The measuring stick for Dan McCarney has always been Troy Davis, his tailback at Iowa State who became the first back in college football history to record back-to-back 2,000-yard seasons (1995-96). Davis did things that defied description, which is probably a good way to describe the guy that McCarney and his Florida defensive line has to stop or else significantly slow down Saturday.
Davis was good enough to finish a fairly close second place to Florida’s Danny Wuerffel in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1996 when he gained 2,185 yards for a team that won only two games. This was McCarney’s second year as the Iowa State head coach and he built the entire offense around Davis, a fluid 5-8, 183 pounds who was as tough between the tackles as he was difficult to grab in the open field.
The focus for fifth-ranked Florida (6-1, 4-1 SEC East) Saturday will be stopping Knowshon Moreno, the big play tailback for eighth-ranked Georgia (7-1, 4-1 SEC East). Moreno is Georgia’s offensive catalyst but unlike Davis at Iowa State, he doesn’t have to shoulder the entire load. Georgia’s offense uses the threat of Moreno to open things up for the passing game with strong-armed quarterback Matthew Stafford. Stafford throws an NFL caliber deep ball but it is Knowshon that saps the life out of a defense.
“He’s as good as I’ve ever seen that I’ve coached against or watched on tape,” said McCarney, Florida’s first year defensive line coach who cut his coaching teeth as an assistant in the Big Ten before venturing to the Big 12 as a head coach. “His consistency, productivity … and he’s so physical and so tough. He’s great for the game when you don’t have to try to tackle him like we do this week. He plays the game the way any coach would ever want a young man to play the game.”
What makes Moreno so valuable to Georgia isn’t so much the number of yards he gets, but when he gets them. Defenses can keep him under control almost the entire game, but the one play he gets loose is the one that is the nine-inch stiletto to the heart.
Moreno is as good breaking tackles as he is making a defender miss. Try to undercut him and he’s shown that he’ll jump over the tackler. He is a nightmare to defend, especially when Georgia needs a third down conversion or a big play.
“It’s not yards … it really isn’t,” said McCarney Sunday evening. “It’s not yards nearly as much as it is big runs, yards after contact … you get down there and you have three guys in position to make a play and he makes them miss or breaks tackles and then all of a sudden he gets down in the red zone. He’s a great back. The closer he gets to the goal line he’s even better.”
Moreno ate up the Gators last year, carrying 33 times for 188 yards and three touchdowns in Georgia’s 42-30 win. He gained 1,334 yards as a redshirt freshman last year and he’s proving he’s immune to the sophomore jinx this season with 925 yards and 12 touchdowns through eight games. He’s gone off for 458 yards in the last three games, so he comes into the Florida game on a roll.
As Moreno goes, so go the Bulldogs. He might be difficult to stop and nearly impossible to contain but there are ways to take him out of the game. Alabama controlled the ball, scored early and often and clogged up the running lanes long enough to force Georgia to abandon the run completely. Moreno finished with an almost harmless 34 yards on nine carries in the only game Georgia has lost this season.
Florida never could force Georgia out of its game plan last year. The Bulldogs controlled the clock with Moreno and that served the purpose of keeping Florida’s high-powered offense off the field as well as setting it up for Stafford to pick apart the Gator secondary. The threat of Moreno was so great that the Gators bit on nearly every play-action fake. Stafford completed 11-18 passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns.
McCarney knows that if the Gators can’t control Moreno, they won’t have much luck stopping Stafford, either.
“Moreno had some big runs [last year] … I think around 190 yards,” said McCarney. “That’s what we’ve got to try to cut down on and try to eliminate but at least cut down on from last year because that really hurt our football team.”
Stafford has always had the big arm but now he’s got a go-to receiver that can stretch the field in A.J. Green. Green is a true freshman that has carved up defenses for 39 catches, 662 yards and five touchdowns so far.
With Green as an option in the passing game and Moreno there to freeze defenses as a running threat, Stafford is way ahead of last year’s pace when he threw for 2,523 yards and 19 touchdowns. He’s thrown for 1,946 yards and 12 touchdowns so far, hitting 61.6 percent of his passes. Stafford has completed passes of at least 30 yards to nine different receivers so far this season.
“I’ve never coached in the NFL but that [Stafford] sure looks like a first rounder to me,” said McCarney. “He’s a great football player.”
It’s the balance that Stafford provides that makes McCarney’s job all the more difficult. He’s got to prep his defensive line to stop Moreno while at the same time get them ready to get in Stafford’s face with a steady pass rush.
The balance in the offense also creates plenty of big play opportunities for the Bulldogs.
“That’s why you see them way up there in the national stats running the ball, throwing the ball, the points they put up on the board and why they’re ranked in the top ten in America,” said McCarney. “There’s great balance. They execute it and they have a real good plan. You may stop them a couple of plays and all of a sudden that same play they’re execute it and there comes the big play. They did the same thing on LSU the other night … it’s a game, it’s a game, it’s a game and it’s 24-17 all of a sudden it’s wham! And it looks like a blowout because they hit them with so many big plays.”
As good as Georgia is, McCarney’s linemen have been steadily improving and they are coming off two exceptional efforts. Against LSU, they stuffed the Tigers great tailback Charles Scott and held him to 35 yards, 18 of which came on the last play of a 30-point blowout loss. Against Kentucky, the Gators held the Wildcats out of the end zone and under 300 yards.
Florida’s success has everything to do with relentless effort.
“If we’re not relentless we have no chance to win this game,” said McCarney. “We have to be relentless as a defense and especially as a defensive line.”
McCarney began preaching relentless effort during the spring, about the same time he force fed young guys into the rotation. There were times when some of his linemen looked like lost balls in the tall grass but it’s starting to pay off now with consistent play.
Florida ranks first in the SEC in scoring defense (11.9 points per game) and third in the league in both total defense (273.4 yards per game) and rushing defense (102.7 yards per game). Those are significant improvements over last year when the Gators had no depth. McCarney has the advantage of running players in and out, keeping fresh troops in the game at all times.
“I played nine or ten Saturday [against Kentucky],” he said. “It [depth] started this last March when we started spring ball and it’s paying off for us right now. We’re playing lots of guys and it’s a good rotation.”
He is having success rotating players in and out because he’s got both the first and second teamers competing for playing time every day in practice and every play they’re on the field in a game.
“Whoever’s coming off that bench, play like a starter and if you do that we have a chance to have a real special season,” said McCarney.
The season could take on a very special feel to it Saturday if the Gators can put the clamps on Georgia. A win and the Gators are in control of the SEC East Division race and they’ll rise up the BCS standings. It all starts with finding a way to make life difficult for Knowshon Moreno.