Despite struggles in his absence, Del Rio confident in Gators’ offense upon return
By Andrew Olson
Published:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In the first two quarters without quarterback Luke Del Rio, it looked like Florida might have a genuine quarterback controversy. With Austin Appleby as signal-caller, the Gators jumped out to a 21-0 lead against Tennessee in large part due to Appleby’s success with the deep ball.
The past six quarters, however, told a different story.
Florida’s offense virtually shut down as the Volunteers mounted their epic comeback en route to a 38-28 victory. Against Vanderbilt, the Gators had to fight hard for a 13-6 win after struggling to move the ball in the air against one of the conference’s worst pass defenses – and poor decisions by Appleby were a definite factor.
Needless to say, fans and players alike are happy to have Del Rio back for Saturday’s home game against Missouri.
“It’s big. You know, he’s definitely helped us out a lot on offense, and he’s a guy that can go out there, get the job done and it’s great to have him back,” center Cam Dillard said.
Del Rio is not worried about the past six quarters. From his perspective, the Gators’ issues are minor and, most important, correctable.
“It’s a block here, getting off of a press here; it’s very little things,” Del Rio said. “It’s not like we’re letting eight people loose in the backfield every play. Just do your job on every play and stop worrying about what everybody else is doing and do what you have to do and we’ll be fine.”
Del Rio has done his job. Before being knocked out of the lineup, he had completed 61.4 percent of his passes for 762 yards. He’d thrown 6 touchdown passes and just 2 interceptions and Florida was averaging almost 34 points per game.
Appleby, in contrast, started well against Tennessee before fading and threw for just 144 yards against Vanderbilt.
Del Rio is still a firm believer in coach Jim McElwain’s playbook and game plan. The son of NFL coach Jack Del Rio sounds a lot like a coach himself when diagnosing the problem.
“I think the biggest thing is just consistency,” Del Rio said. “We’ve seen that we can play at a really, really, high level in the running game and in the passing game. It starts up front with the offensive line, but we obviously have a big role as quarterbacks; getting us in the right plays, getting us out of bad plays and it’s really just do your job on every play.
“If 10 guys are doing their job it’s probably not going to be a good play. You really do need everybody and it’s funny because you think, oh backside wide receiver is blocking on a running play is not going to be a big deal, but what if it cuts back and the corner makes a play when it would have been a touchdown. Simple things like that. Everybody doing their job on each play and we’ll be fine.”
Dillard agrees with Del Rio about the importance of following assignments, and not trying to do too much. He thinks it’s the key to preventing the offense’s struggles from snowballing.
“I think it’s everyone knows their assignment, knows what to do and how to do it and they go out there and perform and do that,” Dillard said. “That’s all it comes down to, is performing and doing what you’re capable of and not going beyond and trying to be a superhero or anything just do your job like Coach Mac always preaches.”
If the Gators can do that Saturday, they could wake up Sunday in first place in the SEC East.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
