Gator Fans Outraged Over Officiating vs. Georgia
Florida football interim coach Billy Gonzales had a tall mountain to climb in his first game in charge. With two weeks to prepare, Gonzales had a winning chance against No. 5 Georgia in a 24-20 loss riddled with controversial officiating.
The most important call was an incompletion to J. Michael Sturdivant on the Gators’ game-winning drive attempt that was difficult to call. The replay made it look like the ball bounced off of Sturdivant’s arms instead of the ground, but the officials said it was not clear enough to reverse the call to a completion.
As expected, Gator fans on social media were not happy.
According to TalkWalker, a tool that gathers analytics across all social media platforms to find trends, the buzz words “Florida Gators” and “referees” together yielded a 100% negative “sentiment” on Saturday. TalkWalker found 63 results over that period with a potential reach of 3.9 million people.
Loading ...“Looks like a catch live. Looks like a catch on replay. Florida Gators and J. Michael Sturdivant got screwed,” said @onlygators on X. The post got 491 likes and 631 comments.
Gonzales was asked whether he thought the pass was caught at the end of the game. He simply responded, “No.”
Speaking of Gonzales, his debut resulted in mostly positive buzz online although it was spoiled by unfortunate circumstances.
He was able to coach the most competitive game against Georgia in five years. In the timeframe from Saturday at 12 a.m. to Sunday at 12 a.m. social media was about 6% positive in its attitude toward Gonzales. It might sound like an unimpressive number, but it stayed positive into Sunday after a debut loss.
“What are the odds at halftime Billy Gonzales rips off a rubber mask revealing Steve Spurrier?” said @2Pollaski2Furious on the Florida-Georgia game thread on Reddit.
Quarterback DJ Lagway saw mixed responses from fans after the loss. He threw for 166 yards and a touchdown and rushed 10 times for 24 yards. Lagway’s rushing ability was something the Gators hadn’t used this season.
“DJ Lagway needs to lose 15 lbs, set his feet and rebuild his confidence. He’s a work horse, but think the injuries and lack of an offseason hurt him big time. Get him a real QB coach. He can be amazing,” said @JerryLBrownJr on X. The post got 385 likes.
Still, the majority appeared negative with 29.6% of the posts having a negative sentiment.
Gonzales and the Gators will get another chance to prove themselves Saturday against Kentucky in Lexington. With some flashes of greatness, he’ll have another week to get the team on the same page.
Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Football, Gators Football, SEC
