While the quarterback play left something to be desired in the Gators’ opener against Florida Atlantic, the same cannot be said about UF’s offensive line in their first game operating a more run-centric offense.
The Gators rushed for 400 yards, their most since 2014, at an 8.7 yards-per-carry clip. UF scored four rushing touchdowns and came 26 yards away from having three 100-yard rushers.
That’s a far cry from the past two seasons, when the offensive line wasn’t asked to run-block much and struggled mightily when they were. The Gators ranked 107th in the country in rushing in 2019 and 96th last year.
They lead the nation after one week in 2021.
Oh, and their pass-protection was outstanding once again against the Owls, as they didn’t surrender a sack or a quarterback hurry.
“We just dominated the ball,” left tackle Richard Gouraige said. “That’s what Coach [Dan Mullen] has been preaching. ‘We’ve got to run the ball this year.’ That’s what we’ve been doing. So, that was a first. That was a good little head start.
“Going into the season, we know that we have different quarterbacks and stuff like that, so our offense is definitely going to change. We just had to dial in as a whole offense. These are guys that, these are their strong suits and stuff like that, and we just have to execute with these type of players. So far, we’ve been handling the situation pretty well.”
Yes, the Gators had a significant talent advantage over FAU, but UF plays these so-called “cupcake games” every year, and only eight times in school history have the Gators run for more yards in a game than they did on Saturday. That’s worth celebrating regardless of the opponent.
Mullen thinks the amount of experience his five starting linemen have allowed them to get off to a hot start. The group had started a combined 88 games between them entering this season. So, they didn’t have those first game jitters that younger players might have.
“To them it’s not, ‘Hey, I’m out on the field. Wow, this is a crazy experience,’” Mullen said. “Their adjustment is, ‘We’re back out on the field.’ So, they’re kind of adjusting to game mode, game speed, game dynamics more than just the experience of playing, but I thought those guys handled it pretty well.”
Now the offensive line wants to keep moving forward and not revert to the way they played in 2019 and 2020. They can’t let the FAU game be nothing more than a footnote to another season of rushing futility.
Though they paved the way for a historic night in the ground game, the offensive line was far from perfect. The interior of the line had trouble generating push at times, especially in short-yardage and goal-line situations.
When you have third-and-goal at the 2, you cannot lose yards on back-to-back running plays, especially against an inferior opponent like FAU.
Mullen wants to see the offensive line reliably open holes on the ground, not just create an explosive play every couple of drives.
“Missed a couple of blocks here and there,” he said. “They missed a couple of decisions within our scheme and what we were doing. That way would be a big way to get those guys to continue. Not all of them graded out. Just more consistency of play would be important.
“You see some really good things they did, and they missed a couple things here and there that we’ll get corrected.”
The offensive line’s ultimate test is next week. No. 1 Alabama and their annual collection of future millionaires will invade the Swamp on Sept. 18. For the Gators to have any chance at winning that game, the running game will need to be dominant.
If they can shorten the game and score every time they get an opportunity, they’ll give themselves a chance to get a milestone victory.
The Gators aren’t looking that far ahead, though. They don’t care about what Alabama’s going to do or even what their rushing statistics will look like at South Florida this weekend. They just want to improve every day.
“We’re just taking it day-by-day, really, just trying to fix our mistakes in practice every day,” Gouraige said. “It’s either pass or run or just communication, really. I feel like that’s very critical in the offensive line, that we have a great chemistry with our quarterbacks and stuff like that. We’re just taking it day-by-day and can’t really look ahead.
“Coach [has] been telling us to keep it day-by-day, just keep getting better, work on your fundamentals and stuff like that, just understand the whole scheme of what they’re running. Just basically trust your technique and just go out and have fun and go play.”
The running game is off to a hot start, but can they maintain it?
We should get the answer to that question next week.