Florida Gators 62 – Charleston Southern Buccaneers 3
Speed. One thing that will continue to make
Florida
the best team in the nation. Speed.
The Gators had 373 rushing yards on 33 carries in the 62-3 win over Charleston Southern. Yes, it was Charleston Southern. Yes, 11.2 yards per carry is amazing regardless. Let any Gator carry the ball and there’s a good chance Florida will get a first down. That just doesn’t happen. Well, unless you have unmatchable amounts of speed.
Chris Rainey touched the ball once. 76 yards and a blue blur later, touchdown. I’m going to guess he leads the nation in yards per carry. Jeffery Demps led the team with 89 yards on five carries and had runs of 41 and 23 (for a score). Emmanuel Moody led the Gators with 9 carries, but still managed 9.6 per (and he’s supposed to be the power back). We got a glimpse of what true freshman Mike Gillislee can do: six carries for 41 yards and a score. And even John Brantley got into the action. The 2010 starting quarterback averaged 6.7 yards per carry. It was actually Tim Tebow that didn’t star on the ground. Tebow ran the ball twice for one yard. Oh yeah, but he scored and his 44 career rushing touchdowns are now good for a tie for fourth all-time in the SEC with Dalton Hilliard.
Just in case they didn’t get enough love, the receivers have that speed thing too. Deonte Thompson blew by the Charleston Southern defense on a deep ball that he…ahem…dropped. Have to make that catch if you want to be a star. And Riley Cooper used so much speed he actually got sick. But five catches and 105 yards make him the team leader in both categories at the moment, so I’m sure he’s feeling okay in the end.
To realize speed’s full potential, you need block too. And the Gators have block. Lots of block. Matt Patchan looked every bit the part of an SEC tackle after spending the 2008 season on defense. Carl Johnson has proven he can play anywhere across the line, but an injury forced Big Carl out of the game in the second quarter. And we got a taste of true freshman Nick Alajajian, Jon Halapio, and Xavier Nixon.
Looking at the box score, it may seem like the Gator defense wasn’t what it should’ve been. They only surrendered three points, but did allow the Buccaneers to pile up 323 yards of offense. However, that’s mostly due to the fact that Florida stuck with a basic defensive package. Definitely no point in opening up the entire playbook in a season opener against Charleston Southern. We’ll see the aggressive Gator D soon enough.
Florida’s leading tackler looked like he had been doing this for years already. He’s one of the players that just looks like he belongs in a football uniform. He has the perfect size for his position and forms tackles like he belongs in an instructional video. Ladies and gentlemen, true freshman Jon Bostic. Drool accordingly. All-SEC seasons to come.
For those of you disappointed in the kicking game. Well, you should be. Partially at least. A missed extra point Jonathan Phillips? A missed extra point??? There is little that frustrates me more than a missed extra point. But as for Caleb Sturgis’ kickoff that went out of bounds, as maddening as that is, it’s designed…somewhat. Last season, the coaching staff mentioned they try to get him to kick to the corners to limit return yardage and if from time to time he kicks it out of bounds, it’s okay.
In his senior year, Brandon James is just as dangerous as he always has been. James returned a kickoff 85-yards for a touchdown. A Gator hadn’t done that in 10 seasons. Again, speed. With some block, all legal of course. There were no flags and this time for James, the return counted.
Good start to the season for Florida. It’s hard to get a good read on the defense due to limited packages being shown, but regardless, let’s hope the corners step up before conference play. I can’t say I was impressed with the way they played, but it’s still early. The offense, though, was what you expect from the Gators. Block. Speed. Score.