Florida Gators blueprint to beating Alabama Crimson Tide

If Don King were promoting the 2016 SEC Championship game he’d conjure up the Old Testament David vs. Goliath to set the stage.

Nobody is giving the No. 15 Florida Gators a chance to topple the No. 1 undefeated Alabama crimson Tide. Coaches all over the country try to preach an “us against the world mentality” to get their teams ready to play football games. McElwain won’t have to do much convincing this week. McElwain was actually asked, less than 24 hours before kickoff, if he believed the Tide were unbeatable.

“(Alabama) is not unbeatable at all. I mean, no,” McElwain said. “Last time I checked, I think we’re a pretty good football team.”

Florida is preparing for their greatest test of the season. 12 teams have lined up across from Alabama this year and all have failed to take down the Tide. McElwain and his coaching staff will hope 13 is their lucky number this week.

“I think, first and foremost, don’t blink,” McElwain said. “Don’t blink. See what you see and go get it. Whatever you do in doing that, don’t ever back down. Don’t back down with anything.”

Florida can’t come into Saturday’s matchup afraid and McElwain’s “don’t blink mantra” is preaching just that. Florida has installed its gameplan. It’s one that the coaching staff believes will give the Gators the best chance to win the game on Saturday. The players have had it drilled in this week in the film room and on the practice filed. Trust it.

“I think the three things probably as what we look for is you can’t give them any cheap ones. So the turnover piece is obviously huge,” McElwain said when asked what the Gators need to do in order to beat Alabama. “Limiting explosive plays and not allowing the sudden strikes that show up quite a bit and taking care of your opportunities when they’re there. Those are the biggest things we’ve got to do.”

Those four things can be done and, in the rare losses Alabama has suffered with Saban at the helm, have all shown up.

Starting with turnovers. Florida has to win the turnover margin on Saturday. In Saban’s 18 losses at Alabama the Tide have a -24 turnover margin, turning the ball over about 1.3 times more than their opponents in losses. The Gators have to win the turnover battle on Saturday and that’s not an unreasonable goal.

Alabama has just a +2 turnover margin this season. Florida isn’t significantly better with a +4 margin. Both teams have created 21 turnovers this season, tied for fifth in the conference. Florida’s 13 interceptions on the year are third best in the SEC and Jalen Hurts’ nine interceptions rank him fifth worst among starting quarterbacks in the SEC.
The Gators will also need to limit Alabama’s explosive plays. We can forget about creating their own, no school in the SEC has less plays that gained at least 10 yards than Florida’s 135. Alabama has 42 plays of 30-yards or more this season. The Gators can’t allow Alabama to gain momentum with big chunk plays or score quickly with them. Geoff Collins’ defense has allowed just 17 of those plays this season, second to Vanderbilt in the conference.

Alabama’s defense, filled with fire breathing, glass-eating creatures won’t give Florida’s anemic offense many opportunities. When there is an opening, however slight, the Gators have to take advantage of them and capitalize with points.

The Gators will struggle at times against Alabama but the Tide is beatable. They’ll have to be close to perfect though.

“I feel we have to play the most perfect game that we have on offense, basically with the calls and things like that,” offensive lineman Fred Johnson said. “We’re going to make plays and they’re going to make plays and we just have to tough it out, grind through it all and finish.”

If the Gators launch that rock just right, with the perfect timing and trajectory it could land in David’s eye and take him down. All that’s left is taking the first shot.

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