- Oct 5, 2017
- 2,315
- 6,301
After driving 500+ miles today and over 1,000 since Wednesday, it's time to discuss Tennessee 2020. First time that I have been to a win on Rocky Top after my only previous trip was the "1" in the 15-1 over the last 16 against Tennessee, 2016.
I was surprised at how much blue was in the stadium, both because of a covid season and because in some sections, like mine, it seemed to be 50/50 Florida/Tennessee. Talking to some Tennessee fans before the game, they believed we were going to kill them and when asked if they wanted us to win so they could dump Pruitt, the answer was generally yes, but some also believe Pruitt isn't going anywhere due to his buyout. Sound familiar?
The fans in Rocky Top were funny. When they announced Guano wasn't starting everyone cheered loudly, but when Pruitt's name was said next, the boos began. Then, they were over the moon after taking the lead and believed they were on the way to the upset. They forgot what offense they were playing.
Mullen wasn't wrong in saying that this game is one where we left a ton of points on the field. This game should have been ugly and quickly, but in typical fashion, we find ways to keep ourselves from doing just that.
Offense
The offense continued to roll, at least through the air on Rocky Top. Kyle Trask went 35/49 (71.4%) for 433 yards and 4 TD's. He has primed himself to overtake the school record for passing TD's in a season, he needs just two TD's against a porous LSU defense. He is having the best passing season of any UF QB, ever, and it is something we need to enjoy it.
The offense did a great job shaking off mistakes and how quickly they responded when Tennessee went ahead is worth a pat on the back.
Trask had some misreads early, including what I would say was a missed audible on the initial 3rd down. Tennessee had a three man front and only one LB in the box and that LB was lined up to the left. Even with an anemic run game, I think Reese could have got to the linebacker with Pierce able to get the three yards. Instead we threw the ball away on good pressure and coverage by Tennessee.
The offense continues to show that they are the only defense that can stop us. First was the 15-yard OPI call. Watching the replay, it is definitely a tight one, but since Hendo puts his hands up like he is blocking, it might be the right call. However, it is worth noting the flag was not thrown by the official standing right there. Just like receivers needing to make a play on the ball to get DPI calls in a lot of situations, if you are doing a pick/rub, you need to act like you are running the route. Putting your hands up to block will get that called more times than not. The next 3rd down, Heggie and Forsythe fail to maintain blocks on a screen and Grimes is stopped just short.
Pitts and Toney both went over 100 yards and Grimes got two TD's. 9 different Gators had receptions, which is good and Copeland got another TD. Plenty of YAC yardage and would have even better numbers if not for the OPI call. Toney showed both great hands and great route running through his juking. In the first half alone he had multiple first downs on that stop and juke inside route he does. His TD catch was set up by his quick change in direction that caused the defender not to be able to keep up with him. Still too many drops though. Shorter dropped on the missed FG drive, Gamble and Davis dropped on the turnover on downs drive, just to name a few that ended up costly. No, the defender did not touch the ball on that 4th down ball that hit Davis in the hands (and would have been a TD had he caught it). After watching the broadcast angles, we saw a different angle in Neyland that showed the defender may have been a distraction, but didn't touch it. As you guys know, I am not a fan of the "it would have been a hard catch" mantra as it is a blanket excuse I only see used to say that a scholarship player at the University of Florida cannot make difficult catches. If it's catchable and hit the receivers hands, I do expect a catch. I know those expectations are high.
Disappointed we didn't go for the endzone immediately after stopping the fake punt by UT. Instead, Shorter dropped one, Trask dumped one for a loss under pressure, then failed to read a wide open seam route and was sacked followed by the missed FG. To me, this was the worst offensive drive of the game because it started with the best field position and was before Mullen started to be conservative with his run, run, pass philosophy. However, I like how he stopped doing that and let Trask throw it some more and get his fourth TD. On the first run, run, pass, and I didn't see a replay shown on the broadcast so I will say my observation from in person, Grimes quit on the route, then sped up in a "oh crap" moment once he realized the pass was released his way. The ball landed just a yard or two out of his reach.
Offensive line is pretty good in pass blocking (Delance is a mixed bag, that's all I'll say), but the run blocking is poor. At this point, they are what they are and Mullen all but said the lineup isn't changing. I'll highlight a few good plays. On third down on the last drive of the first half, Heggie, Gouraige, and Forsythe did get down the field and were factors in UF getting a 3rd and 12 conversion. Also on that drive, earlier, Gouraige runs down the field and slams a pile standing up Copeland, pushing it for a few more yards. Many linemen would not make the effort, I'm glad they did.
Running game was terrible, the less said, the better.
Defense
You guys know that I'm going to focus on positives to begin. It's what I do. We only allowed 118 yards in the first half and 51 second half yards before Tennessee's final two garbage time drives. Those are some stellar numbers. We had 6 sacks.
Now to list some of the bad things. We had multiple roughing the passer penalties. We allowed 3 TD drives of 94+ yards. I don't care if two were in garbage time, more than one is unacceptable. One really isn't acceptable either, but things happen sometimes. They were helped by some unacceptable roughing the passer penalties.
What blew my mind early in this game is the conscious decision not to blitz (had a few delay blitzes, that meant nothing) early in the game. Tennessee had a true freshman QB in his first start. You blitz a QB in that position. By blitzing you speed the game up, you speed up his clock and force him to make fast and rash decisions. That's how you create sacks and turnovers. It is important to note that we started to blitz more after Tennessee briefly took the lead. Somehow, we started getting more sacks and Tennessee only had 64 yards on 6 drives after that before garbage time (omitting the 3 yard, 1 play drive where Tennessee ended the first half). It's almost like this is football 101.
Obviously, plenty of improvement can be made. Some of this improvement is coaching related. However, there is time to acknowledge that at times our defense can do very well. There are plenty of young players who got some time yesterday who may be better than what we have currently in the future. Will other teams in the future be able to take advantage? Yes. Did it matter for Saturday? No. The defense showed that it can get the job done.
Also, Malik Davis showed he has better form tackling than many on the defense (this was a special teams play).
Special Teams
Evan McPherson missed one, but did well. One of my favorites, and I think this one is something many won't remember, was when we had to re-kick due to an offsides. He still kicked it to the goal line and the returner was stopped at the 18, short of where UT would have had it and definitely short of if they had applied the penalty to the end of the previous kick.
Finn is showing he is the next in a long line of great UF punters. ESPN shows no punts inside the 20...not sure how UT went 96 yards for their first TD after a UF punt that was downed at the 4 and yet he didn't register a punt inside the 20...
Trask with a good punt, what can you say.
Quick Hits
This was a good game where we made mistakes to limit an even better game. This offense can sling it and this defense can put up some good numbers. Both can also be maddening. This is a historic passing season. We just wanted competent passing a few short years ago. Let's enjoy the ride for what it is and let the big game worry about itself on its own time. For now, its about kicking a bad LSU team while they are down.
Go Gators!
I was surprised at how much blue was in the stadium, both because of a covid season and because in some sections, like mine, it seemed to be 50/50 Florida/Tennessee. Talking to some Tennessee fans before the game, they believed we were going to kill them and when asked if they wanted us to win so they could dump Pruitt, the answer was generally yes, but some also believe Pruitt isn't going anywhere due to his buyout. Sound familiar?
The fans in Rocky Top were funny. When they announced Guano wasn't starting everyone cheered loudly, but when Pruitt's name was said next, the boos began. Then, they were over the moon after taking the lead and believed they were on the way to the upset. They forgot what offense they were playing.
Mullen wasn't wrong in saying that this game is one where we left a ton of points on the field. This game should have been ugly and quickly, but in typical fashion, we find ways to keep ourselves from doing just that.
Offense
The offense continued to roll, at least through the air on Rocky Top. Kyle Trask went 35/49 (71.4%) for 433 yards and 4 TD's. He has primed himself to overtake the school record for passing TD's in a season, he needs just two TD's against a porous LSU defense. He is having the best passing season of any UF QB, ever, and it is something we need to enjoy it.
The offense did a great job shaking off mistakes and how quickly they responded when Tennessee went ahead is worth a pat on the back.
Trask had some misreads early, including what I would say was a missed audible on the initial 3rd down. Tennessee had a three man front and only one LB in the box and that LB was lined up to the left. Even with an anemic run game, I think Reese could have got to the linebacker with Pierce able to get the three yards. Instead we threw the ball away on good pressure and coverage by Tennessee.
The offense continues to show that they are the only defense that can stop us. First was the 15-yard OPI call. Watching the replay, it is definitely a tight one, but since Hendo puts his hands up like he is blocking, it might be the right call. However, it is worth noting the flag was not thrown by the official standing right there. Just like receivers needing to make a play on the ball to get DPI calls in a lot of situations, if you are doing a pick/rub, you need to act like you are running the route. Putting your hands up to block will get that called more times than not. The next 3rd down, Heggie and Forsythe fail to maintain blocks on a screen and Grimes is stopped just short.
Pitts and Toney both went over 100 yards and Grimes got two TD's. 9 different Gators had receptions, which is good and Copeland got another TD. Plenty of YAC yardage and would have even better numbers if not for the OPI call. Toney showed both great hands and great route running through his juking. In the first half alone he had multiple first downs on that stop and juke inside route he does. His TD catch was set up by his quick change in direction that caused the defender not to be able to keep up with him. Still too many drops though. Shorter dropped on the missed FG drive, Gamble and Davis dropped on the turnover on downs drive, just to name a few that ended up costly. No, the defender did not touch the ball on that 4th down ball that hit Davis in the hands (and would have been a TD had he caught it). After watching the broadcast angles, we saw a different angle in Neyland that showed the defender may have been a distraction, but didn't touch it. As you guys know, I am not a fan of the "it would have been a hard catch" mantra as it is a blanket excuse I only see used to say that a scholarship player at the University of Florida cannot make difficult catches. If it's catchable and hit the receivers hands, I do expect a catch. I know those expectations are high.
Disappointed we didn't go for the endzone immediately after stopping the fake punt by UT. Instead, Shorter dropped one, Trask dumped one for a loss under pressure, then failed to read a wide open seam route and was sacked followed by the missed FG. To me, this was the worst offensive drive of the game because it started with the best field position and was before Mullen started to be conservative with his run, run, pass philosophy. However, I like how he stopped doing that and let Trask throw it some more and get his fourth TD. On the first run, run, pass, and I didn't see a replay shown on the broadcast so I will say my observation from in person, Grimes quit on the route, then sped up in a "oh crap" moment once he realized the pass was released his way. The ball landed just a yard or two out of his reach.
Offensive line is pretty good in pass blocking (Delance is a mixed bag, that's all I'll say), but the run blocking is poor. At this point, they are what they are and Mullen all but said the lineup isn't changing. I'll highlight a few good plays. On third down on the last drive of the first half, Heggie, Gouraige, and Forsythe did get down the field and were factors in UF getting a 3rd and 12 conversion. Also on that drive, earlier, Gouraige runs down the field and slams a pile standing up Copeland, pushing it for a few more yards. Many linemen would not make the effort, I'm glad they did.
Running game was terrible, the less said, the better.
Defense
You guys know that I'm going to focus on positives to begin. It's what I do. We only allowed 118 yards in the first half and 51 second half yards before Tennessee's final two garbage time drives. Those are some stellar numbers. We had 6 sacks.
Now to list some of the bad things. We had multiple roughing the passer penalties. We allowed 3 TD drives of 94+ yards. I don't care if two were in garbage time, more than one is unacceptable. One really isn't acceptable either, but things happen sometimes. They were helped by some unacceptable roughing the passer penalties.
What blew my mind early in this game is the conscious decision not to blitz (had a few delay blitzes, that meant nothing) early in the game. Tennessee had a true freshman QB in his first start. You blitz a QB in that position. By blitzing you speed the game up, you speed up his clock and force him to make fast and rash decisions. That's how you create sacks and turnovers. It is important to note that we started to blitz more after Tennessee briefly took the lead. Somehow, we started getting more sacks and Tennessee only had 64 yards on 6 drives after that before garbage time (omitting the 3 yard, 1 play drive where Tennessee ended the first half). It's almost like this is football 101.
Obviously, plenty of improvement can be made. Some of this improvement is coaching related. However, there is time to acknowledge that at times our defense can do very well. There are plenty of young players who got some time yesterday who may be better than what we have currently in the future. Will other teams in the future be able to take advantage? Yes. Did it matter for Saturday? No. The defense showed that it can get the job done.
Also, Malik Davis showed he has better form tackling than many on the defense (this was a special teams play).
Special Teams
Evan McPherson missed one, but did well. One of my favorites, and I think this one is something many won't remember, was when we had to re-kick due to an offsides. He still kicked it to the goal line and the returner was stopped at the 18, short of where UT would have had it and definitely short of if they had applied the penalty to the end of the previous kick.
Finn is showing he is the next in a long line of great UF punters. ESPN shows no punts inside the 20...not sure how UT went 96 yards for their first TD after a UF punt that was downed at the 4 and yet he didn't register a punt inside the 20...
Trask with a good punt, what can you say.
Quick Hits
- Loved the blue helmets, would anyone be surprised if we went blue from the top down against LSU?
- Davis' absence allowed some other guys, namely Trey Dean to show what they can do and Dean looked good. Had a few nice downhill tackles.
- Stiner "Force Against the Run" whiffed hardcore on the TD run UT had.
- Coastal Carolina and BYU put on one hell of a show, kudos to them.
- Does FSU play again this year? They are scheduled for two, would they really duck Duke and Wake Forest? Covid doesn't last a month.
- How many more LSU players opt out after that debacle yesterday?
This was a good game where we made mistakes to limit an even better game. This offense can sling it and this defense can put up some good numbers. Both can also be maddening. This is a historic passing season. We just wanted competent passing a few short years ago. Let's enjoy the ride for what it is and let the big game worry about itself on its own time. For now, its about kicking a bad LSU team while they are down.
Go Gators!
