In the financial world a downtrend describes the direction of a financial asset that is trending downward. A formal downtrend occurs when each successive peak and trough is lower than the one previous.
The Florida Gators rushing attack is in a downtrend and in danger of crashing. If the Florida rushing game were a stock, you would have sold weeks ago.
The Gators started the year off with 259 rushing yards on 39 attempts and four rushing scores. That offensive output was the 22nd ranked rushing attack in the country. The following week Florida toted the rock a whopping 50 times in a triple overtime win against Kentucky, amassing 237 yards.
Then, Alabama came and Florida was stonewalled for their lowest rushing output of the season, just 107 yards on 27 carries. The following week saw more yards (156) but it took 48 carries to gain that, giving Florida their lowest yards-per-carry average of the season at 3.25.
Last week Florida ran the ball 32 times but only 10 of those carries came from running backs with Andre Debose taking a sweep and Jeff Driskel carrying the load with 21 carries of his own. In total, the running backs gained just 17 yards.
The tipping point of the fan’s frustrations came last week. The decision to run Brandon Powell (5-9, 177 pounds) on first and goal following the Florida Gators 73-yard pass that gave the Gators the ball at the two-yard line is one that incensed the fan base.
With Matt Jones sidelined with knee and ankle injuries, the coaching staff was without their most trusted running back. And it’s a trust issue that has kept other backs from getting a chance to make plays in those late game opportunities.
“It’s not just about carrying the ball,” Will Muschamp said. “There’s protection and there’s a lot of things that go involved with being a running back.”
Offensive coordinator Kurt Roper — the man responsible for calling plays for Florida — echoed those sentiments and used it to explain why he went with Brandon Powell on the goal line run, late in the game.
“Well, I thought Brandon made a lot of plays as the game went on,” he said. “We had a protection issue early in the game and in those situations it just affects the thought process through the game.”
That protection issue came on a third down passing play on the very first drive of the game. Kelvin Taylor correctly recognized the blitz coming from the strong side but took a poor route to get to his man. Instead of blocking the LSU defender, Taylor bumped into Driskel as he was throwing the ball, forcing the pass to fall well short of its intended target.
“He was getting to the right guy that he didn’t see immediately. He just didn’t take the best path to get to the blitzing linebacker,” Driskel said of Taylor. “That’s just something that happens. We’re going to get it corrected. It was unfortunate in that situation because [Latroy Pittman] was open and probably would have been enough for a first down.”
That has been the crux of the issue with both Taylor and Mack Brown. Brown has struggled for years picking up blitzes and recognizing who to block. It’s kept Brown off of the field and is starting to do the same with Taylor.
Still, the question that begs asking is, if you’re running the ball with just two yards to go, why not use a bigger back than the 177-pound Powell to do so?
“[Powell] had been in that series and made some plays. So we just, that was the decision that we made at that point to put it in his hands,” Roper said. “And so we felt pretty confident we knew what we were going to get schematically, and it’s what we felt our best thought was at that point.”
“And then the next down, we obviously put a lead blocker in there and tried to run the quarterback to get our numbers right and put a heavier guy in there on second down. But we felt like we could number up. That’s the best way I can say it on the scheme right there.”
Ultimately, this coaching staff is going to play the players that they are confident in. Muschamp mentioned earlier in the season that it’s important fro freshmen to string together two, three and four good practices together to gain the staff’s confidence. Right now, despite what they may say publically, the staff’s actions show that they don’t trust Brown and Taylor enough to play them late in games and in critical situations.
Both players know what they need to do to earn that trust but they need to start doing it on the practice field before they’ll get the opportunity to do it on Saturday.
OK, I’ll buy that Taylor may not block well/has “protection” issues. Then why not put him in for plays designed ONLY for him to run or catch a pass or be required to do anything other than block/protect?
Surely, when all he has to do is run, Taylor is very qualified. By not using him to capitalize on certain plays with his talents, this staff is squandering them….and, for some players that just don’t produce during the game, the staff’s trust is perhaps misplaced situationally-speaking.
Only issue with putting kt in for only rushing plays is it wouldn’t be long before a team figures that out. He HAS to do the little things. If he can’t/won’t block what happens if Treon or driskel check out of a running play that was set for kt but because of what the defense is showing we audible to a pass? If kt doesn’t pick up the blitz and our qb gets rocked , nothing good would come from that.
And also its not really fair to the other guys on the team who might be working hard to become a complete back if KT just wants the rock but doesn’t want to pay his dues to earn it. Let’s be honest, , I like kt and his potential but he’s hasn’t done anything to date , except being a legacy, that would warrant just giving him the Lions share of the carries.
I would have much more appreciated the coaches simply saying…”we screwed up pretty bad there” After watching football as a fan for 40 years or so I would assume a rollout, or something around the end in space would have worked. The straight ahead with a small back stinks of our head coaches previous default theory- When in doubt run up the middle. Poor descisions demand change. Afterall, that’s what they teach the kids…be accountable, admit it and move on. The coaching continues to do the same thing. Zook always did that. Didn’t work out all that well for him. At least he beat some rivals. Even hardcore Muschamp followers are dissolusioned after that freaking debacle-and for good reason. I’m not ashamed of telling the truth either. The kids are kids, they’re out on the field busting their asses. The coaches are adults that get paid to perform. They either work hard and get results or work hard and can’t figure it out. It’s gotten so bad that when Driskel connected on one pass I was jumping up and down. It’s a freaking pass…that’s what footballers do, they pass, catch, block, kick and tackle. We fallen pretty far when a single pass seems like such an aceivement. I wish for the best…I pray for the kids. Go Gators.