After one pair of drives in Jacksonville, the Georgia Bulldogs led the Florida Gators 7-0.
After one quarter, it was 21-0.
After one mostly miserable game, it was 42-7 — and that loss, the worst for Florida to Georgia in 35 years, may well be the last one for Jim McElwain as Florida’s head coach.
McElwain’s team looked wholly unready for the executional brilliance and skill that Georgia brought to bear in the first half, sputtering on offense and allowing the Bulldogs to run roughshod in a first quarter that had Georgia up by three scores before it was half over.
And while Florida would recover for much of the next two quarters, failing to get points on two red zone possessions with the score holding at 21-0 effectively ended any chances of a comeback before one had truly begun.
Florida would concede three more scores — two on the third and fourth touchdown runs of the day, one on a Feleipe Franks strip-sack — to go down 42-0 before rallying to score a nigh meaningless touchdown late in the fourth period with Malik Zaire taking snaps and Georgia backups dotting the field.
The game was a lost cause long before that touchdown, which will extend Florida’s streak of consecutive games with points to 29 calendar years.
Now, the immediate concern facing the Gators is whether McElwain’s tenure — reportedly hanging by a thread, if that — will extend into the work week.