3 schemes that will determine LSU vs. Florida

You have to wonder if part of the reason for LSU’s dismal home showing against Troy was its looming road trip to Gainesville to take on Florida. That said, LSU got flat-out whipped by the Trojans and are now facing a hardened Florida team that is filled with young players who are starting to come into their own.

LSU is already 0-1 in SEC play with Auburn looming the week after Florida and then road trips against Alabama and Tennessee highlighting their normal SEC West slate. The Tigers can’t afford to drop this game and have any hopes of winning their division. Meanwhile the Gators need to keep pace with Georgia, which is undefeated and also surging in SEC play. Here are three things that could define Saturday’s contest.

Can Florida defend the perimeter against the LSU run game?

The design of LSU’s offense is to pry defensive fronts apart with their jet sweeps in order to make steady gains on the ground before finally throwing over the top with play-action. You could see that effect even against Troy as it ran a jet sweep here to Derrick Dillon (seven carries for 53 yards on the year) off outside zone blocking for the RB:

And then came back with inside zone off the jet sweep action and jet sweep blocking on bottom by the TE to lure the perimeter defenders out of the cutback lane:

Defending this offense requires great overall discipline up front and/or good speed and tackling on the back end to limit damage when the Tigers find a crease.

Up front the Gators have a brilliant defensive line that tends to work to spill the ball to their speedy linebackers and secondary. If they can consistently stop the inside runs without compromising their speed defenders’ ability to handle the perimeter constraints, then LSU doesn’t have much else to help them sustain drives down the field.

Is Feleipe Franks ready to withstand the LSU pass rush?

The reason Franks is a Gator and why he won the job out of fall camp is well illustrated by throws like these against Vanderbilt:

When Franks knows where he’s going with the ball he can put it just about anywhere on the field he wants to due to his arm strength. Working alongside a highly effective run game against Vanderbilt, he hit 10-of-14 passes for 185 yards, good for 13.2 yards a pop.

LSU doesn’t really tend to give QBs clear initial reads or clean pockets though, not when they’re on their game. Star pass-rusher Arden Key isn’t in peak form yet, but Troy still paid him enough attention to give DL Christian LaCouture and Greg Gilmore a chance to do damage working against other OL in isolation.

And then there’s also the LSU blitz package.

Franks has protected the ball well so far this season but the Gators pulled him against Kentucky because he was playing in a way that made turnovers an inevitability. If LSU sorts out whatever their deal was against Troy and can put Franks in some tough spots, it’s hard to know how well he’ll respond and Luke Del Rio won’t be around to bail him out again.

But then there’s Malik Davis

The true freshman running back has gotten some early work due to Jordan Scarlett’s suspension, taking 21 carries for 93 yards against Kentucky and then blowing up against Vanderbilt with 17 carries that went for 124 yards.

If he’s rolling and the Gators are running the ball effectively, it becomes all too easy for Jim McElwain and Doug Nussmeier to scheme up simple reads and downfield throws for Franks to hit to Florida’s talented cast of receivers.

Thus far, it’s looking like this is a real possibility. Here’s Davis running an outside zone play against Vanderbilt:

Florida catches the Commodores in a stunt up front, but the decisiveness and explosion of Davis still really stand out. On his third step, he has read his blocks and is cutting upfield with lean and burst through the hole.

Here he is running power on 3rd-and-9 in a “run out the clock” scenario:

The kick-out block by the tight end doesn’t go terribly well, but Davis runs hard and goes through tacklers for eight yards before they take him down. Florida ended up going for it on 4th-and-1 and he finished the drive then and there with a 39-yard TD run when the Commodores didn’t have anyone left after he cleared the initial scrum.

You expect a 5-11, 194-pound back to have some speed, but those runners don’t always have quite enough force to run through tackles at the line of scrimmage or to drag defenders on inside runs.

If Florida is running the ball effectively with Davis this season the possibilities for their offense are much higher than Gator fans have become accustomed to this decade and it’ll spell big trouble for LSU.