All season the Florida Gators have taken an “us against the world mentality.” Credit the coaching staff for ingraining that credo so deeply into the minds of the players that sophomore offensive lineman Fred Johnson made this comment.
“We were the underdog in what, every game we played this year? Even with North Texas,” he said.
Not quite, Fred. The Gators were 34-point favorites against the Mean Green in week three; they are, however, the underdog this week.
A historic underdog at that.
The No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide is a 24-point favorite, tying the largest point spread in SEC Championship game history. Alabama comes into Saturday’s championship with the SEC’s top-ranked scoring offense (39.4 points per game) and defense (11.6 points per game). Nick Saban’s defense didn’t give up a touchdown in the month of November. The Gators come stumbling into the game off the heels of a 31-13 loss to Florida State, just like they did a year ago. Florida has also scored just one offensive touchdown in their last 10 quarters.
On paper the game is a mismatch. Nobody in their right mind is picking the Gators to win this week. Jim McElwain doesn’t see this game as a mismatch, however, and neither do his players.
“I don’t look at it as a mismatch at all,” McElwain responded when directly asked if the game was just that. “I look at it as a great opportunity and you know that’s part of the chess match. We’re whatever you want to say. I know this, we’re playing in this game and we’re going to give ourselves every opportunity to be successful.”
An opportunity it is. A win would give McElwain his first conference championship and send the Gators to the Sugar Bowl. Not to mention the recruiting bump Florida would likely get when the coaching staff hits the road on Sunday. How do the Gators do that though? They rank in the bottom half of the SEC in scoring, rushing, passing and total offense. Florida is also ranked 127th in the country in redzone offense. Only 2-10 Rutgers is worse. Luckily for Florida, Alabama has only allowed opponents into the redzone 18 times this season, so maybe that hideous stat won’t matter.
Still, with a quarterback that has completed just half of his passes in the last two games, and a running attack that mustered up 58 yards on 29 carries a week ago supposed to move the ball on Alabama’s defense?
“Obviously this is a daunting task when you watch what they put together defensively and the bodies they put together,” McElwain said. “Jeremy Pruitt is doing one heck of a job coming and fitting in with Kirby leaving. They haven’t missed a beat from what they’re doing and the bodies they got. We’ll have to keep them off balance and that’s gotta be the key to what we do.”
If there is a chink in Alabama’s offense it’s been their pass defense. Sure, the Tide has the 11th best defense against the pass in the country, but considering their top two in scoring, rushing and total defense, 11 seems like the place to attack.
LSU was able to run the ball at Alabama, but that is only going to last so long. Florida is going to have to go against its normal gameplan this week and ask Austin Appleby to make plays to win the game.
“We’ve got to focus on giving our guys a chance this week,” McElwain said. “We’ve got to get the ball in a playmaker’s hands and space and a lot of them will be able to make plays and that’s got to be a focus this week.”
Last year that was Antonio Callaway, who electrified Gator Nation with a 85-yard touchdown on a punt return, giving Florida the briefest of leads. It could be freshman Tyrie Cleveland this year, whoever it is, offensive coordinator has to find new ways to get the ball into the hands of those two receivers in space.
“Yeah, I think one of the thing we got to do is make sure somewhere in there he’s in that eight to 12, with that maybe even more with the addition of the punt returns,” McElwain said of Callaway. “I think those are all touches we try to get him. Brandon Powell’s got to touch it in space. And Tyrie’s got to, we’ve got to get, this(CK) get-it-to list we’ve got to increase that.”
Florida isn’t expected to win this week. They probably don’t have the depth in McElwain’s second season to run with a team as talented and deep as Alabama for 60 minutes but that doesn’t mean they won’t try. The Gators, battered and bruised as they are, will show up on Saturday and they’ll try to shut up everyone telling them that they shouldn’t bother.
“I feel like we can beat anybody,” safety Marcell Harris said. “Anybody can be beat and that’s how we play.”