Louisiana Staples University - well that was easy

I will begin with a mea culpa. Before the game I felt LSU was a slight favorite, but that neither team was going to blow out the other. I was not worried abut us getting killed because I knew the Tiger D was not that good: they gave up 21 to Auburn (plus I think very little of Les Miles). As it turned out, it was their biggest loss since 2002 and the first time since 1996 they gave up 50 (that was also in Gainesville, our first championship year). LSU just does not usually get handled that way.

QB: It was a pretty easy game for The Savior, but not really a spectacular one. He was off on a few of his passes were a little off (that 70 yard TD was Harvin catching a so-so throw). He is still a work in progress; he is not great at reading defenses (but he is better) or realizing when the pocket is breaking down and he should run. He is still an athlete playing QB, as that atrocious fumble when he wandered around in the pocket for half an hour before someone hit him showed. Also, teams are used to him running and have gotten affective at containing him (in four SEC games he has averaged 2.2, 0.5, 2.7, and 1.8 yards a carry. I now some of that is sacks). We need to give up running him so much and work in a new wrinkle.
GRADE: A- (you know what’s funny? I initially give him a B+ because I was thinking he did not have an A game, stupid UF grading system)

RB: They got a slow start, but when the LSU defense got tired we started finding holes (the Tiger O was barely on the field in the first quarter). In the second quarter there was an adjustment as we started running Rainey (3) and Demps (2) on wide runs. Once they got out in space their moves got them even more yards. Later on after getting the Tigers even more tired we found some yardage inside too. You know they were good because Harvin (1) only had 2 carries
GRADE: B+

WR: We need to find another receiver besides Harvin (my kingdom for Cornelius Ingram). Take away his 6 catches for 112 yards and 2 TDs and they had less than 100 yards. No one had more than two catches. That is not good given how often Harvin has been dinged. My new favorite Deonte Thompson (6) had 2 catches and at least one other pass I saw go towards him, so I am hoping they are working him. The Juco Moore (16) was shut out.
GRADE: B (this game was won on the ground)

TE: Hernandez had two catches for five yards. One was a shovel pass where he knocked out of the game for a while. Tater Salad (#84 in your program, #1 in your heart. This is now a hot key on my computer by they way) played a fair amount (I was in the 8th row endzone, so it was much easier to see the personal we had on the field). He plays some son special teams and come into block.
GRADE: C+

OL: For as bad as they were last week, they were that good this time around. The big bad LSU defense gave up 265 yards on the ground, and looked the best we have all year doing it. Tebow had plenty of time. Jim Tartt (63) and his back up Marcus Gilbert (76) were still out hurt, but Carl Johnson (57) apparently was the glue. Just to give props: inside he worked with Mike and Maurkice Pouncey (55 and 56) while Phil Trautwein (75) and Jason Watkins (77) manned the tackle spots.
GRADE: A+ (as I tell my students, improvement matters. Yes, I know we did less five wide, but they did well)

DL: First of all, Carlos Dunlop (8) who was much hyped during the offseason, is not a starter. He plays some, often lining up in several spots, even upright off the line sometimes. Sophomore Justin Trattou (94) has replaced him (Dunlop is also a sophomore – and much bigger). They were solid against the run, but got no pass rush (Jarrett Lee was 23 of 38). And we definitely still need to work on keeping containment against running QBs.
GRADE: B

LB: I finally got the lineup I wanted, Stamper (41) and Jones (16) outside of Spikes (51). Stamper actually did not do that much, but I would rather see him get a shot again. The undersized A.J. Jones, really a coverage specialist blew up their running back (leading runner in the SEC on Friday) in the hole early, almost flipping him. Brandon Hicks (40) has been playing some because of injuries and as he gets more experience he has been getting better. However the best game was obviously turned in by Spikes – two interceptions and a TD will do that. By the way on pick-6, Spikes made a great play coming across from a distance to jump in front of the pass – but if you watch the play, behind the pick two Gators blew up the intended receiver anyway. There was no way, even if Spikes did nothing, that pass was complete – that is good defense/bad throw.
GRADE: A

DB: Lee completed 60% of his passes, but had 6 yards an attempt (Tebow had 10). That’s not a misleading stat. They completed many passes, and nickel and dimed us down the field on their drives, but there was no major break down in coverage. The tackling was great too, receivers were going down, not running for big yardage. They were led by Janoris Jenkins (29), who I am already going to declare is the SEC Freshman of the year. He’s a great tackler and had a pass defense or two – he may be our #1 cover corner soon, although Joe Haden (5) is no slouch. It is tough to put enough drives together to win in a high scoring game without some big plays.
GRADE: A-

ST: Their speedster Trindon Holiday (8) cut some big returns against us. For a while I used to complain about our kickoff coverage because it only covers from the sideling to hash marks – leaving a corridor open for a Music City Miracle play. No one has ever tried, but some returners have gotten over there for big returns. Holiday – arguably the fastest man in the NCAAs – got over their twice. So we need to watch for speed guys if not everyone over there. Brandon James had his usually couple of game changers, despite their punter either trying to not give him a chance to return or just hitting several bad ones – we’ve really gotten very complacent about how good James is.
GRADE: B+

Football 101: This week’s term doesn’t stem from the LSU game, but last week’s SMU-UCF game (check the archive). The are many different phrases that people drop that mean the same thing as “changing field position.” Battle for position, flip the field, there are more terms for this than I can think of. Changing field position is not something you should in theory be striving for, because it means you haven’t scored on your drive and instead are punting. You can think of it as a consolation prize, maybe you didn’t score, but got some first downs and drove a little bit and when you punt the other team they will get the ball farther from your endzone than they had before. Hopefully if you defense holds you’ll get the ball in better field position next drive. Usually no team goes into a game planning to be working to change field position, but it will happen in close games where neither team is able to move the ball well (either because of great defense, bad offense, conservative coaching, or a mixture of those). For casual fans it is not scintillating to watch, but it is a key way to win tight games. Good coaches know how to do this and win games. Maybe on 3 and 15 you throw for 12 yards on the grounds that the defense will probably willing give that up to you because you’ll still punt (this is also a common tactic to get into field goal range). What teams really want to avoid is constantly being stuck deep in their own end, because that means the other team is constantly just outside scoring position which puts a ton of pressure on your defense. And no defense can hold for ever so eventually the other team scores, which is big in a tight game (more problematic is they usually score because the defense is tired which means the offense might start to be able to move through them and break the game open). The best example I can give you is Super Bowl XXXVIII where early in the game the Panthers offense could not change field position to save its life and the Pats spend the whole first quarter on Carolina’s 40. The Panthers D held up great, but it drained them (they were on the field for 39 out of 60 minutes of game time) and New England was able to move the ball on them late.

Player of the Game: Not Brandon Spikes, who you would expect. I might even put Jenkins ahead of him. But the real “player” of the game was the OL. On our first pass some redneck next to me complained because Tebow’s throw was off. I came back by pointing out he had had plenty of time, which was more important given how the OL had played against Ole Miss. They held up. If they had played the way the had last time they were here we would have lost this game, but everything stems from the OL. In the third quarter most of our plays were run as we pushed them around and gassed their defense. After that the game was over. It has been a few years since I have seen a Gator team just run it down a defense’s throat.

Play of the Game: Louis Murphy’s 37 yard catch. We had gotten ahead 20-0 and then given up a quick TD at the end of the first half and then other after halftime. That play was a big play we needed when everyone was concerned we had let another team back into a game and may lose. After we went up 27-14 it was clear our offense wasn’t going to disappear again.

Bottom Line: The next day we are #5 and clearly can beat anyone. Georgia struggled with TN at home a little (and the Volunteers were using their #2 QB). If (and that is definitely an “if”) things break our way we can win the SEC and from there anything, even another title is a possibility. I don’t think we are a good as that, but you do have to recognize it as a realistic possibility.