They’ve been the scapegoat for years but now the Florida Gators offensive line is turning heads and changing opinions.
Pro Football Focus graded the Gators’ win over LSU last Saturday with center T.J. McCoy grading out as the best player on Florida’s offense (80.3). Martez Ivey, who has been named SEC Offensive linemen of the week twice this season, graded out third at 76.7 and Fred Johnson was fifth on the team at 74.1.
“I thought our O-line was challenged and they answered a little bit,” Jim McElwain said on Monday. “Obviously, they’ve got to go against the team that leads the country in sacks with Florida State so there’s no real time to enjoy it. What I tried to do was let them know – reflect back on how and why, enjoy it and let’s get back to work today and move on. “
The Gators face a tall task this week, but the ragtag group put together due to injuries across the line is finally hitting its stride.
It started improbably. Sophomore Tyler Jordan replaced Cam Dillard at center when Dillard went down at Arkansas with a knee injury. Jordan lasted one play against South Carolina before he went down with an ankle injury. That thrust McCoy, who was listed as the third team center entering the season, into a prominent role. He never looked back.
“My role has just been, you know, just come in and step in and do what I have to do,” he said.” Coach Summers talks a lot about having faith in what you do. Practicing hard every single day, working on the little things like details, stepping with the right foot, coming off the ball and being physical. So my thing is just being coachable and just stepping in a role that was a really big role to fill and just doing the things that I’m coached to do.”
The biggest surprise on the line is how they’ve been able to gel and mesh with limited reps together. Against South Carolina Martez Ivey slid from left guard to left tackle and Kavaris Harkless took over at guard with McCoy at center. Sharpe returned last week against LSU, moving Ivey back to guard. Cohesion, trust and familiarity are key on the offensive line, where one weak link can crumble the entire unit. The fact that the Gators are playing their best while moving pieces back and forth is commendable and, almost, incomprehensible.
There was also some fuel added by LSU last week. Several Tiger players called out the Gators offensive line saying that Florida couldn’t pass block and couldn’t run the ball to the left.
“It was a personal challenge, but we answered it and we worked hard all week doing what we had to do, preparing hard, watching film and just knowing that it’s going to be a physical game,” McCoy said. “It was going to be a dogfight and we had to step to the occasion.”
Florida State brings a whole new slate of challenges this week. The Noles defensive front leads the nation with 41 sacks. They now have two weeks of film from the Gators’ re-tooled offensive line and will likely try to attack areas where they deem Florida to be weak at. The line will face a test but they’ve injected confidence in the other six players on the field with them, especially the one they’ll be blocking for the most this Saturday.
“I think the offensive line has been better than it has been all year,” sophomore running back Jordan Scarlett said. “Those new games came in, like I said, they haven’t been playing, so they come in a lot more hungry, willing to do anything to play. They’re just excited to be on that field. When you’ve got guys like that, who play with that passion, we’ll get a lot done.”