Gators opener against Charleston Southern delivers in every way

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Dan Mullen’s opening salvo as head coach of the Florida Gators couldn’t have gone better.

His starting QB played fantastic. The defense was all over the field. And the Gators put up points. Lots of points.

But it wasn’t just that Florida scored 53 points. It was how they did it. From the opening kickoff, the Gators moved the ball when they wanted to, and they did it through the air. It felt as though Mullen could have put up 70 if he had really wanted to.

Now some of that speaks to the level of opponent, but you can only play the opponent on the schedule.  And there were things that needed to improve regardless of the opponent. I identified five of those areas for this game going in.

Here’s how Florida performed in each of those.

#1: Tempo

I stated in my preview that the speed of play would indicate something about how much Dan Mullen trusts Feleipe Franks. I said this because at Mississippi State, he averaged 24.6 seconds per play overall, but that dropped considerably when Dak Prescott or Chris Relf (QBs he trusted) were under center.

Well, it looks like Mullen trusts Franks, and Franks was able to deliver.

The Gators averaged 25.4 seconds overall, very much in-line with Mullen’s historical average. But they ran off 24 plays in the first quarter at a blistering 21.1 second per play pace. For fans who have watched the last three years, it was jarring to see plays clicking off with more than 20 seconds still on the play clock, particularly considering that McElwain’s teams averaged a play every 27.2 seconds.

In the first half – which was really the only time Florida was going full tilt – the Gators averaged 22.9 seconds per play. Things slowed down in the second half, but that had a lot to do with only attempting three passes versus 19 runs.

Mullen has promised to bring fun back to Gainesville. A lot of that has to do with scoring points, which the Gators did plenty of in this game. But some of that has to do with just upping the pace of the offense and making it interesting rather than plodding.

That definitely happened in this game.

#2: Linebackers in coverage

Last season, the Gators linebackers couldn’t cover anyone. Charleston Southern wasn’t a great test of that, as it tends to play a bunch of wide receivers to execute its option scheme.

Still, when your defense only gives up three yards passing, your linebackers did their job. That was particularly true in the first half, where the Gators only gave up five yards on the first six Charleston Southern drives. That included five three-and-outs and a 4-and-out.

The linebackers contributed 23 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and a sack. And you should probably include Chauncey Gardner-Johnson’s 5 tackles, 2.5 TFL and 2 sacks in that number too given how often he played near the line of scrimmage.

Tougher tests will be coming for the linebackers, starting next week with Kentucky’s Benny Snell. But for this night, they were up to the task.

The entire defense was.

#3: Trust on both sides of the ball

This one is harder to quantify, but I think can be summarized by pointing out that Feleipe Franks was not sacked and did not get hurried once.

This wasn’t because Charleston Southern was sitting in zones. In fact, the Buccaneers came after Franks a lot, leaving its corners in one-on-one coverage a ton. Florida was able to exploit it just as often.

Franks never struggled last year when his pre-snap read didn’t change and was given time. The problem was that he rarely had time to survey the field. When he did, he heard footsteps and would come off of his primary read too early.

Mullen had clearly simplified things for him. There were multiple times where the first read wasn’t open and he took off running. Once he realized he was going to have time, he started to work his way through his progressions.

This showed up in the second quarter where he tried to execute a double move to a wide receiver, Charleston Southern’s safety took it away, and he calmly delivered the ball to tight end Kemore Gamble over the middle in the space that the safety had abandoned.

But perhaps the best example of trust was the TD on the opening drive to Trevon Grimes. Grimes will get the credit for the catch. Franks will get the credit for a 34-yard pass that didn’t pass the line of scrimmage.

But the person most responsible for that TD is R.J. Raymond. At the snap, Raymond was in motion but just barely past Florida’s right tackle. Yet he sprinted out to block the corner playing against Grimes. Not only did he get out there, but he turned the corner back inside, allowing Grimes to sprint down the sideline.

When people talk about coaching, this is the kind of thing they are talking about. Raymond isn’t the most talented Gator. But his hustle and attention to detail resulted in a TD. And you’d better bet that when that play is called again, Grimes will be able to trust that Raymond will be there.

#4: Which QB runs the ball?

I was expecting Emory Jones or Kadarius Toney to be the players running the most from the QB position.

Toney was suspended so that wasn’t even a possibility. But Jones didn’t even come into the game until the second half when everything was well in hand.

Instead, Franks was the running QB, rushing for 34 yards on 5 carries (6.8 yards per rush). This probably doesn’t seem like much, but we’re talking about a QB who ran for 20 yards all of last season. In fact, Gators QBs ran for 37 yards after running for 50 all of last season.

The ability of the QBs to run is one reason why Dan Mullen’s offenses are effective. Franks put up a YAR of 2.06 in the game. But that would have been cut more than in half had he averaged the 0.3 yards per rush from last season. Over the course of a season, that would reduce scoring by more than a TD per game.

Franks’ performance in this game was one of his best as a Gator. His rushing average was his second highest (behind the 9.1 he averaged against Texas A&M last season due to his 79-yard scramble). His passing average (9.1 yards per attempt) was his second best to last year’s performance against Vanderbilt (13.2).

That Vanderbilt performance was clearly his best performance as a Gator (YAR = 4.47), but this one felt different because he felt in control. Gone were the overthrows on simple throws. Gone were the deep throws into double coverage. Gone were the scrambles out of bounds when plays broke down.

We need to acknowledge the caveat that this was Charleston Southern. But we also need to acknowledge that the game could not have gone better for Franks.

#5: Penalties

This was perhaps the one area where Charleston Southern had nothing to do with the Gators exemplary performance.

Florida had three penalties in the entire game for 20 yards. They didn’t have any penalties in the first quarter. The first penalty was a false start on the goal line on C’yontai Lewis, but Franks promptly threw two perfect passes.

The first was to Van Jefferson and was broken up on a good play by the Charleston Southern cornerback. The second was to Josh Hammond in the back of the end zone for a TD. Seeing a Gators QB pick up his teammates for a mistake was a welcome change.

Penalties were really a way for me to look at team discipline, since the Gators averaged 7.9 penalties per game last season. But there are other ways to measure that as well.

The Gators had zero turnovers. Franks completed passes to 10 different receivers. When he did throw into some traffic, the ball was perfectly placed where only his guy could catch it.

Even the suspensions of seven players for the game for not living up to the “Gator Standard” point towards a more disciplined squad.

And in this regard, the game could not have gone better for Florida.

Takeaway

There were other areas for Florida that looked great too. Special teams came through with multiple blocked kicks. The kickers made all three field goals and six extra points. Freshman punter Tommy Townsend averaged 44.5 yards per punt and put both of his opportunities inside the 20.

Perhaps the only black mark was on kickoff returns, where Florida gave up 21 yards per return on the four that were returned. But that’s a minor quibble with a unit that was so significantly improved from last season.

Fans – and some opposing fans – might be quick to point out the opener of the McElwain era against New Mexico State to try and temper fans excitement. After all, the Gators won that one 61-13 and had 606 yards versus 444 in this one.

But even in that game the McElwain/Nussmeier offense was plodding, averaging a play every 28.8 seconds. Also, those Gators threw another 11 times because McElwain was still trying to figure out whether his starting QB was going to be Treon Harris or Will Grier.

And perhaps that is what should make Gators fans feel the most positive about this game. Will Grier absolutely lit up Tennessee earlier in the day (429 yards, 12.6 yards per attempt). Treon Harris has moved to wide receiver at Tennessee State. Yet in 2015, the previous staff didn’t know which one should be the starter.

Feleipe Franks may have warts in his game. He likely won’t play anywhere near this level moving forward. But I don’t think anyone who watched this game has any doubt that he has improved under Mullen and is likely the best QB on the roster.

The fact that Mullen identified him as the best option, named him starter and didn’t play any games against Charleston Southern is a good sign. The fact that he put together a game plan that Franks could execute and light up the opposition is another.

Better teams are coming on the horizon, including the Kentucky team coming to Gainesville next week.

But this game wasn’t about the quality of the opponent or any of the lingering questions that presents. Instead, this was a game that healed wounds inflicted by the McElwain/Nussmeier regime. Not since that 2015 season against Ole Miss have Gators fans felt hope that the team could compete with anyone.

We aren’t there yet for this team under Dan Mullen. But after one game, this is the best anyone could have hoped he would deliver.

Featured image used courtesy David Waters/Gators Breakdown, all rights reserved