Florida shows offensive, defensive and coaching advantage in domination of Florida State

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Florida dominated Florida State in Tallahassee in its 41-14 victory.

While Florida outscored the ‘Noles by three touchdowns in the second half, they had a 264-124 yardage advantage in the first half. Yet they were only ahead 13-7 due to red zone inefficiency and one drive for Florida State. When Gators QB Feleipe Franks hit Van Jefferson on the first play of the fourth quarter for a wide-open 38-yard TD, you could feel Gator Nation finally release a sigh of relief.

And now Florida State isn’t going to a bowl game. They can no longer claim the longest streak in the country with a winning record. Dan Mullen is 1-0 against Willie Taggart. And the Gators – a team that looked lost for much of last year – clearly are trending upward and again nationally relevant.

But those are big picture things for later in the week. Instead I think it’s worth taking time to understand how Dan Mullen’s squad was able to take it to a Florida State team that defeated almost this same Gators team handily last season.

Florida Defense

In my preview of this game, I pointed out multiple ways that Florida State’s offensive line has rated out as sub-standard. Those ratings were backed-up by film, as teams were able to line up with six man fronts and stop the Seminoles running game and rush only four men and get to the passer.

The same thing was true in this game against Florida.

On this play, Florida only has five men on the line of scrimmage. This is a look where QB Deondre Francois should be able to gain at least five yards on this run. But instead, defensive end Jabari Zuniga (#92) beats right tackle Jauan Williams (#73) inside and chases Francois down from behind. The rest of the line didn’t do a great job either, but the breakdown here was Williams on Zuniga.

That was a common theme in the game.

This is the very next play on third-and-long. Zuniga beats Williams again, this time to the outside. The result is Francois has zero time to throw and gets sacked. But even if he had been able to make time, he would have been throwing against seven defenders who were playing a zone coverage. This was really early, but it gave me a lot of confidence early on that Florida would be able to dispatch FSU pretty easily.

FSU can’t block Florida up front. If UF can get any offense, this should be a complete blowout.

— Will Miles (@WillMilesSEC) November 24, 2018

When you’re getting that kind of pressure with that kind of coverage, it’s only a matter of time before the other team makes a mistake. Francois was either going to throw into a coverage he shouldn’t because he was rushed, or…..

Florida has seven defenders either at the first down marker or deeper. Yet still, Jachai Polite (#99) is able to get to Francois and force the fumble. This time, it’s the left tackles – Derrick Kelly (#74) – who gets beat to the outside. It’s a really athletic play by Polite, but it’s reflective of the issues Florida State has had all year that Florida was able to exploit the offensive line so consistently.

This doesn’t take away from what Florida’s defense was able to do. You have to take advantage of the weaknesses of your opponent. Florida did that, and did it often.

For the game, Florida gave up 293 yards. But when Franks hit Grimes to put the Gators up 27-7 on the first play after the fumble caused by Polite, Florida State had just 138 yards of total offense on 41 plays (3.4 yards per play average). The Gators defense finished with 5 sacks, 8 tackles for loss and 2 QB hurries.

Essentially the defense was lights-out until the game was well in hand.

Florida Offense

In my preview, I suspected that QB Feleipe Franks would need to win the game. Mullen appeared to think this as well early, as he called 9 runs to 11 passes in the first quarter (2 called passes ended in Franks scrambles).

That leveled out a bit in the second quarter (6 called passes and 12 called runs) and Franks acquitted him fairly well in the first half. He hit the big throws to Jefferson and Grimes to put the Gators into position, but he struggled to put the ball into the end zone.

And just as with the signs of dominance up-front on defense, once Mullen decided to start running the ball, those same signs were there for Florida’s offense as well. Nowhere was this more apparent than on the 74-yard TD run for Lamical Perine.

On this play, Florida has six blockers for FSU’s seven-man front. This is a look that normally would facilitate a throw (and is likely why Florida tried to throw early in the game). But this is textbook blocking from the Florida offensive line.

Center Nick Buchanan (#66) helps the left guard with a combo block and then is able to get to the second level to block FSU linebacker Leonard Warner (#35). Tight end C’yontai Lewis (#80) sets the edge against defensive end Janarious Robinson (#11). And left tackle Martez Ivey (#73) turns linebacker Dontavious Jackson (#5) back inside and opens up the hole for Perine.

On the broadcast, analyst Greg McElroy blamed FSU safety A.J. Westbrook (#19) for jumping into the wrong gap. But I suspect that Jackson was responsible for that outside gap but was out of position once Ivey manhandled him.

That play is why it wasn’t a surprise when Florida came out in the second half to establish the run. But in doing so, they really showed all that Mullen’s offense has to provide.

On this play, the Gators are running against a loaded front again. But note how FSU defensive end Brian Burns (#99) hesitates to crash on Perine because of the threat of the read-option. Florida right tackles Jawaan Taylor (#65) gets to the second level to block linebacker Dontavious Jackson (#5) and pancakes him.

Two plays later, Florida just ran a QB power run with Perine as a lead blocker. This gives Florida seven blockers for seven men, leaving only  a defensive back to make the tackle 8-yards downfield.

Two plays later, Franks did pull the ball to run. You can see that Burns (#99) crashes on Perine, giving Franks room around the edge to run.

After six straight runs, Mullen finally decided the time was right to catch FSU leaning. On this play, Franks faked the run ahead as the linebackers came up. Note that the offensive line did a fantastic job again of picking up the blitz and giving Franks time to throw. When you bring six and don’t get to the QB, he’s going to be able to pick you apart, and that’s just what Franks did.

This drive ended in a touchdown that put Florida up 20-7 and really put FSU on the brink. But it was possible because the play calls kept FSU off balance, the offensive line dominated and Franks made all the right decisions.

And that’s where I think we need to end this section on the offense. Feleipe Franks was outstanding in this game. He threw for an average of 9.8 yards per completion and was on-target with his deep throws (even the one that was dropped by Tyrie Cleveland).

His QB rating of 181.7 was elite. His yards above replacement (YAR) for the game was 1.86, which has been good enough for a  Heisman Trophy over an entire year multiple times. In the second half, his YAR was 2.82 as he completed 8 of his 11 throws for 121 yards and 3 TDs.

The man who was thought to be a weak link for the offense turned out to be the strongest in the biggest rivalry game of the year. Three weeks ago after the Missouri game, we were asking whether Franks would ever start again. Now, during the telecast the announcers were asking whether he’s already locked up the starting job in 2019.

Now, I don’t want to get that carried away. This is one game in a full season of them that has had lots of ups and downs. But if this is the ceiling for Feleipe Franks, it’s a damn good ceiling. You can win a lot of games with a QB who plays the way he did today.

Certainly it helps that the running game was great and the offensive line gave him plenty of time. But in the past, that hasn’t always been enough for Franks. It was against Florida State.

Coaching

So a couple things up-front. I think it made a lot of sense for Florida State to hire Willie Taggart. The turnarounds he engineered both at  Western Kentucky and South Florida were impressive.

Also, FSU fans – or any Florida fans as well – who contribute to the racist memes that were going around Twitter after the game should be ashamed of themselves. By all accounts, Taggart is a good man. He doesn’t deserve any criticism based in the color of his skin.

With that said – and as I wrote about in my time at SEC Country – he didn’t really show a whole lot of improvement in his initial season at any of his stops.  Florida State had better hope that his history of progress in year two continues, and quickly.

FSU wasn’t an offensive juggernaut in 2017 (96th in points per game again FBS opponents at 23.8), but a lot of that was due to the injury to open the year to Deondre Francois and perhaps some disinterest from Jimbo Fisher. This year – without having to play Alabama – the Seminoles scored 3.2 points less per contest, which will probably put them somewhere around 110th.

Were there institutional issues that Jimbo left him with? Maybe. But even the announcers were fed up with the lack of discipline that FSU showed during this game. At one point early in the fourth quarter, Greg McElroy said the following after praising FSU’s talent level:

What you don’t see is disciplined play, solid communication, cohesiveness along the offensive line. They’re a mess at times.

Wow.

That’s exactly what the announcers might have said last year about Jim McElwain’s 2017 Florida team. And that’s where what Mullen has done this season is really outstanding.

There were no unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against the Gators Saturday. There were a couple of false starts, but there was actually hope that the offense could overcome them. The QB was making sound decisions and adjustments were clearly made at halftime. The only thing he did that confused me – and many of my Twitter friends as well – was that he refused to give the ball to Kadarius Toney against FSU.

This season against FBS opponents, Florida scored 29.8 points per game. Last season, the Gators only scored 22.1. Mullen clearly knows what he is doing, and he bested Taggart in this contest and it wasn’t even close. The Gators looked prepared and had an intensity that couldn’t be matched by FSU.

Takeaway

Overall, this win means that this Florida team has a 9-3 record, the exact same record that Urban Meyer had in his 2005 debut in Gainesville. That team lost to LSU, but beat Tennessee, Georgia and dominated Florida State.

Thirteen years later, this team lost to Georgia, but beat Tennessee, LSU and dominated Florida State. But unlike that 2005 team – which had to play 25th ranked Iowa in the Outback Bowl – these Gators are likely going to get a more prestigious bowl and a tougher opponent to show how far they’ve come.

But that’s a month from now.

This game established Florida as the current power in the state. It also established Mullen as the alpha among the head coaches at the Big 3 schools. It remains to be seen whether that translates into success on the recruiting trail, but it certainly shouldn’t be overlooked that 4-star running back Nay’Quan Wright (ranked 264th nationally) announced his commitment to Florida right after the game.

But on the field, there can be no doubt. All you have to do is look at what Franks did compared to the average stat line for Florida QBs in this game since 2010.

• Florida QBs (2010-2017): 16-30, 137 yards, 0.9 TD, 1.3 INT, QB Rating = 92.5
• Franks (2018): 16-26, 254 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, QB Rating = 181.7

That folks, is pretty neat.

Featured image copyright David Waters/Gators Breakdown. All rights reserved.