TAMPA — When Austin Appleby leads the Florida Gators offense out on to the field this Saturday it might feel a lot like practice. Appleby has had to face the Florida defense (ranked sixth in the country) every day in practice and the Iowa Hawkeyes’ defense is built very similarly.
The Hawkeyes and Gators are tied for ninth in the country in terms of scoring defense (17.9 ppg). They’re also 25th in total defense (352.8). They have a Thorpe Award winner in Desmond King. Linebacker Josey Jewell was a Butkus Award finalist and defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson leads the team with 7.5 sacks, more than Jabari Zuniga, Florida’s sack leader.
“They do a great job of not allowing explosive plays,” Jim McElwain said. “You know, when you do that, and you don’t let teams get into the end zone defensively, you give yourself a great opportunity to be successful, and obviously in Iowa’s case, that’s why they’ve been successful for so many years.”
Iowa started the season off 5-4, including a 23-21 loss to North Dakota State. The Hawkeyes could have packed it in but they finished the season strong with a win over No. 2 Michigan, Rutgers and No. 15 Nebraska. They’ve done that thanks to a stingy defense that is hitting its stride.
“One thing I’ve always believed in any sport, if you can play defense it gives you a chance, and that’s one of the reasons we were able to be successful in November,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “We didn’t play so well defensively the first game of the month, but then we started to do it a little bit better.”
Florida has established its identity. They want to run the football first and foremost and build the rest of the offensive scheme around that. In order to successfully accomplish that they’ll need to win up front. That was the gameplan against another Big Ten opponent in Michigan last year, but the Gators were surprised with the physicality the Wolverines brought. That lesson, they say, will make sure that another Big Ten team doesn’t sneak up on them this year.
“You gotta own the line of scrimmage. They are gonna be big, stout. They are going to control the line,” Appleby said. “They’ve got great linebacker play. You’ve got to get them moving sideways and use your speed on the outside. And if you can do that, control the line of scrimmage, you got an opportunity to, you know, hopefully get some plays out on the back end. It’s definitely gonna be a great challenge for us.”
Can Florida show up and establish the line of scrimmage to get Jordan Scarlett and Lamical Perine going? If they do that, can Appleby avoid costly turnovers to King, who has 13 career interceptions? We’ll find out on Monday, but the Gators know they can’t show up like they did a year ago.
“We have to set a standard for next year, and you know, a lot of people doubted our offense just because of the things that we’ve been doing throughout the season,” running back Jordan Scarlett said. “But we just have to make sure we’re just sound on everything that we’re doing and we’ll be alright.”