McElwain frustrated by UF’s lack of energy
GAINESVILLE — At least Florida coach Jim McElwain could laugh.
It beat the alternative on a day when his Gators nearly let a special season go off the rails just before the program’s biggest two-game stretch since Tim Tebow was UF’s quarterback.
Saturday’s 20-14 overtime win against FAU was the second straight home game against a double-digit underdog that laid bare the Gators’ critical shortcomings.
Florida’s offensive line cannot create consistent push in the run game or protect the quarterback, and kicker Austin Hardin cannot be counted on to make anything.
Asked which concerned him most, McElwain chuckled.
“Is that a pick-your-poison deal?” he joked. “Oh boy, oh boy.”
McElwain has less than a week to figure out how to manufacture an offense and restore the confidence of Hardin, who missed two field goals and an extra point against FAU.
“The guy’s a good kicker. He really is,” McElwain said. “Yet for some reason, he keeps thinking too much rather than just go kick it.”
Florida (10-1) will need everything clicking Saturday night when rival Florida State (9-2) visits the Swamp.
A week later, the Gators face an even bigger challenge in the SEC championship game, likely against Alabama and arguably the best defensive front in college football.
McElwain’s team continues to win, but it also is regressing at a time when the best teams round into form.
“You always feel good when you win,” tight end Jake McGee said Saturday. “But still, it’s something that we kind of know we stole one today.”
The FAU Owls entered the day with losses in five of six games and as 31-point underdogs.
But like Vanderbilt two weeks earlier in the Swamp, FAU had its way with the Gators’ offensive line.
Vanderbilt, though, boasts a top-25 defense. The Owls entered the game without sack in three games but dropped Florida quarterback Treon Harris five times.
“They beat us to every punch up front, they had more energy, they played the way the game is supposed to be played — physical at the point of attack,” McElwain said. “They beat the heck out of us. That’s just the way it was.”
If it continues, Harris is going to have a difficult time keeping defenses honest as a passing threat.
Harris’ accuracy and pocket presence had gradually improved since he stepped in for suspended starter Will Grier five games earlier. Days after McElwain said Harris was “making progress,” the sophomore signal-caller finished with just 122 passing yards — his fewest in six starts this season — and completed just three passes after halftime.
Two, however, went for touchdowns, including the game-winning, 13-yard hookup with McGee in overtime.
A perfectly executed misdirection play saw Harris roll right, stop and throw back across the field to McGee, who caught the ball on the Florida 5 and faked out two defenders to get into the end zone.
“We were laughing because I think I get made fun of the most about my lack of mobility and juking people, but I made it work today,” McGee said. “It happened at a good time and we were able to sneak out of there with a win.”
McGee, McElwain and the Gators would enjoy their 10th win, one fewer than the previous two seasons combined.
“That means the next one I have to count on my toes,” McElwain joked.
Behind the smiles and one-liners, McElwain did not hide his disappointment.
The Gators’ resilience has been one of their strengths this season. Against FAU, McElwain sensed a self-defeating attitude from some players.
“When you guys go to, like, a seafood market or if you go to the grocery store, you see all those dead fish on ice?” he said. “That’s the energy they’re playing with right now. Stop by Winn-Dixie, go to the dead-fish aisle and look at the fish’s eyes.
“That’s what bothers me.”