Florida Football: Report card for thrilling Week 0 win over Miami

Florida football scraped through their first game of the season vs. Miami. What’s their report card look like? Who failed Week 0?

College football is finally back, and the first Saturday of the season is in the books.

We got the pleasure of watching one of the oldest rivalries in the sport when Florida football played the Miami Hurricanes. Florida came out with a win, but it did not look pretty. There were too many turnovers, missed tackles and penalties.

Progress will be key for the Gators as the season improves, but where are they right now? Which positions are on track for good seasons, and which groups have work to do? Did any position groups for the Gators fail their first test of the 2019 college football season?

Let’s take a quick look at the Florida report card after its opening game.

The offensive line always comes down to two things: pass protection and run blocking. The running game just wasn’t there tonight. It wasn’t all on the offensive line, but they simply couldn’t give Lamical Perine big holes to shoot through.

In pass protection, the Gators only gave up one sack. However, there were too many plays where Feleipe Franks relied on his legs to make a play. You could tell he wasn’t comfortable in the pocket, and that was because the offensive line wasn’t protecting him that well.

If Florida had managed to protect the pocket better, perhaps Franks could have made more plays down the field. Instead, he had to rely on quick routes that turned into large gains. That’s not going to work the rest of the year. He is simply going to need more time to develop deep routes.