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Gator OL vs Miami Front-Seven - The Biggest Mismatch for 8/24

FL Cane

FL Cane

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Anchored by our three senior LB's, and multiple talented and experienced players on the DL, I believe that we're going to have an excellent front seven this year, among the best in the nation potentially. Going into our game next week, it's vital that we take advantage of the apparent mismatch between Florida's OL and our front-seven. Just a few days ago, this was the projected starting OL line-up (per the UF and SEC sites) for 8/24. I'm interested to see what you guys think of my analysis below (agree, disagree, etc).
  1. LT - Stone Forsythe (RS JR, 6' 7", 323 lbs): Started 2 games in 2017 and 1 game in 2018. Played in 13 games in 2018 as a backup at guard and tackle, with some special teams duty. 3-Star OT recruited by Jim McElwain's staff.
  2. LG - Brett Heggie (RS JR, 6' 4", 314 lbs): Was redshirted in 2016. Played in 8 games in 2017, started in 7, before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Played in 9 games last year at LG and RG, but dealt with injuries all year long. 3-Star OC recruited by Jim McElwain's staff.
  3. OC - Nick Buchanan (RS SR, 6' 3", 291 lbs): Was redshirted in 2015. Played 2 games as a backup in 2016, and appeared in 1 game as a backup in 2017. Played a lot in 2018, and started in 12 games at OC. 3-Star OT recruited by Jim McElwain's staff.
  4. RG - Chris Bleich (RS FR, 6' 6", 321 lbs): Played in 4 games as a reserve OL in 2018 (CSU, Colorado St., Idaho, UM). 3-Star OT initially recruited by Jim McElwain's staff but ultimately signed by then-new HC Dan Mullen.
  5. ***RT - Jean Delance (RS JR, 6' 4", 313 lbs)***: Transferred from Texas to UF in 2016. Played 2 games at Texas, and played 4 games (CSU, FSU, Idaho, and UM) during the 2018 season. 4-Star OT that transferred from Texas to UF in 2016.
***In the past few days, it's been reported that Jean Delance suffered an injury in camp, and was seen on crutches. There isn't much information on the severity of the injury, but being that we're a little over a week from kickoff, it's unlikely he'll be at full strength. The most recent reporting from their insiders say that it's a day-to-day bone bruise injury. The severity of which is unknown.***​
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In looking at the starting rotation, it's evident that Florida's OL will take a step back from its highs of 2018. Florida lost 4 of its 5 2018 starters to the NFL draft/or seniority. The list of losses is as follows.
  1. OT - Jawaan Taylor (JR, 6' 5", 312 lbs): Started 35 games in his career at Florida. Right tackle for most of his career at UF, but did start at left tackle a few times. Selected in the 2nd Round of the NFL Draft (#35 pick) by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Taylor was an anchor on UF's offensive line last year. A major reason for their success.
  2. OG/OT - Martez Ivey (SR, 6' 5", 305 lbs): Started more than 40 games in his career at Florida. Ivey mostly played at OG during his career, with some movement to OT occasionally. He was projected to be a 2nd to 3rd round pick by many draft analysts but ultimately went undrafted. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the New England Patriots. He was another anchor of UF's OL last year.
  3. OG - Tyler Jordan (SR, 6' 4", 321 lbs): Started 27 games in his career at Florida. Nowhere near as talented as Taylor or Ivey, but a consistent starter and contributor to the UF OL. Got a minicamp invite for the Falcons, hasn't done much else or signed as an FA.
  4. OG - Fred Johnson (SR, 6' 6", 330 lbs): Started 33 games in his career at Florida, mostly at RG. More talented than Tyler Jordan, but below Taylor and Ivey. A consistent starter and contributor beginning in his sophomore season. Signed as an undrafted free agent with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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  5. OL - Noah Banks (RS Jr, 6' 5" 309 lbs): This is a guy you really feel for. He started in 1 game at UF (Idaho) but played in 12 games as a reserve OL last year. Was a transfer to UF, and played 10 games at Iowa Western College and 11 games at Murray State. Banks retired from football this past week, due to epilepsy. While not necessarily a projected starter, he would have added solid depth and had significant playing time. All the best to him in his post-football career.
Overall, you can see that UF lost three NFL caliber OL's, one consistent college-level starter, and one player that would've been a veteran contributor on their OL this year. Last year, UF won most of its games (minus Miss St.) behind a solid offensive line and running game that averaged 236 yds per game. In their three losses, the run game averaged 137 yds per game.

Florida's offense ran 888 plays last year, finishing the season as the #42 offense in the country. Remarkably, total passing yards and rushing yards were even (2,776 passing; 2,773 rushing) and there were 28 passing touchdowns and 23 rushing touchdowns. Overall, Florida was an extremely balanced offense. Nevertheless, of Florida's 888 plays, 59% of their offensive plays were designed runs while only 41% of offensive plays were passes. Florida also only had 13 plays of 40+ yards last year, though to be fair, top offenses like Alabama and Oklahoma had 34 and 35 a-piece.

So, what does this all mean? Well for one, Florida's offense was run-heavy last year and benefited from an experienced OL with a combined 147 starts. The success of Mullen's scheme was predicated on establishing a power running game and opening-up manageable down situations where Felipe Franks didn't need to do too much. Whenever Florida's run game could not be consistent (UK, UGA, Mizzou) Franks was unable to power his team to victory and played poorly. A big win against LSU and a comeback win against South Carolina (367 rushing yds for UF in that game) were due to big performances in the run game.

Big Points Going Into 8/24
  • With the likely loss of John Delance, UF's next up at RT would be T.J. Moore (RS SO, 6' 5", 305 lbs) or Michael Tarquin (TR FR, 6' 5", 279 lbs). Moore only appeared in two games last year (Idaho and Charleston Southern), and Tarquin has yet to play a snap in college football. Comparably Tarquin is smaller than our own Zion Nelson, who currently weighs in at 290 lbs. The gator fans, as usual, seem to not care about the comparison despite constantly criticizing Nelson's inexperience and size.

  • UF's 2018 OL had a combined 147 stars. The 2019 OL will start the season with a combined 20 stars, of which 12 are from Nick Buchanan. This is not an experienced or battle-tested OL. Somehow, our own inexperienced OL has more combined starts at 30 overall. With Donaldson and Scaife making up the majority.

  • On our front-seven, our starting LB's alone have 106 stars. Our experienced guys on the DL have a combined 49 stars. Ford, Nnoruka, Rousseau, and company are set for a big year.
In my opinion, our front-seven matchup with UF is a clear advantage in our favor and the biggest mismatch of this game. With a combined 20 starts and multiple career reserves getting their first-ever playing time against a non-cupcake, I believe that we are going to overwhelm their OL. While our OL has similar experience issues, their front-seven does not have comparable experience or talent to us. Beyond Zuniga, no one on their DL is an elite pass rusher. Kyree Campbell, one of their starters and most effective NT's from last year, is also day-to-day with a groin injury.

John Hevesy is a **** of an OL coach, and Michael Perrine and Felipe Franks are battle-tested players. Neither though, will be able to do much if their OL is overwhelmed. Florida's experienced and talented group of WR's become less of a problem if Franks is under consistent pressure. When under pressure, Franks is one of the worst QB's in college football and has an abysmal completion %.

All-in-all, this is a matchup Miami has to take advantage of. Florida fans think their OL will show out and play above average. At the least, this OL has to show their average to begin with.
 
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Manolo Montana said:
This truly is where we win the game. We do our job, then we dominate them. It’s not an if we dominate but rather if we do our job. It’s a major mismatch and should allow us to slowly squeeze them by flustering their O.
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I couldn't agree more. While they would argue that we're in the same situation, we have the far better front-seven compared to theirs. We have one of the best LB corps in the country and a number of experienced and talented players on the DL. Not to mention, they lost a ton of major defensive players last year, and are very thin at DB. There's no one behind CJ Henderson and Marco Wilson, just a bunch of true freshman.

Their defense has a lot more holes in it than ours. Before posting this I even asked some non-Miami friends (FSU, BAMA, and Oklahoma fans) who was in the worse position. They all said UF, no hesitation. I'm more confident in our OL's ability (as bad as it could be) to hold up against their front-seven than their OL to hold up against us.
 
JimmyJohnsonsHair said:
We are stacked at DE but our DTs are unproven.
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Jon Ford May be unproven but he is said to be a monster. Pat bethel had a solid first year starting with 6 tfls(almost twice as much either of uf starting dts got combined) 2.0 sacks in 13 games . Kendrick norton as a junior for reference had 6.5 tfls 2 sacks in 14 games. Chigozie is a proven player too.

No one knew who quinnen Williams was before he jumped onto the scene last season either​
 
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FL Cane said:
I couldn't agree more. While they would argue that we're in the same situation, we have the far better front-seven compared to theirs. We have one of the best LB corps in the country and a number of experienced and talented players on the DL. Not to mention, they lost a ton of major defensive players last year, and are very thin at DB. There's no one behind CJ Henderson and Marco Wilson, just a bunch of true freshman.

Their defense has a lot more holes in it than ours. Before posting this I even asked some non-Miami friends (FSU, BAMA, and Oklahoma fans) who was in the worse position. They all said UF, no hesitation. I'm more confident in our OL's ability (as bad as it could be) to hold up against their front-seven than their OL to hold up against us.
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Wow that last part says A LOT! Objective observers usually paint the best picture.
 
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i think this and our TE's are going to be the winning difference. Our double TE formations along with the fact they are STUDS should get their heads spinning, and once they try to adjust, you go crazy with Osborn/Thomas
 
Heggie and Buchanon are good players. Don’t know about the rest.

Football rarely is this simple. Their system makes life easier for their O Line in the way they spread you out.

More important will be how well our Lbs & safeties perform on their keys with all the misdirection and option play they use.

Vice versa @LuCane hit it on the money. How well our TEs do in the run game vs their smallish OLB lineup in Burney & Dean will determine how good a game we have on offense in the run game.
 
Mico Jones said:
Heggie and Buchanon are good players. Don’t know about the rest.

Football rarely is this simple. Their system makes life easier for their O Line in the way they spread you out.

More important will be how well our Lbs & safeties perform on their keys with all the misdirection and option play they use.

Vice versa @LuCane hit it on the money. How well our TEs do in the run game vs their smallish OLB lineup in Burney & Dean will determine how good a game we have on offense in the run game.
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Buchanan is small as **** too for a center at 6’3 283. If Jordan can block Burns this well, he can block whoever uf has because they don’t have anyone on his level.
 
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Mico Jones said:
Football rarely is this simple. Their system makes life easier for their O Line in the way they spread you out.
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Agreed. As much as I'd love for Mullen to play into our hands, its very unlikely. He's a good play-caller that will do his best to negate our front seven.
 
Great post, obviously, but the plan as of now is to move Forsythe from LT to RT, and to start Richard Gouraige at LT.

Gouraige is a redshirt freshman and the #81 overall player in the country in 2018. He was their 2nd highest rated recruit last class. Only played in 2 games last fall.

Tampa kid....Miami offered but I don’t think he ever visited.
 
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I don't think Mullen will play into our hands. But, throughout his career, the success of his offenses has always been based on protection up front, and whether he can get a consistent power run game going. I do agree Mullen is a good play-caller, but even with a solid OL last year, he wasn't able to adjust when his run game wasn't consistent. I'm not totally convinced he can scheme around the inexperience and depth issues on the OL. This OL is probably among the least talented and experienced that he's ever had. It's going to be interesting to see if we can play to our potential, and keep them from playing above theirs.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
Great post, obviously, but the plan as of now is to move Forsythe from LT to RT, and to start Richard Gouraige at LT.

Gouraige is a redshirt freshman and the #81 overall player in the country in 2018. He was their 2nd highest rated recruit last class. Only played in 2 games last fall.

Tampa kid....Miami offered but I don’t think he ever visited.
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I saw this too. But I also have to point out that means he’s matched up with Garvin and tbh idgaf who they put out there for that match up we have a clear advantage. Our defense end depth is going to be a huge issue for them
 
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