Florida football: The Gators defense vs. Vanderbilt’s offense

Suggesting Vanderbilt’s offense is outmatched by the Florida football defense would be a massive understatement.

Saturday, we’ll have the pleasure of watching one of the best defensive units in the Southeastern Conference and the nation in Florida football.

Unfortunately, their test on the other side of the ball won’t be nearly as good.

Vanderbilt is among the nation’s worst offenses. Their average of 317.1 yards per game ranks them at 115 out of 130 teams listed on the NCAA website.

They have a robust (sarcasm) 14 total touchdowns this season and have just 4.96 yards per play.

I think it’s safe to say the Commodores struggle a bit at moving the football (again, sarcasm because, of course, they struggle).

Florida football defense

The Gators are back to being nearly fully healthy. However, utility defender Amari Burney and linebacker Jeremiah Moon are out for the game — and in Moon’s case, out for the season.

But, as bad as that might seem, both Jabari Zuniga and Jonathan Greenard should be back closer to full strength after playing last week against Georgia.

So, with the 26th-best defense in the country — allowing just 328.2 yards per game, 5.26 yards per play and 17 touchdowns, the Florida football defense should have a field day with the Commodores.

In fact, this could be an opportunity to get reps in for some of the backups on defense.

Players like Zachary Carter, Tedarrell Slaton and Marlon Dunlap get some time on the field, but with Vanderbilt’s lackluster offense, it certainly couldn’t hurt to get them more time on the field.

The same could be said for Jaydon Hill, Chester Kimbrough and Kaiir Elam on the corners as well as James Houston at middle linebacker.

Of course, it’s all dependent on whether our offense can put enough distance between us and Vanderbilt to allow Todd Grantham the freedom to make those kinds of moves.

However, I have little doubt the Florida football offense will be able to do just that.

Vanderbilt’s offense

You don’t want to think of it as good news, but for Florida football, the news couldn’t get much better.

Earlier this week, Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason said both Mo Hasan and Riley Neal would be out of the game as both quarterbacks are under concussion protocol.

That leaves the Commodore offense to the hands of either redshirt junior Deuce Wallace or redshirt junior Allan Walters.

My money is on Wallace as he has actually taken snaps this season. Granted those snaps were last week in the Commodores’ loss to South Carolina, but they were snaps.

Walters, on the other hand, has not played a down under center that I could find.

So, with a third-string quarterback, we’re likely to see heavy doses of running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn.

Vaughn is currently the 31st-best running back in the country with 790 yards and six touchdowns. While that may not be the best in the Southeastern Conference, it is enough for Florida football to have to take notice of it.

Especially because of the aforementioned quarterback dilemma the Commodores are in.

Vanderbilt will also welcome back wide receiver Kalija Lipscomb to the lineup. Lipscomb suited up, but did not play against South Carolina for “personal reasons” (not really sure what that means, but oh well).

The Commodores also have a surprisingly little-used weapon in senior tight end Jared Pinkney. Pinkney came into the season as a projected first-round draft pick to the NFL, but this season, he has just 157 yards on 15 receptions and zero touchdowns.

I’m not sure why Mason hasn’t used Pinkney more, and I don’t know if that will change this week (again, considering the aforementioned quarterback issue).

But, the long and short is this is a perfect game for Florida football to use to get over the Cocktail party loss. It also helps set the stage for the showdown in Columbia, Missouri against the Tigers next week.

Remember, No. 10 Florida football will host Vanderbilt at noon Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.