Crunching the Numbers: Florida Gators vs. Tennessee Volunteers

Allow me to channel Charles Dickens when talking about the Florida Gators game against Tennessee…

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…”

It was the best of times…The Gators first half performance was beautifully designed by Doug Nussmeier and Geoff Collins. The team played with energy, tenacity, and seemingly executed perfectly. It was probably the best you could ask for out of a team that was playing with a back-up quarterback, while the team is still trying to find their offensive identity, and against a dual-threat quarterback that was able to slice the defensive last season.

It was the worst of times…The second half performance was dreadful. The team couldn’t stop Tennessee or Josh Dobbs on defense. Nor could they get a first down, nay, any yards, on offense. They committed silly penalties. They made terrible choices on special teams. All around, one of the worst halves of football I have ever watched.

Let’s look at some of the numbers.

 

Austin Appleby

I may be in the minority, but I thought Austin Appleby did everything he could do. In the first half, with a great game plan and solid offensive line blocking, Appleby threw for 213 yards for two touchdowns, including seven passes over 15 yards and three passes over 25 yards. Appleby had good poise, solid accuracy, great touch, and did more, I believe, than anyone expected.

The second half wasn’t pretty, really the first 22 minutes of the second half, the last eight were fine. His 2-for-3 for two-yard performance in the third quarter was a play-calling nightmare and don’t blame Appleby for that.

I thought Appleby showed that he had the ability to evade rushers, make good decisions, minus a rushed, forced pass while scrambling that lead to an interception, and that he is plenty capable of leading this offense.

Last week, I said this about Florida, “Let’s stop pretending that Florida has some amazingly complex offense. They have an offense predicated on strong running back play and simple route patterns. If the Gators offensive line plays well, the running backs do as well as they have been doing, and wide receivers can stay open and catch the ball not much changes.”

Well, when they did those things, not much changed right? Hell, it might have been even better than Del Rio…

Appleby deserves support because he kept Florida in this game.

 

Offense

I am not going to beat a dead horse. Florida looked great in the first half, terrible in the second half, so let’s take a look at some numbers.

  • Florida is still really, really, really slow on offense. I know that McElwain wants to be slow because he is a time of possession coach, but Florida ranks 95th in the country in time per second per play. It is fine to be slow if you are efficient, which they are not, but it really kills Florida when they have nearly zero seconds on the play clock and can have their snap count jumped. Florida has some offensive line deficiencies, the worst thing they could possible do is allow defenders guess the snap count.
  • The Gators did do well getting touchdowns in the redzone. For the first time under Jim McElwain the Gators made it to the redzone four times and scored touchdowns all four times.
  • The Gators were only 6-for-16 on third down, a 37.50% conversion, the lowest since they 0-for-11 against Alabama in the SEC Championship game last year. In the previous four games they had been 36-for-63, 57% conversion.
  • The Gators 106 yards on the ground, where also the fewest since the Alabama game last season. They were averaging 202 yards per game rushing until this point.
  • Austin Appleby had his career best starting QB rating against a Power Five opponent – 142.98.
  • Antonio Callaway leads the team with 17 receptions and 335 yards (111.67 yards per game). His yards receiving per game are the best in the SEC.
  • Florida only had three rushes of 10+ yards. Before this game, the Gators were averaging seven.
  • Austin Appleby had 23 plays go longer than 10-yards, which is more than the 16.33 they were averaging going into the game.
  • Antonio Callaway passed 1,000 career receiving yards in just 17 games. He now ranks 43rd all-time in Florida Gators receiving.

 

Defense

Déjà vu: I am not going to beat a dead horse. Florida looked great in the first half, terrible in the second half, so let’s take a look at some numbers.

  • The Gators went into the game as the number one scoring defense, number two rushing defense, number two passing defense, and number one in total defense. They ended the game as the number 10 scoring defense, number eight rushing defense, number 10 passing defense, and now are ranked as the number four nationally in total defense.
  • The 319 yards passing are the most the Gators defense has allowed since last season when East Carolina passed for 346.
  • The 179 yards of rushing are 52 more yards than they had allowed all season.
  • #DBU? The Gators rank 127th in the country in yards per pass completion allowed (17.09 yards). Pass efficiency defense also dropped from 2nd to 12th.
  • Despite averaging 5.33 sacks per game, the Gators defense only mustered up one for eight yards.
  • Prior to the game, the Gators were only allowing opponents to convert on 19.44% of third downs. The Gators allowed Tennessee to convert 7-of-17 (41.18%).
  • The Gators are allowing 2.75 first downs via defensive penalty per game – 117th in the country.
  • The Gators allowed Josh Dobbs to throw for a career high in yards (319) and touchdowns (4). Their game plan was to force Josh Dobbs to beat them through the air, and he did. He also posted his third highest QB rating of his career.

 

Miscellaneous

  • The average starting field position in the FBS is the 30-yard line. The Gators average start was at their 16.8-yard line and the Vols at their 44-yard line.
  • The Gators rank 99th in the country in kick return yardage and 97th in punt return yardage and have two fumbles (one lost).
  • The Gators rank 87th in kick return yardage allowed
  • The Gators rank 108th in penalties per game; 106th in penalties per play, and 116th in penalty yards.

 

What Does It Mean?

Well, this wasn’t fun to write or look at the numbers for. Whenever you see a team that should win, lose, it sucks. Tennessee played one helluva second half and deserved to win this game. I don’t think all is lost for Florida if they can figure out a way to bounce back. They should be able to beat the rest of their SEC conference foes with the unrest at LSU and offensive woes at Georgia, while they have a team that matches up nicely against Arkansas. If Florida can finish their SEC slate at 7-1, I think that will be enough to win the East, as I expect Tennessee to lose to Texas A&M and Alabama.

Florida needs to tighten up on defense and, more importantly, special teams. Florida used to be the special teams standard bearer in the FBS, and now struggle to even crack five yards on a punt return, and seemingly can’t stop opposing teams from find holes to allow them to have big returns.

Florida should beat this very bad Vanderbilt team and LSU should still be trying to find an identity under Ed Orgeron when Florida plays them in two weeks. If Florida can go 3-0 between now and the bye-week, I think Florida has a great shot to run the table until FSU. However, they will need much better performances all around.
Time to move and press forward.

Daniel Thompson
Dan Thompson is a 2010 graduate of the University Florida, graduating with a degree in Economics and a degree in Political Science. During this time at UF, Dan worked three years for the Florida Gator Football team as a recruiting ambassador. Dan dealt daily with prospects, NCAA guidelines, and coaching staff. Dan was also involved in Florida Blue Key, Student Government and Greek Life. Currently, Dan oversees the IT consulting practice of a Tampa-based company. Dan enjoys golfing, country music, bourbon, travel, oysters, and a medium-rare steak. Dan can be found on Twitter at @DK_Thompson.

1 COMMENT

  1. Needs and edit: “Whenever you see a time that should win, lose, it sucks. ”

    Anyway, I agree about Appleby. He looked sharp, considering it was his first SEC start in one of the most hostile environments in college football against a good team with 11 years of motivation whipping their sails. He’s good a big arm. He looked poised. Not worried about the QB position at all.