Can the Florida Gators run the ball without Jones?

The Florida Gators relied heavily on the running game — namely on Matt Jones — in order to secure a 10-9 victory over Tennessee last week. Florida rushed the ball 48 times against the Vols, their second-most rushing attempts this season. Their opponent his week — the Tigers of LSU — have been the worst rushing defense against SEC opponents, giving up 300 yards on the ground against Auburn and Mississippi State.

The main deficiency in the Tiger defense has been in the defensive front seven. LSU has had to replace 18 players that left for the NFL in just the past two seasons, a tall task for any coach.

“At the end of the day, I can say it for Les, he can’t say it. It’s hard. It’s hard to replace that,” Will Muschamp said. “It’s hard to recruit for that, and a lot of situations you’re finding out the first of January the young man wants to try the NFL and you’re saying, ‘You got to be kidding me.’ But that’s the life of where we are now in college football.”

Muschamp may take up for Les Miles publically and the head coach may even feel for the LSU coach he will face this week — Muschamp has had to deal with his own players leaving early for the NFL — but those feelings won’t change Florida’s gameplan this week.

Last week we wrote that Florida had the blueprint to beat Tennessee and this week the gameplan will remain the same. Pound the rock on the ground; throw enough to keep the defense honest.

This is going to be a knockdown, drag out, typical LSU-Florida football game.

Unfortunately for the Gators, their leading rusher this season has not played a single snap this week in practice. Matt Jones has some swelling in his knee that has been surgically repaired twice and is being held out of practice.

“He’s not practiced so far. We hope to get him out there and get some reps today,” Muschamp said. “He had some swelling on his knee, the knee he has injured before twice.”

Muschamp insists that he expects Jones to play this Saturday but how healthy is he? By his own admission, Jones was never fully healthy or right in 2013. His performance on the field showed that clearly. This season, Jones has been healthier than he was at any point last season and his 72 carries for 372 yards (5.17 per-carry) show just that.

If Jones isn’t healthy this Saturday for what promises to be a physical football game what do the Gators have after him? Muschamp says he expects Jones to play this week but is he capable of carrying the ball 30 times? 20? 10? Or maybe just a handful of snaps?

To start, Muschamp will say all the right things about the players behind Jones. On Wednesday, Muschamp mentioned everybody, “I’ve got confidence in Kelvin, I’ve got confidence in Mack Brown, Adam Lane has been over repping with our guys the last couple of days just in case, a guy that I have tremendous confidence in him as well.”

To that I steal a line from Jerry Maguire, “show me the money!”

Muschamp’s words don’t match up with the way the carries have been divvied out this season. Jones has 72 carries this season — more than double any other player on the roster. Jeff Driskel, not a running back, is second on the team with 32 and Kelvin Taylor comes in third with 30 carries.

Mack Brown and Brandon Powell haven’t touched the football in a game since Florida took on Eastern Michigan. When the Gators got in to SEC play the rotation at every position tightened up but none more so than running back.

Kelvin Taylor, the only other running back with a carry since SEC play started, has only rushed the ball seven times the past two weeks.

The Florida Gators need to run the football against an LSU defense that hasn’t been able to defend the run this season but with Jones’ health in question, will they be able to do that on Saturday?

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

7 COMMENTS

  1. All three of those guys are capable of filling the void if Jones is out. Kelvin and Mack especially! Are they as good or have they been statisically as good, maybe not, but only because the opp has not been there, but both are solid running backs. Lane is supposed to be a bullldozer, so lets see what the kids got.

  2. Honestly, I think Lane should get an opportunity over Mack Brown and Kelvin should be the work horse if Jones is out. If so, Lane would be a great change of pace 3rd down back. He can move a pile and can actually make people miss, unlike Brown.

  3. What about that fullback kid we had, Joyner? That guy was a freaking underused beast. Personally I thought he was one of the better runners we had but had only a handful of carries. Maybe he graduated. Or maybe he’s just another one of the forgotten…not fit for the changing offensive scheme.

  4. I’d like to see Brandon James get a shot. Face it, none of the current guys, Jones or Taylor, Brown seems to have disappeared, are a threat to take it to the house. WE saw against Tennessee that the offense was horrible. It was a win, but you are going to have a hard time grinding out yardage consistently. Florida needs to figure out a way to get an easy score occasionally. Forget about a bomb, Driskel can’t throw. So, the other alternative is a running back or wide receiver that can take advantage of a hole and then be fast enough to outrun everyone. Brandon James was recruited to replace the home run guy UF missed out on, it’s time to see what he can do. It’s become the opposite of when Rainey and Demps were here, they were quick guys with great speed, but UF had no big backs. Now UF has big backs, but have no one with speed and quickness. If Florida can’t get any big plays Saturday, they’ll lose. I know LSU has been seal clubbed the last two games, but Mississippi State and Auburn are better teams than Florida.