Florida football: Five ways the Gators could lose to USF

It is highly unlikely that Florida football loses to USF on Saturday. Extremely unlikely. Vegas has Florida anywhere from a -2500 to -5000 money line favorite.

USF doesn’t have the strongest of offenses and their defense is woeful. But this is college football and after last Saturday’s barrage of upsets, there is nothing that should be taken for granted.

Here are the five ways that Florida could lose to the USF Bulls in The Swamp.

Florida football: Anthony Richardson has the yips

In baseball, there is a term called the yips that is given to a pitcher that suddenly can’t throw for a strike to save their life. Rick Ankiel is one of the more famous examples of this. It is usually a mental block the player has and even though the player has good fundamentals they are all forgotten and nothing goes right.

Sound familiar?

Anthony Richardson 100% had the yips last Saturday against Kentucky. Richardson made correct reads against the Wildcats, but his footwork and fundamentals, which are normally rock solid, went out the window and led to multiple errant throws. As the game progressed, Billy Napier tried to give Richardson some safe and easy throws to rebuild his confidence and they ended up backfiring.

Florida should be able to run some plays early to give Richardson some makeable completions and let us know that all is well.

But what if one or two of his early throws sail into the waiting arms of a USF defensive back? What if he’s scarred from Kentucky shutting down his running ability and he fumbles an exchange to the running back? What if Napier says “I found somebody else and I don’t need you”?

Could Florida resort to the run game? Probably. But if Richardson is broken and Florida has to insert Kyle Engel, it will invite USF to just load up in the box and maybe give the Bulls hope.