Florida football: Matching up the Gators and Canes on offense
Both Florida and Miami have their starting five on their offensive lines. They released their depth charts on August 19th. Florida and Miami have varying degrees of inexperience on their respective offensive lines.
UF will start redshirt junior Stone Forsythe at left tackle, redshirt junior Brett Heggie at left guard, redshirt senior Nick Buchanan at center, redshirt freshman Chris Bleich at right guard, and redshirt junior Jean Delance at right tackle.
Three starters on this line are well seasoned and experienced. Nick Buchanan started every game for Florida at center last season, Stone Forsythe played in every game last season, and Brett Heggie played in 9 games last season as well as starting 7 games the year before.
With these 3 players consistently playing last year, Florida only gave up 18 sacks which was 3rd best in the SEC.
Two starters on this line are inexperienced. Chris Bleich will be making his first appearance in a meaningful game on Saturday as he redshirted last season. Additionally, Jean Delance only played in four games last year although two of those games were against FSU and Michigan to finish the season.
This starting offensive line for Florida should actually be pretty competent. It’s when you look at the backup linemen where things get rocky. The 2nd string linemen are all underclassmen but 1 player. There is next to no experience if a starter goes down. It is for this reason that the offensive line if Florida’s biggest weakness heading into 2019.
Miami has more problems on its offensive line, plain and simple.
The Hurricanes will start true freshman Zion Nelson at left tackle, junior Navaughn Donaldson at left guard, redshirt sophomore Corey Gaynor at center, sophomore DJ Scaife Jr.at right guard, and redshirt freshman John Cambell at right tackle.
There are 4 underclassmen and 2 freshmen on this offensive line. The freshman will have to face 2019 Preseason All-SEC defensive end Jabari Zuniga and former All-ACC defensive end Johnathon Greenard, a transfer from Louisville. Here’s a spoiler: it’s not going to go well for these freshmen in their first starts.
The bright spot of the Miami offensive line is Navaughn Donaldson who brings experience and leadership to this group. He played in all 13 games last season and earned All ACC Honors as a freshman. Donaldson has started in 22 FBS games but after that, the player with the 2nd most starts is DJ Scaife Jr. with only 7 starts.
Although neither offensive line is close to perfect, Florida is in a better situation than Miami. Florida has the starters to be successful but not the depth. Miami has a few wild cards as starters and the depth is worse than at UF, which is saying something.
Advantage: Florida
Next. What would a Florida loss to Miami really mean?. dark