The Gators return home to play under the lights in The Swamp for the first time since Nov. 12, 2022, where they will take on McNeese State (0-1). Florida is coming off a 24-11 loss to Utah in the opening game of the 2023 season.
“I just think it’s about all the things that we can control,” Head Coach Billy Napier said on what they expect in week two. “We’re playing at home for the first time with this group of players, right? So there’s some new processes that we have to go through here. And then once the game begins, you know, we’re looking for clean football, right? We’re looking for really good process, communication, alignment, eye discipline, technique and fundamentals, and then just having the discipline to execute and make the play.”
Gator Country provides you with five things we are looking for when the Gators take on McNeese State in week two.
CLEAN UP THE PENALTIES
The Florida Gators were flagged nine times for 46 yards in week one. While the yardage didn’t kill the Gators, the timeliness of the penalties did. Three of the penalties came on 3rd/4th and one, with all three of those drives resulting in zero points.
“Those are the things that keep you up at night, so we want to try to eliminate any mistakes that are totally under our control and those certainly were,” Napier said on the penalties in week one.
Napier also indicated that those penalties were not happening in practice settings, even with the staff implementing crowd noise tactics to prepare them for a hostile environment.
With the Gators back at home in week two, I want to see a clean game with significantly less procedural penalties. Florida may be able to overcome them against McNeese State, but with Tennessee right around the corner, the Orange and Blue will need any advantage they can get.
It’s important to note that Florida’s starting center Kingsley Eguakun is questionable to play against McNeese State. While the staff expects him back for week three, I think it’s critical for the development of the Gators’ offensive line to get Eguakun some snaps with the starting unit before they face off against the Volunteers.
PRESSURE THE QB
The Gators failed to sack either of Utah QB’s in week one, creating just three pressures, two hits, and one QB hurry in true pass sets, according to Pro Football Focus.
Part of this was Utah’s game plan to get the ball out quickly.
“Not really, quarterback was releasing it pretty fast,” defensive end Tyreak Sapp said on if there was anything in particular that kept them from getting to the QB. “They had that one big play at the beginning of the game which nobody obviously wanted, but I just feel like just playing a cleaner game and just using our techniques of fundamentals because that’s what it’s gonna come down to. Everybody’s good, everybody’s big, everybody’s fast. Oh, it comes down to fundamentals and your mind outthinking somebody.”
Florida has a great chance to rack up some big numbers and create positive momentum moving forward, as McNeese State allowed seven sacks for 58 yards against Tarleton State in week one.
“Just rush the Q better, rush the Q, this week,” Sapp said on where they can improve defensively. Try to get some sacks on our stats, try to get some sacks, tell the back end guys to keep handling up, tell Jason, keep encouraging him, all our guys on the back end, even our young guys like Jordan who played a lot, those guys take a lot of snaps especially those young guys just keep going and then up front, I take it as my job to control that and making sure we can do everything we can to harass the Q.”
GET SET ON DEFENSE
Florida struggled at times to get set on defense against Utah in week one. After rewatching the game, I counted seven plays where Austin Armstrong’s defense was not completely set and prepared to make a play. Even when the Gators did lined up, they were late getting there.
While this didn’t cause many problems against Utah, it could against an up-tempo offense. Florida is set to play Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Volunteers’ hurry-up offense in week three, making it critical that the Gators get this ironed out against McNeese State.
DOMINANT OL PLAY / PASS PROTECTION / RUN BLOCK
Florida’s offensive line gave Graham Mertz and the running game no favors against Utah, allowing five sacks for 47 yards and paving the way for just 3.1 yards per handoff.
It’s important to note that the offensive line is not the only position group to blame for the mishaps, as RB Montrell Johnson, RB Trevor Etienne, TE Jonathon Odom, and TE Dante Zanders graded out the lowest on the Gators for pass protection, according to PFF. Odom also graded out the lowest in run block.
As I noted earlier, getting starting center Kingsley Eguakun back could go a long way in improving the pass protection, run blocking, and offensive line communication as a whole.
I’m looking for Florida’s offensive line to dominant McNeese State, who allowed 554 yards of offense in week one.
GET EVERYONE INVOLVED
In Florida’s most-recent FCS matchup vs. Eastern Washington in 2022, 81 different Gators saw game action as Florida erupted for 666 total yards, which marked the sixth-most yards in a single game in program history. Games against FCS teams are often times important for the development of younger players, as they can appear in up to four games without losing their redshirt.
I’m looking for Florida to dominant McNeese State to allow for plenty of players to rotate into the game early and often. There’s a number of young players that could make an impact in 2023, and this is a chance for them to go out and get valuable reps and game experience before SEC play.