Florida football: Grantham's defense makes championship unlikely in 2020
Florida at Texas A&M was a game every analyst and fan circled at the beginning of the season. Two third-year head coaches, both quarterback gurus, playing with talented senior quarterbacks. It was supposed to have a big-game feel, an early litmus test for two programs trying to take the next step.
Florida started the season playing its best offense since the Meyer, Mullen, Tebow and Harvin days, blitzing Ole Miss and South Carolina on their way to a top five ranking. Meanwhile, Texas A&M limped past a bad Vanderbilt team and had its door blown off at Alabama.
The noise around Jimbo Fisher’s program after the Aggies looked outclassed and outmatched at Alabama couldn’t have been any louder.
Instead of a big game, Florida-Texas A&M suddenly felt like a bit of a mismatch. At a minimum, it was Fisher and QB Kellen Mond’s collective last stand. A desperate Aggies team hoped to make something out of 2020 and prove the program had energy under Fisher in the process.
That desperation made the game feel dangerous for Florida. Forgive me for going Admiral Ackbar here — but with most folks talking about Florida winning this game handily Saturday it was hard not to yell at the TV and say “It’s a trap!!”
After all, the Aggies entered the game averaging only 20.5 points per game, but they also were averaging 5.3 yards a rush and 6.3 yards per play , both in the top 20 nationally. They also ranked first in the SEC in protecting the quarterback. In other words, this Texas A&M team was better statistically than the scoreboard had shown and it seemed only a matter of time until the numbers caught up with the eye test.
Plus, the Aggies’ strengths — a powerful interior running game and an offense that is good at sustaining drives (7th in the country in third-down success rate entering Saturday’s game) — were well suited to challenge Florida.
This was a talented, wounded Texas A&M team, playing for pride and playing at home. That can often spell trouble, and it did for the Gators Saturday. Especially for the defense under coordinator Todd Grantham.
Florida couldn’t stop the interior run, surrendering 205 yards rushing to an Aggies run game that dominated the line of scrimmage and, more critically, the clock in the second half.
Florida couldn’t stop the pass either, of course. Mond torched Florida for 336 yards and 3 touchdowns, constantly making both short throws in tight spaces and accurate throws downfield. Florida’s secondary has now defended 116 passes in 2020. They have yet to produce an interception (the lone interception was by a defensive lineman). Saturday, they allowed Caleb Chapman, who entered the game with 6 career receptions for 52 yards, to catch 9 passes for 151 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Kellen Mond slings a 51-yard touchdown pass to Caleb Chapman, who makes a #YouGotMossed highlight on the Gator defender. Game tied at 38. pic.twitter.com/Vur24vgMfa
— Steve Helwick (@s_helwick) October 10, 2020
Senior cornerback Marco Wilson, one of the leaders of this Florida defense, was exposed on two of Mond’s three touchdown throws, including the one above, where he mistimed his leap on an interceptable ball. Wilson played his worst game as a Gator, and was targeted again and again by Fisher.
When Florida did force third down, the Gators couldn’t get off the field. The Aggies converted their first seven third-down tries and went 12-15 on third down on the afternoon overall. When Florida made a critical third-down stop in the third quarter, the Aggies scored on fourth down anyway, with Isaiah Spiller running through multiple tackles for a go-ahead touchdown.
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1315001914858369025?s=20
Make all the Third and Grantham jokes you want. Saturday, they were warranted.
More concerning, it didn’t matter what Florida tried. When Grantham brought pressure and left his secondary in man coverage, the Aggies converted. When Grantham put an umbrella up and tried to keep things in front, the Aggies abused the 7-yard gaps between their receivers and Florida’s defenders. When Florida finally slowed the pass, the Aggies blasted Florida with power football.
Todd Grantham has had some nice moments in Gainesville. His defense was key in home wins over LSU and Auburn. A Peach Bowl rout of Michigan was led by an inspired unit that buried the Wolverines in the second half. But over the last year, in games against teams with equitable talent, Grantham’s defense has struggled. And in Florida’s last two losses, against Georgia last year and Texas A&M Saturday, opposing offenses are a staggering 24-for-30 against the Gators on third down.
From a talent perspective, the Gators defense is ahead of its offense in the 247 Talent composite. This Florida defense was supposed to be deeper and more versatile than any unit Grantham has coached in his three seasons. Instead, they can’t set the edge, they can’t get leverage inside, they can’t cover, they don’t consistently pressure the quarterback and they can’t get off the field on third down. They are poor and, as a result, an electric offense was left hanging when it finally made a mistake Saturday.
Running back Malik Davis fumbled to set up the winning A&M drive. But it shouldn’t have come to that. Florida should not lose an SEC football game when it scores 38 points, averages 7.2 yards per play and has a 56% success rate offensively. For perspective, LSU’s 2019 season success rate on offense was 57%. In other words, the Gators offense was prolific again Saturday. They punted once. They scored on all their other possessions until the Davis fumble. They lost anyway.
That’s on Grantham, who should be doing a better job with a talented group. And if the problem is talent, that’s on Grantham too. His recruiting evaluations have a ton to do with who is currently on campus defensively.
Florida arrived in College Station openly talking about the SEC Championship and the College Football playoff. They leave having suffered the program’s 8th loss to Jimbo Fisher in 9 tries, wondering what’s next.
It won’t get any easier, with LSU, an improving Missouri and mighty Georgia lurking around the corner. Grantham flirted with the NFL after the 2018 season, but ultimately stayed in Gainesville, citing family and about 1.8 million other reasons per annum.
Head coach Dan Mullen has always valued staff continuity and he trusts Grantham. It’s unlikely the veteran coordinator is going anywhere. It’s also unlikely this Florida team wins any championships this season, unless Grantham’s defense gets much, much better.
What difference does defense make when your tight end is unstoppable?
You’re offense is just as bad
Maybe a little better than our defense. Maybe a whole lot better. But certainly not in the class of Ole Miss and A&M.
Is It?
And the Pitts obsession continues.
Class of 98. Pitts is unstoppable, but he isn’t when the offense does not have the ball. When they do have the ball, they score most of the time with major contributions by Pitts.
Our defense is horrible
A if someone hasn’t been telling you that the last three weeks? Just now figured it out?
Whoops.
From Sports Writers to Gator fans this game was going to be a blowout… Whoops is about right! . Fisher 8-1 vs UF. #GigEm
I see what you did there… well played.
Across the board, D-fence is a casualty of the COVID protocol.
True. If Kirby’s D can keep it up (hard to do) it’ll be that much more impressive.
Not in Athens, GA.
We told them about 3rd and Grantham and they didn’t listen. They deserve it.
I wonder what happens in the LSU game next week after this and their showing against Mizzou. winning score in the 80s?
FL gave up 24 to my GC’s and should have been more except for all the dropped passes! This is not an imposing defense and will not stand up against a good offense! I was hoping they would get their crap together and make the East a contest. With GA handling TN today, it looks like a one horse race!
Truth.
This week UGa gets to see what they really have against The Evil Empire.
But the Gator D sure shouldn’t scare anyone.
Wait til Nov 14th. We’re going to make Franks look like the QB we always wanted him to be as a Gator.
I know I’m a Kentucky fan so I have no place to talk but I never got the Grantham hype? He was terrible at Louisville too. Where was he good? Personnel have made geniuses out of a lot of coaches. Couldn’t happen to a better guy, you can tell he’s an absolute jerk. Gators will be fine, but shoo y’all look about like UK on that side of the Ball.
UK? No, more like doo-k on that side of the ball.
We were glad to see him leave at UGA, too. Never have liked him.
UFs offense is ridiculous but that defense bit you in the butt. Texas A&M might be the worst tackling team in the SEC. It’s still all about the cocktail party.
Yep. Nothing was decided today.
Georgia is the only team in the SEC with a Defense.
3rd & Grantham continues..
Not trying to be a dik but it’s getting worse every game
Eh, Georgia laid eggs the past 2 years prior to the cocktail party and still won. Kirby can’t have his team think anything of this Florida loss. A wounded animal can be just as dangerous.
I may be wrong, but from my observation of Grantham’s defenses, his problem is not necessarily scheme but fundamentals: tackling, correct angles, eye discipline, etc. His first few years are relatively good at any location but worsens the longer he’s there.
I don’t think he teaches fundamentals vert well. I think he did the same at UGA and Louisville.
Exactly right. His units become less disciplined the longer he’s at any school, regardless of talent levels. Third-and-Grantham is just another way of saying poor fundamentals.
He’s definitely a long term liability.
Other than Brian VanGorder, there isn’t a DC in college football who is overhyped and overpaid more than TG
And Mark Richt hired them both.
Don’t even get me started on VanGorder…
Most Georgia Southern Eagles alumni will not even recognize he was their head coach for a year. Worst hire ever…
That was a freakin’ disaster. Hey, let’s take one of the best traditional FCS option offenses and blow it up.
Pitts is a beast and will give us huge problems.
Just like Tennessee’s o-line is the “best in college football?”
How much did they rush for today? Oh, that’s right… NEGATIVE ONE YARD!!!
I think Pitts and Trask have been beneficiaries of playing against not great defenses.
Georgia’s D has no fear. Maybe you shouldn’t, either.
One player being beastly doesn’t say much. Look at Bigsby last night. That dude is an absolute monster and almost unstoppable, and although the score said different, Auburn lost that game. We just won the review which gave us the game.
Pitts Pitts Pitts. All everyone hears. He can’t win game all by himself.
Would have commented sooner but was watching Georgia-Tennessee and Arkansas-Auburn on the big TV screen and didn’t want to write this on my phone.
One thing that’s becoming obvious is that the differential between the supposedly bad teams and the supposedly good teams isn’t as great this year as in previous years. Whether it will be later in the year remains to be seen. But as I write this, the Ole Miss that put 600 yards on Florida is tied 28-28 with Alabama and has 387 yards of offense with 12:47 to play in the third quarter.
But back to the matter at hand. As bad as the Florida defense played, and as well as the Texas A&M offense played, we were still in position to win the game. Credit to A&M for forcing the fumble. A championship team doesn’t fumble with the game on the line.
Now, about the defense.
Mond, a 60% passer and closer to 57% when he throws 35+ passes, completed 69% of his passes today. He was very accurate. Which is not surprising, as he was able to remain stationary in the pocket, for the most part, and calmly hit his receivers. So it’s hard to blame the secondary, though they did bust the coverage a couple times and didn’t know how to line up a third. And Marco Wilson is getting beat. Consistently.
No pass rush. No pressure to speak of. Absolutely no creativity in blitzing. Not one jailbreak blitz. For a guy who supposedly blitzes too much, Grantham isn’t blitzing very much.
No point in calling out any other individual players, save for one:
This afternoon, I saw the starting middle linebacker for the University of Florida bounce off of a 225 pound A&M running back running parallel to the line of scrimmage. That. Can’t. Happen.
Is it poor evaluation and recruiting from three to four classes ago? I don’t know.
Is Grantham’s idea of cross-training guys for multiple positions in a shortened training camp with no spring making it tough to learn their basic responsibilities? I don’t know.
But here’s what I do think. If we’re going to keep playing this badly on defense, let’s get every true freshman with a college-ready body into the line-up and playing more snaps. And let’s have Carter and Dexter on the field at the same time.
The thing that stood out to me in your post is championship teams don’t fumble when the game is on the line.
Malik Davis is talented but he has a history of not securing the football.
I don’t trust him.
Neil was in love with everything Fla till today. What a Pu$$.
So you’re attacking him for criticizing poor performance instead of making excuses? And for what’s it’s worth, he’s questioned the defense before tonight.
Running back Malik Davis fumbled to set up the winning A&M drive. But it shouldn’t have come to that…says Neil…
But it DID come to that, as bad as your dee was, your Mullet approved CFP Natty shoe in offense failed. 3 other passes shoud have been picks. It wasn’t the best effort from your team’s strength and yet they could still have saved the season, but unfortunately Nash, they didn’t.
True. Trask did exactly what I was afraid he would do playing in front of friends and family: He made four really stupid throws. He got saved by a defensive penalty on an interception and should have been intercepted another time. A third, clear across the field when he was scrambling to the right, was the dumbest pass he’s thrown this year. Oddly, none of the bad throws cost him.
But if I were a Georgia fan this morning, I wouldn’t feel all that great about my own offense with Alabama coming up. Georgia got to take advantage of short fields from Tennessee mistakes. Your boy Stetson has some wheels and makes pretty good decisions, but I think he’ll turn the ball over against Bama. And the Georgia offensive line was nothing to write home about.
Nash, it was obvious Trask was forcing the ball. Hometown games are extremes really good or bad.
Trask did exactly what I was afraid he’d do with defensive players in his face. Pitts tried to save Trasks Heisman trophy but to no avail. As for our woes I know what you mean, we only ran for 200, passed for two and a half and held the ball 12 minutes longer than that defense that dominated our OLine…bama should win by 50. I wonder who we get to lose to the following week
mullen said it was the 12th mans fault, “pack the swamp”. Hell they couldn’t sell 17k last week.
I tend to agree except I actually considered going but after checking ticket prices I decided I wasn’t going to pay for 10 other people who weren’t allowed to be there because of crowd capacity restrictions.
Nash…your essay is enough. Try to rest some. Writing novels about your sorry ass team can get tiresome bub.
You have the power to not read. And to avoid the Florida articles altogether.
Our defense is horrible because we don’t have a real defensive coordinator, we have the north end of a south bound mule posing as one. Third and grantham has now morphed into just grantham.
He’s not completely useless he can be used as an example of what not to look for as a defensive coordinator. If you detect anger concerning him……..let’s just say Mullen needs to take him to the woodshed or take his access card. Don’t care which just take him somewhere other than Florida
Spurrier didn’t give Bob Pruett a third season as defensive coordinator and won the national championship the next season. Mullen gave Grantham a third season as defensive coordinator and blew a legitimate run for the national championship. Mullen ain’t Spurrier.
I feel that Florida has the pieces on defense to make stops. Either players are not playing to their capability or realignment of positions need to be considered. Something is wrong, to many good players on that side of the ball to make that many mistakes. The last two years the D has played on a high level. We lost players from graduation, but had great players stepping up and players coming back from the last two years. We don’t need an elite defense like GA, just enough to make a few stops. The Gators offense will put points up. That defense looks horrible, let’s get it fixed coach Mullen and go win a Championship
For our defense to play like that is ridiculous. Grantham moving the players from position to position isn’t working. It’s obvious and if Grantham doesn’t have a permanent plan already something is really wrong. We have the talent. But in need of linebackers that can stop the run. Put the rooks in and let them gain experience.
It still comes down to Jax
It won’t come down to Jaxvlle if y’all go ahead and put the rooks in I assure you…tough loss g8rMarsh. Burrow would have pulled that game out last year. Trask ain’t no Joe, bbeen trying to tell y’all. But that being said you certainly have to wonder if he could have pulled some magic if not for the ill timed fumble. Your dee is predictable but this loss you Can’t blame it all on the dee…
P.S.
George Pickens is a low class ghetto pos and should be suspended from the team. Inexcusable. This immaturity is what cost Cox and it should cost Pickens as well. I know Kirby will handle it internally but wow, how pitiful were Pickens actions….AGAIN. Something about that number 1 jersey. Sad day for Georgia program, thanks George.