Florida addressing its biggest offensive and defensive issues enabled close game with Alabama

Florida came tantalizingly near to defeating Alabama in Week 3. The Gators couldn’t have gotten that close if the team didn’t come up with answers for two areas that have been thorns in fans’ sides for the prior two seasons.

Getting there didn’t come easy, but tighter pass coverage and improved offensive line play were keys to the big comeback that almost netted a program-changing victory.

Pass coverage shift

In the first quarter, Florida’s defense played a lot like it had in the prior two seasons: pressure up front with a soft shell behind it to avoid giving up big plays. In 2019 at least, it worked against most opponents. It didn’t work against the best like Georgia on third down or LSU at any point, however. It certainly didn’t work against the Tide in the opening frame on Saturday as Bama ran up a 21-3 lead.

From then on, the Gators played in a lot tighter coverage. It paid immediate dividends, starting from Alabama’s first drive of the second quarter. On first down Bryce Young sat in the pocket forever as no one was open, ultimately getting sacked on an intentional grounding flag. Tre’Vez Johnson broke up a pass attempt on second down, and Kaiir Elam broke up a pass attempt on third down.

UF got its hands on ten Alabama passes according to the NCAA’s play-by-play, three of which ended in sometimes-questionable pass interference flags. Including flag-negated attempts, Young threw the ball 40 times. Again including DPI flags, Florida broke up three of 18 passes in the first quarter, or 16.7%. The Gators then broke up three of six in the second quarter (50%), two of nine in the third (22.2%), and two of seven in the fourth (28.6%). The rate of breaking up passes increased noticeably after the adjustment.

Fans have been begging for tighter coverage, and UF promised in the spring that there would be some with the new secondary coaches teaching the technique. Todd Grantham talked earlier this season about wanting to employ it more but not always being able to because of game situations or opposing offensive strategies.

Though it came a quarter too late, the tighter coverage proved itself on Saturday. Not only did pass break up rates rise, but closer coverage solved a lot of the open field tackling problems of the initial period.

The 2019-20 defensive strategy only works, to the extent it does, if players fly in quickly from five or more yards away and make solid one-on-one tackles after receptions. Many of UF’s defenders are not (yet?) good at doing that, but they don’t have to be if they’re closer than five yards away when the ball is delivered.

It’s far too early to say whether the bend-but-don’t-break soft coverage will become the situational scheme with tight coverage the default, but after Saturday, it would take some real convincing to make it sound like going the old way is the right way.

Offensive line

The game on Saturday was the most impressive offensive line work from the Gators since at least the Will Muschamp administration. Over the years John Hevesy took an increasing amount of heat, including from me, for his lackluster recruiting and long developmental process. The Alabama game made it look like it has all paid off, but it wasn’t an straightforward path to get here.

Four years into the Mullen era, 40% of the starting offensive linemen are still not players who signed for the current staff at Florida. Plus the only reason those two are even on the field is the COVID eligibility mulligan.

With that said, Joshua Braun rotated in place of Stewart Reese regularly in both halves and performed well. There was even a two-play window after Jean Delance went down in the first half where the entire line consisted of Mullen Florida signees. Braun had rotated in for the series, and Michael Tarquin subbed in at right tackle. Reese was back on the ensuing drive, but Tarquin was with him for that series before Delance was ready to return. That series was Florida’s first touchdown drive.

So, it’s possible that UF’s O-line would be in fine shape even if Delance and Reese didn’t get to come back for their sixth years.

However, it’s also a stroke of luck that Braun is even on the team. He only decommitted from Georgia because Arkansas made the unorthodox move of hiring an offensive line coach with no prior head coaching experience in Sam Pittman. If Chad Morris wasn’t such a disaster in Fayetteville, and if there wasn’t a once-in-a-century pandemic, we wouldn’t be seeing this level of line play. Of course without the pandemic, they’d probably still have blue chipper Issiah Walker on the roster. The randomness and complexity of the world cuts both ways over the long term, even if not in short stretches.

It is validation of the staff’s eye for talent that former 3-star prospects Ethan White and Kingsley Eguakun are integral parts of the line. It’s also true that the two linemen who were able to contribute earliest in their careers were 4-stars Richard Gouraige and Braun. The one former 3-star that the staff tried playing major snaps as a second-year player was Chris Bleich in 2019, and it went poorly on and off the field. White did look promising as a true freshman later that season, but he only started one game and was out to injury a lot of 2020.

Hevesy apparently needed to set up a developmental pipeline to get a line this good, but he could’ve had more success sooner if he’d been able to sign more players of Gouraige’s and Braun’s caliber. A system that needs several years to get players ready is brittle, as it’s not resilient in cases of unexpected attrition. It’s also not as appealing to the top-rated talent that expects to be able to legitimately compete for playing time soon after arriving on campus.

With all that said, Florida had an offensive line that wore down Alabama’s defensive front and paved the way for nearly six yards per carry. Regardless of how they got there and what might come next, that’s an unqualified triumph for Hevesy and his linemen.

David Wunderlich
David Wunderlich is a born-and-raised Gator and a proud Florida alum. He has been writing about Florida and SEC football since 2006. He currently lives in Naples Italy, at least until the Navy stations his wife elsewhere. You can follow him on Twitter @Year2