Florida Gators can’t afford penalties against Georgia

The Florida Gators are dead last in the Southeastern conference in only one stat: penalties. Florida averages 8.4 yellow flags against them a game (worst in the league by a full penalty per game) for 72 yards (more than 10 yards per game than the closest team).

This isn’t new for the Gators. Florida was the most penalized team in the SEC in 2013, 2012, 2011 and second most penalized in 2014, 2010 and 2008. Jim McElwain is aware of the Gators’ penchant for drawing yellow laundry and he’s sick of it.

In 2015, prior to his first season in Gainesville, McElwain reportedly kicked a player out of a closed scrimmage for committing a personal foul.

“What are we, the most penalized team in the last five year, six years? Whatever it is. I don’t know where we sit,” McElwain said following the 2015 scrimmage. “It’s ridiculous.”

Florida made strides in McElwain’s first season. There was the week two dressing down Kelvin Taylor received on live television following an unsportsmanlike penalty for celebrating a touchdown run with a throat slash, a big no-no in the NCAA. In 2015 the Gators were hit with 91 penalties and average of 6.5 per game, both second worst in the league, but their average of 52.6 penalty yards per game was ninth in the conference. Improvement, albeit slight.

“I’m OK with effort penalties,” McElwain said last week. “I’m OK with that. Sometimes it happens — it’s the game. It’s the unforced errors that need to be cut down.”

Kind of like the eight false starts the Gators were whistled for in a homecoming win over Missouri, which left McElwain less than pleased, saying in his opening statement following the game that he would address it at that moment and then would not answer questions about it.

Was it addressed during the bye week?

“It was addressed pretty, yeah. Pretty point on. But it gets back to the unforced errors,” he said Monday. “That’s the thing that bothers you more than anything and the concentration then to overcome when you do make an error, you know, to me as you go through no matter what you do, you’re not always going to be perfect. It’s what you learn from the failures and not make them over and over again and make that failure become something that you can’t overcome. That’s really the big thing is learning from every time you go out.”

The Gators will face Georgia this week. The Bulldogs, under first-year head coach Kirby Smart have struggled to a 2-3 conference record, including a 17-16 loss at home to Vanderbilt their last time out. This may not be the best Georgia team that Florida has faced in recent years but they are doing one thing better than almost any other team in the country.

Georgia has the second best time of possession (35:08.57 per game), trailing only Arkansas. Any Gator fan can remember Will Muschamp touting time of possession and scoffing at how little it could mean for the offense that was holding on to the ball, but what about the other team? If the Bulldogs can continually hold on to the ball how does that affect the Gators?

It means Florida won’t have as many possessions. For an offense that ranks eighth in the SEC in scoring (30.3), the Gators will have to be smart with the opportunities that they do get. That means you can’t waste opportunities with silly penalties. Florida has the second worst red zone offense in the SEC, scoring 72% of the time they get into the redzone. Only South Carolina is worse. That isn’t because the Gators don’t have a field goal kicker, as has been the case the past couple of years, but it’s because of the lack of discipline that regularly puts Florida behind the eight ball after penalties.

“I think that’s part of it, is understanding, you know what, you can really be good if you allow yourself to be good,” McElwain said. “How do you do that? How you do that is, A: not shooting yourself in the foot with unforced errors, and yet, when an error happens, have enough confidence in your ability to come and overcome that.”

The Gators are in control of the SEC East. They have a half game lead over Kentucky, who sits atop Tennessee in the East division but all of that could change with a trip up n Jacksonville this weekend.

The Gators have to be more disciplined this week and next week when they face the two offenses that are better than anyone else at limiting its opponent’s offense from staying on the field. When you don’t have a lot of opportunities on offense you have to make the most of the ones you have and Florida’s offense isn’t prolific enough, not nearly, to overcome the avalanche of penalty yardage they have been securing on a weekly basis.

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