In Friday’s article, I tried to get cheeky by saying, “Florida doesn’t have to win 48-3 for this week to be a success, but it needs to not severely mess around and win, say, 17-3.” The 17-3 part linked to the box score of Alabama’s Week 3 win over USF by that count.
Well, the joke was on me. The Tide beat the Bulls by 14 points, and the Gators beat the 49ers by 15 points. Touché, Napier.
Now look, the two games were pretty different. Bama only outgained USF by 46 yards, whereas UF nearly doubled up Charlotte by outgaining them by 395-211 (a difference of 184). Florida had twice as many scoring drives (six) as Alabama did (three), and the Gators lost the turnover battle 2-0 while the Crimson Tide won it 2-1.
Things did start to feel a bit dicey when former Gator Jalon Jones hit a deep pass inside the 10-yard-line while it was only 19-7 late in the third. However, Jones was well past the line of scrimmage when he chucked it, and that was that. With last year’s defense this could’ve turned into a repeat of Florida’s own USF game from 2022. Jones gave them real problems on the ground from time to time. With this year’s unit though, the UF defense lit him up enough times in enough key situations that the game stayed in hand most of the way.
Billy Napier was preemptively defensive a bit in his postgame press conference, knowing that the final score wasn’t what anyone wanted it to be. He later said it wasn’t what he wanted it to be either because he wanted to get more young players in the game. The lack of a blowout wasn’t just a bummer for the fans.
The biggest problem in the whole thing was the lack of finishing drives. If a team rolls up 400 yards of offense but can barely get above the 20-point mark, you know that probably was the main problem. Yards per point is an obscure stat, somewhat for a reason, but on average UF had to gain 18 yards of offense for each point. Charlotte pinning them deep a couple times played into that, but stalling out over and over in opponent territory was the major culprit.
Thanks to lib_gator resuming his condensed games service, I was able to run through the offensive performance a second time to get a good idea of what was going on.
I’ll start by saying that the pass attack was easily the best I’ve seen this year. There even was some creativity early on. I particularly liked the play where Khaleil Jackson went in motion to the right before turning upfield on a wheel route. A pump fake to Ricky Pearsall on bubble screen action drew in the defender who should’ve been covering Jackson, and Jackson was wide open about 15 yards down the field. He could’ve had a few more if Graham Mertz didn’t deliver the ball high and behind.
The main problem with the drives stalling out was blocking, and it wasn’t just the line. The tight ends had a poor game in this regard, and Trevor Etienne is either too small to pick up blitzing linebackers or he hasn’t yet mastered how to not get bowled over by one.
But, the line was the main thing. I left the McNeese game cautiously optimistic about Knijeah Harris and Lyndell Hudson as the backups on the right side of the line, although still wary because of how overmatched the Cowboys looked.
Well, it was a case of McNeese just being overmatched. Both of them struggled, and Harris did so at both right guard and, later on, left guard. Richie Leonard also had a really rough go of it. He’s been a career backup for a reason, and — no knock on the guy, I’ve never heard a bad word about him — the fact he ended up a starter tells you all you need to know about the quality of the depth on the line.
Florida really needs its line starters just as much as we all feared back in August. At least Jake Slaughter had a much better game than he did against Utah, although the level of competition was a big difference there.
Beyond that, there were just some weird choices and execution in key spots.
Napier was experimenting with unbalanced line sets early, having Austin Barber on Hudson’s right and leaving only Leonard to the left of Slaughter. I assume this was on the theory that Barber would help out the two backups over there. None of the plays did much, but the 3rd & 1 prior to the first field goal was a really odd choice.
Napier put Hayden Hansen to the left of Leonard and then tried to run Etienne left, with the whole line zone blocking left. I don’t know why you don’t just put your starting left tackle, the best blocker on the line, in that spot instead of a green tight end. Plus if you look at the defensive alignment, there were three box defenders to the right of the center against three blockers, one lined up with the center, and four to the left against two blockers. It was 4-on-2 to the defense’s favor on the left, and the Gators still ran left. It makes no sense.
Then you have the 3rd & 3 before the field goal that put the team up 19-7. It’s a football-in-a-phone-booth formation with literally no one out wide. Persall goes in jet motion left, and Mertz fakes the pop pass to him before bootlegging right. Montrell Johnson in the pistol goes out for a pass to the right, while Arlis Boardingham, lined up off the line to the left, takes a step left before coming behind the formation to the right.
It’s a lot of moving parts, and it doesn’t all work. Charlotte has a safety chase Pearsall but otherwise was 100% focused on the boot as an edge rusher goes right for Mertz with everyone else well covered. Johnson chips the rusher before blindly spinning back out to his route, tripping Boardingham in the process. Johnson barely slowed down the rusher, and Mertz had to throw it away after stiff arming the guy.
The game wasn’t a total disaster, and I think Napier was right that the team didn’t lack for effort. It lacks in depth on the offensive line and skill at tight end. It still lacks in special teams, which saw multiple plays with just ten guys on the field. Napier tried to excuse one of those away by saying a third down sack changed the situation from a likely field goal try to a punt and they just didn’t have a return man out there, but I defy you to find another coach — any coach, much less an elite one — who just kind of shrugs at the idea of having ten guys on the field at any point. This is why you have an actual special teams coach and not just an analyst.
Regardless, a lot of youth did get to play despite it not being a blowout, and many of those results were good. Andy Jean had a debut party, and Slaughter getting reps will pay dividends down the line. It could’ve been prettier, but there was a lot of good with the not-so-good.
I said that last part about the Utah game too, so it’d be nice to consistently get the good without that not-so-good. We got that for a lot of the game against Tennessee, but it needs to become an every-week thing.