-in-retrospect-afterwards "Turning Point".

 

[Escambia94]

I will try to watch the game, but I have a lot going on right now. My father passed away a couple weeks ago and I am still handling his final affairs and taking care of my mother. Before that curveball of life, I had planned on doing play-by-play analysis in these game threads and attending the game against Texas in Austin, but it appears I will have a lot less time to devote to Gator football other than a few hours around midnight.

 

[DRU2012]

(

I will try to watch the game, but I have a lot going on right now. My father passed away a couple weeks ago and I am still handling his final affairs and taking care of my mother. Before that curveball of life, I had planned on doing play-by-play analysis in these game threads and attending the game against Texas in Austin, but it appears I will have a lot less time to devote to Gator football other than a few hours around midnight.

Damn, man. I am so sorry.
Yes, "life" has a way of 'throwing curves'--ESPECIALLY when it comes to THIS sort of thing.
I went through my own version completely unexpectedly (my dad was a vibrant, active guy in his 50s, and passed away overnight due to a then still unknown danger of an experimental drug he was on for treatment of an ongoing NON-terminal chronic health problem--his sudden passing away in his sleep due to a sudden unexpected precipitous overnight plunge in blood pressure brought this sudden, shocking reality no doubt much akin to what you are now going through. This was just a few years after I'd finished college...in MY CASE, well, it had long term consequences that still reverberate down through the years.
I am a "senior" now, and though I have endeavored to downplay it as much as possible these last few years, and, hut with a slew of my OWN health crises, I have had to face, fight and continue to "ride life's waves" in as positive a fashion as I can manage these last few years.
To be honest, I have to a great extent RELIED on your enthusiasm, work ethic and thorough attention to DETAIL during that time, E--.
Look--you deserve whatever time you need, whatever SPACE you need, brother.
I can only ask that Lf and/or whomever else out there who has our kind of thoughtful interest in all things "Gator" will continue to hang, maybe pick up some of the inevitable slack in the coming weeks and months, the shape of which we cannot even BEGIN to envision at this point.
UNLESS Escambia feels differently and acts on that feeling, I'm going to leave THIS thread to carry forward today as our "Week One--Game Day--Aug 31: Miami Comes To the Swamp" thread under its similar current title, OK?
I will be back near kick off time, and try to remain calm (to whatever degree actual subsequent events permit us to DO so, right?).
Forgive me if I don't provide the detailed, structured framework that all of Escambia's hard work has regularly come to frame every game throughout the seasons since the two of us have been doing our informal "point/counterpoint" routine since at least the Urban Meyer years.
We have all somewhat come to take it for granted, I fear.

(Anyway, here was my original comment, which I began before your latest news was posted here above...
Not sure if this is gonna be our "Week One: Game Day--UM at UF" thread, so I'll leave that to E--to decide and move on...
For the moment, just wanted to say that I dropped by ESPN moments ago to check out the latest (well, TODAY's) configuration of THEIR "College Gameday" set up, and found it damn near unwatchable...)

 

[DRU2012]

By the way...
You know, I had a FEELING maybe there was something wrong. There has been a certain "rhythm and vibe" in how you have approached and prepared the way for seasons, games and the particular "stakes" that were at risk from week to week noted and addressed in your posted threads over the years, E--...and it just FELT as if that was somehow "OFF" lately--and at such a crucial time at the start of such a crucial game to begin such a crucial season!
But I thought I was just being over-affected by my OWN stressed, even tensely paranoid FEARS about this program and where we REALLY are in its cycle of deterioration/rejuvenation.
We DESERVE to be "coming around" by now...
But all that is "ONE THING", the "Great Gator Question to be Addressed and Answered".
But then there are LIFE'S BIG QUESTIONS on another level entirely.
I guess I am conceding that we will just for a time at least have to try and find ways of somehow properly acknowledging and (to some acceptable degree) finding ways of addressing EACH, in its own proper place (?).

 

[DRU2012]

Anyway, how enthusiastically involved we are all likely to be will, to some great extent, to an unusually great degree be decided by the outcome of today's opener in The Swamp in ANY event:
Win, and at least "the early going", the first third-to-HALF of the season will carry ITSELF along--and all of US with it!
THEN, all will be decided in that brutal last 5-game-stretch to close things out.
"Strange Days", no matter WHAT.

 

[DRU2012]

So.
In an hour or so we will be settling in to witness this momentous home opener against "Da 'Eew'!", a school we once upon a time routinely opened our seasons against.
They were the spoiled, dumb-assed, gold-chain-clad Frat Boyz in their garrish Cameros who would attack and damage Gator bumper-stickered vehicles in the Orange Bowl parking lot if one were naively careless enough to park there for an away game. And worse.
The UF Regehts had good reason to cancel that long "home-and-home" series.
It remains to be seen if things have evolved into a "more civil time"; somehow, I'd have to say that the signs are few, I'm afraid.
Regardless, THIS edition is about to be reopened--and seldom have there been so many full on issues to be decided.
Meanwhile, I'm switching around, checking other games as they wind down...Georgia looking pretty tough, as advertised , as they finish off what the score says has been a pretty dominant performance against #14 Clemson, 34 to 3 with under 2 minutes left (though Clemson has the ball, trying to pick up a slightly less embarrassing final score). Yawn.
OK--will be back for kickoff in our game in about 20 minutes.

 

[DRU2012]

OK. Here we go.
Geez, I am nervous. Big clench in my gut.
Nice pass to Wilson.
Oh oh. 3rd down.
Crap. Our running game looks weak so far, evdn WITH Montrell playing.

 

[DRU2012]

So. Punt.
And their run game/O line looking stronger than ours so far.
I don't like where this is headed.
We need a turnover.
Bad feeling here, my friends.

 

[Escambia94]

This is going to be a crappy year.

• 4th & 8 at FLA 38​

  (12:27 - 1st) Jeremy Crawshaw punt for 46 yds, fair catch by Myles Graham at the MIA 16

• 3rd & 5 at FLA 41​

  (12:49 - 1st) Graham Mertz pass complete to Eugene Wilson III for a loss of 3 yards to the FLA 38

• 2nd & 6 at FLA 40​

  (14:13 - 1st) Montrell Johnson Jr. run for 1 yd to the FLA 41

• 1st & 10 at FLA 36​

  (14:28 - 1st) Graham Mertz run for 4 yds to the FLA 40

• 1st & 10 at FLA 25​

  (14:46 - 1st) Graham Mertz pass complete to Eugene Wilson III for 11 yds to the FLA 36 for a 1ST down

One good play in that series. Bleh.

 

[Escambia94]

The defense was fine before that roughing the passer penalty.

• 2nd & Goal at FLA 9​

  (6:48 - 1st) Cam Ward pass complete to Cam McCormick for 9 yds for a TD (Andres Borregales KICK)

• 1st & Goal at FLA 9​

  (7:23 - 1st) Damien Martinez run for no gain to the FLA 9

• 3rd & 10 at FLA 19​

  (7:32 - 1st) Florida Penalty, Roughing Passer (Justus Boone) to the FLA 9 for a 1ST down

• 2nd & 10 at FLA 19​

  (7:38 - 1st) Cam Ward pass incomplete

• 1st & 10 at FLA 19​

  (8:26 - 1st) Mark Fletcher Jr. run for no gain to the FLA 19

• 1st & 10 at FLA 43​

  (8:55 - 1st) Cam Ward run for 24 yds to the FLA 19 for a 1ST down

• 2nd & 6 at MIA 44​

  (9:19 - 1st) Cam Ward pass complete to Xavier Restrepo for 13 yds to the FLA 43 for a 1ST down

• 1st & 10 at MIA 40​

  (9:57 - 1st) Damien Martinez run for 4 yds to the MIA 44

• 2nd & 8 at MIA 28​

  (10:27 - 1st) Cam Ward run for 12 yds to the MIA 40 for a 1ST down

• 1st & 10 at MIA 26​

  (11:13 - 1st) Cam Ward pass complete to Jacolby George for 2 yds to the MIA 28

• 2nd & 4 at MIA 22​

  (11:53 - 1st) Damien Martinez run for 4 yds to the MIA 26 for a 1ST down

• 1st & 10 at MIA 16​

  (12:20 - 1st) Damien Martinez run for 6 yds to the MIA 22

 

[DRU2012]

Their 9year veteran scores.
Yeah--we look like last year's defense.
Only chance is to outscore them I guess--I thought that last long one was PI...
We need to somehow open it up on early diwns--the O-line is being outplayed
We are going to lose this game; Billy ain't gonna make it. I wonder how many if his recruits we'll manage to hold onto. Depends on who they bring in, I guess. Somehow, I doubt Nick Saban is gonna be temptable...
(Sorry--bad joke.)

 

[DRU2012]

Alright. Either something big happens right here and NOW to turn this thing around, get the crowd back, or I turn off the sound and begin to harden my heart.

 

[DRU2012]

Our defense just hasn't come along as far as hoped. I cannot watch much more of this.

 

[DRU2012]

EVERYTHING depended on our DEFENSE improving a LOT this season...
BIG INT!!!
DEEP. GOTTA CASH THIS IN.