To have chance against Georgia, chatty Gators receivers need to go make plays downfield
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GAINESVILLE — Coaches would insist they’d rather have confident players who expect to win than the alternative, especially when they are heavy underdogs like the Florida Gators will be this weekend when they meet No. 3 Georgia in Jacksonville.
“We expect to win, and we’ll continue with that expectation moving forward,” Jim McElwain told assembled media Monday as his team continued to prepare for their undefeated rival.
In truth, that type of attitude is what you want your program’s leader to project, even when a team is struggling, as the Gators have this season. You certainly don’t want coaches and players who expect to lose.
But there’s a fine line between projecting confidence and self-belief and offering boisterous bravado and bulletin-board bluster.
The Gators’ players seemed to cross the line a bit Monday.
First, Florida safety Chauncey Gardner called out Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm, saying his great start was more about him “throwing simple passes,” before adding, “anyone can throw a slant.”
Setting aside the fact Florida and Feleipe Franks haven’t hit too many slants this year, perhaps Gardner, who has a 25 percent missed tackle rate, should worry less about Fromm’s arm and more about whether he can make an open-field tackle.
But Gardner wasn’t the only Gators player to express bold opinions about Georgia Monday.
Sophomore wide receiver Joshua Hammond joined in the fun as well.
“The message in our locker room right now is (Georgia) might be the No. 3 team in America, but they can’t beat Florida,” Hammond told reporters. “Our seniors have never lost to Georgia, so I think the mentality they bring, being that they’ve never lost to Georgia, brings a lot of confidence to us, just knowing Georgia isn’t a team that we lose to.”
This “so and so isn’t a team we lose to” hubris didn’t work well for Florida last season, when star corners Teez Tabor and Quincy Wilson jawed their way through Tennessee week only to be lit-up for 38 unanswered points by the Vols in a 38-28 loss. But at least Tabor and Wilson more often than not put their money where their mouths were on the football field.
For inconsistent players like Gardner and Hammond to talk just seems foolish.
Florida ranks last in the SEC in 10-yard pass plays and 13th in 20-yard pass plays. Georgia is among the SEC’s best in preventing them, too.
Hammond’s confidence is especially curious given how little the Gators have produced in the passing game this month in the absence of star wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland.
In the previous two games against LSU and Texas A&M, the Gators have thrown for a measly 108 and 129 yards, for a total of 237 yards and a woeful average of just 5.64 yards per attempt. They have 0 TDs and 2 INTs to show for those efforts.
Hammond’s production in those games? A pedestrian five receptions for 45 yards.
Florida’s struggles in the passing game have been all the more puzzling because the Gators have continued to show signs of life on offense with a physical, power running game behind the talented one-two RB combination of Lamical Perine and Malik Davis. As defenses increasingly cheat safeties and crowd the box to stop the run game, you’d think Florida — and receivers like Hammond — would show some life in the passing game. It hasn’t happened.
McElwain suggested it has to happen for Florida to have a chance to win Saturday.
“They’re going to load the box,” McElwain said. “We’re going to have to make some plays downfield.”
McElwain’s right, and the onus will be on players like Hammond to make those plays.
Florida spent the summer talking about how this offense would be explosive. Through six games, that’s been all talk, as the Gators enter the Cocktail Party 81st in S&P+ offense and 68th in explosive plays.
Now’s the time for Hammond and the rest of the Gators to talk less and produce more.
That will be a tall order against a Georgia defense that ranks tenth nationally in S&P+ defensive efficiency, but fourth nationally in scoring defense and No. 1 in America in S&P+ run defense and in limiting explosive plays.
On the bright side, Georgia did give up some explosive plays in the passing game to Missouri, who managed 6.36 yards per play against the Bulldogs — by far the worst UGA effort on the campaign. The Bulldogs don’t give up much, but it does seem likely Florida will have a few chances if they can execute downfield.
Further, Florida might get Cleveland back for Georgia.
Cleveland is one of the SEC’s best vertical threats, which could help the Gators stretch Georgia out a bit in the running game and in theory make getting open a bit easier on secondary options like Hammond, Brandon Powell and Freddie Swain.
McElwain also mentioned Monday that freshman playmaker Kadarius Toney ran a bit Sunday and could also be available. Toney’s presence is potentially immense — the freshman from Eight Mile, Ala., averages 10 yards a touch this season, and was sorely missed late in the game against Texas A&M, as Florida desperately searched for a playmaker to help ice away the game. Even when he doesn’t have the ball, Toney gives defenses an extra element to think about as he is dangerous running, throwing or as a slot receiver.
Even with the continued suspensions to Antonio Callaway and Jordan Scarlett, the offensive heroes of Florida’s past two victories over the Bulldogs, Florida could have as large a complement of playmakers as they’ve had this year if Cleveland and Toney return to the fold.
It’s on them to make plays. If they do, what happens on the field will do their talking for them.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
