By Will Miles
42 Points
After the 13-point offensive thud that was the Kentucky game, the Gators offense looked to get back to normal against a bad Vanderbilt defense.
While you can argue whether they accomplished “normal”, what you can’t argue is that this offense has the ability to be really good when it puts everything together. There are still too many penalties (we’ll get to that in a minute) and the offensive line isn’t pushing people around like earlier in the season, but when Florida seemed motivated and focused, the Gators were able to do just about anything against Vanderbilt.
Of course, you’re supposed to be able to do that against Vandy. The Commodores are 2-4, but haven’t won an SEC game since 2019 (and only beat Missouri that year). I get that people wonder whether this game really gave Florida an opportunity to show who they are, but I do think this gave Florida an opportunity to improve.
Whether that improvement holds during the rest of the season is an open question, but progress is being made.
Consistently inconsistent
The biggest takeaway for me from the Vanderbilt game is that Florida is going to be consistently inconsistent, in all phases of the game.
The defense can shut down Alabama for a quarter, and then give up 200 yards to Vanderbilt in the first half. Emory Jones can make a bunch of good decisions, and then completely miss a linebacker in coverage and throw a bad INT. The offensive line can blow teams off the ball, and then struggle to open holes for the running back a few plays later.
It’s a really interesting dynamic because when everything is clicking, Florida has the ability to be a really electric team. But at the exact same time, Florida has the ability to be an incredibly frustrating team.
The Gators have yet to put together a full, 60-minute performance. Not against FAU or USF, certainly not against Alabama, Tennessee or Kentucky, and now against Vanderbilt. There are yards being left on the field consistently, within drives, within quarters and within games.
Perhaps nothing exemplifies this more than the opening drive of the second half. Florida appeared to go three-and-out, but got new life after executing a fake punt with Jeremy Crawshaw. They then proceeded to run for a loss of one, commit a false start and a holding to set up second-and-26, then hit Dameon Pierce for a 61-yard TD down the middle.
I’m not sure there’s a lot you can count on in 2021. But it appears that you can count on the Gators being inconsistent.
Penalties
Part of that inconsistency is the penalties. After committing 15 penalties against Kentucky, the Gators committed another 8 against the Commodores. This isn’t new: the Gators committed 9 penalties in the opener against FAU.
Combine that with the Gators having turned the ball over at least once in every contest, and you get the inconsistency that is so frustrating for all of us.
It’s not just the number of penalties though, it’s the timing and the type of penalty. The 8 false starts against Kentucky were bad penalties, but they cost the Gators multiple first-down opportunities by extending third-and-2’s to third-and-7’s. The same thing happened against Vanderbilt.
On Anthony Richardson’s second drive, he converted a third-and-2 only to have it called back for an illegal formation. The next pass went incomplete and Florida punted. Richard Gouraige jumped on second-and-10 and on the next play, Florida was called for holding. This isn’t an offense that’s getting out of second-and-25 all too often.
You’ll accept the effort mistakes. But losing first downs because you don’t line up right just isn’t something that elite teams do. Mullen spoke in the postgame about that being his responsibility, so we’ll see if those things get cleaned up next week.
Special Teams (Fake punt edition)
I mentioned the fake punt, and it was good to finally see Florida do something that impacted the game on special teams. Had Florida punted the ball away at that point and had Vanderbilt been able to have another long drive, this game would have felt a lot different.
Instead, Florida scored to make it 28-0, got a three-and-out from Vanderbilt, and then immediately scored again to make it 35-0 and coast from there.
That is the kind of difference that special teams can make. Kentucky wasn’t the better team two weeks ago. But they got the huge block and return on special teams that made Florida have to squirm and fight. When that happened, Emory Jones forced a throw that was intercepted and turned into another Kentucky TD.
The same thing happened against Vandy. The Gators got the opening TD of the second half, forced the three-and-out, scored again, and then Vandy threw an INT on the very next drive. Three plays later, Florida was up 42-0 and it felt like they could have put up 60 if they wanted to.
Special teams has yet to be an area of emphasis for Dan Mullen in his tenure at Florida, so I’m not expecting it to become a major area now. But if he wants to steal the game against Georgia, he’s likely going to need to tilt the game in his team’s favor in some way.
Special teams might be that way.
Angry Dan
Mullen has been ornery ever since the Kentucky loss. First, he bristled at the idea he was outcoached by Mark Stoops. Then, he glared at people who dared to ask him questions about throwing deep or whether he still had the fire he showed during his thumb wrestling speech.
And on Saturday, he gave one word answers to the poor sideline reporter just trying to do her job on the way into the locker room.
Gators fans bristled at the press conferences earlier in the week, but many celebrated the sideline interaction as Mullen being as frustrated as many of us fans are. But I don’t see it that way.
The sideline reporter – just like the reporters asking questions after games – is trying to do her job. She helps expand interest in the sport by conducting interviews like that. I mean, I was interested in what Mullen might have to say beyond just that the defense was awful. I already knew that.
But by talking down to her, Mullen is unnecessarily spending political capital for no good reason. David Wunderlich hit this spot-on when he talked about Mullen’s margin for error after the Kentucky loss last week. You can’t ostracize people and then expect them to support you when things go awry.
I get that Mullen was ticked at his team. I understand why some fans enjoyed seeing him fired up. But taking that out on a sideline reporter rather than his team during halftime is wrong. The media has a job to do, and if Mullen doesn’t like the questions, then he needs to get his team performing better.
The temper trantrums may be entertaining to some, but to me, he just looks unprofessional.
OL Injuries
I’ve been writing in this space about injuries for quite a while now. First, it was concern that the defensive line wouldn’t be able to hold up, but the transfers of Newkirk, Valentino and Truesdell made that a place of strength.
Then, the injury to Jaydon Hill – and now the transfer of Elijah Blades – means that Florida likely can’t weather too many injuries in the secondary. That’s been exacerbated with the injury to Kaiir Elam, but it looks like he’s about to come back.
But one place where injuries are starting to pile up and have an impact is on the offensive line. These aren’t season enders where someone had his knee rolled up on and a ligament damaged. Instead, it is center Kingsley Egaukun leaving multiple games after in-game injuries and then having to nurse them during the week. It’s Richard Gouraige not dressing against Vanderbilt. It’s the little nagging knee injury suffered by Jean Delance against USF.
Bumps are bruises are expected in an SEC season. That’s why depth is such an important factor when it comes to making it through unscathed. While Richie Leonard and Michael Tarquin got some playing time on Saturday, the Gators running game was not as dominant as it has been.
Those guys need to be back against LSU and Georgia.
Defense….meh?
The Gators defense played pretty well against Kentucky, but the Wildcats are not really a juggernaut of an offense. The defense also held Vanderbilt to 87 total yards in the second half, and just 33 in the third quarter. But they also surrendered 8-20 third down conversions, including 5-12 in the first half and over 200 yards in that first half.
Vanderbilt had 77 total yards against Georgia.
But if you look at the overall statistics for the defense, the Gators now rank 18th overall in yards per play allowed (4.6) and have made significant strides in yards per pass allowed (32nd, 6.5) versus where they were two games ago (58th, 7.6).
I’ve been hyper-critical of this defense but if they’re going to become more stout against the pass, the defensive line is strong enough to make this unit something to fear. In a year where Florida struggles to be consistent on offense, that might be the very thing they need to start a run.
Torrence and Dean
A big part of that defensive performance is the development that we’re seeing at safety.
Trey Dean had an interception against Vanderbilt, but he was also involved in two other pass breakups and contributed 7 tackles. Rashad Torrence contributed 15 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss. Those aren’t numbers that we’ve seen from the safety position in Gainesville in quite a while.
I’m not sure you want somebody like Torrence getting 15 tackles. While it means that he is always around the ball (good), I think it also means that your linebackers are struggling to cover (bad). Indeed, that appeared to be happening quite a bit, especially in the first half, as Florida’s safeties were often covering for linebackers who couldn’t get out to the flats to cover running backs.
This isn’t something new for Florida. It was something they struggled mightily with against Alabama, and part of why the Tide were able to move the ball in the first half. The positive is that the safeties aren’t missing tackles like they did against Alabama. But the negative is that if you’re making all of those tackles near the line of scrimmage, eventually it’s going to make you susceptible to something deep.
LSU and job security
If Florida fans think they have it bad, just wait until they start reading about what’s been going on in Baton Rouge.
Ed Orgeron – just two years removed from a National Championship – is fighting for his job. While Florida lost a game against Kentucky they probably should have won, Orgeron’s LSU squad got whipped physically by Kentucky, giving up 330 rushing yards and never really making it much of a contest.
Combine that with losing to an average UCLA team and losing at home to a very limited Auburn team, and the faithful appear to have turned on Orgeron.
It’s an interesting statement on the fickleness of fans, but it isn’t new. Auburn won the title with Gene Chizik in charge in 2010, but then went 8-5 and 3-9 and he was gone. Florida fans wanted Jim McElwain gone in 2017 after back-to-back SEC East championships.
But the Chizik and McElwain examples are different than the Orgeron one in a key way. Chizik was not an elite recruiter (his 21st and 23rd ranked classes in 2008 and 2009 set the stage for his post-championship swoon). Neither was McElwain.
But Orgeron had the third-ranked class in 2021, the fourth ranked class in 2020 and the fifth ranked class in 2019. The pessimist would look at that and say that he’s squandering all of that talent. But I look at it and say that eventually all of that talent is going to coalesce.
Perhaps Orgeron isn’t the person to do that, but I’d be careful getting rid of a coach with a championship on his resume who is recruiting at an elite level. Those guys don’t grow on trees.
LSU the biggest game in the Mullen tenure?
This is a big game for Dan Mullen, but to characterize it as “program defining” as Neil Blackmon did at Saturday Down South is going a little bit far.
At this point, all of Florida’s goals for the season are basically over. It is exceedingly unlikely that they will get a chance to play in Atlanta, even if they win out. What that means is that a win over LSU is just really making sure that the floor for the program – something we all think is pretty secure with Mullen in charge – doesn’t fall out from under the team in 2021.
But at the end of the day, if Florida were to lose to LSU and then beat Georgia the next week, do we view the season any differently? Heck, Mike Bianci – the Orlando Sentinel writer who compared Mullen to Donald Trump after last season’s Darth Gator incident – is telling Florida fans to get off Mullen’s back after a win over Vandy.
It turns out that winning cures all, and to me, a win over Georgia is much more significant than a win over LSU. Beating the Bayou Bengals probably puts a stake in Orgeron’s existence at LSU. But losing to them doesn’t really change the season all that much, except Mullen will get asked tough questions, and perhaps have to make some tough decisions he could have otherwise avoided.
But a win over Georgia does two things. First, it gives Florida fans the ability to chant 1980 for another year. It sows the discontent of Georgia fans, some of whom are already lamenting the number one ranking they have after Alabama’s loss because of the way their program has hurt them over the years. And it raises the heat on Kirby Smart, who can win recruiting championships with the best of them but would now be 2-2 against Dan Mullen.
But second, a win over Georgia tells us that Florida has a top gear that can compete with the big boys. Perhaps they can’t reach that top gear all the time just yet, but that kind of win tells us that the top gear is there. And if that gear is there, then reaching it consistently is the goal and a reasonable one at that.
So yes, I hope Florida beats LSU for all of the reasons that every Gator fan wants Florida to beat those guys. It has become a heated rivalry and 5-2 is way better than 4-3 heading into the Cocktail Party. But please don’t tell me that this is Mullen’s biggest game in his tenure.
That’s coming up the day before Halloween.