280 days.

That’s how long it’s been since Florida lost 24-15 to Florida State to end the 2023 season. That’s how long Florida has had to prepare for the 2024 campaign. That’s how long Florida has had to prepare for the season opener against Miami.

Instead, Saturday 41-17 loss with big blowout In front of more than 90,000 fans, it seemed like Florida had just 28 minutes to prepare for the season.

Embarrassing, unexpected and surprising are just a few words that could be used to describe Saturday’s performance. I’m sure I’m missing a few, but you get the point.

At least Florida has acknowledged that, right?

“Yeah, I mean, it’s embarrassing, to be honest with you. That’s how I feel,” head coach Billy Napier said. “That’s how our kids feel. We’ve got to make a decision. I think we’ve made a decision — that’s what I just told them. There are no excuses. Keep our mouths shut, show up and work. We’ve got to do better.”

The Hurricanes dominated the Gators on every front, and there is absolutely no reason why that should have been the case. The two programs are similar in some ways.

In two years under Mario Cristobal, Miami has gone 12-13 (now 13-13) with one bowl appearance, a loss. In two years under Billy Napier, Florida has gone 11-14 (now 11-15) with one bowl appearance, a loss.

Both programs relied on recruiting talented, top-tier players out of high school and both programs were active in the transfer portal to bolster their rosters.

Two programs in similar locations taking similar steps before meeting to open the season. Meanwhile, things didn’t look that way on the field Saturday afternoon in The Swamp.

It looked like two teams on opposite spectrums of the college football world. It looked like the 2001 national champion Miami Hurricanes were playing the 4-8 2013 Florida Gators.

It appeared the team and coach were in the first game of their career, not their 26th.

“Well, again, you have to give Miami some credit. They’ve got a good football team,” Napier said. “I think they had a handful of wrinkles that were new. There’s no doubt about it.”

Really and truly.

(Incidentally, not to rub salt in the wound, Miami also defeated the 2013 Gators team 21-16, their most recent win in the series before Saturday.)

Before we look at the stats, we need to discuss some tricky stuff.

Florida’s 33-game home-opener win streak was snapped. Florida last lost a home opener during the 1989 season. The loss was the worst home-opener loss in program history, which dates back to 1906.

If you were in the stadium, you would see a lot of Gator fans leaving in the third quarter when “We Are the Boys” was sung throughout the stadium. The Miami fans chanting “It’s Great to be a Miami Hurricane” was also heard throughout. There were also boos from Gator Nation as the team entered the locker room for halftime.

Not what you want in a season opener against a heated rival you rarely play. Not what you want in any game, but the fact that it was against a heated rival makes it all the worse.

Speaking of rivals, Florida is now 1-8 against its main rivals under Napier (Georgia, FSU, Tennessee, Miami, LSU). That number becomes 1-10 if you include Kentucky.

At least you still have the 1-1 records against Vanderbilt and Missouri and the 2-0 record against South Carolina, right? (Reminder: Florida won’t play either of those teams after the SEC changed divisions for the 2024 season.)

Now let’s get to the statistics. Cover your eyes if you have to. These numbers are not for the faint of heart.

The Hurricanes outscored Florida 144-139 on the ground. Not bad, but we’ll get to how that’s a bit overblown.

The Hurricanes defeated Florida 385-122 in the air. Terrible.

The Hurricanes outrebounded Florida 3-1 and had more tackles-for-loss with eight, while the Gators had two. Horrible.

Florida went 1-for-9 on third down, while Miami went 5-for-10. That third down conversion didn’t happen until the second half. Horrible.

Virtually every stat except total return yards (a shout-out to the Gators’ game-changers) was dominated by Miami.

If it was a surprise to you, don’t worry. It was a surprise to Napier and his team too.

“I think I felt strongly that we would do better. But I’m not here to make excuses. We have to solve it,” he said. “We’ll get another chance next week and we have to play better and coach better. I’ll have more answers for you on Monday, but sitting here now, I have no excuses for you.”

(It was a surprise to me too. I eat my prediction of a 31-27 victory for the Gatorsbut at least I got the score correct, right? That has to count for something.)

In his first start for the Hurricanes, Cam Ward completed 26 of his 35 attempts for 385 yards and three touchdowns. Seven of those completions and 112 of those yards went to Xavier Restrepo.

Before the game, ESPN’s oft-erroneous Booger McFarland had said that Ward would start his Heisman campaign in Gainesville. It sounded funny at the time, but he and the Hurricanes were the ones laughing after the game.

This all comes on the heels of Florida praising its new and improved strength and conditioning program, its new and improved defense that pressures the backfield, and its new and improved secondary that creates turnovers and controls the ball.

There was no sign of that on Saturday.

Florida’s only sack didn’t come until the fourth quarter and its only interception came by a linebacker.

Now, Miami’s rushing numbers aren’t spectacular on paper. The Hurricanes had 33 attempts for 144 yards and two touchdowns, good for 4.4 yards per carry. Florida may have had only five fewer rushing yards and 0.6 more yards per carry, but it came down to consistency.

The Hurricanes were just more consistent. They tore the Gators apart from start to finish. Ward’s ability to make early, long drives and eat up chunks of yardage.

“A lot of the runs were on the perimeter, where the secondary was forced to make the tackle. We’ll see. It’s definitely not strength and conditioning,” Napier said. “I think it’s good, solid football. I think ultimately, when we look at it, there weren’t a lot of explosive runs throughout the game. I think most of them were manageable.”

Maybe not explosive for the Hurricanes, but consistency was all they needed. For Florida, it was a contrasting day.

Takeaway Montrell Johnson Jr.’s 71-yard touchdown rush, the Gators gained 68 yards on the ground in 28 attempts, for a miserable 2.4 yard average.

Now, that’s not to discredit his touchdown. It was a really great run with great blocking by Knijeah Harris and Jake Slaughter on outside pulls. But that’s about it in the rushing attack. No sustained success whatsoever.

The passing game wasn’t much better.

Graham Mertz went 11 of 21 for 91 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception. He wasn’t given much time to work with by the offensive line and tight ends, who gave up three sacks. In the rare attempt he did have time, throws were missed.

Notice I didn’t just point out the offensive line’s issues. It was a team effort on Saturday, and Napier even acknowledged that.

“I think when it comes to protection, all the players contribute, not just the offensive line,” he said. “I think there’s going to be areas where we can separate and get open. There’s going to be things that the quarterback can do differently. Maybe it’s the running back or the tight end that’s involved in protection. So I think it’s more of a unit thing than a position group thing.”

Mertz suffered a concussion on an intercepted pass, which ended his day. Five-star freshman DJ Lagway was forced into the game. But it didn’t matter at that point, as Florida trailed by 28 points early in the fourth quarter.

Give Lagway credit, though. He did lead the Gators on a nine-play, 58-yard touchdown drive midway through the fourth quarter, but he threw an interception on the next drive.

This follows Florida’s praise for its new and improved passing game, featuring a stronger and deeper offensive line, confident quarterbacks taking shots down the field and quicker receivers creating space.

There was no sign of that on Saturday.

Really, the only promise that was delivered on Saturday was the improved special teams, which had all 11 players on the court on every attempt, a solid return game from Chimere Dike and Jadan Baugh, and solid kicking and punting performances from Trey Smack and Jeremy Crawshaw.

At least that was evident on Saturday.

But if we go back to the entire team, this all comes on the heels of 280 days of promises that the team would be better than in previous years – that the team would have more depth, effort, talent, experience, communication, intensity, and so on.

There was no sign of that on Saturday.

The rest of the Gators’ slate doesn’t get any easier, and to make matters worse, Miami was the Gators’ second-lowest-ranked AP Poll opponent on the schedule. The lowest-ranked opponent appearing in the preseason AP Poll is Texas A&M, ranked No. 20, which travels to Gainesville in two weeks.

By the way, Texas A&M was tied with No. 6 Notre Dame, 13-13, in the fourth quarter before eventually losing 23-13. Good luck, Florida.

Maybe I’m exaggerating. There’s a chance that Miami is simply better than people give them credit for. Maybe it’s a case of first-game blues for the Gators. Maybe Florida will find a way to turn it around. After all, it’s only game one.

But after 280 days of promised improvement, it only took one night to break the trust from the outside. At least there’s a promise that they’ll fix it, right?

“Honestly, this game doesn’t define us at all. This is not what it’s going to look like the rest of the year, I can promise you that,” edge rusher Justus Boone said.

Florida better hope that promise is kept. If not, it will be another long season that Gator fans are already unwilling to tolerate. At least Napier and company understand that, right?

“We’re going to have to navigate (outside of negative reactions),” Napier said. “I think we’ve got to be men and we’ve got to show some maturity. At the end of the day, if you care about the team, you’re going to show up and work hard at your job. I think this group will do that. But we can’t control that. It’s part of the job and it’s part of their responsibility to the team.”

I don’t know what the answer is to Florida’s problems. There wasn’t one issue that cost them the game. Pick your poison on the issues, because trust me, there’s plenty to choose from.

Considering how much time they had to prepare, not to mention the fact that their opponent went into the match in a similar situation, Billy Napier said “there are no excuses”.