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Florida gets solid 38-14 win over Vanderbilt

Florida’s 38-14 win over Vanderbilt was probably exactly what we should have expected: solid.

It wasn’t flashy. The Gators made plenty of mistakes. But up against an opponent with an inferior defense and team, the Gators were able to pull away for a 24-point win.

It’s easy to take these sorts of wins for granted. But we have experience with taking these games for granted and then getting punched in the gut by Vanderbilt just last year. And certainly if you’re Miami or Mario Cristobal, you just learned that you don’t take wins over inferior competition for granted.

With the win, Florida moves to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. They still have a bunch of stuff to clean up before heading to Columbia for their date with South Carolina next weekend. They also still are going to have to get a win or two we wouldn’t have expected to start the year to truly make noise in the SEC.

But you can only beat the teams in front of you, and unlike the Hurricanes, the Gators got the job done.

Offensive Highlights

It was another Mertzian performance for the Gators QB, going 30-36 (83%) for 254 yards and 3 TDs. That equates to a QB rating of 170.1, normally a mark you would say is bordering on elite. But that’s completely at odds with my Yards Above Replacement (YAR) metric, which places Mertz at well below average (-1.05).

I think the truth is probably somewhere in-between.

While Mertz only had six incompletions, most of those were balls that were targets down the field. He also missed a wide-open touchdown pass to Kahleil Jackson on a third down that isn’t on the stat sheet because of a roughing the passer penalty.

But what he did do very effectively was keep the chains moving, as Florida finished 5-12 on third downs. Considering what an issue third down has been for the Gators all season long (outside of the first half against Tennessee), that is a welcome change.

Mertz also got a lot of help from his running backs.

Montrell Johnson contributed 18 carries for 135 yards and Treyaun Webb contributed 4 carries for 70 yards in Trevor Etienne’s absence. Webb and Johnson also made 6 catches for 31 yards and served as an outlet for Mertz multiple times.

But it was their explosive plays that really proved the difference. Johnson had 34 and 28-yard runs that set up the Gators first two touchdowns and Webb had a 43 yard run that helped set up a field goal.

In my preview, I said there were two things the Gators could do to get the running game going. One thing I suggested was getting their backs out in space by giving them a pitch instead of a handoff. They actually didn’t do that, but they did open up with a short toss to Johnson in the flat that he dropped and tried that action multiple times. That established that the Gators’ staff wasn’t just going to run into the line of scrimmage and was going to help their offensive line.

The other thing I said they could do was to run jet sweeps to hold the backside, but they actually did one better by running two different actions towards the backside of the Vanderbilt defense.

Here’s the first jet sweep they ran to Trey Wilson. Note that Treyaun Webb (#20) becomes a lead blocker, essentially acting like a pulling guard or tackle. That allows Wilson to get the edge and build up a head of steam before taking on the safety.

If I’m the Vanderbilt linebackers and safeties then, I start keying on the running back. I now know to stay outside if he serves as a lead blocker. Except, Florida gave them a wrinkle just a couple of plays later.

Instead of running the jet motion, Florida brings Pearsall over for the handoff at the snap. They also fake the run to Webb (#20) prior to handing the ball off to Pearsall. Look at what that does to Vanderbilt’s defense. Every single defender on the weak side of the formation is looking at Webb and none of them maintain the edge. Pearsall easily runs around the edge for a touchdown.

What does that do? Well, it opens up lanes for the running backs and makes things easier for the offensive line.

Trey Wilson (#3) goes in motion and when he does, watch Vanderbilt respond. The Commodores’ safeties each switch places and responsibilities on Wilson. But the biggest thing to notice is that the Vanderbilt defensive end is much more interested in keeping his contain than he is pursuing Treyaun Webb. Right tackle Lyndell Hudson (#74) ends up blocking a nose tackle and not the end but the end still can’t get to Webb to make the tackle.

That frees up right guard Micah Mazzccua (#57) to shoot out of his stance straight towards a Vanderbilt linebacker and also gives time for left guard Richie Leonard (#67) to double team the other nose guard at the point of attack and work his way up to the linebacker at the second level. Webb isn’t touched as he races through the hole and the safety who shifted because of Wilson’s motion can’t catch him until he’s 40 yards downfield.

This isn’t fancy stuff, but it’s stuff we didn’t see against Kentucky. The Gators offensive line isn’t good enough to dominate opponents straight up. The staff needs to do a few things to help make their lives easier.

They did in this one.

Defensive Highlights

I thought the best defensive player on the field against Vanderbilt was Jaydon Hill. He finished with four tackles and one pass break-up, but he always seemed to be in the right position and I’m interested to see what entities like Pro Football Focus rate him this week.

Beyond Hill, you can see the young players growing up right before our eyes. Here’s an example.

On this play, Vanderbilt fakes motion across the formation. You can see true freshman Bryce Thornton (#18) try to exchange responsibilities like the Vanderbilt safeties did in the play I showed above. But the motion doesn’t go across the formation and the realignment tells Vanderbilt QB Kenny Seals that Florida is playing man-to-man (and likely blitzing).

Seals drops back, thinking he’s going to have an easy pitch-and-catch to the motion man. But Thornton is able to recover back, avoid getting picked and take away the throw. I don’t think I can express how impressive this recovery is given how fast he was moving at the snap.

Or perhaps the most important defensive play of the game.

Graham Mertz had just left the game with an injury. Florida then had to punt the ball back to Vanderbilt up 21-7 and the Commodores had driven to mid-field after a pass interference penalty against R.J. Moten. On third-and-7, Vanderbilt decided to run Seals after faking the end around.

You can see where I pause the video that had Seals gotten past Shemar James, he would have had a lot of room to run and a blocker in front. Instead, James was able to stop his pursuit and bring Seals down, forcing a Vanderbilt punt.

After last week’s struggles against Kentucky, this was a step in the right direction for this defense. There are still things to clean up and Vanderbilt isn’t an offensive juggernaut, but the young players are starting to become not-so-young anymore. As that continues to happen, this defense should only get better.

Takeaway

On last week’s Gators Breakdown, David Waters said that there wasn’t anything Florida could do against Vanderbilt that would make him confident Florida would play well on the road against South Carolina next week. In jest, I replied he was correct, but there were things they could do that would make us less confident.

If that was the bar, then the Gators cleared it with this win.

Nobody is going to be doing cartwheels and patting themselves on the back for a win against Vanderbilt, but the alternative certainly would have been a lot less pleasant. This was a workmanlike win. It certainly isn’t one that we’ll be talking about much at the end of the year, but to be honest, when we’re talking about Vandy at the end of the year it’s not a good thing.

The Gators now head into the teeth of their schedule. Given their road woes and the offensive display on Saturday between LSU and Missouri, none of these games are going to be easy. Get the win in Columbia and things set up well to get bowl eligible and built momentum heading into 2024. Drop that one and that 5.5 win over/under Vegas had before the season is in some serious doubt.

This is a flawed team. Those flaws aren’t going to paper over themselves in a week or two. But we are seeing growth as well.

Now the next step is to see that growth travel to Columbia.