By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com

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Not only has Florida been much improved up front this fall, the Gators have one of the best offensive lines in college football.

Georgia has the top defense in all of college football. Entering Saturday, the Bulldogs rank number one in the nation in both scoring and total defense and do so by a considerable margin. This is a unit on an historic pace. This is a defense that appears to be all-time good. This, correspondingly, is the challenge awaiting Florida.

Despite a disappointing overall record, the Gators have had some clear positives this season, including progress made at the point of attack. Florida currently ranks fourth in the country with 254.9 rushing yards per game and actually leads the nation with 6.33 team yards per carry. The Gators, furthermore, rank sixth in having allowed only five sacks total. Not only has Florida been much improved up front this fall, the Gators have one of the best offensive lines in college football.

Ahead of a showdown with top-ranked Georgia, the key to victory, for the orange and blue, starts right at the line of scrimmage. Can Florida do what nobody else has been able to do?

“It’s a challenge, that’s the number one challenge. If you can crack that code, you give a blueprint to everybody in college football who might have to see them,” nodded Max Starks, a former All-SEC offensive tackle for the Gators and a two-time Super Bowl Champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Georgia is currently giving up just 63.43 rushing yards per game, good for second in the country, and is averaging 3.34 sacks per game, good for eighth. Somehow, the Bulldogs have allowed just one run of 20 yards or more this season; Florida, for point of reference, has 20. Additionally, only one rushing touchdown has been scored on Georgia to date; the Gators are currently now at 17.

Simply put, Saturday’s matchup will put both teams to the test in the trenches. Who wins there will likely win the game.

“It’s gonna be big. Georgia’s defensive line is going to be the best defensive line that Florida has seen all season. As well as they’ve played, this is gonna be their first real test,” former UF All-American offensive guard Shannon Snell shared. “One of the reasons that they could win this game on Saturday is because of that offensive line. It’s a test for both the offensive line for Florida and the defensive line of Georgia as it will be the best that each one has faced all year.”

This is the test the Gators must pass; Georgia surrendered a total of 174 rushing yards against Clemson, Arkansas, Auburn and Kentucky, all of whom were ranked teams at the time. The Bulldogs had 29 tackles for loss and 18 sacks in those four outings. The Tigers, Razorbacks, Tigers and Wildcats promptly combined for a modest margin of just 26 points, with no team scoring more than one touchdown.

Literally and figuratively, the pressure will be directly on Florida’s offensive line in Jacksonville.

“I would call this a ‘raid the village’ type of defense. This is one where they leave destruction in their aftermath. This is probably one of the best, not only for Georgia, one of the best college-assembled defenses that I’ve seen in a very long time,” Starks, an ESPN Radio analyst and member of the Steelers Radio Network, continued. “These are five stars who should possibly be six stars. That’s how good this defensive front is. And they’re playing like it. This defense has been consistently dominating.”

The Bulldogs’ defensive front continues to be the talk of college football. That said, Florida’s front five has played its way into the national conversation, too. The Gators have had notable stretches of offensive momentum, success which has started right where the ball is snapped. Florida, for example, ran for 245 yards and four touchdowns against Alabama. The Gators just scored 42 points at LSU. Florida has a top ten offense nationally, one more productive than the likes of the Crimson Tide, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

Expect the Gators to enter Saturday’s game with confidence as well. It’s a conviction they have earned. Florida’s Georgia gameplan will have to start with the Gators themselves. Focus will be one of Florida’s top priorities. The Gators have shown an ability to play their best against the best and will need that potential to be on display this weekend. Florida’s obstacle is also Florida’s opportunity.

“First of all, they are going to have to get past the hoopla. If you want to execute a gameplan, especially being a team that runs the ball quite a bit now, it’s to limit those mistakes early on,” Snell continued. “A lot of times you get hyped up for playing a team the caliber of Georgia and playing against guys that are really highly ranked. I think they need to let go of what their stars were, where they were supposedly ranked or what they are being talked about as and play their game and play how well they have been playing all season.”

Fundamentals will be critical for Florida up front.

“Hands win. You got to create the leverage,” Starks detailed. “These guys have long arms, the long-arm stab and bull rush has been their key. You’ve got to control the leverage. You’ve got to get your hands underneath their hands and in their chest. You can’t give up your chest. You can’t be lazy with hands, because that’s the best way to stymie and create distance and time for your quarterback. Time after time, guys get delayed with their hands, give up their chest and they get pushed back to the lap of their quarterback.”

It goes without saying that Florida will have to consistently hit Georgia with an unrelenting mix of both technique and tempo to keep the Bulldogs off balance. Versatility and unpredictability should be leading parts of the Gators’ plan. Much like the offense needs to find a rhythm, Florida has to prevent the Georgia defense from doing the very same. How the Gators play and how the Gators call plays can be equally effective in slowing the Bulldogs down. It will have to be a four quarter and full team effort.

“For this offensive line, the play-action is what is really going to help them,” Starks shared. “If you can create a stalemate at the line as opposed to a pre-designed pass rush, where you’re in pass pro and you’re kicking on an angle trying to create width and space, that gives them the acceleration they need to really start to give offensive lines problems.”

Florida’s quarterback situation remains somewhat of an unknown as the Gators have played Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson and, though a rotation has not yet been outlined, the expectation is for more of the same against Georgia. The Gators will have the ability to keep the Bulldogs somewhat hesitant with the sheer potential of what all of their playmakers can do. Slowing down Georgia’s attacking style, even if only by a step or two, would be a start. From there, maybe the Gators could hit their stride.

Utilizing the full length and width of the field will help Florida avoid third-down-and-long situations.

“They got to be balanced. That’s the first and foremost thing for Georgia. They want to get you into bad situations, third and long, second and long and really force the issue by creating a really heavy pass rush attack,” Snell explained. “For Florida, we don’t want to get back into the spot we were last year where you are throwing it 50 times a game. Don’t get behind the sticks. Florida has got to be really good about at least making it second and medium, third and short and really keeping the defense off balance.”

The Gators can force the Bulldogs into a mode of reacting and responding, with Florida suddenly dictating tempo. This can happen via pre-snap shifts and plays that come with multiple possibilities. History would suggest the Gators will use run-pass-options, RPOs, early and often. The idea, with such plays, is to flip the script. If Florida can consistently start plays with choices ever-present, it shifts the pressure to Georgia’s defensive side. In theory, the Gators can keep the Bulldogs on their toes.

“Movement is your friend. I think you have to utilize Jones’ and Richardson’s strong points. When you’re looking at either quarterback, it’s on the move, it’s the RPO because, if you’re Florida, what is my best asset?” Starks asked. “You have to have some predesigned rollouts where you get him on edges where he has a decision and also that Georgia defender has a decision: Do I step up and protect against the rush or do I bail to protect on the throws over the top? That’s the only way I can see you having to tenderize this defense a little bit.”

In addition to controlling the line of scrimmage, the Gators will also need to consistently convert throws downfield. From there, there may be chances for big gains off tackle.

“Make the accurate throw under pressure when you get single high coverage. When you get single-high, you let it fly,” Starks nodded. “I think the RPO is what is going to help them, early on, establish themselves. Running between the tackles is like running right into the teeth of a shredder. What do you do with papers when you want to get rid of them? You put them in the shredder. Same thing if you want to run the ball; run it between the tackles, it’s going to get chewed up. I think a lot of edge pressure is the best way to get at this Georgia defense.”

It will be imperative that Florida find a way to slow down Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis. Now seemingly emerging as a Heisman Trophy candidate, Davis is a 6’6”, 340 pound senior and is the starting point for so much of what the Bulldogs do defensively. In a spotlight season-opener against Clemson, he had two tackles for loss and a sack. So much of what Davis does, however, creates chances for the other defenders around him. Davis is one of the most dominant interior linemen college football has seen in years.

The Gators will need to have priorities in place to minimize the impact Davis can make.

“Keep two guys on him, double him. If he’s at the three technique, sliding your center in pass protection to the three technique. Or if he’s playing that nose, doubling him with the guard in the run game. It really is important not to put your guys on a one-on-one situation and I think Florida has done a really good job with that all season,” Snell recalled. “I think Dan and crew, I think they have a plan in mind to account for him. If you allow that guy to run loose he is going to wreck a gameplan.”

Look for the Gators to try various ways to force Georgia into adjustments, pre-snap and post-snap alike. The ultimate goal, of course, is to score touchdowns. That is easier said than done against the Bulldogs, who rank number two in the country in redzone touchdown percentage. Opponents are reaching the endzone merely 27.27% of the time after they reach the Georgia 20-yard line. The Bulldogs have allowed just three redzone touchdowns all season, the fewest of any team in the game.

Saturday will be a chess match. Florida must move first.

“You have to figure out different ways to get them moving laterally instead of moving north-and-south from a defensive perspective and transversely you’re offense has to move north and south. You can move a little bit east and west to get some movement and change your trajectory angles, but eventually you have to move north and south. You have to get into the endzone,” Starks acknowledged. “Field goals aren’t going to cut it in this game.”

Mullen has had two weeks to prepare for Georgia, potentially a major advantage. Every consideration has surely been given to how the Gators can best move the football against a defense that is being described as generationally-good. If this offense can be productive against the Bulldogs, it will be a first, for any team, this fall. Even with three losses, Florida will soon step back into the national spotlight. The Gators, who many are now overlooking, have a chance to make a statement. Much of college football will be watching.

“Dan is an offensive genius at times and I think that is where you have to rely that he is going to have schematics,” Starks offered. “He has had two weeks to really break down this defense and really figure out what it is. And we know that Dan Mullen off of a bye is a scary thing. Just like Belichick and Saban, you put him in that same category as far as schematics. Now it’s up to the players to actually go out and perform what he has thought about.”

A win will start with an offense that doesn’t stop. The goal, for Florida, is forward.

“For every great athlete that they have, they don’t know every offensive play,” Snell concluded. “Keep it balanced, try to keep them on their toes and you’ll have a better outcome.”

Georgia’s historic defense is coming to Jacksonville. Florida’s offense is ready to match and move.