Pre-Game Discussion: UcheaT at FLORIDA

IMO the game will come down to how will we move the ball and score when UT sells out to stop the run. I really believe they will load up against our run, making us one dimensional or create lots of third and longs thus keeping our O off the field.
If we have little or no plan for this and if BNs offense can't find a way to move the ball and score when this happens then our chances for winning this game and other tough games becomes very difficult.

 

In listening to game predictions, podcasts and reading about the game,I am seeing a ton of talk about Tennessee’s defense and the pass rush specifically. How they are dominating and with Florida's performance at Utah, many expect Uf o line and Mertz to be in trouble.

I do recall how in 1999 Tennessee opened the year with Wyoming and had a school record 13 sacks (in one game!). They then had a bye week before playing Florida. And then…that 13 sacks in one game defense had 0.0 sacks at UF. Both Tenn and Florida were more talented back then but both were equally talented. Both teams have similar talent to each other this year. The moral of my story is just because Tenn defense is racking up sacks vs lesser teams doesn’t mean they will do the same at Uf. They might. But…maybe not.

 

Even if we had to go max protect Pearsall could catch double figures. Dude is money.

 

If everyone in Gator blue goes..you will be

 

I didn’t watch their game last week, but have read that Austin Peay had a lot of success with screens. That’s one way to slow down a pass rush.

Obviously the ability to run the ball will be important. You saw we had issues running against Utah and we substituted some of those quick passes to keep the defense honest. What we need to do is make them pay in their one-on-ones with quick slants and back shoulder throws. I think Mertz is accurate enough to be able to do it if the OL can hold up for another half second.

 

They ran a ton of screens with limited success. It was great practice for UT defending them so I hope we limit them.

 

It wouldn’t be surprising for all of our opponents use that strategy until it doesn’t work.

 

Last night, Philly showed how important good and adaptive play-calling is. It looked like they planned to feature the Hurts/AJ Brown connection at first but realized that Minnesota couldn’t stop Swift running the ball and just kept calling run after run after run. Sprinkled in a little bit of passes to Dervonta Smith to keep them honest. You have to see what works and adjust to it mid-game. Can’t go in expecting to impose your will and force your game plan. Gotta exploit the defense based upon what is happening.

 

There's nothing in there to argue with if your worst fears about what could happen actually do come to pass. There's also nothing in there that specially addresses the likelihood of UT achieving the dominance you seem to be predicting - and ultimately failing to do so at a winning level. I could be wrong here, but I honestly think you're giving them too much credit.

 

To counter this, Florida needs to pass the ball effectively first to set up their running game. This time, don't forget to come back to the running game once a drive begins.

Napier should also not be such a predictable play-caller.

For instance, throw out of a running formation when they are bunched up together rather than just run the ball only to be stuffed by the defense. Another example, run the ball more out of a passing formation when your wide-outs are spread out.

Run your plays faster and be more up-tempo when needed like in a two-minute offense and/or the end of the half/4th quarter. You can be more methodical once you can build up a lead but not when you are behind the score board which was often in the Utah game.

Limit the number of times a receiver goes in motion from one end to the other. That seems to slow the pace of running your plays. Sometimes when the other team is in a zone-defense, you could introduce vulnerabilities to the pass-protection: i.e a corner blitz by their defender resulting in the quarterback being sacked; In the Utah game, after Wilson went into motion, his defender made that key play.

 

I hope that they do, then the vol fans will be well away from the stadium once the game begins. Or at least it will be a long walk back to the stadium, lol!

 

UT has a very solid D especially in stopping the run. I believe their run D is better than Utah's and we chose to pass vs attacking the line with runs. So far, all we've shown basically is short passes and running against our last opponent isn't going to be as easy this week.
UT has an offense that if clicking can score lots of points in a hurry. If I'm game planning against UF, I'd want to get off to a fast start, score quick and often which not only gets the crowd out of the game but our O shows nothing towards catching up when we're far behind.
If I'm taking my O and B glasses off, UT has a better DL than our OL. Still, I'm hoping for a win and hoping UT is off their passing game.

 

The key for our offense is to stay away from third and long. That's a recipe for losing this game.

 

Totally agree...but can a tiger (CBN) change his stripes?
Here's a couple posts from the Den that resonated to me:

"I hope I'm wrong but if BN uses that slow, methodical offensive scheme against the Vols it won't work because we probably will be playing in a shootout or playing from behind the whole game. I'm not sure his brand of play calling will produce enough explosive plays aka keeping up. Yes, we need a creative play caller aka as a dedicated stand-alone OC. It may be if we lose against Tenn the strike against Billy will be more about How we lost ...not that we lost. Obviously, I hope we don't lose. But....."

"Nobody thinks this is a sophisticated, modern offense.
It IS a sophisticated run game (more precisely a complex blocking scheme)
The passing game is designed to minimize TOs and keep the D honest, and maybe generate a big play if the D sells out on the run. Maybe."

 

Third & long happens when the running game either gets shut down on the earlier downs and/or the quarterback gets sacked.

Sometimes you can't help facing 3rd & longs. How well will the offense respond without making a turnover?

So, get better pass protection, get an effective pass play that has a chance to pick up the first down and/or be good at throwing a screen pass.

I would rather try throwing a screen pass on 1st down or 2nd down when it is less predictable! That would be a more aggressive call!

 

Generally speaking, I'm not as impressed with UT as you seem to be. I'm not sure that quite a few of their fans are either. Just my take, but I sure hope I'm right.

 

The main reason it worked so well for Utah was because of penalties. We put ourselves in 2nd or 3rd and short repeatedly, only to end up 3rd and 10+ because of a penalty. Mertz completed passes and put us in good positions, then a receiver would line up wrong or an ol would jump and put us behind the chains again.

Last week the starting group on offense had one penalty. If we can keep it clean, we’ll be able to move the ball. If we’re dinking and dunking down the field, they’ll have to try to stop it, which will open up the running game.

Need the rb’s to block too. They directly caused a few of the sacks against Utah. Even with minimal protection, Mertz will get the ball out, but we can’t have blitzing lb’s run right past the rb.

 

Tennessee has been scoring about one to two TD's a quarter; so points will definetly be a premium in this game.

If it does turn into a shoot out, I hope that our FG kicker can at least make all of their points-after, is that too much to ask? In recent years, that seems to be the case in some of our games. Florida was forced into trying many two-point conversions and often failing - we don't want to see that happen again if it can be helped.

Now, what would be interesting is if Florida does scores first or takes a lead later in the game. A converted two-point conversion could put extra pressure on the opposition when you go up by 8 points rather than 7. However, is it worth the gamble?

I think that it would put even more pressure on Florida if they fail that conversion and they would keep trying to make the two-point-conversions later on. See last year's fiasco of a game which was a winable one.

I believe that both Florida and Tennessee have similar abilities and talent and so taking that kind of gamble is not worth it in my opinion, just play the game in a normal way.

 

We were 1 for 13 on third down conversions against them. Yes penalties were a part of it but going forward against good D, we have to convert.
I will also say beyond protecting the ball, we are going to need more explosive plays, plays of 20 yards or more. Dinks and dunks won't work very well with good D, and if we are having to methodically move the ball 60, 70, 80 yards down field, I just don't think we can do it. Not with this style of offense.

 

If you stay behind the sticks, it’s going to be hard to convert 3rd downs. Not killing ourselves with penalties is going to put us in better position to convert. We’re making those completions and picking up yards on early downs. We did it in both games. Dinking and dunking opens up other things, and those dinks and dunks break for longer gains too. We were not able to do that at all last year and it killed our ability to sustain drives. That is what Graham is good at, and the offense moved when we didn’t have drive killing penalties.