Not since 2009, have the Florida Gators been back-to-back SEC East Champions and for the first time ever, a head coach (Jim McElwain), has made it to the SEC Championship twice in his first two years in the SEC.
Jim McElwain’s team did what Vegas thought was nearly impossible (-14 point underdogs), what many bloggers scoffed at the idea of, and what the opposing team players said they couldn’t do – a statement win over LSU.
It wasn’t perfect and there were still some glaring weaknesses on offense, the Gators figured out a way to score when they needed, while dominating a two-headed rushing attack that many thought was unstoppable and held LSU to 10 points on five trips to the redzone, including four inside the 6-yard line – the first time the Gators have held an opponent to less than 50% scoring rate on at least four trips to the redzone since 2008 against Kentucky (1-for-4).
The Gators are heading back to Atlanta and that’s pretty cool.
Quick Thought on Jim McElwain
For weeks, folks have been questioning (yes, even right here on Gator Country) whether Jim McElwain was the right coach, pondering when it would be a good time to fire him. And what did he do? He led his team to two must-win wins to make it back to Atlanta – all with seven starters out.
Jim McElwain has heard from many fans that he can’t recruit, while the players he recruited led his offense in Death Valley: Scarlett, Perine, Callaway, Cleveland, McCoy, Ivey, and Taylor. And on defense, Reese, Joseph, Polite, Gardner, Johnson, Jefferson and Zuniga all played major roles in Saturday’s game.
That same guy that fans were wanting fired, just led his team with a quarterback that lost his job at Purdue and transferred, with an offensive line that had three underclassmen starters, with his starting linebackers and safety out, to a win against LSU, on the road, in a game that was a must-win for both teams. My word. You all can go fire a different coach, because Jim McElwain is my coach and he is one helluva coach.
Offense
- The Gators finally moved away from their running back by committee, relying on Jordan Scarlett and Lamical Perine. Jordan Scarlett went for 108 yards, including 75 of those yards coming after contact and 11 total broken tackles. Perine had seven rushes for 38 yards, including one run where he carried All-American safety Jamal Adams nearly 15 yards on his back.
- In the first half, the Gators averaged 3.6 yards per carry. In the second half, they averaged 5.9 yards per carry. On the season, LSU was only averaging 3.15 yards per carry.
- LSU was only giving up just over 6 first downs on average rushing on the season – the Gators had 10
- Tyrie Cleveland’s catch was the Gators longest play from scrimmage since 1977, when Chris Collingsworth threw a 99-yard pass to Derrick Gaffney against Rice in his first ever game. If Cleveland, currently at 23.91 yards per catch average, can keep pace – he’d be the first Gators wide receiver since Andre Debose in 2011 to have at least 10 catches and a 20+ yard per catch average.
- This is the third time the Gators have won a game under Jim McElwain competing less than 10 passes (2015: Georgia, Florida Atlantic). With a 20.57 yard per catch average, the Gators had their first game since Eastern Kentucky in 2014, where they averaged more than 20-yards per completion.
- Have you noticed how much better the offensive line seems to be with TJ McCoy at Center? ProFootballFocus ranked him the best player on the Gators offense on Saturday.
- Saturday was the Gators first game since UMass where they didn’t have a turnover on offense.
- The 14 first downs were the fewest the Gators have had in a win since last year against Florida Atlantic (12).
- The Gators have only converted nine out of their last 34 third downs. They had converted 59-of-115 to start the season.
Defense
- Florida allowed LSU to score their fewest points in the series since 2012 (6).
- The Gators held Derrius Guice to his second fewest yards per attempt in a game that he had at least 15 rushing attempts (4.37). His season average now sits at 8.03 yards per carry.
- Similarly, Leonard Fournette was held to his second lowest per rush attempt of the season and third lowest of the last two years.
- The Gators had their first positive turnover margin in five games (+2).
- The Gators held a team to under a 50% conversion rate in the redzone with at least 4 attempts (LSU had 5) since 2008.
- Through 10 games this season, the Gators have held opponents to 10 points or less seven times.
- LSU had 174 yards in the third quarter on offense and scored zero points.
- Gators sit 4th in the country in fewest number of opponent plays that result in a first down or touchdown: 24.08%.
- The Gators rank 1st in the country in red zone defense having only allowed points on 17 of 26 drives.
- DBU? The Gators rank 2nd in completions allowed; 6th in passing 1st downs allowed; 2nd in passing TDs allowed; 4th in passing yards allowed.
Miscellaneous
- The Gators had their fewest number of penalties since last season against New Mexico State and only the fourth time in school history they have had just one penalty (they have never had zero penalties in a game).
- Eddy Pineiro is now 16-for-20 kicking field goals on the season and 26-for-26 on extra points. A Gators kicker hasn’t kicked more than 16 field goals in a game since 2012. Eddy Pineiro leads the country in kickoff yard-per-kick average at 64.77 with a touchback percentage of 75% (5th in the county).
- Johnny Townsend ranks 3rd in the country in yards per punt at 47.76 and for the fourth time this season averaged more than 50 yards per punt.
- The Gators have the 4th fewest kick-off returns allowed – 1.2 per game.