Kirk Herbstreit, right, with ESPN analyst Lee Corso (ESPN Photo)
ESPN Emmy Award-winning college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit not only watched Florida open the season with a 24-11 loss at Utah but he also called the 2022 Las Vegas Bowl when the Gators ended their season with a 30-3 loss to Oregon.
“I had the misfortune of calling their bowl game where they had all those guys opt out and it wasn’t so much that it was just body language, the buy-in. I don’t care if we’re playing with all walk-ons, you still need to go with an attitude,” Herbstreit said in a conference call this week. “You still need to show up prepared and ready to go. And they definitely failed to do that in that bowl game in Las Vegas.
“An entire off season, some transfer portals, new defensive coordinator, a lot of excitement. Even though you lose the best quarterback, one of the best quarterbacks in the country, you pick up Graham Mertz (in the transfer portal) and it’s like, ‘Okay, we’ve got a veteran guy.’”
Herbstreit said a costly fourth-and-one penalty when the game was still close derailed the Gators against Utah.
“If they go down and score a touchdown there, maybe the game’s different, but it was the miscues and the mistakes that I think if I’m a Gators’ fan coming off that bowl game, I would be pretty frustrated,” Herbstreit said.
“They’ve got a week to get ready until the Vols with that up-tempo offense come to town. But Florida’s a bit of a mystery for me right now. I had much higher expectations than what I saw in that opening week.”
Florida hosts McNeese Saturday before Tennessee comes to Gainesville on Sept. 16.
The Gators will play at Kentucky Sept. 30. The Cats won 26-16 at Gainesville in 2022.
