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HOLY COW- UF Beats Texas! INSTANT REACTION | Gators · A Peek Inside Gators Football: A Show About the Florida Gators

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Well, how about those Florida Gators? Just when it looked
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: like this season might be headed completely in the wrong direction,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: just when the questions about John Summerall and this football
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: team were getting louder, Florida goes into Austin, Texas without
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: its starting quarterback, falls behind by 14 points, and finds
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a way to beat the 7th ranked Longhorns. 2724. And
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  Speaker 1: I have to tell you, I am pretty excited about
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: this one. Guys, I am actually at a barbecue contest,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Pig Jig in Tampa, but I had to take a
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: moment to pop on here to give you some thoughts. Listen,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't know if Florida had it in them. Not
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: after what we watched against Missouri, not after what happened
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: against South Carolina, and certainly not when Texas went up
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: 17-3 in the second quarter. But what we saw today
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: was something we really haven't seen from Florida the last
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks. We saw some fight, we saw some adjustments,
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  Speaker 1: and we saw a team that didn't fold when things
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: went wrong. And maybe, most importantly, we saw a Florida
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: football team that looked like it believed it could win.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: The Gators improved to 5-2, 3-2 in SEC play, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: they have now beaten Texas in back-to-back seasons. There is
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: a lot to talk about with this game, and I'll
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: get into the good, bad, and the ugly in a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: separate video later on. But right now, I want to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: talk about my immediate reactions, because I think this win
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: says quite a bit about where Florida is as a
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: football team. Let's start with the circumstances surrounding this game.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Two weeks ago, Florida was 4-0. They had just beaten
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: fourth-ranked Ole Miss 52-28. Everybody was excited about John Summerall,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and it looked like this program was finally turning the corner.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Then Missouri happened. A 45-17 loss where Florida got pushed
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: around on both sides of the football. Then South Carolina
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: came into the swamp and manhandled Florida. 38-19. Suddenly this
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: offense can't run the football, the defense couldn't get off
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  Speaker 1: the field, and all the excitement surrounding that 4-0 start
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  Speaker 1: had pretty much disappeared. And now you're going on the
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  Speaker 1: road to play seventh ranked Texas, a team that was
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: ranked number one in the country just a week ago.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, you're going to do it
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  Speaker 1: without Aaron Filo. So the question coming into this game
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily whether Florida could beat Texas. It was whether
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Florida could even compete with Texas. Could they fix anything defensively?
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  Speaker 1: Could they establish some sort of running game? Could they
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  Speaker 1: protect a young quarterback making his first career start? And
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: what happens if this team falls behind early? Well, y'all,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: we found out. Florida did fall behind. Texas scored on
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  Speaker 1: its first two possessions. Florida's offense couldn't get anything going.
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  Speaker 1: And when Ryan Niblett returned a punt 63 yards for
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: a touchdown to put Texas ahead 17-3, I will be
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the first to admit it looks like things might turn
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: into a long afternoon. But here's where the game changed.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Florida didn't panic. The Gators got a crucial fourth down
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: stop in the first half. And then Jermell Jones and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the offense put together a touchdown drive to cut the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: lead to 17-10 before halftime. That was enormous. Because instead
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: of going into the locker room down two touchdowns, you
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: go down seven, you go in down seven, and you
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: get the football to start the second half. And look,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Florida took advantage of it. Let's talk a minute about
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Tramell Jones Jr. I don't know how much more of
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: a difficult first career start somebody could have. You are
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: on the road. You're playing a top 10 team. You're
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: in front of more than 100,000 people. And your team
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: has lost two straight games. And you're replacing a quarterback
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  Speaker 1: who has been one of the bright spots of the season.
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  Speaker 1: That is a lot on a young player. And was
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Trammell perfect? Absolutely not. But that's okay. There were some
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: missed throws. There were times early in this game where
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the offense struggled to find some rhythm. But he responded.
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  Speaker 1: He finished 22 of 35, 155 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions.
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  Speaker 1: He added 41 rushing yards. Now, listen, those passing numbers
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: aren't going to blow anybody away. But there's something to
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: be said for understanding what your team needs from you
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  Speaker 1: and going out and delivering it. He didn't try to
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: be Aaron Filo. He didn't try to force spectacular plays.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: He made the throws he needed to make. He used
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: his legs when he had to. And most importantly, he
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  Speaker 1: took care of the football. Both of his touchdown passes
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  Speaker 1: went to Lakota Dupree, who deserves some credit for finding
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  Speaker 1: the open space in the end zone. I do wonder
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: if this is the second string to second string connection
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: that sometimes happens when your backup quarterback plays. I thought
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest moments of the afternoon came on
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Florida's opening possession of the second half. We have talked
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  Speaker 1: extensively on this channel about the middle eight. Florida scored
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: going into halftime. They got the ball coming out of halftime.
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  Speaker 1: 15 plays, 69 yards, more than eight minutes off the clock,
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  Speaker 1: five third-down conversions, and Trammell taps it off with an
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  Speaker 1: eight-yard touchdown pass to Dupree to tie the game at 17.
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  Speaker 1: Think about that for a second. Florida was 0 for
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  Speaker 1: 7 on third downs in the first half. Then they
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  Speaker 1: come out of the locker room and convert five consecutive
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  Speaker 1: third downs on one drive. That's not a young quarterback
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  Speaker 1: settling into a game. That's an offense making adjustments and
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  Speaker 1: actually executing them. I also want to give Trammell credit
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: for the way he finished. After Florida recovered that late
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: arch fumble, the game wasn't quite over. Texas still had
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to get the ball back. And on third
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  Speaker 1: and seven, Jones called his own number. He took off,
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  Speaker 1: picked up the first down, and that allowed Florida to
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: kneel off the clock. That is a huge play from
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  Speaker 1: a quarterback making his first start. I don't know what
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the health situation looks like moving forward. That's a conversation
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  Speaker 1: for another day. And I don't even want to think
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  Speaker 1: about who the starting quarterback is going to be. I
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  Speaker 1: don't care at the moment. Tramell Jones just gave this
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: coaching staff something to think about. And more importantly, he
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: gave his teammates a reason to believe in him. Now
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: let's talk about the other side of the football for
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: a second. If we're being fair, Florida's defense has taken
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: an absolute beating over the last two weeks. They've been bad.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: 83 points allowed against Missouri and South Carolina and almost 1,000
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  Speaker 1: yards of offense surrendered in those two games. And there
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: were some real questions about whether Florida had the personnel
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  Speaker 1: to fix the problems that we've been seeing. So what
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  Speaker 1: does that same defense do against Texas? It holds the
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  Speaker 1: Longhorns to 272 total yards, 99 yards rushing, and it
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: sacks Arch Manning five times. Five. Remember, this is a
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  Speaker 1: defense that couldn't consistently generate pressure against Missouri or South Carolina,
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  Speaker 1: and today they made life miserable for Manning for much
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: of the afternoon. Arch finished with 173 passing yards. And
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  Speaker 1: when you consider what this defense has allowed through the
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  Speaker 1: air recently, that is a very significant improvement. But what
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: impressed me wasn't just the statistics. It was the timing
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  Speaker 1: of the plays. LJ McCray comes up with a big
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: sack in the third quarter. Cormani McClain makes a tackle
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  Speaker 1: for loss on third and one. Brendan Bett makes an
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: enormous fourth down stop in the fourth quarter. And then
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: when Texas had a chance to tie or even potentially
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: win the game in the final two minutes, Miles Graham
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  Speaker 1: forces the fumble on Arch Manning and Kanye Clark recovers.
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  Speaker 1: Those are game-changing plays. That is what Florida has been missing.
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  Speaker 1: For two weeks, it seems like every time the defense
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: needed a stop, the other team found a way to
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  Speaker 1: move the chains. Today, Florida got stops when it absolutely
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: had to have them. Now, I am not going to
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  Speaker 1: pretend everything was perfect. Texas still hit that huge 62-yard
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  Speaker 1: pass late in the fourth quarter. They suddenly looked like
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: what was a comfortable 10-point lean for Florida became a third,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: a three-point game. So there are still some things to
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: clean up. But this was a completely different level of
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: defensive execution that we've seen over the past two games.
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  Speaker 1: And the coaches and the players deserve a ton of
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  Speaker 1: credit for that. I also think we need to talk
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: about the running game. Because coming into this game, that
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: was one of the biggest concerns. Florida rushed for just
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: 42 yards against Missouri. The Gators managed 122, excuse me,
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  Speaker 1: 120 against South Carolina. But the consistency just wasn't there.
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  Speaker 1: And Gene Baugh, who has looked like one of the
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  Speaker 1: best running backs in college football through the first month
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  Speaker 1: of the season... has been completely bottled up. Today, Baugh
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  Speaker 1: finishes with 91 yards on 25 carries and a touchdown.
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  Speaker 1: Is that the kind of explosive performance we saw against
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Ole Miss? No. But look at what those yards came from.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Look at the physicality in the second half. Look at
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Florida's ability to keep moving the chains and keep the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Texas office standing on the sidelines. And that fourth quarter
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: touchdown run, 11 yards to put Florida ahead 27-17 with
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: just over six minutes remaining. That was enormous. Florida finished
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: with 158 yards rushing as a team. And here's a
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  Speaker 1: statistic that really stood out to me. Florida possessed the
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  Speaker 1: football for more than 38 yards. Texas had it for
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: less than 22. 38 minutes, excuse me. That tells you
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  Speaker 1: something about how this game was played. Florida wasn't relying
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: on huge explosive touchdowns. They were doing what they did
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the first four games. They were sustaining drives. They were
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: keeping the Texas defense on the field. And they were
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: putting their own defense in a much better position to succeed.
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  Speaker 1: That's the kind of complimentary football we haven't seen much
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  Speaker 1: of lately. And I think this coaching staff deserves some
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  Speaker 1: recognition today, too. Look, I've been critical of some of
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the things we've seen the last couple of weeks. I
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: thought Florida got outplayed and, quite frankly, outcoached in some
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: areas against Missouri and South Carolina. But today, I thought
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  Speaker 1: Buster Faulkner did a really nice job of finding a
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  Speaker 1: way to move the football with a backup quarterback, especially
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  Speaker 1: after halftime. Think about it. Florida was struggling early. They
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  Speaker 1: couldn't convert third downs. The passing game wasn't creating much downfield.
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  Speaker 1: But rather than abandoning the game plan or asking Tramell
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  Speaker 1: Jones to do too much, Florida found a way to
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  Speaker 1: become more efficient. They used the short passing game. They
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: used Jones' mobility. They found their tight ends in scoring situations.
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  Speaker 1: And they committed to the run even when every carry
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: wasn't producing four or five yards. That takes patience. And
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: from a head coaching standpoint, I thought it was a
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: really important game for Coach Summerall. We've heard him talk
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: about accountability. We've heard him talk about where this roster
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: is and where it needs to go. We've heard him
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: be pretty candid about the things Florida isn't doing well enough.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: But eventually, you've got to see a response on the field.
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  Speaker 1: And today, he got one. This team could have packed
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: it in when it fell behind 17-3. Instead, Florida scored
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: 24 consecutive points and took control of the game. That's
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a reflection of the players, but it's also a reflection
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  Speaker 1: of this coaching staff. They deserve credit for having this
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: team ready to respond. So now this is where I
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: want to be careful. I'm not going to sit here
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and tell you that every problem Florida has is suddenly fixed.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: It is not. Florida still has the same issues to
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: work through offensively. There are still concerns. with defensive consistency.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And the Gators have had a very difficult game against
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Georgia coming up after the bye. But I do think
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  Speaker 1: this win is significant for a couple of reasons. First,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: it stops the bleeding. Florida was staring at three consecutive
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: losses and a 4-3 record after starting the season 4-0. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: you're 5-2 with another top 10 victory on your resume. Second,
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  Speaker 1: it changes the conversation around this football team. Coming into
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  Speaker 1: this week, everybody wanted to know what was wrong with Florida.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: And those questions weren't unreasonable. But today, Florida proved it's
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: capable of responding to adversity. And third, and I think
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: this matters a lot, is the confidence of the players.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: When you get beaten the way Florida did the last
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: two weeks, it is easy to doubt yourself. It's easy
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: for doubt to creep in. You start questioning whether things
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: that you're practicing are actually working. And you start wondering
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: whether you're as good as you thought you were when
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: you were sitting at 4-0. A win like this doesn't
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: automatically solve those problems, but it gives you something tangible
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: to build on. You just went on the road with
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: your starting quarterback on the bench. And you beat the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: seventh ranked team in the country. Nobody can take that
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: away from you. So here is my biggest takeaway from
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: today's game. Florida needed this win. But even more than that,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Florida needed this kind of win. They needed to overcome
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: some adversity. They needed to prove they could make adjustments.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: They needed to find a way to win a football
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: game without everything going their way. And they did exactly that.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: We can talk about missed opportunities, the mistakes, the things
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: that they still need to improve on. But right now,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to give this team some credit. The
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Florida Gators went into Austin, Texas with a backup quarterback,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: got punched in the mouth early, and came away with
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a victory over the seventh-ranked team in the country. And
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: considering where this team was just seven days ago, I
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: think that's a pretty big deal. As always, guys, go Gators.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I'll have more for you tomorrow.