Florida’s defense came up big against Mississippi State, holding the Bulldogs to a pair of field goals and, especially in the second half, providing a field position advantage. It was the unit’s best overall game on the year.
The defense allowed two long drives in the first half but gave little ground in the second half other than flags. Some of that was luck with some dropped passes from the Bulldogs, but the defense did make some big plays after the break as well.
Here are my takeaways from the film study of this phase of the game.
Personnel packages
Florida used more true 3-4 packages instead of its 3-3-5 base in the two weeks prior to playing Mississippi State. The reason was that Colorado State and Tennessee are among the few teams nationally to still employ a fullback regularly and try heavy run sets. When those teams went big, the Gators did too.
Mississippi State is much more on the spread side of things. They went three or four wide on I think every play, so Florida countered with its base nickel defense all game long. They did employ a 2-4-5 alignment on a 3rd & 11 once in the second half, and they went true dime with a 2-3-6 on a 3rd & 9 to close out the Bulldogs’ penultimate drive. However other than that, they stuck with the 3-3-5 all the way.
One personnel change they made a bit in the fourth quarter was putting Cece Jefferson in the defensive end spot opposite Jachai Polite in the buck. Jefferson has played the buck this year, but I think that late in the game as MSU was passing a lot Todd Grantham wanted to have both Jefferson and Polite rushing Nick Fitzgerald simultaneously. So, Jefferson got some work in with his hand in the dirt as a defensive end with Polite the stand up buck on the other side of the line.
The Gators did occasionally have a defensive back up at the linebacker level to make a seven-man box, but it wasn’t the same thing as what they did against Kentucky. It came exclusively when MSU had three receivers to the wide side of the field and a tight end on the end of the line on the short side. UF would have CJ Henderson over on the short side to cover the tight end should he go out for a pass, so it wasn’t an adjustment to try to contain the run.
Option football
Joe Moorhead has a reputation for being an innovator in coaching circles because he’s been on the forefront of run-pass options. The Bulldogs had begun to dabble with them in recent years under Dan Mullen, but Moorhead brought that to a new level.
Every so often Florida will do an RPO, and it can be obvious because Feleipe Franks is awkward when he pulls the ball away from a running back and tries to throw on the run. Fitzgerald is a lot more fluid at it.
He’s also a lot more effective at it. Whether it was true RPOs or just run-based option football, those were the plays that succeeded the best for the Bulldogs.
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