Franz Beard
Thoughts of the Day: The offense is starting to adapt and evolve
A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:
“Reality is you’ve got to have the ability to adapt,” Billy Napier said Monday after the Kentucky loss. “We’ve adapted in the past …. You’re always evaluating.”
There is no question that what we saw Saturday in Florida’s 38-14 win over Vanderbilt was Napier adapting his offense to the personnel he had on hand. From the second half of the win over Tennessee until Saturday against Vandy, true freshman Tre Wilson wasn’t available. With Wilson healthy and ready to go, the motion packages forced the Commodores to defend the width of the field. Wilson caught eight passes for 64 yards, one of which was a little forward flip that counts as a pass these days. Essentially, it was a jet sweep that turned into a 9-yard TDP.
With Wilson changing the dynamic horizontally, redshirt freshman tight end Arlis Boardingham became the weapon in the middle of the field. His eight receptions went for 99 yards and two touchdowns.
One of the things that has been missing most of the season is someone with Wilson’s make-you-miss dynamic horizontally and a tight end who can be a threat in the middle of the field. Adding Wilson and Boardingham as threats can prevent defenses from stacking the box to stop Montrell Johnson Jr. and Trevor Etienne in the running game while bracketing Ricky Pearsall downfield in the passing game. We saw how the entire field opened up Saturday when Wilson and Boardingham were consistent targets.
After an opening drive when Pearsall caught two passes for 27 yards and scored a touchdown on a jet sweep from 14 yards out, Vanderbilt made a concerted effort to take him out of the game. By putting so much emphasis on Pearsall, Wilson and Boardingham had room to operate which also loosened things up in the running game (215 yards, 7.2 per carry). Etienne was sidelined, so Johnson (18-135, 1 TD) and true freshman Treyaun Webb (4-70) did most of the damage running the ball.
Graham Mertz completed 30 of his 36 passes for 254 yards and three touchdowns. Included were a couple of drops, two misses on vertical routes that he probably would like to have back and a couple of misfires. He had an intentional grounding that ranks among the very few mental mistakes he made. “I’ve played football long enough to know you’ve got to throw past the line [of scrimmage],” Mertz explained post game. “You just don’t hold onto the ball and don’t make a bad play worse.”
Bet the farm the same critics who insist Mertz is somewhere between the 11th and 13th-ranked quarterback in the Southeastern Conference will spend the week complaining that Mertz is nothing more than a dink and dunker type. He’s averaging 8.4 per attempt which is better than any Florida quarterback not named Tim Tebow or Kyle Trask since 2009. Neither Tebow nor Trask completed 79.5 percent of their passes, either.
We are midway through the 2023 season and the toughest stretch is still ahead for the Gators, but we saw Saturday what the offense is capable of doing when it can stretch the field vertically and horizontally, plus can operate in the middle of the field with a tight end. There is no guarantee that the Gators (4-2, 2-1 SEC) are going to equal or exceed last season, but that was a good looking offense Saturday. If everybody can get healthy on that side of the ball, it's entirely possible the Gators could get some momentum going in the last six games.
Thoughts of the Day: The offense is starting to adapt and evolve
A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:
“Reality is you’ve got to have the ability to adapt,” Billy Napier said Monday after the Kentucky loss. “We’ve adapted in the past …. You’re always evaluating.”
There is no question that what we saw Saturday in Florida’s 38-14 win over Vanderbilt was Napier adapting his offense to the personnel he had on hand. From the second half of the win over Tennessee until Saturday against Vandy, true freshman Tre Wilson wasn’t available. With Wilson healthy and ready to go, the motion packages forced the Commodores to defend the width of the field. Wilson caught eight passes for 64 yards, one of which was a little forward flip that counts as a pass these days. Essentially, it was a jet sweep that turned into a 9-yard TDP.
With Wilson changing the dynamic horizontally, redshirt freshman tight end Arlis Boardingham became the weapon in the middle of the field. His eight receptions went for 99 yards and two touchdowns.
One of the things that has been missing most of the season is someone with Wilson’s make-you-miss dynamic horizontally and a tight end who can be a threat in the middle of the field. Adding Wilson and Boardingham as threats can prevent defenses from stacking the box to stop Montrell Johnson Jr. and Trevor Etienne in the running game while bracketing Ricky Pearsall downfield in the passing game. We saw how the entire field opened up Saturday when Wilson and Boardingham were consistent targets.
After an opening drive when Pearsall caught two passes for 27 yards and scored a touchdown on a jet sweep from 14 yards out, Vanderbilt made a concerted effort to take him out of the game. By putting so much emphasis on Pearsall, Wilson and Boardingham had room to operate which also loosened things up in the running game (215 yards, 7.2 per carry). Etienne was sidelined, so Johnson (18-135, 1 TD) and true freshman Treyaun Webb (4-70) did most of the damage running the ball.
Graham Mertz completed 30 of his 36 passes for 254 yards and three touchdowns. Included were a couple of drops, two misses on vertical routes that he probably would like to have back and a couple of misfires. He had an intentional grounding that ranks among the very few mental mistakes he made. “I’ve played football long enough to know you’ve got to throw past the line [of scrimmage],” Mertz explained post game. “You just don’t hold onto the ball and don’t make a bad play worse.”
Bet the farm the same critics who insist Mertz is somewhere between the 11th and 13th-ranked quarterback in the Southeastern Conference will spend the week complaining that Mertz is nothing more than a dink and dunker type. He’s averaging 8.4 per attempt which is better than any Florida quarterback not named Tim Tebow or Kyle Trask since 2009. Neither Tebow nor Trask completed 79.5 percent of their passes, either.
We are midway through the 2023 season and the toughest stretch is still ahead for the Gators, but we saw Saturday what the offense is capable of doing when it can stretch the field vertically and horizontally, plus can operate in the middle of the field with a tight end. There is no guarantee that the Gators (4-2, 2-1 SEC) are going to equal or exceed last season, but that was a good looking offense Saturday. If everybody can get healthy on that side of the ball, it's entirely possible the Gators could get some momentum going in the last six games.
