Gator Victory Comes Minus the Usual Fun

No one expected Doug Johnson to play like Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel in his first start for No. 2 Florida, and he didn’t.

The Gators looked sloppy in their first game since winning the national championship, and so did Johnson. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for one, but his three interceptions kept it close in a 21-6 victory over Southern Mississippi on Saturday.

“This is probably what I expected,” Johnson said. “I didn’t expect to go out there and dazzle everyone.”

Johnson was 17 for 34 for 231 yards, and had the worst showing of five quarterbacks who have made their first start at Florida under Coach Steve Spurrier.

But Johnson and the Gator offense were helped out by a stiff defense. The Gators forced four turnovers, three inside the 30, had five sacks and held the Golden Eagles to 157 yards.

The only touchdown by Southern Mississippi, a 13-yard pass from Lee Roberts to Tony Pinkston, came after Patrick Surtain intercepted Johnson’s pass for the second time and returned it 57 yards to the 13.

On the next series, Southern Miss cornerback DeShone Mallard dropped an interception that would have been a sure touchdown, and Johnson left the field to a smattering of boos.

“I don’t know if they were booing him or if they were booing the guy from Southern Miss for dropping the interception,” Spurrier said. “Maybe they were booing me.”

The 21 points was the lowest total by Florida in a season opener since a 24-19 loss to Ole Miss in 1989, the year before Spurrier arrived with his high-powered offense.

“They’re worthy of everything they get, but give us a little credit,” Southern Miss Coach Jeff Bower said. “I know they’re going to say, ‘If we didn’t do this, if we didn’t do that. . . . ‘ We’re saying the same thing. It was a tight game.”

He’ll get no argument from Spurrier, who blamed the Gators’ ragged performance on the coaching.

“They could have beaten us with our stupid offensive plays,” he said. “It’s frustrating, but it’s always good to win the game when you know you could have lost.”

A year ago, the Gators scored on the first possession in their first seven games. It took Johnson three series against the Eagles before Florida finally scored, that on a 25-yard pass to Jamie Richardson.

Johnson finished the first half strongly, completing four straight passes to Jacquez Green. On the last one, Green out-jumped Mallard in the corner of the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead.

Other than that, the Gators looked ordinary on offense.

Johnson’s first pass was 10 yards over Green’s head, and he had a pass intercepted by Surtain two plays later. Johnson later missed what would have been a touchdown with another overthrow pass to Green, the fastest player on the team.