The Good, the Bad and the Ugly From the Florida Gators 2021 Season

What was the good, bad and ugly from the Florida Gators 2021 season?

As we enter into late December, bowl season is the final opportunity to leave lasting impressions to carry throughout the offseason.

The Florida Gators season came to a fitting close Thursday night when Florida fell to the UCF Knights in the Gasparilla Bowl, 29-17. It was a panoptic contest that perfectly summarized the tumultuous season UF experienced.

While their bowl appearance has implications on the future, AllGators’ final rendition of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” series in 2021 encompasses the season as a whole.

The Good: The defense found its cornerstone

The good for the Gators in 2021 itself was minimal. As a season made up of outlier performances on both sides of the ball, and a complete one against Alabama, Florida was, simply, an average football team at best at its core.

However, a positive takeaway from the season was the foundational pieces that arose late in the year on the defensive side of the football.

Quarterback Anthony Richardson has been coined as the new face of Florida football by the fanbase and looks like the team's next signal-caller. He alone is a solid building block for the offense.

The defense, on the other hand, consists of multiple players that will prove to be valuable in the reconstruction efforts of co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney and his eventual counterpart, reportedly, Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach Karl Scott. 

Namely, linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper has arose as the shining star of the unit, with players like Gervon Dexter, Brenton Cox Jr., Jason Marshall Jr. and Rashad Torrence falling in line as complementary pieces set to anchor down the defensive unit.

Hopper, a rising redshirt junior, made the most of his inside linebacker role in the late stages of 2021. He flashed glimpses of being the best true linebacker the Gators have fielded since the mid-2010s, winning downhill with his speed, physicality and uncanny hole recognition.

Against UCF, the defense with Hopper — before an untimely and questionable ejection — noticeably operated at a higher level, exemplifying his importance to the unit.

As a result, he has the intangibles to be the centerpiece of the new-look Florida defense next season.

The Bad: The Offensive Stagnancy

Before the year, there was a little bit of worry surrounding the drastic changes to the offensive personnel.

Losing their starting quarterback and two first-round weapons, the Gators were expected to undergo a complete identity shift with Emory Jones controlling the offense.

The shift into a run-first scheme looked to be working for the first few weeks of the season, namely against Alabama on Sept. 18. That production didn’t last as the Gators as a whole started to sputter.

Florida’s offense showed signs of promise at points, only to stall when it reached striking distance. The defensive inefficiency that became a staple of Todd Grantham’s time in Gainesville was expected following an abysmal 2020 stint.

The offensive struggles, for many, didn’t cross their minds.

Plagued with missed throws, dropped passes, turnovers and inconsistency on the line, the Gators went from having one of the most explosive offenses to one of the most mundane.

While the players struggled to get out of their own way — see below — there was an evident refusal to put the best players on the field, exemplified by a painfully stubborn three-man running back rotation that failed to utilize the best offensive weapon in Dameon Pierce in the volume he deserved.

As a result, the offense unexpectedly sputtered under a coach who prides himself on his offensive production.

It’s a flaw that has the opportunity to be resolved under Napier, but it’s, conceptually, an easy fix.

The Ugly: Lack of Discipline

The lack of talent that Florida was able to acquire over the years of Dan Mullen’s tenure at the helm was a major factor in the Gators' rapid decline in 2021.

Unable to contend with the likes of top-tied SEC programs from a talent standpoint, UF put themselves in an unfavorable situation that required near perfection from an execution standpoint in their marquee matchups.

However, the missing star power wasn’t the biggest issue for the Gators throughout the year. As much as it hurt them to be outmatched when playing against the elite programs, the undisciplined nature of Florida’s play will go down at the biggest inhibitor to continued success from 2020.

Arising early on in the season, mental mistakes and self-inflicted wounds made it difficult for Florida to find sustained success, especially offensively, but they were able to overcome them due to the caliber of teams they faced.

However, when hitting the road for the first time against an SEC opponent this season, the lapses were exasperated. Walking off of Kroger Field at Kentucky with more penalties (15) than points (13), Florida’s signals of a downward spiral became prominent.

From there on, they failed to find reconcile the issue. Their struggles away from home continued and they failed to win an SEC road game all season. Undisciplined football was the catalyst for that reality.

It became an unreconcilable identity as the year progressed — culminating in a 6-7 season and a postgame scuffle after an embarrassing Gasparilla Bowl loss — and was a direct reflection of those in charge.

Napier will have a tough task ahead of him as he steps into a vastly worse situation than any head coach has at Florida in quite some time.

As he begins to focus on building relationships in order to acquire the necessary talent to compete at a high level, his first order of business will be tightening up the finer points of the game, starting with discipline.

Stay tuned to AllGators for continuous coverage of Florida Gators football, basketball and recruiting. Follow along on social media at @SI_AllGators on Twitter and Florida Gators on Sports Illustrated on Facebook.