The Florida Gators were tops in the nation in a key metric, but they didn't always take advantage. The Florida Gators held nearly a 10 minute time of possession advantage over Florida State, but managed just 15 points. / Matt Pendleton-USA TODAY Sports By: Terrance Biggs -- July 24, 2024 The American alligator ambushes its prey, dragging it into the water, then drowning. Similarly, the Florida offense, under Billy Napier operates similarly. When effective, the Florida Gators control the ball and the clock. In 2024, the Gators must continue this trend and drag teams into proverbial deep waters. However, with a few differences, Florida needs to make sure these time-consuming drives payoff. An alligator thrashing around with potential dinner, only to see it wiggle away, starves. These Gators need to make sure they truly eat, leaving no doubt whatsoever. Florida Gators Must Cash In On Key Stat
I've been saying we need to practice red-zone offense every day for some serious time. We all saw our offense sputter in the red-zone for some reason, and it's obvious we do not spend enough time practicing plays near the goal-line. We need should have more plays that are unconventional or plays that confuse the defense, yet has a high probability to work... 22 personnel... 23 personnel? What about 00 personnel from the 20-yard line... or the 10 personnel? Something needs to change because Brut force is not going to work in the SEC. Every team has big dudes... But the 22 personnel with Montrell Johnson and Jadan Webb at running back, with two Tight-ends and Wilson as our lone receiver? Or instead play Bordinghan as the only receiver in that set and tell me the coaches can't make that personnel set piece score from the 3 or 4-yard line. As long as we don't run the bunch formation with that personnel (22 personnel), we should score at will.
Or Treyvaun Baugh would work... I'm not picky. He and Webb will probably be the top two running backs next year. Either one will do.
From the 20 to the 20 you can be happy with a goal of ten yards but when you’re inside the 20 the goal is 7 and not 3. You can’t just keep pounding it and call short passes because of the density of the defense. We had way too many failures inside the twenty and not enough cashing in for tds.
It comes down to oline in the red zone. Imposing your will, running the ball in obvious situations makes passing easier. If you can’t run the ball in the red zone, passing is just that much harder in a short field. It comes down to great oline play.
The new two-minute warning rule at the end of each half won't help if the goal is to burn clock. Not sure I love the idea anyway... at least not long term. Muschamp tried to run the ball and burn clock, too. All it ended up accomplishing was close losses when he tried to sit on small leads. Like everyone is saying, though, if you have ball control and then also get in the end zone, the strategy can work.
There are some intriguing possibilities for an O that boasts an efficient, veteran QB and a really good set of skill players who can score from anywhere on the field - and still hog the ball in the second half with a punishing run game. I honestly don't think we're far from reaching that paradigm in the here and now - with improved play on the OL. The HBC did it thirty years ago and Billy seems to be working to create a modern analog to that approach in '24. Pell also did some extremely impressive things back in the day in achieving a balance of finesse and power on O. Like everyone in Gator Nation, I'm holding my breath to see what happens on the OL before I get too goofy about this Gator O. I'm pretty sure they'll be good; the question is how good. Is it 8/31 yet? GG! Beat Miami!
Props to our awesome moderator ET! He has been hard at work providing us great articles and positivity about our Gators. Thank you ET!
Don't forget turnovers Wanne. If the defense could have had even a close to average number of turnovers, to help the offense, I don't think it is unreasonable to think our win total increases by 2 or 3.
Lots of room for improvement. Passing completion percentage was surprisingly high. Offensive rankings from last year. Rushing Yards/Attempt Rank - 72 (4.1 per attempt) Passing Yards/Completion Rank - 108 (10.9 per completion) Seconds Per Play Rank - 96 (27.6 per play) 3rd Downs Per Game Rank - 100 (13.1 per game) 3rd Down Conversion Rank - 100 (34.72%) 4th Down Conversion Rank - 104 (40.91%) Penalties Per Game Rank - 106 (6.8 per game) Pass Completion Percentage/Game - 4th (71.93) If I recall correctly, we shot ourselves in the foot a lot on offense with penalties, putting us behind the chains. Need to clean that up.
Lizard, I'm thinking the "signs" are all around us for the Gators to be better, much better. I never "bought in" to the get a offensive coordinator crowd, and I am glad coach did not succumb to the pressure. Just need a dang defense! Of course eliminate the glaring and obvious penalties and mistakes which I expect the Gators to "clean up" this year. But consider: QB room DB room Receiver room Depth (not everywhere but getting better) Mullin Malcontents Purged Happy Locker Room A reorganized NIL collective Swamp Improvements in the planning stages Hey, tough re-build. Very tough, under conditions never seen before. Napier was at the center of a perfect storm of events that, IMO, NO COACH, could have stepped in and been an immediate SEC championship contender. This thing was a WRECK, and it is not all on Mullen either. You can build a facade on a rotten structure and make it look superficially good or you can tear it down and rebuild something that will last for years. I believe in coach and Strickland trying to do this the right way. I'm on board!!! Go Gators!
I'm fine with pounding on a defense and tiring them out in the 2nd half. However, that also means our defense has to get stops so the opposing defense isn't getting a lot of time to rest. That's where our strategy has been failing.
I think great time of possession numbers are as much a result of the other teams ability to score in what seemed like 2 plays and 30 seconds against some unusually bad Gator defense. When you get the ball back so quickly it’s easy to distort your TOP.
I don't know if the offensive strategy has failed so much as the defense has just been terrible. Maybe some of both? IMO, the ability to control the flow of the game obviously hinges on several things. But being able to put opponents under duress by jumping on them with a big play offense that SCORES POINTS EARLY would eliminate some of our concerns. Being able to effectively pound on opponents with a stable of fresh backs in the second half can mitigate others. There's just less need to worry about the D breaking down if the O has the ball and is scoring with some regularity when they do. There are too many variables and uncertainties at this point to draw any unshakeable conclusions about O or D just yet. But a general sense that we are making progress in several realms does not seem unreasonable to me. GG! Beat Miami!
