UF 2nd best rushing unit...in the nation?

[Swamp Donkey]

I realize this adds little, but what I saw was Scarlett having to ad-lib because the devised hole wasn't there.

Rog, many of those are by design, zone blocking with reads by the RB.

 

[Gator2222]

I've never disputed he needs to work on pass blocking. I was just posting facts to support the notion that he's a beast with the ball in his hands.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with on the field performance, but Scarlett is an impressive individual.

The bad apples tend to get all of the attention and the good ones are often overlooked. Scarlett is very polite and well spoken. I have been around him a few times in the last couple of months and have come away with a positive impression every time. He's very much a "yes sir/no sir" type of guy that appears to have benefited from a good upbringing.

Much shorter than I thought he was though.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

The bad apples tend to get all of the attention and the good ones are often overlooked. Scarlett is very polite and well spoken. I have been around him a few times in the last couple of months and have come away with a positive impression every time. He's very much a "yes sir/no sir" type of guy that appears to have benefited from a good upbringing.

And yet it does. I'd much rather have a team full of Tebows and kids like Scarlett than a team of thugs.

 

[BMF]

I'm sure Scarlett is very upset upon hearing this

I'm sure he's happy to hear you're willing and able to suck his cock at a moments notice....

 

[MertzJay26]

I'm sure he's happy to hear you're willing and able to suck his cock at a moments notice....

 

[BMF]

I don't get a like?

 

[MertzJay26]

I don't get a like?

would be weird for me to like that. I'm sure Swamp D will be around to like it soon enough.

I'll give your latest post a like to make up for it :)

 

[BMF]

Good write up on the OL and their sh*tty run blocking (and there were people who insisted that Summers is/was a good/great OL coach):

https://www.seccountry.com/florida/...ne-play-will-determine-2017-offensive-success

Who is to blame?
Florida has plenty of talent in the backfield based on recruiting rankings. Jordan Scarlett and Mark Thompson were both 247-composite 4-star recruits, and while sophomore Lamical Perine was only a 3-star recruit, he showed, particularly against LSU, that he has the talent to excel in 2017.

So that leaves the offensive line as the likely culprit. Football Outsiders tracks advanced offensive line statistics for Division I college programs. In the nine categories they track, the Gators’ average national rank has been 85.0 in 2015 and 67.2 in 2016. The improvement in that ranking comes strictly from the passing game, as the average ranking in passing categories for the Gators improved from 121.0 to 51.0 from ’15 to ’16 while the run rankings got slightly worse (67.0 to 75.3).

Why are the run rankings so important?
Football Outsiders data only goes back to 2014, so I looked at the past three years in the SEC East. I examined offensive line national rankings in rushing statistics, passing statistics, and overall. Then I compared those rankings to national rankings in yards per play and points per game.

What I found was there was very little correlation between pass blocking statistics and yards per play (R2 = 0.30) or points per game (R2 = 0.15) for those seven teams from 2014-16. However, what I did find was that there was a much better — though still not good — correlation between the run blocking statistics and yards per play (R2 = 0.56). Even more interesting, there appears to be a significant correlation between the run blocking statistical rankings and points per game (R2 = 0.75).

The implication is twofold. First, effective run blocking corresponds with moving the ball far more than pass blocking does. Second, effective run blocking correlates strongly with scoring. My gut feeling is that this correlates so strongly because red zone offenses are more effective with strong running games.

Florida’s running game fell apart away from home last season, and so did its offense. The offense averaged 32.2 points per game at home compared with 18.8 in road or neutral games. Based on these statistics, this is likely directly correlated to offensive line play.

Even more striking is that if all you knew about a team was its offensive line play, the chart below indicates you would have been able to predict offensive success in the SEC East.

Average offensive line rushing ranking (from Football Outsiders) vs. average ranking in points per game for teams in the SEC East. (Will Miles/SEC Country)
The chart shows the average ranking of each team’s Football Outsiders run-game offensive line ranking in the SEC East from ’14-16 along with the average ranking in the SEC East for points per game. Again, there is a really strong correlation between points being scored and offensive line play here.

Tennessee and Georgia grade out quite well here. But as the game between those teams showed last season, their defenses were inconsistent at best. Florida’s offense and offensive line have been middle of the pack, but the Gators defense has been so outstanding that it has made up for the offensive deficiencies.

Offensive line play in 2017
But having a defense that can carry the team likely ends in 2017. Seven players from last year’s defense were drafted into the NFL. While their replacements got plenty of reps last year, the defense is only a few injuries away from having true freshmen in spots where they can get exposed.

The good news is that the Gators’ offensive line will be experienced in ’17. The unit is returning four starters, having only lost left tackle David Sharpe to the NFL. Martez Ivey will slide out to tackle, but the right side of the line should be the same as last year unless someone gets outplayed during fall camp.

The other things working in the Gators’ favor is the schedule. With only three true road games – and those against the bottom tier of the SEC – the offensive line is going to have an advantage in a majority of its games. Last season against Tennessee, Florida didn’t get any push up front and couldn’t stop Tennessee defensive end Derek Barnett. That was in large part due to the deafening crowd noise in Neyland Stadium. This year, that won’t be an issue.

The offensive line played well in spurts, particularly against LSU. But the unit also struggled with little mistakes that killed drives. Repeated false starts or missing blocks on well-designed plays happened far too often.

Which means maybe the biggest reason for optimism is the hiring of new offensive line coach Brad Davis. The offensive line wasn’t exactly tearing things up under Summers before McElwain got to Gainesville. Nor did his teams at Kentucky or at USC during his one year there.

Davis appears to have brought a new energy and certainly is saying the right things. At his introductory news conference, he said of Florida, “there’s no leeway to come here and be average.”

Gators fans couldn’t agree more.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Imagine if Ole Butters N Nusschump could manage to have as much total offense as Kintucky (having only 3 to 4 times the talent that Kintucky has) then we could have easily won two more games in each of the last two years.

So much reporting about how much better the OL should be.

And yet, in the spring game they were terrible against walkons and freshmen.

 

[alcoholica]

The running game should be better, but it will have to be a lot better to carry the offense. The OLine should be better since our LT won't be blind and our RT should actually know the playbook. Once McCoy got in the lineup, the line did seem to get better.

As for Scarlett and pass-pro, I remember KT having a bad rap as a blocker and then it finally clicked. Hopefully, someone can turn the bulb on for Scarlett.

 

[Gator Fever]

The running game should be better, but it will have to be a lot better to carry the offense. The OLine should be better since our LT won't be blind and our RT should actually know the playbook. Once McCoy got in the lineup, the line did seem to get better.

As for Scarlett and pass-pro, I remember KT having a bad rap as a blocker and then it finally clicked. Hopefully, someone can turn the bulb on for Scarlett.

Not really sure what to think of McCoy changing things last season just because of how bad FSU and Bama stuffed our running game but maybe it was the other linemen not getting any push hardly.

 

[alcoholica]

Not really sure what to think of McCoy changing things last season just because of how bad FSU and Bama stuffed our running game but maybe it was the other linemen not getting any push hardly.

They were outclassed in both of those games, but there seemed to be more fire on the line. I think the LSU game is a good example. Eventually we wore them down with our line. That's the game that gives me hope for this season.