Florida Gators fans needed one game to start calling for Urban Meyer’s return

If you thought it might take more than one game before Florida fans jumped ship from the USS Billy Napier to paddle their lifeboats towards the isle of Urban Meyer, you thought wrong.

The season opener against Utah wasn't even finished before fans on message boards were begging for Meyer head back to Gainesville.

While the Gators were finalizing their 24-11 loss, the arguments to bring back the Swamp King grew.

Florida Gators fans desperately want Urban Meyer back after Utah loss

To be fair to Napier and the Gators, there's no shame in losing to Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadim. The Utes are practically unbeatable there. They've lost two games at home in the last five seasons and one of those was during 2020 without fans in the stands.

The biggest disappointment surrounding the performance is that Florida wasn't able to take their chance against a Utah team that was devastated by injuries, including star quarterback Cam Rising. If ever a Ute team could get beat at home, it might have been this team.

But the Gators didn't have it in them. Graham Mertz was sacked five times and Florida's defense gave up big plays in the first half to allow Utah to take a 17-3 lead at the break.

Does that mean it's time to dump Napier and go after Meyer? No reasonable person would think that. Napier has had one season and one game. Writing him off so early in the season is the wrong approach. If things continue to stagnate in 2023 and it becomes clear that the Gators aren't improving, then fans would be within their rights to think about alternatives.

And besides, there's no indication that Meyer is even interested in coming back to college football coaching. That's a whole other conversation after his failed stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars.