It would be charitable to say that college football has had its way with the Pac-12 recently. When he wasn’t losing teams, in week 1, he was just losing. It happened twice in different, painful ways on the first real Saturday of the season. Over the years, it’s happened in the Pac-12 in a myriad of ways. The Gators appear to have found a new quarterback (Anthony Richardson) and coach (Billy Napier) for a new era in their upset of the Utes, but the Pac-12 spent Saturday finding new ways to become irrelevant early. We already know the guts were surgically removed from the Conference of Champions this summer when USC and UCLA decided to relocate to the Big Ten in two years. Then its two best remaining teams lost to SEC rivals within hours of each other, potentially removing the Pac-12 from College Football Playoff contention before Labor Day. No. 3 Georgia beat No. 11 Oregon in former defensive coordinator Dan Lanning’s debut with the Ducks on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. The Bulldogs scored on their first seven possessions in a 49-3 victory. Utah then trailed with 17 seconds left when Florida quarterback Amari Burney intercepted Cameron Rising in the end zone with the game on the line. Utah is an emerging national power that needed something like a win in The Swamp to give them that cred on the road. Last season ended with a similar loss to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Close is not good enough, especially in Year 18 under Kyle Whittingham. Give this much to the Pac-12: This slump has not only been long but also creative. Saturday’s results moved the Pac-12 to 1-8 against SEC teams in season openers over the past 11 years. Pac-12 teams were ranked in seven of those eight losses. The league is going seven years without a team in the College Football Playoff. We already know that the conference will never be the same without its top programs in Los Angeles, if it remains a conference at all in the future. Back to that hum and that swamp. It revealed a tale of two tracks. Utah and its league were on a downward trend. Richardson, wearing the No. 15 of one Tim Tebow, offered some magic. He caught a career-high three rushing touchdowns, escaped pressure for a thrilling 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter and led the game-winning drive. Richardson, a native of Gainesville, Fla., making his first career appearance in The Swamp, has the wheels (104 yards rushing) and arm (168 yards passing) to honor that No. 15. Napier made normal cool when the Gators desperately needed normal. Dan Mullen’s runaway train gave way to a consistent approach that was reflected in Florida’s comeback. The Gators trailed four times to a team that was a legitimate playoff contender. Then Napier (and Richardson) made all the right moves (and shots). Remember when Napier supposedly wasn’t recruiting well enough in the middle of the summer? He got busted for writing an open letter to the fans that was actually written a month earlier, but it landed solidly when the Gators were defeated in a couple of engagements. Note to recruitniks: Everything will be fine. In fact, that might as well be the team’s motto right now. Napier bounced back on the recruiting trail to propel Florida into a top-10 ranking before the season opener. The Gators continued their rebounding in The Swamp, the only place that counts right now, with Napier becoming the first Florida coach to beat a ranked opponent in his first game with the program. Wait until you see what this does for recruiting. With the highest ranking ever to start a season as the reigning Pac-12 champion, favored Utah was at Florida’s 6-yard line with the game — and perhaps its season — on the line. Rising dropped and Burney dropped into coverage. It wasn’t clear if the Rising had anyone open, but it was clear tonight that — at least for Florida — everything was going to work out. The Gators will likely go to Kentucky next week ranked after being ranked 38th overall in the Preseason AP Top 25 vote. Meanwhile, the Utes will board a long flight home, unsure of what happened, what’s next, or when the torture will end.
