Austin Appleby aims to improve road record this week

Saturday afternoon Austin Appleby will make his first start for the Florida Gators. There will be more than 100,000 hostile Tennessee Volunteer fans that have been waiting more than a decade to see their Vols earn a win over Florida. Neyland Stadium will be an insane asylum. A graduate transfer from Purdue, Appleby has seen his fair share of impressive stadiums.

“I’ve been to Nebraska, I’ve been to Ohio State, I’ve been to Michigan State, I’ve been to Penn State,” Appleby said of his time at Purdue. “The conference, the stadium’s are the same. You go in there with an ‘us against the world’ mentality and you trust your teammates.”

Appleby is being truthful when he says he’s been to the stadiums, but he didn’t play when the Boilermakers made trips to Wisconsin (2013, 2015), Michigan State (2013, 2015) or Penn State (2013). He did earn a start at Nebraska, where the Cornhuskers packed in 91,107 for the game. Appleby threw for one touchdown, ran for another and threw two interceptions in a 35-14 loss. Appleby’s record in road games where he played is just 1-5 and his stats back that up. In those six games Appleby completed 57% (122-215) of his pass attempts with seven touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

“If I could do it all over again and have to go into every game thinking ‘oh man, I’ve got to score 40 for us to have a chance to win.’ You know, me saying that I have to score 40 is the problem,” Appleby said Monday. “Just got to do my job. Just got to work the offense, trust coach’s plan, trust my teammates and just go find the open guy and everything will take care of itself.”

The Gators’ game plan will involve its vaunted defense, which currently is ranked as the best in the country. Florida will be watching highlights of their missed tackles on Joshua Dobbs and Jalen Hurd all week, certainly foaming at the mouth to get back out there and correct the errors of a year ago.

“We have the best defense in the country, I truly believe that,” he said. “I play against them every day. These guys are suffocating. And I’m really, really excited to watch them this Saturday and to know that they’ve got our back the way we’ve got theirs. Punting is not a bad play, they are going to give it right back to us.”

That statement about punting isn’t something Appleby wouldn’t have said at Purdue but Johnny Townsend is averaging 50.33 yards-per-punt.

Appleby also presents a running threat for the Gators. How much Florida will ask him to run, given the unproven nature of the remaining healthy quarterbacks, remains to be seen, but Appleby won’t be asked to go out and make a spectacular play to win the game. He’ll need to manage a Florida offense that is fifth in the SEC (195 ypg). Tennessee has the second best (behind Florida) passing defense in the conference, so Florida will look to set up the play action pass by winning at the line of scrimmage and running the ball.
Appleby may have slightly overstated the venues he’d played in previously and Neyland will certainly be the most hostile environment he’s played in but he’s finally playing on a team that he trusts. The older, fifth-year graduate transfer version of Appleby says he’s ready for the task at hand because he knows it’s not about “I” anymore, it’s about the team.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to go and execute with my brothers and play at a high level. A lot is at stake, we know it’s at stake. We’re playing a great team and a great defense,” he said. “Coach Shoop is going to have them ready — and we’re going to be ready. We’re going to have a good plan and we couldn’t be more excited to get to work through the day and throughout the week.

We’ll be ready to bring our best.”

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC