At least some people went to bed on Saturday night feeling great about how the Florida-FAU game went.
Anthony Richardson. Todd Grantham. Malik Davis. Fans of quarterback brawls.
and Nick Saban.
For openers: College football: Gators run away from owls, 35-14. Here are 5 takeaways.
Gators Notebook: Mullen credits fan turnout in Swamp
Finalmore: Florida Gators 35, Florida Atlantic Owls 14
If the Alabama coach came home and flicked on the SEC network, well, let's just say the Gators' 35-14 win didn't give him much sleep.
Why should Florida fans care about how Nick slept?
To be honest, Saban's September 18 visit to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium has been spinning on his calendar for months. Alabama plays Mercer next week and Florida plays USF. The combined score should be around 130-0.
In other words, Saturday provided the first and last real clue we're going to see when Alabama comes to town. We'll find out if the Gators look capable of beating the Crimson Tide and being one of the SEC's top dogs.
Umm, no. at least not yet.
That's not to say that Gator Nation didn't have anything to savor on a Saturday night. Just to have 86,840 fans and make The Swamp feel like The Swamp was great again.
And a run of 400 yards? The Gators only had over 200 once during the entire 2020 regular season.
Grantham's rescue was not the same as last year's five-alarm fire drill. Granted, FAU and N'Kosi Perry are not KC and Patrick Mahomes. But unlike last year, it looks like the defense may be messing up the crime room.
Something went wrong on Saturday night. No surprise there. The opening games are the opening games, and there will be kinks with the new starter and fleet of receivers.
Dan Mullen said, "We missed a few readings we shouldn't have missed, and some checks." "That's the stuff we have to clean up."
The only worry is how much cleaning has to be done there. Emory Jones threw some of the throws you'd expect from a guy who's been on campus for four weeks, not four years.
He never took his eyes off his receiver on his first interception. The other was in coverage. A FAU defender was half a step away from intercepting the third pass and returning it for a point.
"I missed a lot of throws," Jones said. "It's a matter of being more comfortable. I have to lock in and do better."
Contrast that with another SEC quarterback who was making his debut on Saturday. Bryce Young looked like Joe Namath in Miami's 44-13 demolition of Alabama. And as bad as the storm looked, they returned 19 starters and would probably beat FAU by two TDs.
Saban's rescue treated poor D'Eric King like a rag doll. The Gators will need a balanced attack in two weeks, and they seem to be halfway through.
About 75% of his offenses hit the ground on Saturday. Steve Spurrier was probably getting the heebie-jeebies, looking at Florida like Oklahoma circa 1975.
"We're going to do what we're going to do," Mullen said. "If we need to lead the country in a hurry, we will do that. We're going to do what our players do well."
When you have horses like Davis, you ride them. But Alabama can stack the line and prove to the Gators that the QB can bowl the ball efficiently.
Speaking of QB - we don't have any quarter dispute.
Repeat. We don't have a quarter dispute.
That was the party line after the game, and that's largely true. Jones knows crime better than Richardson. An uncertain start may not wipe out the potential fans who have been doing it for three years.
That said, Richardson had a stat sheet that would make Bo Jackson jealous. Seven carries for 160 yards.
"He's exciting with the ball in his hands, isn't he?" Mullen said.
that he is. But like Jones, Richardson has yet to prove that his right hand can deliver consistently accurate passes.
"It's the first game of the year," said Zach Carter. "Guys are nervous, you know. ... You start getting better and better as the game progresses."
It's easy to overreact to game number 1. It's just that Game Number 2 won't prove anything, and Game 3 isn't against Tennessee or South Carolina. Then it would be fine for the offense to have such a work in progress.
Jones will certainly be more comfortable against the Bulls next week. And Mullen is calling the plays from the vanilla section of his playbook.
But what if Alabama also backs down? What if Young was nervous on his first start and is now really ready to settle down?