GAINESVILLE — It’s never good when the excitement is taken out of a season before the first half.

There may be pleasant surprises in September or a plot twist in October, but by November we’ll know where this story is going. And chances are it’ll involve internet mobs and lists of coaching candidates.

Florida was crushed 41-17 by Miami on Saturday, the first time the Gators have lost a home opener since Steve Spurrier was at Duke. And the worst part isn’t the 0-1 record, but the realization that all the offseason moves have added up to nothing.

The offensive line was unimpressive. The defense was as bad as you remember. And the head coach couldn’t explain how a once enviable program could continue a years-long decline.

“It’s embarrassing, to be honest with you. That’s how I feel, that’s how our kids feel,” Gators coach Billy Napier said. “We’ve got to make a decision. That’s what I just told them. There are no excuses, just shut up, show up and do better.”

As unpleasant as it was to sit through that match, the consequences are even more disturbing.

Because there was nothing random about it. While there were a handful of blunders, they weren’t the story of the outcome. They weren’t penalties. They weren’t turnovers. They weren’t obvious mistakes. It was just a back-slap to God and an ABC audience.

And that suggests there’s a talent shortage plaguing a team with one of the toughest schedules in the country.

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

You can appreciate the defiant sentiment, but the truth is, we’ve heard it all before. We heard it on Monday when Napier said the game would be this team’s first chance to tell the story of its season. We heard it on Friday when athletic director Scott Stricklin went on Paul Finebaum’s show and said the university would be rewarded for its patience with Napier.

But this is the reality:

Napier is in danger of becoming the first UF football coach to suffer three consecutive losing seasons since Josh Cody in 1936-38.

The Gators have now lost six straight games since last season, giving up 38.5 points per game during that span. There have been seasons in the recent past where the Gators went the entire schedule without giving up that many points in a single game.

“It was very disappointing. Super disappointing,” center Jake Slaughter said. “We have certain expectations.”

The problem is that Florida’s players and fans spent the last eight months pushing the idea that the worst was behind them, that a top-tier recruiting class, portal transfers and a new defensive staff had filled the holes for 2022-23.

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Unless Miami is among the top 2-3 teams in the country, those expectations now seem like wishful thinking.

Instead of playing the Tom Petty anthem “I Won’t Back Down” at the start of the fourth quarter, “Free Fallin’” would have been more fitting. With just over 13 minutes left in the game, a large portion of the 90,544 crowd at Florida Field had already filed out and walked out.

It’s easy to fault Napier, and it’s not undeserved. But it shouldn’t be done with any joy. He seems like a good guy. Better than some of those who passed through Gainesville before him. But it’s hard to imagine the Gators winning enough games in 2024 to keep the Wolves at bay.

“It’s a bit of a challenge, right? I think you have to be a man and take responsibility for the things you can do better,” Napier said. “The sun will come up tomorrow and we’ll get back to work. At the end of the day, there’s not much to talk about right now. We’ve got to play better.”

Most of his players had already left the field by the time Napier began to make his way. He paused in the end zone to shake hands with university president Kent Fuchs. Fuchs is on an interim contract and may have a better chance of making it to January than Napier.

After a brief conversation, Napier walked to the tunnel that would take him to the dressing room. There were only a few fans left at that point, but one of them shouted at Napier as he disappeared under the stands:

“You’re gone. After this you’re gone!”

It is not advisable to draw conclusions after one game in August. So as good as the Hurricanes looked, I would not say they are back among the elite of the country.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t argue if you said Florida sucks.

John Romano can be reached at [email protected]Follow @romano_tbtimes.

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