Kirby Smart compliments Feleipe Franks’ progression, discusses plan for slowing down Florida’s running backs
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What a difference a year can make.
At this time last year, the Gators were coming off back-to-back performances of scoring 17 and 16 points against league foes and had arguably the worst offense in the SEC. Seven games later, following the hire of Dan Mullen, the Gators have a top five scoring offense in the league with the players the coach inherited — many of which don’t ideally fit in his system.
While last season’s Cocktail Party may have been a cakewalk for the Bulldogs, that won’t be the case this season considering the progression Feleipe Franks has made and the way the Gator running game is currently humming.
During his latest media availability, Kirby Smart was asked to share his thoughts on the progression of the Florida quarterback.
‘’First and foremost, he’s a year older. You play in this league, you get better. You have to. You have no choice,” Smart said. “You play in front of an offensive line that was full of sophomores or maybe some freshmen, now those guys. I mean, we do a sheet and one of them has like 30 starts, 40 starts, 27 starts. They’ve got guys that have started forever.
“So he’s playing front of a much more experienced offensive line that went through its trials and tribulations for a couple of years. Those guys are a lot more experienced. But he’s playing at a much higher level and I think it’s because of his confidence. He has better wideouts. Dan’s done a great job of developing him, and he’s got a really good offensive line in front of him. So with all those things considered, you get better in this league when you play.’’
The old cliche is true, quarterbacks receive too much credit when things are going well and too much blame when they aren’t. While Franks has made tremendous strides in Mullen’s offense, the key to the team’s success on offense is the stable of running backs the QB has behind him.
The Gators have three running backs at or over 300 yards rushing to this point in the season (Jordan Scarlett – 381, Lamical Perine – 376 and Dameon Pierce – 296) that help shoulder the majority of the load on offense. The success of those backs opens things up for the play action pass, something that Georgia needs to be on the watch for in this matchup.
How will Georgia’s defense approach slowing down those backs? Smart said the key will be rotating defenders in and out of the lineup.
‘’You’ve got to strike blockers up front. You’ve got to build a wall. You’ve got to tackle well,” Smart continued. “Every team in our league has multiple backs, so they’re gonna have fresh backs. We usually play a lot of D-linemen, when we have a lot of D-linemen, and we play a lot of backers.
“We feel like a guy tackles fresher than a guy that’s worn down, having hit the same guy over and over. That’s why they substitute backs. That’s why we try to substitute D-line and linebackers when we can. That’s all predicated on your depth and how good your players are. We’ve played a lot of players up to this point and we’ll continue to do that if it helps us. If we’ve got a guy that’s playing really well, then we’re probably not going to do that defensively.’’
It’s an interesting strategy for the Bulldogs, as Smart’s defense doesn’t have as many elite defensive linemen to play as they have had in years past. That’s likely an area of the team that received increased focus during the bye week and the key to this game for the Bulldogs. Slow down Florida’s running game and Georgia will slow down Mullen’s offense on Saturday.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
