The Week That Was: Five thoughts on the LSU game

The Gators fell to LSU on Saturday in Baton Rouge by a score of 49-42. Here are my thoughts on the week that was, with a heavy emphasis on the big-picture state of the program.

1. Todd Grantham has got to go.

Any defense that gives up 321 rushing yards and 7.1 yards per carry to one of the worst rushing teams in the country that was playing for a lame duck coaching staff is beyond repair.

LSU beat them with the same two or three basic plays over and over again. It’s not like they ran some exotic blocking schemes or got the ball out to the perimeter a lot. All they did was line up and carve out massive holes in UF’s defensive front.

You’re telling me that Grantham doesn’t have something in his playbook that can combat a power rushing attack?

They didn’t even try to adjust. Grantham kept lining up the same way and calling the same plays. I get trusting your defensive linemen to figure things out on the fly and play better, but, at a certain point, you’ve got to put extra defenders in the box or try some different run blitzes or something. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.

A failure to make adjustments has been a recurring problem throughout Grantham’s 3 ½ seasons as defensive coordinator. There are a couple of games every season where the initial defensive game plan looks pretty good, but then the opposing offense adjusts and exploits the same mismatches over and over again.

Then there are the failures to get lined up against tempo, the miscommunications in the secondary and the dumb penalties that Grantham has talked about cleaning up for two years now that still hurt them periodically.

And, of course, how many times have the Gators’ cornerbacks lined up 10 yards off the ball on third-and-3 over the past couple of years?

Grantham’s scheme is a very passive way to play defense. They just kind of sit back, let you move the ball five yards at a time and hope that you make a mistake. Hope isn’t a very good strategy, as evidenced by their meager six takeaways in seven games.

This defense isn’t fast, physical or aggressive, and that starts at the top.

2. That being said, the defense has more issues than just the scheme.

The scheme is bad, but the defensive roster isn’t very good, either. They have one strongside end that they trust to play big snaps in Zachary Carter and one more that’s starting to get there in Princely Umanmielen.

The defensive tackle group is filled with young players who aren’t ready to play yet due to several years of poor recruiting. With Ventrell Miller out for the year, the linebacking rotation consists of two guys who started their careers as edge rushers (Mohamoud Diabate and Jeremiah Moon), a guy who’s a tweener between linebacker and safety (Amari Burney) and a converted high school defensive back (Ty’Ron Hopper).

Two of their top-3 cornerbacks are a redshirt freshman and a true freshman, and one of their starting safeties has bounced around the secondary with varying degrees of success (Trey Dean).

But, hey, at least they’ll be able to rush the passer for years to come thanks to their collection of highly ranked edge players.

This roster is extremely unbalanced, and that shows up in certain games more than others.

This is both a recruiting issue and a player development issue. Other than Carter, name one defensive starter who is substantially better now than he was when he first got to UF? Even the two defensive tackle transfers aren’t playing as well now as they did at their previous schools.

I believe that firing Grantham is necessary, but fixing this defense is more than a one-step process.

3. Dan Mullen should start feeling the pressure, but it’s premature to say that he’s on the hot seat.

The Gators are just 2-6 in their last eight games against Power Five opponents, and that includes two unacceptable losses to undermanned LSU teams and a loss at Kentucky. That’s not the Gator Standard, and he will be fired if he doesn’t reverse that trend soon.

However, I believe that you’ve got to take the list of possible replacements into account when deciding whether to fire a coach. This doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a great year to be on the market for a new coach. There isn’t that one obvious up-and-comer that all of the big boys are going to come gunning for nor is there a candidate with an obvious connection to UF.

Could the Gators fire Mullen and possibly land a coach that’ll lead the program to a national championship in his second or third year? Yes. But, it’s just as likely – if not more likely – that they could hire the next Will Muschamp or Jim McElwain and find themselves in four-quarter battles with Georgia Southern and Florida Atlantic again.

Mullen is a safe choice for a head coach. You know that, for the most part, he is going to field an offense that’s good enough to beat any team in the country, with a couple of exceptions like the Kentucky game this year. You don’t really have to worry about that side of the ball, which cannot be automatically said about whoever they might hire next.

I’d prefer to see Mullen clean house on defense and make the 2022 season his potential hot seat year. If he refuses to do that, then this becomes a different conversation.

4. Based on Mullen’s comments after the game, I’ll be stunned if Anthony Richardson isn’t the starting quarterback against Georgia.

He was asked point blank about who his starter is, and he gave some generic response about how they were going to evaluate everything and go from there. A week ago, that question would’ve prompted him to defend Emory Jones with some condescending remark that made the reporter feel stupid for asking the question.

The fact that he didn’t do that this time is a pretty strong indication that he’s going to go with Richardson moving forward. You can’t leave the door open like that for two weeks and then go back to Jones. He’s backed himself into a corner at this point.

Plus, anybody with eyes and any sort of football knowledge knows that this offense functions better with Richardson playing quarterback. He makes quick decisions, albeit not always the correct ones, which allows the offense to function in a more organized and normal-looking fashion. Plus, he obviously has the ability to create a big play on every snap with both his arm and his legs.

I like Jones, and I think his loyalty to the program is commendable, but it’s obvious to just about everybody that he doesn’t process information fast enough to play quarterback at this level. By the time he recognizes that a receiver is open, it’s too late, which leads to interceptions and overly conservative play-calling by Mullen.

Richardson gives them the chance to run the full playbook, and his potential is enormous.

If I can see that on television, Mullen certainly can see it, too.

5. The offensive line is struggling again.

The Gators only ran for 138 yards and 3.9 yards per carry against one of the worst rushing defenses in the SEC. They also gave up two sacks and a couple of more pressures that led to interceptions.

The left side of the line in particular had an awful day. Left tackle Richard Gouraige got beat badly a couple of times, and Josh Braun struggled while filling in for an injured Ethan White at guard.

That performance came a week after not being able to generate much of a running game against Vanderbilt and two weeks after costing the Gators the game against Kentucky.

I don’t know if the offensive line is playing substantially worse now or if defenses have figured out how to stop UF’s running game, but they’ve got to get it figured out quick before they play Georgia. I don’t expect that game to be close, but they at least need to keep from embarrassing themselves.