Florida runs over South Carolina

Embed from Getty Images

You could make the argument that Florida’s 38-6 victory over South Carolina was about the best score that South Carolina could have achieved. That’s what the takeaway is when you run over the opponent to the tune of a 374-44 advantage.

Florida was already up 24-6 when South Carolina went on a fumble binge, handing the ball over to the Gators three straight times in its first four plays of the second half, all in Gamecock territory. The fact that the Gators were only able to convert those three turnovers into seven points is a big reason that this was only a 32-point victory.

Of course, if you’re criticizing the winners in a 32-point victory, it says that a lot of things went really, really right as well. Florida’s offense opened up the game with three straight touchdowns. The Gators much maligned defense opened up the game with three straight stops.

In fact, if we don’t assign the touchdown on the fake punt to the defense (I don’t think we should), then we now have six straight shut-out quarters from that defense after looking hapless for the first 8.5 games of the season.

The result is that Florida is now 6-4, bowl eligible and is starting to establish an identity on defense. They’re now going to be heavily favored to go to 7-4 with a trip to Vanderbilt coming up next week and then will have an opportunity to go 8-4 against rival Florida State.

Three weeks ago, licking our wounds after a blowout loss to Georgia, that didn’t seem remotely possible. Of course, neither did starting off a game with three straight defensive stops.

The Defense

So what has happened that Florida’s defense has improved so much in the last two weeks? The obvious answer is that the dismissal of Brenton Cox is addition by subtraction. Whether that is true or not is only something folks in that locker room can answer, but what we can definitely see is that the defenders are starting to trust each other to do their jobs.

There isn’t really a better example of that than South Carolina’s second drive. The Gators had gotten a sack and then Spencer Rattler threw an interception to force a third-and-17. Rattler then completed an 18-yard pass to Josh Vann for a first down. A few weeks ago, the Gators would have hung their heads and allowed South Carolina to drive right down the field.

But this was the next play.

South Carolina runs play action here with Spencer Rattler running out on a bootleg. They’re trying to get the running back in the flat on linebacker Ventrell Miller (#51). But watch what happens. Antwaun Powell-Ryland (#52) realizes what is happening and switches with Miller, taking the running back out of the backfield while Miller lasers in on Rattler.

The result is Rattler having to go to his second read while under pressure, resulting in an inaccurate throw.

Those sorts of little things were present throughout the performance. And you could tell right from the start, as here was the first third down stop of the game for the defense.

This is third-and-14. Florida knows Rattler is going to dump the ball off short and he does just that. Look at all of the room behind Jaydon Hill (#23) if he doesn’t make the tackle and the receiver can get down to the sideline. But Hill maintains his outside leverage, not only making the tackle, but allowing his help (in this case Princely Umanmielen, #33) to arrive.

Over and over on this website this year you’ve seen Florida allow receivers to get to the outside on third downs, particularly third-and-long. Hill didn’t allow that to happen here, and so Florida was able to get off of the field.

This play though is my favorite of the game by far.

Watch Miller read the play and fight to get outside right away. And where I’ve paused the play, does it look like he has any shot at making this play? Instead, two things happen. First, Miller is able to keep outside leverage and the second offensive lineman passes him by thinking he can get a block downfield.

But the second is that Umanmielen (#33) just squeezes rather than collapsing on the fake to the running back. Because of that, he is able to alter the path of the wide receiver on the reverse and make him extend out towards the sideline. By that time, Miller has shed his blocker and explodes to make the tackle for a loss.

These are just three examples I thought exemplified the Gators’ defensive performance, but it really was from the jump. Desmond Watson and Chris McClellan each made multiple plays where they shed their primary blocker and stuffed runs. Defensive backs almost always seemed to be in the right position. And Umanmielen and Powell-Ryland were able to win one-on-one battles against South Carolina’s tackles and get pressure on Rattler even if they weren’t always able to get the sack.

This certainly shows up in the statistics, having allowed 237 yards total, 44 rush yards (1.9 yards per attempt) and forcing three turnovers. We’ve certainly criticized the defense when it hasn’t been able to come through all year.

Those players deserve to hear a lot of praise after this one.

Caleb Douglas

As the game wound down, the SEC Network awarded its player of the game award, unsurprisingly, to Anthony Richardson.

The Gators QB is central to everything that they do, and though he struggled through the air, his running opened things up and was key to the Gators getting off to their quick start.

But there is one player I want to make sure we don’t gloss over with this win: wide receiver Caleb Douglas.

Douglas has been getting a little bit more playing time recently, but he came into the game with only 4 receptions for 87 yards. He had 3 for 53 in this one, but it was the timing of two of those catches, along with his play on another key play that have me pointing him out in this space.

The first play I’m going to highlight is a pretty easy play for Douglas, but it does indicate that he and Richardson are on the same page.

Richardson started the game inaccurately. South Carolina decided on this third-and-10 to play off-coverage and see what his chemistry with the freshman was like. Richardson sees that this is single coverage and that the corner is playing inside leverage. He has to let the ball go the minute he hits the back of his drop and before Douglas goes into his break. The throw is right on target, but Douglas runs the route perfectly. The result is a big first down for Florida on the opening touchdown drive.

The second play is similar, in that it requires Richardson to throw the ball before Douglas breaks. But I think it also is an option route and Douglas has to run the right route as well depending on the coverage.

I’ve circled both Douglas and the South Carolina safety at the snap. That’s the read. Once Richardson hits the back of his drop, the safety is still hedging towards the inside. That means there’s a hole in the zone to the outside and Douglas breaks his route out there. Richardson throws the ball before he breaks, again indicating that these two are in sync.

But on the most impressive play Douglas made in the game had nothing to do with route running or catching the ball. It had to do with blocking.

On the vast majority of run plays, the wide receivers play very little role. But on Trevor Etienne’s long run, Douglas played a huge role. Watch where I’ve frozen the play, what you see is that Douglas is outside the corner who could be there to make the play. But he works to get inside the corner and drive him towards the outside.

This enables Etienne to scoot a little bit towards that defender and away from the safety coming over to make the tackle (the safety, who by the way, was out of position because of the threat of the jet sweep). The South Carolina safety almost gets Etienne for what would amount to a 11 or 12-yard gain. Instead, it goes 85 yards because Douglas didn’t just get in the way, but actually opened the hole.

Richardson struggles

Speaking of Richardson, in my opinion this wasn’t a very good performance for the Gators signal caller. He was really effective running the ball early in the game. And he put the Gators on his back on the second drive going 4-5 for 59 yards and a touchdown throw to Ricky Pearsall.

But excluding that drive, Richardson went 7-18 for 53 yards. His QB rating for the game was 117.4 and his Yards Above Replacement (YAR) – my proprietary stat that takes both throwing and running into account – had Richardson at -0.53, or below average.

Usually when Richardson runs for nearly 100 yards (he had 15 rushes for 96 yards), his YAR is sky high. But his limitations in the passing game were really on display Saturday night.

You don’t need me to tell you that you don’t want your QB launching the ball into triple coverage. But I have no idea what Richardson was thinking here, considering that just before the snap South Carolina had it’s corner playing off coverage on Ricky Pearsall with safety help over the top.

And once you see three guys on Pearsall, there has to be someone else open. Indeed, that is the case as Jonathan Odom (#87) comes open for an easy first down throw.

Of course, none of that really mattered against South Carolina. The Gamecocks weren’t able to stop Richardson (or any other Gator) on the ground. Richardson has also stopped turning the ball over, which means that the offense may sputter for a series or two, but it hasn’t been contributing directly to points for the opposition.

But if you want to know why the offense struggled in the second half and didn’t put the game away due to the three fumbles, Richardson is a big reason why.

Takeaway

Against Florida State or in the bowl game, those sorts of things may matter. It didn’t matter against South Carolina and I suspect it won’t matter against Vanderbilt.

What does matter is that the Gators are now 6-4 and heading to a bowl. Everyone is now going to get a series of extra practices to further instill the Billy Napier system. And everyone on the team who remembers what was like to go through the miserable 2021 season under Dan Mullen is now pretty much guaranteed to have a more successful campaign this year.

Napier has now exceeded the number of wins that Dan Mullen had last year. A win over Vanderbilt and he’ll eclipse the number of wins the Gators had last year total. Win against Vanderbilt and a sure-to-be-ranked FSU and Napier will have a pretty solid first year resume, excluding the loss to Kentucky.

But this isn’t about Napier. It’s about the players. These players, particularly on the defense, have put up with criticism and abuse from their own fans. Some of it has been fair. But some of it has crossed over into a meanness that nobody should have to endure.

The last six quarters are proof that these guys are developing and growing. It is proof that this scheme, when run correctly, can thrive at this level. It is proof that these players are not garbage and that teaching away bad habits under the old regime has just taken some time.

That has certainly been frustrating at times. And it hasn’t been a whole lot of fun to watch and/or analyze at times this season. But part of what makes this sport great is that the difference between terrible and great is often just a few things.

Florida has Vanderbilt next week, making a 4-4 SEC finish a distinct possibility. Kentucky is at 3-4 in the conference with Georgia on the horizon. While I’ll be rooting for the Wildcats because I’m constitutionally unable to root for the Bulldogs, the likely Kentucky loss will put the Gators in third in the SEC East behind two top-10 teams.

The goal is to be one of those top-10 teams and Florida isn’t there yet. But the Gators had a choice coming out of the locker room three weeks ago down 28-3 against Georgia. Billy Napier suggested after the game that he thought that halftime may have been a turning point. They’ve outscored their opponents 96-44 since that point, the scoring differential of a 10-2 team.

Texas A&M isn’t very good, but Florida got the job done. South Carolina has been better than Florida this year and the Gators dominated the Gamecocks. The offense ran the ball at will. The defense essentially pitched a shutout. Remember this feeling.

Because wins in the SEC are special. Especially those that are key on the path to establishing yourself as a contender.