A win, yes, but not a promising start for Florida

This season may yet turn into something special for the Florida Gators. They might win a lot of games and do all the other things that have made them one of college football's elite programs. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

Before we talk about what the Gators can become, it would be wise to wait until they successfully execute the basics, such as snaps from center.

While they're at it, perhaps they could develop a consistent running game.

And, if it's not too much trouble, they should tighten up on special teams. It doesn't look too good for the, ahem, fourth-ranked (for now) team in the country to get snookered by fake punts, miss a makeable field goal and then botch an extra point.

Yeah, Saturday's opener at The Swamp was filled with fumbles, misplays and all other kinds of maladies for the Gators. They beat Miami (Ohio) 34-12 but rarely has a one-sided score been more deceiving. I mean, the Gators fumbled eight times and had three turnovers.

How many teams win with that kind of stat line?

"It would be tough to win with that performance and turnovers against an SEC school," quarterback John Brantley said.

What would you have said beforehand if you knew the Gators and Miami would end with the same 212 total yards? The Red Hawks of the Mid-American Conference have a proud history and played gamely, but they are coming off a 1-11 season and this one simply should not have been close.

But it was.

"We played a terrible game," receiver Deonte Thompson said. "A terrible game."

Indeed, the discomfort inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium had nothing to do with the 90-degree heat and humidity of an early-September afternoon. It had everything to do with the repeated and puzzling mistakes by the home team. They botched so many center snaps in the shotgun that Coach Urban Meyer admitted afterward that the Gators might have to line up under center more often until they get it right.

They committed two - not one, two - roughing penalties on a drive that led to a Miami field goal.

It's clear now that the best decision was Meyer's edict that Gators practices would be closed. You can only hide reality for so long, though, and that became more obvious as the game wound on. The Gators didn't break it open until Jeff Demps' 72-yard touchdown sprint in the fourth quarter.

Naturally, the Gators missed the extra point.

In this age of Internet message boards and non-stop sports talk, there figure to be many, many questions in the coming days about this team.

"I'm prepared for it," Brantley said. "It's just words."

Meyer said he thought something bad might be coming as he watched the Gators struggle through practices leading up to the game, but added, "I didn't imagine the offense incompetence we experienced today."

If the Red Hawks had been able to stay out of their own way, we might be talking about an upset for the ages today. One Florida score came on a 67-yard interception return. Another touchdown was set up when the Red Hawks tried a fake punt from their 21. The play was open, but the pass was off the mark.

And down 21-9 early in the fourth, Miami reached the Gators' 1-yard line but got pushed back by a stupid personal-foul penalty and had to settle for a field goal.

Elite teams often struggle in opening games, and Florida is replacing a treasure trove of talent, including some guy named Tebow at quarterback. It would be natural to go looking there for causes of the center-snap problems. After all, Brantley has taken over at quarterback and to say things didn't mesh between him and center Mike Pouncey is to be kind.

Pouncey took the bullet, though.

"At the end of the day it's my fault," he said.

The Gators host the University of South Florida next Saturday, which caused Meyer to observe, "We'd better be ready next week. That's a good team coming in here."

The Gators expect to be a good team, too, just like always. They were good enough to win against a bottom-feeder from the MAC on Saturday, but the expectations here are always much higher than that. For now it's best to temper expectations, though, and focus on the basics.

You know, like snapping the ball.

Get that fixed and then we'll talk.