When a team like Florida plays a team like Charleston Southern, it can be difficult to learn anything from the game. It’s particularly so considering the Buccaneers aren’t just an FCS team, they’re a bad FCS team. For instance, they’re ranked No. 192 out of 255 Division I teams in the Sagarin ratings.
So what can the Gators possibly prove from playing such an overmatched opponent? Well, there are three things I’ll be watching for when UF kicks off against CSU. These aren’t planned changes from last year like more effort into special teams and more spread formations, but rather stuff that may or may not be on display that I want to see from the team.
Organization
Not only does Florida have a new system on both sides of the ball, but not a single assistant coach held over from the old staff to the new. While that can be seen as a good thing for a variety of reasons, it also means that Saturday will be the first time anyone from this set of coaches will play a real game with this set of players.
Therefore from a broad perspective, I want to see a team that looks like it knows what its doing.
A lot of this factor can be seen simply from the perspective of penalties. Do they get called for any substitution infractions? Do the offense and defense line up correctly? Do they always have exactly 11 men on the field at a time, especially in quick change situations like punts?
It then gets specific in each phase of the game. Does a receiver break one way with the quarterback throwing it the other? Does the offensive line miss a blitzer? How many times will Dan Mullen have to call timeout to avoid a delay of game? Will the secondary completely blow any coverages? Does a linebacker fill the wrong gap? It even goes down to individual players, such as how well Nick Buchanan does with snaps in his first game action at center.
There will be some mistakes. They’re inevitable. What I’m looking for is to see as few of them as possible and ideally none of them repeated through the game. It’s too early to expect a well-oiled machine, but learning from mistakes would be great.
Down-by-down offensive efficiency
In 1988, Florida blasted Montana State 69-0 to start the year. The biggest season opening-win for the Gators since then did not come during the Spurrier or Meyer eras. Instead, it came in 2014 when Florida demolished Eastern Michigan 65-0.
I bring this up because it actually was possible to tell from that game that the 2014 offense was not necessarily going to light it up that year. The pre-garbage time success rate for that game was under 30%, a fact I used in a video I made years ago about the importance of success rate. This was against a dreadful EMU defense. Would it get any better against SEC defenses? Well, y’all remember how that year went.
The Gators’ offense should have some explosive plays thanks to simply having bigger, stronger, and faster athletes than Charleston Southern does. Those kinds of plays may have a big role in running up a nice, gaudy score.
The key for me is not only seeing UF’s players running by, over, and through overmatched and undersized defenders but also to see them stay on schedule in between those big gains. A hiccup here and there is fine, but if they can’t succeed on a down-by-down basis against Charleston Southern, they’re going to have a hard time doing it against better teams.
Earn a shutout*
The Gators have managed to pitch a shutout since that misleading win to open 2014; they blanked North Texas 32-0 in 2016. However, it would inspire confidence in this year’s defense to see them hold CSU to exactly zero points.
Now, I did put an asterisk there in the section heading. When a team like Charleston Southern scores in a game like this, it often is because the favored team did something wrong. Maybe the power conference team has a big special teams breakdown or turns it over in field goal range for the opponent. Or, it could come in garbage time when FCS starters are going up against the freshmen and walk ons at the end of the game.
Those cases aren’t really what I’m looking for here. If the Buccaneers score because Feleipe Franks throws a pick at his own 20, well, I’m not going to fault the defense for the ensuing three points.
I’m more looking to see the defense do its job to stay focused through the whole game and stop a much less talented attack from sustaining anything.
This could prove difficult. Charleston Southern runs a triple option variant, and it can be tough for players to stay at home and do their job every time against such schemes. It also is not hard to have a lapse on defense when the score gets lopsided. The 2009 Gator defense fell asleep for a few plays late in the second quarter against Charleston Southern while up 42-0 and let the Buccaneers get a cheap field goal.
Looking through the same lens as now, I would be completely willing to give the ’09 defense a pass for that since that unit was in large part a repeat of the highly successful 2008 defense. This year’s bunch has a lot to prove though, especially since giving up explosive plays was a problem both for them and for Todd Grantham in 2017.
Therefore, I want to see the defense not give up any big plays that lead to a cheap score. I want to see Grantham shut out the opponent like he did last year in Mississippi State’s 49-0 season-opening win over this same CSU team. If the Gator defense wants to proclaim itself back after a bad 2017, this will be the best way to do it.