Florida AD Scott Stricklin shocked the college football world (and briefly set the SEC’s Twitter on fire) this week, officially removing embattled football coach Billy Napier from the hot seat and guaranteeing he would be back in Gainesville for at least one more season.

It was a huge vote of confidence and a bit of a leap of faith: in the strides the team has made in recent weeks, winning three of five and pushing two teams into the top 10 in Tennessee and Georgia; in Freshman QB DJ Lagwaythe five-star phenom Napier recruited to the Swamp; and in Napier’s ability to continue developing its not inconsiderable group of young talents. Of course, Napier’s tenure had not gotten off to the start that the school had anticipated. But there were signs of improvement and sometimes the grass isn’t always greener. You could almost convince yourself to make a decision that had been unthinkable just weeks before.

Well, you could do it at least for a couple of days. If Stricklin’s decision gave Napier any good will, he quickly threw a flamethrower at him on Saturday afternoon, when his Gators team responded to the news that they had saved their coach’s job by turning in arguably their worst half of the season against Texas. .

Of course, some context is required here. Texas and Steve Sarkisian are always lethal after a break, and Lagway’s hamstring injury meant redshirt freshman Aidan Warner was forced to make his first career start. No matter what, Napier and the Gators were going to have their work cut out for them.

Still, that’s no excuse to simply as Bad Florida looked to start this game. Florida couldn’t take advantage of a pair of near-INTs against Quinn Ewers early, then allowed Texas to convert a 4th-and-1 at its own 24 en route to the opening score. They would go on to turn the ball over twice and allow Ewers to throw for over 250 yards and four touchdowns, trailing 35-0 at halftime. Oh, and Warner came out of the locker room and immediately threw an interception to start the third quarter. It was about as bad a start as you can get, and Florida fans were feeling…not very good about the future.