The Florida Gators will face a test this week when they host the East Carolina Pirates.
Yes, ECU’s offense lost some of their bite with the departures of quarterback Shane Carden and receiver Justin Hardy and then again when they lost quarterback Kurt Benkert to a knee injury but the Pirates’ still have an offense that will challenge Florida.
“The quarterback and the wide receiver that moved on were extremely good players,” defensive backs coach Kirk Callahan, who faced ECU regularly when he was at fellow AAC conference foe UCF. “The thing is that even with the new coordinator their system is what makes them really good.”
Just eight months ago the Pirates kept Florida’s defense reeling by running more than 101 plays in he Birmingham Bowl. The 101 plays were more than ECU ran in a single game all season and 21 more plays than they averaged throughout the regular season.
The Gators were hardly an up-tempo team on offense a year ago and, as we’ve seen throughout Jim McElwain’s career and through one game at Florida, won’t be an up-tempo offense at Florida this season. That means that Gator defense’s gas tank and conditioning could be in for a test that they haven’t been able to get ready for in practice. To his credit, McElwain has tried to simulate some of the tempo that Florida will face this week in practice, even if that’s not something that his offense will try to utilize itself.
“Unless you’re doing it yourself, you really can’t simulate it,” McElwain said. “We work it as well as we can. I think our defensive staff has some ways to simulate it during practice and it seems to work really well.”
On top of the blistering rate at which ECU ran plays last year against Florida, the Pirates were also able to take shots all over the field through the passing game. ECU runs an Air Raid style spread attack that really uses the width of the field well. The Pirates are content at picking away at defenses with screen passes to wide receivers, swing passes to running backs and short, quick, passes to receivers and tight ends. This style of play allows them to move quickly and is also something that can frustrate defenses.
With the scheme that ECU runs they’re going to make plays and gain yards. Even if it’s only a small chunk of yards at a time, it can get frustrating for defensive backs to continue to have to fight through blocks to get in on a screen or swing pass to a back. Callahan is challenging his secondary to remain focused and aggressive.
“At the end of the day we have to go challenge routes. Whether it’s screens or deep balls or whatever, we have to be able to challenge routes no matter the coverage we’re in,” he said. “We have to identify keys and make sure our eyes are in the right place, and we have to go out there and make plays.”