Florida Gators '09: Yes, they're as good as everyone says

The 2008 Season in a Box
Last season had to have been one of those nice gifts that come in Tiffany boxes or something like that. You never actually get anything in those boxes, but that rich-as-shit couple down the street sure enjoys getting them, and that Land Rover that showed up mysteriously three months ago still grates on you. Of course, this grates on you because that family is just a little more upper-crust than you are, and lordy, does that grate when you have nothing better to do with your time than compare net worth. It’s like Desperate Housewives, or at least how I think it’d be since I’ve never seen that god-forsaken show. In reality I imagine it’s like most of the middle-upper-class suburbia, when people have nothing better to do but covet, complain about service, and be complete dicks to everyone around. POWER TO THE PROLETARIAT

Why Should This Season Be Any Different?
Sadly, there’s no reason at all to think it’ll be any different. Freaking everyone and their brother returns except for Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy – and I think they were the only people on the team to leave, period. The Gators return nearly everyone on their two-deep on defense, three of the five on the offensive line, and just because this team isn’t inappropriately talented enough, the second-team SEC punter. Not that they’ll need him. The biggest question mark is the departure of offensive coordinator Dan Mullen to Mississippi State, and even I don’t think that’ll turn out to be a big deal at all. Whether or not anyone else thinks that depends on how much of an impact Mullen’s departure will have on the Gator offense; this offense has always had Meyer’s stamp on it, and Mullen’s departure won’t change that.

On Offense
I’m so proud of myself that I went two whole paragraphs without mentioning Tim Tebow. Look, at this point there’s a whole damn blog devoted to him (which amazingly isn’t completely tongue-in-cheek) so it goes without saying he’s kind of a big deal. He makes this version of the Meyer offense go. I remember a few years back about how I was completely scared shitless about the Tebow era at Florida; I was right. Tebow’s blossomed into one of the best college football players of all time so far, and is hands-down one of the best players and leaders in the SEC. Expecting Tebow to be anything less than a contender for the Berry Award (formerly known as the little dude with a stiff arm trophy) is going to be a grievous mistake, and he’ll probably give some speech about it that ends up memorialized on 40 UF coeds’ backs before it’s all said and done.

The problem – if it actually exists – is that there’s kind of a lack of playmakers with the rest of the offense, at least on a relative scale. Percy Harvin is gone, and while there’s certainly no shortage of talent across the board, nobody on the team has shown to be the kind of legitimate gamebreaker like Harvin was. Jeffery Demps has come closest so far, but he has his work cut out for him to come anywhere near the 1,200 all-purpose yards and 17 TDs Harvin picked up last year.

Of course, it’s not really much of a slight against them if they don’t have a once-every-decade type player in Harvin, because they’re loaded aside from him. The running game will be one of those obscene multi-back approaches that drives opposing DCs nuts; while most people have heard of the quarkback combination that is the Demps/Rainey combo, Emmanuel Moody should be ready to assume more of the workload. Moody spent part of last season in Meyer’s doghouse, but came into his own in the second part of the year. With Moody getting regular PT, Florida has four legitimate rushing options counting Tebow in any given play; that’s a nightmare for opponents. If Moody ends up back in the doghouse, then the Tebow/Demps/Rainey combination is still dangerous, but they will be lacking a true next-level threat. I think either Demps or Rainey could do that, but they won’t be able to do that getting 15-20 carries a game apiece, simply because defenses will see them too much.

The receiving corps is in similar shape as the running backs. Last year TE Cornelius Ingram spent the entire year injured and Aaron Hernandez had to step in as the everyday TE; he did so admirably and will function in a similar role as he did last year. Of course, he’s about the only guy whose approach and numbers will stay nearly the same this season. Most of the other guys will be stepping into larger roles; of that crew, Deonte Thompson is the most obvious guy to step up to the next level. He averaged right around 15 ypr last year (technically it was less than David Nelson, who actually averaged an even 15.0 ypr), but that may go down a bit as his role increases. Either way, someone – likely one of those two – will need to step up. It hurts when Florida not only loses their two best receivers from a yardage and TD basis, but from a ypr basis, too. With that being said, they have three guys – Riley Cooper is the third – who averaged between 14 and 15 ypr last season, so at least one of them will probably move into the 16-17 range that’ll put them among the conference leaders.

Meyer’s offense is something I term pro-style spread: there are enough playmakers that a half-decent scheme will exploit what’s likely going to be at least one mismatch on any given play. Shockingly, the offense isn’t that complex as these offenses go, but what it loses in complexity it gets in balance. Expecting anything else would be a mistake.

On Defense and Special Teams
Really, the reason Florida scares the crap out of me this year more than last year is the entire defense is back. All the starters return, including 1st-team All-American LB Brandon Spikes and three guys (DE Carlos Dunlap, CB Joe Haden, SS Ahmad Black) from the 2nd-team SEC defense last year. Steele has a total of 7(!) starters on all four of his teams, so yes, they’re talented. Everyone who recorded at least 15 tackles returns.

On paper, there’s no reason that they shouldn’t be at least as dominant as they were last year. Fortunately, they have regression; I don’t think they’ll end up with 26 picks again this season, and their defensive yards-per-point was over 22 (by comparison, anything over 17.5 normally indicates some kind of record regression). Unfortunately, even if they increase their points allowed by 50% that’s still not even 20 points per game, and with the offense averaging over 40 points per game (again, that was also beneficial), it probably won’t matter.

Charlie Strong by all rights should be a head coach somewhere; he’s one of the best in the game at what he does. While other guys (hi, Orson!) will chalk that up to extracurricular ideas, I’ll be charitable and say apparently he hasn’t done enough to prove himself. Really, even I think that’s bullshit; Florida’s lucky enough to have two guys who could be head coaches somewhere. Good for them that they’re lucky enough to have that, and shame on everyone else for hiring retreads.

So What’s Their Bowl Game?
Just in case it wasn’t unfair enough that Florida has this level of talent, they also have a pretty favorable schedule. Their only tough road game is at LSU (and if you’d like to bet on that being a night game, that’s already been pulled from the board, sorry) and their home games aren’t hiding anything. Really, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be double-digit favorites in every game save the LSU game and the SEC Championship Game, meaning we’re looking at a team who should be in the BCS Championship Game. Of course, now watch them lose to ….um, LSU. Even I’m not gutsy enough to say they’ll lose to Tennessee.

This is the Big-Time: The Simulated National Championship Game

Blame the shitty-ass Penn State / USC game (did someone want to tell the zombies that there's a game tonight?), but here we are. It's time for the final game - Florida vs. Oklahoma. James is taking Florida and Russ is taking Oklahoma.

Oklahoma wins the toss and elects to defer.

1st Quarter

Brandon James whips a huge return out to the Florida 44. Florida opens up with Tebow Left for a one-yard gain before a huge gain on a pass to ...um, mystery fullback. His next pass is swatted down before a completion to someone we're not going to tell (he's actually injured; we fixed that mistake right after the completion). 3rd and 5 results in an incompletion, so we're up for a field goal attempt .... that sails juuuust right!

Bradford and crew take over at their 29. First play is an iso to DeMarco Murray (5 yard gain) - second play's to Murray as well, but this one's a 16-yard completion instead of a handoff. First attempted pass is an outright sack, and the next iso play goes for nothing. That means - you better believe it - Bradford's gotta throw it deep. He chucks it .... and it's tipped and intercepted by Brandon Spikes! Spikes takes it back ....30 ....20 ....10 ....touchdown! XP is good - we're at a weird 7-0 Gators.

Murray returns it to the Sooner 36. Bradford sweeps it out to the left, looking to run - and the ball is stripped! Florida takes over on OU's 38.

Tebow way right for 4 yards. Tebow option right to Louis Murphy for 5 yards. Tebow option right - again - but this time it's stuck for a one-yard loss. Florida's going for it on 4th and 2 from the Sooner 30; Tebow launches a 28-yard pass to Deonte Thompson! Next play is Tebow left for the typical Tebow left result from two yards out: Florida TD. We're at 13-0 after a missed XP.

Kickoff is out of the back of the end zone. Bradford gets a little bit comfortable with a 6-yard completion on a crossing route to Jermaine Greshman before hitting Adron Tennell for a huge gain after the completion. Of course, if you're Sam Bradford, screen passes are for pansies - the screen to Murray goes nowhere. Got to air that shit out - and air it out he does! 19-yard completion to Murray, and nobody can stop Murray on the next play from scrimmage. We're at 13-7 Gators and we're not even out of the first quarter. Yikes.

2nd Quarter

Brandon James returns the kickoff to the Florida 34. After an extended scramble, Louis Murphy comes back for a quick little 5-yard dumpoff completion. Of course, that scramble had nothing on the 6-second scramble that Tebow goes through on 2nd and 5 before hitting another completion for 1st down to Aron Hernandez. Jet sweep to Harvin goes nowhere; 2nd and 11 from the OU 49. Option right to Harvin goes somewhere in a hurry - the kid blows for 14 yards in something like 0.8 seconds. Another extended scramble ends up in Harvin's hands for a first down at the OU 24. Um, make that 1st and 15 after Florida can't get their shit together. Okay, I'm gonna make "extended scramble" a macro now - this time we've got a 5-yard completion for 2nd and 10. Bailout pass to Emmanuel Moody means we're in 3rd and 6. Aron Hernandez comes through in the clutch again for the Gators - he juuuuuuuust got past the first-down marker, and now we're at the 14. Tebow option fail! 2nd and 14 from the 18. Another pass to mystery fullback (who the fuck IS this guy? #40 - I can't find him on the rosters anywhere) means we're iin 3rd and 10. Dropped pass by Moody means we're up for a FG ... and that's missed! Still 13-7; Sooners take over on the 20.

Murray runs it for 6. Adron Tennel picks up another "big" gain - this time about 20 yards. Of course, that's not big for Bradford, but still. Murray for another 4 yards (pitch right). So apparently Tennel's gonna be a big-time guy; we have another completion to him for a 1st down at the Florida 43. Random dumpoff pass to the Gresham for a yard. Murray picks up another 12-yard gain for a first down before giving a yard of that back on a bad run. Murray makes up for it again! That's a huge 31-yard reception for a TD ... and Oklahoma hits the XP for a 14-13 lead!

We're at just under a minute to go before the half - James returns it to the 37. Incomplete pass and a bailed run means that we're probably going into the half at 14-13. However, Tebow hits Murphy for a decent gain, but we're still at the OU 42 with 5 seconds to go. HUGE pass to Harvin is completed! 1 second to go at the OU 6, and we're gonna attempt another FG ... and it doesn't go through.

3rd Quarter

Murray breaks a pretty solid return and they're up to the OU 48. Murray doesn't go anywhere really on 1st down - 2 yard gain. HUGE sack on Bradford results in a 13-yard loss. Huge pass to Gresham ...broken up! OU has to punt - it's 1st and 10 for Florida from their 24.

HOLY SHIT! Nevermind. That's a pick-six for Oklahoma ...Desmond Johnson, I believe.

After a nice face mask penalty (not really nice), it's 1st and 10 at the Florida 44 for the Gators. Option left goes for a couple of yards - Tebow kept. Huge attempted pass to Harvin goes for naught on a breakup. Tebow hits Moody on a crossing route for a first down at the OU 42. After an incompletion, Tebow passes it to Harvin for a quick little 6-yard gain before option right turns into option left and they have to punt.... or not! They're going for it on 4th and 8 from the OU 41. The attempted pass goes nowhere - matter of fact, it results in a sack and it's OU ball on the Gator 45.

Um, make that 2nd and 14 from the Gator 49 after Murray goes nowhere and a half. Bradford throws on the run - right to Wondy Pierre-Louis, who shockingly doesn't start celebrating in the middle of the play and runs it back for 6! The ensuing two-point conversion resembles a dead duck and let's just say it's still 21-19 Sooners.

OU returns it to their 36. Deep crossing route over the middle is broken up by one of the Gator LBs. Murray can't go anywhere on 3rd down - is the momentum starting to swing? A 12-yard sack by Bradford would indicate that's the case. After the punt, it's 1st and 10 Gators from their 33.

Another Tebow INT! This isn't returned for a TD, though - it's just at the Gator 19. Murray picks up 7 yards on 1st down, 3 yards on 2nd (1st and goal now from the 8), 3 yards on 1st again, 0 yards on 2nd, 4 yards on 3rd, and NO yards on 4th and goal! Florida holds and we're going to the 4th quarter - 21-19.

4th Quarter

First play goes to Brandon James and goes for a couple of yards. Option right to Moody goes for 23 yards! Option left (Tebow keeps) goes for a yard - oh boy. Incompletion is made up for and a half by a pass to a wide-open (I mean WIDE open) Moody. 1st and 10 from the OU 46. Make that 2nd and 10 (pass batted down). Louis Murphy jumps way the hell up to catch a dart from Tebow - now we're at 3rd and 1. Tebow option keeper means we're at 1st and 10 from the 30. Option out to Moody goes for 9. Harvin takes it on an option and gets a 1st down (fucker is FAST in this game - I think he's a 110 speed) and we're at 1st and 10 from the OU 16. Tebow is DAMN lucky that pass didn't get picked! He's not as lucky the 2nd time around, though. This one's picked by Desmond Johnson.

OU's kind of dicked around on their first couple of plays - now we're at 3rd and 11 from their 14. Bradford throws a fucking BULLET - that's incomplete. We've got another punt - that James retuns to the 35.

Tebow with a behind-the-back option to James for a 2-yard gain. HUGE pass to Louis Murphy and we're at 1st and goal from the 5 (okay, 2nd and goal; first down didn't do shit). Tebow option for a TD! And yes, that was Tebow going left. XP is good! 26-21.

Kickoff return for Murray ...back to the 25. Outlet pass to Gresham gets fucking NAILED - 2nd and 7. Murray gets stuck too - 3rd and 10, and at this point Oklahoma has pretty much two plays here. Incompletion on 3rd and 10 means we're headed for a critical 4th down conversion ...which OU makes on a pass to Iglesias! A second pass to him goes for a 1st down. Next pass goes to game MVP Brandon Spikes - INT! Florida's probably got this.

Harvin option gets something like 30 yards - whatever. It's all academic at this point. Or maybe not - intercepted in the end zone!

FIIGD by Bradford - incomplete. x2. x3 (into 5 guys). Florida wins, 26-21!

Random Thoughts: Pac-10(!) Edition

First off, if you haven’t seen the modified Top 25 rankings, check them out; I hadn’t gotten a chance to add my thoughts to the rankings. That’s taken care of now.

So right now, we have almost 120 teams (Western Kentucky joins the Sun Belt next year) in we’re-not-calling-it-1-A-anymore, and if you think we’re covering all of them, you’re nuts. We’ll do our best to get to the ones that matter, though, and on that note here’s a bunch of random notes and thoughts about some teams.

- UCLA: if you’ve missed the news, Ben Olson is injured again and won’t be available for the first few weeks of the season at best. This will cause Kevin Craft to move up to the starting role, meaning he’ll likely get the nod against Tennessee, BYU, and Arizona (if not Fresno State). This is about as painful as it sounds for Bruins fans, but the rest of us are laughing at the turn of misfortune.

- Arizona State: the offensive line problems are very real here. We’ve already documented our concerns with it on a few occasions (it’s the main thing holding them back), but the good news is that they have three games to get it together. The bad news is they’re one injury to Paul Faniaka away from having a completely decrepit offensive line, but for those of us used to calling them the Arizona State Paper Sun Devils, that’s good news too.

- Left tackles are apparently optional at Georgia. Trinton Sturdivant is out at LT for the season, and while this will be his RS year it won’t make life any easier for the ‘Dogs. They’re not sure what they’ll do about it, but there’s enough talent there to make coping difficult yet not impossible. Expect some combination of Justin Anderson, Vince Vance, Kiante Tripp, Cordy Glenn, and Josh Davis to flip around in pursuit of that spot; of those guys, Vance and Tripp are already starters.

- Does anyone have a spare ACL for Florida? They’ve lost five (!) guys already to ACL tears: starters Cornelius Ingram and Dorian Munroe, plus backups Jim Barrie, John Curtis, and Brendan Beal. Ingram was undoubtedly the biggest loss of those five, but Munroe and Curtis were both SS, which means secondary depth is already a concern. Beal might’ve redshirted this year anyway, so that seals the deal for him, and Barrie hurts the line depth. The Gators should be fine coping with the losses, but if injuries in the secondary start to pile up, you heard it here first.

Speaking of the Gators, they allowed straight thuggin’ Ronnie Wilson to rejoin the team. EDSBS summed this up way better than we could even dream of, but: bad form, Meyer. You’re in a state that’s fucking loaded with talent; did you really need a guy who knows how to fire assault rifles in public?

- Kentucky’s kicked starting QB Curtis Pulley off the team. Mike Hartline will assume QB duties for the Wildcats, which will consist of “run around like crazy praying to g-d Dicky Lyons can shed triple coverage before getting wrecked”. I’d say this is a big deal, but I’d be lying my ass off; nobody cares about Kentucky this year.

- If this isn’t the gayest college football article you read all year, I will be very surprised. I didn’t realize they let the gays out in Tuscaloosa. That being said, Jones could be one hell of a playmaker, and I’d be scared of him if I had any confidence that John Parker Wilson, Esq. could actually turn in a consistent week-to-week performance.

- So I’ve been reading a fair amount of articles on how TAMU’s offense will be designed to feature Mike Goodson more, and I refuse to buy it. I’ll buy that Stephen McGee won’t be running the ball as much this season, but I think it’s a reach to assume a guy with Goodson’s size won’t get wrecked running behind an offensive line returning only one starter. Compound that with learning a new offensive scheme, and while we can expect Jovorski Lane to rack up the close yardage and TDs without getting too injured, I’ll need to see Goodson as the feature back before signing on. Actually, I’ll buy Goodson as the featured back, but I won’t buy him as the signature back. It just seems like a mess waiting to happen.

- Is Texas Tech due for a letdown? They’re facing the highest expectations since …well, ever, and there are still some huge questions around their defense. Mike Leach is saying all the right things and the team is at least acting like they’re focused, but I buy that as much as I buy the “[pitcher] is feeling great this season” articles that show up in spring training, after said pitcher has spent the last 112 weeks on the DL. At some point, we’ll actually have to see the actual improvement in focus and commitment from the Red Raiders, and the last five years would seem to indicate otherwise: 2003, L 21-49 @ NC State; 2004, L 24-27 @ New Mexico; 2005, L 17-24 @ Oklahoma St.; 2006, L 6-30 @ Colorado; 2007, L 45-49 @ Oklahoma State, again. Consider this a warning to take care of business on the road, guys.

- Speaking of saying the right things, Duke is quickly becoming a soft spot for me. Admittedly, 90% of this is because David Cutcliffe has become their HC, but it’s kind of weird seeing a bunch of guys who have been playing football for 6+ years on average (if not longer) talk about what it actually means to be a college football athlete. It makes me wonder what Ted Roof was doing as HC there and how he was able to land a job somewhere else, even if it was at Minnesota. Will it matter? I suspect not, but the ACC is bad enough that they could sneak a conference win (Virginia? NC State?) and finish the season 3-9. Bonus points: only one team – Clemson – has scheduled Duke for their homecoming opponent. This is a step up, as Virginia gets dinged on that twice.

That’ll cover it for now.

The Capital One Bowl: Begging the Question, Does College Football Have a Mercy Rule?

The Capital One Bowl has hosted fun games over the years. Earlier this century, it was the Big Orange Parking Lot, as Tennessee kept on making trips here thanks to finishing behind UF and/or UGA in the SEC East. This year, it's Florida's turn to come down here, and the guy who said that you can't spell Citrus without UT - the one, the only Steve Spurrier - gets to sit on the sidelines and cry. Phil Steele's Team of Glory didn't really make it anywhere other than the buffet line.

Still, that's neither here nor there at this point, and this bowl has been one of the few places where the Big 10 / SEC arguments have actually seen some kind of results (along with the Outback Bowl). Of course, last year's results - a 2-0 sweep by the Big 10 teams - ended up not proving much, as the rest of the conference laid an egg along with Florida beating the tar out of Ohio State.

As for this year's Capital One game, will it be fun? Will it be exciting? Will it give Big 10 fans something to be happy about?

Probably not.

Michigan (by Coach Lawrence)

Michigan has had about as disastrous of a season as you can have while still finishing 8-4 and landing a January bowl. For those of you who have spent the latter half of 2007 living under a rock, UM lost their season opener at home to I-AA Appalachian State (congrats on 3 straight lower division championships) in pretty much the biggest upset in college football history. Then they got the shit rocked out of them by Oregon, hello 0-2. The Wolverines won 8 games that everybody expected them to win – ok, maybe Illinois was semi-impressive – before getting run out by Wisconsin in a meaningless game where UM decided not to play their starters and completely shut down by Ohio State in a game whose 14-3 score was a lot closer than the second half looked. Say goodbye to Lloyd Carr, and hello to Les Miles... no, Greg Schiano... no, Rich Rodriguez. For an embarrassing series of rejections, they wound up with a pretty good coach, who now faces mission impossible of getting this particular defense up to stop Tim Tebow after getting gashed by Armanti Edwards and Dennis Dixon.

To make matters worse, we’re not sure if Chad Henne or Mike Hart will be playing. Hart figures to be the key man, but Henne is needed to keep the defense from stacking 8. For the purpose of this gameplan, let’s assume both are healthy and able to play four quarters.

Keys to Victory:
1) 175 yards rushing by Mike Hart. Hell, they might need 225. Is he ready to play and get these seniors their only bowl win? UM needs to control the ball and the clock, allowing their defense to collect itself to make a few key stops and prevent the Florida offense from getting into a rhythm.

2) Chad Henne must return to his 2006 form. I don’t care how mediocre Florida’s young defense is, they’re not going to just throw up their hands and let Hart run for 200. Michigan has a great WR corps – Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington should have huge totals, but in these big losses they don’t.

3) Turnovers may be more important than stops. If Hart’s running the ball and eating up clock, Florida might get just 8 or 9 possessions. If the offense scores 28 and the defense forces 3 TOs, UM only needs to stop Tebow on one or two other possessions to win. Surely they can do that... if nothing else, you figure some holding penalty will turn a 3rd and 3 into 3rd and 13.

4) It’s gotta be all three. The offense needs to shorten the game while putting up points. The defense needs to force turnovers to limit the number of times they have to stop Tebow on 3rd down. All of the pieces must fall into place, and even then it’s going to be tough. Good luck.

Florida (by Coach Pendley)

Florida has about as good of a season as you could expect fielding a JV team on defense for the first three or four games of the year. It didn't hurt matters that their offense was completely ridiculous - it's not even that they were that good, it's that Tebow will have to be nerfed in NCAA Football '08 to make the game playable. It was that scary. Either way, that potent offense was rendered moot by both LSU and Georgia. That would've been bad enough in its own right, but Auburn PK Wes Bynum going taunt-master on the Gators after nailing a game-winning FG pretty much sunk the team's shot at a SEC East title and confined them to this game. Fortunately, they pretty much steamrolled the rest of their competition - including a 66-20 thrashing of the Volunteers. (This will get overturned in 2010 when we find out Tebow is actually 26.) Some of the games were closer than they rightfully should've been, but this offense is next to impossible to stop.

The unofficial motto of the Gators this year was "no running back, no problem." Ignore Tebow's 22 rushing TDs - he was their short yardage back - and you'll see that both Tebow and WR Percy Harvin carried the ball way more than they would've in a traditional running game. This is partly a function of Urban Meyer's offense and partly a function of having shit for running backs. Still, Harvin would get way more publicity if he wasn't sharing carries with Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson. WR Andre Caldwell is a legitimate playmaker, and WR Riley Cooper spent most of the season either filling in for Caldwell or being injured himself, but he gives the Gators a 2/3 type WR who can catch balls when Harvin is attracting too much attention.

As for the defense ...who cares? These guys didn't. Well, that’s not quite true – they didn’t care about their pass defense. Their rush D was the best in the SEC, allowing just under 100 yards per game on the ground and 3.02 ypc average. Only LSU and Georgia were able to gain over 100 yards on the ground, and both those teams wrecked the front seven to the tune of 247 and 196 yards, respectively.

Keys to Victory:
1: Exploit offensive speed. Michigan has ….how do we put this delicately …struggled with the spread offense and running QBs this year. In addition, Harvin is probably faster than almost everyone the Wolverines have faced all year. There’s no reason that the Gators shouldn’t bring out all of the Tebow options – Tebow left, Tebow right, Tebow middle – and basically play their game. I don’t think Michigan has the playmakers to stop it.

2: Stay honest on D. Florida shouldn’t need a ton of stops to come out victorious, but staying at home and at least keeping a bead on the running game should help speed the process along. Henne, Manningham, and Arrington form a serious receiving trio, but it hasn’t been anything Florida hasn’t seen; in addition, I’d be more concerned about stopping Hart than Henne and/or Mallett, as Henne is likely one shot away from becoming Mallett, who’s …beatable.

It feels like a copout to only have those keys be it, but UF seems designed to be the type of offense to give UM fits. As long as they play the way they’ve played all year on offense and don’t totally shit the bed on D they should win this.