The Florida Gators offense is electric, scoring seemingly at will, and yet, that isn’t the story we’re talking about after a 41-38 loss to Texas A&M.
Florida’s defense, a unit that has carried the Gators for a decade has fallen on hard times. Florida has given up 100 points in three games, they’re allowing opponents to convert 58.70% of their third-down attempts (second-worst in the SEC), ranked 13th in total defense (495 yards a game), 12th in passing defense (331 yards a game), 12th in rushing defense (164 yards a game), and 11th in scoring defense (allowing 33.3 points a game). In fact, only Ole Miss, North Texas, East Carolina, and Texas Tech are giving up more yards per game than the Florida Gators.
That’s why, following the loss, Dan Mullen’s Sunday routine changed.
“I probably spent more time during a normal day with the defense but certainly not going to see – you know, just making sure we were going through every detail with them,” Mullen said of how he spent his Sunday afternoon at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
One drive that really stands out from the Texas A&M game comes in the second half. Florida and Texas A&M had been trading punches. The Gators scored touchdowns on all three of its first-half drives and held Texas A&M to a field goal before halftime. However, the Aggies started the second half with the ball, Gators get a stop and force a punt. The offense drove down the field, once again, and scored a touchdown. Four drives. Four touchdowns. Evan McPherson’s kickoff went for a touchback but the Aggies were hit with an unsportsmanlike penalty, so they’re pushed back to their own 13. Now is the time. Florida’s defense has forced a field goal and a punt on its last two drives. The score is 28-17. A three-and-out here and your offense, which is already 4/4 scoring touchdowns, will have a short field and could make it 35-17.
Texas A&M ran a 10-play, 83-yard drive for a touchdown. Nine of those plays were runs, amounting to 76 yards, or 8.4 per attempt.
“It was interesting that they were able to do that on that drive,” Mullen said when I asked him about it on a Monday Zoom call. “You look, it wasn’t that case really the rest of the day. That drive, they did a good job of it and we’ve got to fit better. Some of it is good offense. Some of it is getting guys in the right position. Some of it’s them creating some really good matchups out there on the field, of us, they have some players on the field you’ve got to be ready to defend. And them taking what they give us, you know what I mean? Or them taking what we gave them, and they were able to do that. But I think hopefully we’re going to be a lot stouter in the run game this week.”
Part of getting stouter against the run would be getting senior defensive tackle Kyree Campbell back in the fold. Campbell has missed the first three games for an undisclosed reason and that has forced Florida to play Zachary Carter and Brenton Cox out of position. Carter was set to play strong-side defensive end but has been playing inside where Campbell would start and Cox moved from Buck to strong-side defensive end.
There’s not a lot Florida can do about those depth issues right now aside from playing entirely new personnel but that is part of what Mullen wanted to find out when he spent Sunday with the defensive staff.
“We went through personnel. We went through each guy,” Mullen said. “We went through, are we asking guys to do things they can do well? Where are we being mismatched? Where is, right at this moment, where is their strength? Where is their weakness? And are we highlighting their strengths and protecting their weaknesses? We certainly look at that. I probably spent more time during a normal day with the defense but certainly not going to see – you know, just making sure we were going through every detail with them. But I wouldn’t expect me to be calling defensive plays or anything.”