FLORIDA OFFENSE:
Let's start with what the Gators are trying to do on offense as their game plan. By watching this game you may have oooohed and aaaahed the large passing numbers. And that's fine because it's a viable part of this Florida offense. However, the primary thing Florida wants to do in this system is run the football. Against Kentucky, Florida ran the ball 50 times for an average of 4.9 a carry. That's huge. They also threw 33 times for 320 yards, and that's big as well. However, on a play split it was 61% run and 39% pass by play call.
Florida ran at least a dozen formation sets on offense while I was watching the film, and they switched them at will. In the first series they opened a bunched 2 TE - 2 WR set for a power running look, but they also ran a pull play across the field for one of their TE's, #30 Goolsby, later in the game out of that same bunch formation as a passing play. They can switch to 3 or 4 receiver spreads. They can go with power running overloaded sets to either side. They can switch back to a standard play-action pro-set. It's designed for one thing and one thing only. Confusion.
The goal of this Florida offense is to confuse the defenses so that it can run or pass out of any particular formation. They aren't going to be obvious, and they are doing it because they now have a true play-action pocket-passer QB in Luke Del Rio. I noticed several things about Del Rio that I'll cover in the picture examples, but the main thing he has is pocket presence. You can't teach that in the college level. It's that feeling of how to step up and back in the pocket when you sense pressure, and the best QBs at the NFL level have it. Most college kids don't. Luke has it, which is terrifying if you're not a Florida Gator fan, because they finally found a good QB that can complement their already great defense.
So how did Florida take over this game? It happened on three plays. I'll detail them here, and you can click on the pictures to expand:
Florida made an interception (one of 3 in this game, but I'll get to that later on defense) and while they were up 7-0 already on a long grinding score, this was the first play from scrimmage after the pick. The picture shows you down the field coverage. The circle on the top is #81 Antonio Callaway who is two steps ahead of his defender, absolutely scorching him on a fly route. The lower circle is the safety who in that exact moment has figured out he made a huge mistake. You can't see Del Rio the QB in this picture, but he's looked off the safety to the bottom receiver who is obviously covered. By the time Del Rio looks at the top to Callaway, you see the safety is starting to backpedal because he's totally out of position. What happens after this is Del Rio drops a 45 yard dime to Callaway who runs the rest of the way for a 78 yard TD. Boom.
This is at the end of the half. You can see the clock scenario. Kentucky needs to stop Florida to keep them from going up 4 scores. Florida is throwing on first down and goal. Now there's a lot going on here so I drew arrows. This will show you how the misdirection of Florida's offense completely confused Kentucky. Note the receiver in the middle who is running across the 2 yard line. His job is entirely to confuse the defense and draw those two men in coverage to him. You now have two guys on #18, leaving #4 Brandon Powell at the bottom running behind him to the end zone. One defender at the bottom of your screen has no hope of catching #4 as he goes to the line, the other defender in the end zone is backing up because he's worried about a guy coming in behind him. What happens is Del Rio has great protection by the O-Line on a 3-man rush (bad idea Kentucky) and he delivers a strike to Powell right at the line for a TD.
Here's the back breaker play of the game. This is the exact moment I can determine when Kentucky gave up and stopped trying. And there was still an entire half of football left. The circle at the top is the ball, it's early in the second half, and you can see there is a receiver just waiting to catch this pass basically by himself. This is a completely busted coverage as there's not one but TWO Florida receivers who could have made this play, and the nearest defenders are almost 10 yards away on each side. Obviously, #16 Freddie Swain makes the easy catch, and there's absolutely nothing between him and the end zone. Game over. Except they still scored 14 more points and Kentucky got a garbage time TD. But this picture shows what happened in a nutshell. Florida confused Kentucky so badly on offense they had no shot.
FLORIDA DEFENSE AND SPECIAL TEAMS:
I'll start by saying that Florida's defense looked so good in this game because Kentucky made so many mistakes. That's not to say that Florida's defense isn't good, but they aren't +4 turnovers and holding a team to under 150 yards good. They needed some help for that. Still, they had a great day and a few players jumped out at me.
The first guy was #34 Alex Anzalone, who looks like some version of Thor and Clay Matthews running around with flowing blonde hair out of his helmet as he makes tackles. By my count he had a sack, several tackles for loss, and made every single play on Kentucky's first 3-and-out of the game. He was flying around to the ball and looks extremely talented as a LB with a high motor.
Second guy was #17 Jordan Sherit, a defensive lineman who abused tackles all day in pass protection. He had two sacks that I saw, was blowing around guys on the line, and was causing havoc in the backfield on a couple of the interceptions. Kentucky didn't know what to do with him at all, and it cost them huge.
The other guys were #6 Quincy Wilson, #31 Teez Tabor, and #20 Marcus Maye. They all had interceptions on the day, and were all part of making Kentucky QB Drew Barker's life a living nightmare. They, along with the pass rush and remaining secondary managed to hold the starting QB to 10 yards passing. TEN. That's insane. And they were doing it mainly by playing press coverage along the front line because they completely disrespected Barker's ability to throw the ball. Everybody was in a five yard box at one point. It was a bloodbath. The best interception was a tie between Wilson who made his 1-handed at the boundary, and Tabor who completely jumped the pass as Barker tried to throw a WR screen.
All in all, the Florida defense hasn't faced an offensive opponent of consequence yet, and they won't until they play Tennessee two weeks from now on the road. Maybe at that point I can give them a proper evaluation. As for their kicking game? It's schizophrenic. Their kicker Eddy Pineiro made a 53 yarder that I gave him no chance on, while also missing two FGs from 43 yards and 30+ yards. He needs to work on his short game, like many golfers I know. He's got the Bubba Watson drive, but absolutely no control.
KENTUCKY IN GENERAL:
Good lord. You're a bad football team, and I don't see any hope for you this year. That's the brutally honest truth. It's worse than I possibly imagined. Your starting QB Barker was so bad he was throwing balls into the dirt when he had wide open targets for TDs. The running game until garbage time was completely absent. You replaced your QB for a backup that had 45 yards and got sacked several times, AND HE WAS THE BETTER GUY. Your best running back Boom Williams only got 12 carries because you were so far behind you couldn't run the ball. You have zero talent at the receiver positions when faced with adversity.
Plus, your team gave up and I saw it on the field. You know you saw it too. There was a point in that game where they stopped listening and just wanted to leave. Florida, for what it's worth actually pitied you enough in the 4th quarter to take their foot off the gas and put in their backup QB. That should make you realize especially after the loss to a cupcake in week one that your coaching staff has completely lost control of this team.
The defense has no idea where it's supposed to be. If you don't believe me, look at those three pictures that I posted above and point out to me who is in the right coverage position. Because nobody is in the right position for the types of plays Florida was running, and they got burned over and over again. The best thing I can say about Kentucky is that they only committed two penalties, so at least they didn't look undisciplined there.
I don't advocate for firing somebody else's coach, but dear lord Kentucky you can do better than this. I've seen it before. You need to get rid of Stoops ASAP and get an actual head coach in your school. Because right now I think you're on pace for the worst season since 1994 under Bill Curry. And you won only 1 game that year.
Better figure something out quick.
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