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Gators defense exposed, embarrassed by LSU

Florida scored 35 points against LSU and wasn’t even close to winning. That’s been a theme all too often in the Napier era.

In 23 games as coach, Napier’s defenses have allowed 30-plus points 10 times, 38-plus points 8 times and 42-plus points 5 times. Consider the Gators play two cupcakes every year and haven’t given up 30-plus to either of those and the numbers look even worse.

On the bright side, Florida is two spots ahead of Southern Miss (Austin Armstrong’s former stop) in yards per play allowed vs. FBS opponents so Armstrong is out-performing his former team. The bad news is that they rank 129th and 131st in the category.

But why rely on a neophyte like me to describe what happened. How about former Gators defensive lineman Adam Shuler?

I couldn’t sleep if this stat was created in a game I played “ Jayden Daniels is the first player in FBS history to record 350+ Pass Yards & 200+ Rush Yards in a single game”……. I’m not even playing and I’m embarrassed

— Adam Shuler (@Adam_goeshard) November 12, 2023

That just about sums things up. It isn’t embarrassing to get beat by LSU or to give up a bunch of points. But Jayden Daniels just put up historic numbers, with little-to-no pushback. That should keep the players and coaches up late tonight.

If it doesn’t, there are bigger problems than the scheme.

Film Study

But what to make of that scheme? I’m going to pick a few different moments and hopefully give you a flavor of what went wrong.

The first is a seemingly innocuous play. In a game where Florida gave up 11.5 yards per play, it actually beat the average. But I think it tells us something about the scheme and what the players are being asked to do.

This is first down right after a touchback. Is LSU going to take a deep shot here? Probably fairly unlikely. So why have your interior defensive linemen (Desmond Watson, #21 and Chris McClellan, #7) run a stunt? Watson ends up getting blocked by two linemen, but that’s only because Princely Umanmielen (#1) drops into coverage. Nobody else even gets close to Daniels and it’s an easy pitch-and-catch.

Watson is a big man. He is supposed to take up multiple blockers on the inside. Getting him out on the edge holds zero strategic advantage for the Gators. This is a situation where Armstrong just put his defensive tackle at a disadvantage. Had Daniels been pressured and tried to escape Watson’s way, he wouldn’t be able to catch him. It wasn’t one of LSU’s explosive plays, but I think points towards issues with having the right players doing the right things.

The staff is also asking players – out of necessity really – to do things they aren’t ready for. You can see that on this play.

Scooby Williams (#17) has two jobs here. He is spying Daniels and he is responsible for the running back if he goes out for a pass as a check-down. Williams is so busy paying attention to Daniels that he lets the LSU running back run free behind him for a huge gain.

“Williams needs to stay with the running back,” you say? How could he allow him that much space? Well…….

On this play, Williams has his eyes on the back. Daniels pump fakes in his direction and Williams sees it and heads in that direction to make the play. But Daniels doesn’t actually throw the ball, and now the spy is gone. Daniels now outruns and/or jukes the entire Gators secondary and waltzes in for a TD.

“Take out Williams,” you say. He must be the issue here and there must be someone who can do that (hard) job better. Well……

You can see the exact same thing happen on this play to backup linebacker Manny Nunnery (#34). Nunnery is one of the more athletic players the Gators have at the position, but he runs in on a delayed blitz relatively aimlessly while the back sneaks out behind him for the touchdown.

But this isn’t all on Nunnery though. Let’s look at that play with a timer from the time the ball is snapped.

Daniels holds the ball for more than four seconds. He still isn’t even remotely threatened when he lets the ball go. I actually think he had a back shoulder throw to the field side if he wanted it right at the snap. But why take option one when you can wait for option five?

“Bring a blitz to get to Daniels and make him uncomfortable,” you say? Well, if you don’t get home, that’s going to expose you to deep shots.

Florida has one deep safety here, shaded in the direction of the throw. Daniels doesn’t really look him off, but since the Gators have two linebackers in the game, LSU has four wide receivers and one of the linebackers is blitzing, there’s going to be man coverage somewhere.

At the snap, Marshall shifts his hips to the outside, directing the receiver back towards his safety help. But the thing is that if you look at where I pause the clip and where the receiver catches the ball, you’ll see that he’s actually further outside than when he came into conflict with Marshall. That means Marshall didn’t redirect him effectively.

Should the safety get over there quicker to help? Maybe. But the fact that Marshall was beaten so badly that it allowed the receiver to find his way back outside his original line eliminated any ability to do so. And the receiver has Marshall beaten by two full steps. Daniels is way too good to give that much room.

“So we should play off-coverage when blitzing so the defensive back can’t get beat deep,” you say? Well……

Where do I start on this one? Florida brings both of its linebackers on a cross blitz. But they run into each other and Manny Nunnery (#34) trips Derek Wingo (#15). The blitz doesn’t even come close to getting home. But it does leave safety Bryce Thornton (#18) on Malik Nabers in the slot. Nabers is LSU’s best wide receiver.

With the blitz not getting there, there is zero shame in Thornton allowing Nabers to make a catch right in front of him, but you have to get him on the ground. Instead, Nabers gains an extra 30 yards.

“But that would never happen to our corners if they played off coverage,” you say. Well…….

Here corner Jalen Kimber is playing off wide receiver Brian Thomas (#11). Thornton (#18) is out there as well, presumably to provide deep support. Thomas releases outside, meaning Kimber is responsible for covering him down the sideline. Note how when Daniels lets the ball go, there isn’t a Gator defender within five yards of him.

Florida only brings four rushers and drops Jordan Castell (#14) and Princely Umanmielen (#1) into coverage. This is a three-man route for LSU. They have Chris Hilton running a shall cross, Nabers in the slot running a post and Thomas on the outside running a go.

I’ve paused and circled Kimber and Thornton as the ball is on the way. It isn’t a very good throw by Daniels as it holds Thomas up and leads him back towards the receiver running a post down the middle. Jason Marshall picked up the post, but Kimber is beaten by five yards and I have no idea why Thornton is where he is at.

Without knowing the scheme called and without the All-22, it’s difficult to see exactly what happened here (i.e. maybe he slipped). But Thomas is able to run underneath the throw and make an easy TD catch regardless.

Takeaway

“So is this personnel or is this scheme?” The answer to your question is yes.

Armstrong and Napier are doing a bad job of putting their players in positions to succeed. But they’re also limited by their players’ physical abilities as well as their youth. I suspect Armstrong is overloading them with information at this point and it’s making them play slow. That’s the only way I can fathom some of the mistakes that are happening over and over.

The tackling issues that continue to plague the defense should bother them more than the schematic issues or being physically beat. But not being able to get a receiver, running back or quarterback to the ground consistently is indicative of a team that is soft.

We saw it last week as I showed multiple times in my recap of the Arkansas game where Florida’s defense allowed a 7-yard gain to become a 17-yard gain. And LSU isn’t Arkansas. They can turn a 7-yard gain into a 70-yard gain really quickly.

And they did….over and over. The Tigers had six plays of more than 40 yards.

But I find this one hard to pin on the players. They are only doing what they’re asked to do, and given that a defensive tackle listed at 435 pounds is running stunts on first down, I’d say they’re being asked to do things that aren’t exactly in their wheelhouse.

The 2022 Florida defense was historically bad. That unit ranked 105th in yards per play allowed and gave up 30 points per game to non-cupcake opponents. The 2023 version is now ranked 129th in yards per play allowed and has given up 32.5 points per game to non-cupcake opponents with two ranked opponents still on the schedule.

Last year, you might have blamed Patrick Toney. This year, you might blame Austin Armstrong. But there’s only one common denominator between the two of them.

The guy who hired them.