TAMPA — Jim McElwain’s office is full of manila folders. The outside of each is clean except the name of a team, labeling the contents inside. Inside each is everything he’s ever learned about that team, tendencies, trick plays, scouting reports on players, anything shred of information that McElwain thinks could be useful down the line.
Each folder is different. The packet for, say, Alabama is jam-packed. McElwain has now faced the Crimson Tide twice and he coached there for four seasons. The same could be said for Tennessee, Georgia and FSU. The folder for Iowa might as well be one page with big, bold letters.
Stop. The. Run.
“I think it’s one of the things you’re built on defensively anyway is for you to really be successful, you can’t allow a team to just pound the ball on you,” McElwain said at the Outback Bowl press conference Wednesday. “You’ve got to at least force them to use both run and pass.”
Iowa is a straight forward team. They’re not flashy and they’re not going to pretend that they’re something they aren’t. Kirk Ferentz has been coaching the Hawkeyes for 18 years and has as much job security as anybody not named Nick Saban in the country.
“They’ve got an NFL back end,” Ferentz said of Florida’s secondary. “That’s a challenge. We’re not exactly NFL stature on the outside necessarily.”
Iowa is going to run the football. They run the ball 62% of the time the center snaps it and they’re efficient running the football too. The Hawkeyes are averaging 4.48 yards per carry and have two backs that have rushed for over 900 yards this season. LsShun Daniels Jr. has already crossed the century mark (1,013) and Akrum Wadley isn’t far behind him (966). They’re the second duo in Iowa history to rush for 900 yards in a season and they’re only 34 yards away from being the first duo to ever rush for 1,000 yards each in school history.
“I just feel like they wear on teams. We have a saying, either they’re going to get tired of running the ball or we’re going to get tired of tackling,” junior cornerback Jalen Tabor said. “You’ve just got to keep going body blow after body blow after body blow. Somebody’s going to get tired of getting hit, and it’s either going to be the offense or the defense. That’s when you start to see teams roll over.”
Last year it was the Gators that tapped out early and threw in the towel against a physical Michigan team. The end result was an embarrassing 41-7 throttling in the Citrus Bowl. McElwain didn’t question his team’s effort that day, offering simply that sometimes you go out and get punched in the mouth. Michigan punched first, often and last that day and the Gators had nothing to match it.
“They’re just physical,” junior cornerback Quincy Wilson said of Michigan. “We just didn’t know they were going to be that physical.”
That is the lesson Florida learned about the Big Ten last year. Be ready for a smash mouth game. It wouldn’t matter if Florida had Lawrence Taylor and Ray Lewis playing linebacker, Iowa is going to run the football. The Gators have a great run defense but they’re banged up heading into this game and it remains to be seen if some draft eligible juniors will be making business decisions when the situation of who will be the first to tap out that Tabor spoke of comes up on January 2. If the Gators are going to end the 2016 season on a high note they’ll need to outlast a team that is used to winning ugly and dragging opponents through the mud with its two-headed rushing attack. Will the Gators be able to answer the bell?
“We talked about your opportunity to be proud of what you put on film,” said McElwain. “No matter what you’re striving for, any time you’re on film, you’re being evaluated, whether you’re a young guy going into next year, whether you’re an older guy that’s going on to the next level. Here’s the opportunity for you to prove yourself.”