Florida football: EWU utilizes formations Gators struggled against vs USF
On paper, Sunday’s matchup between the Florida Gators and the Eastern Washington Eagles should be a stroll in the park for Florida football. The Gators are favored by 30, the Eagles lost earlier this year to Oregon 70-14, and EWU head coach Aaron Best doesn’t know how hurricanes work.
When watching EWU film, however, there are some concepts that the Eagles use on offense that may bring back the ghosts from the USF game.
Florida football: A word of caution
To be clear, no Florida football shouldn’t be on upset alert. The Gators have far superior athletes compared to the Eagles and as we will write about in our preview of the Eastern Washington defense, the Eagles can not tackle to save their life.
Eastern Washington is however one of the top FCS schools year in and year out:
- They won the 2010 FCS national title
- Cooper Kupp is their most notable alumni
- EWU was ranked 5th in the country last year among FCS
- The Eagles had a late lead last week vs 5th ranked Montana State before a costly fumble
Typically your top FCS schools are on par with middle-tier Group of Five schools. And as USF demonstrated with Florida football, a Group of Five school can have success by attacking a defense’s weakness that the defense doesn’t have an answer for.
Florida football: Eastern Washington formations
Obviously, there are other formations that Eastern Washington uses, but there are three main ones to focus on:
- Standard spread
- Bunch set
- Heavy set
Eastern Washington’s standard spread formation should not cause any real issues for Florida football. Eagles’ QB Gunner Talkington has a completion percentage of 61% so far this season, but he is prone to miss some easy throws. In addition, EWU receivers Freddie Roberson and Efton Chism are respectable enough but they don’t pose a vertical threat that Florida can’t handle.
Likewise, Eastern Washington’s bunch set shouldn’t be anything Florida can’t handle. The Eagles will attempt screens out of this formation that Oregon blew up at the point of attack. The only concern here is ensuring the Florida secondary doesn’t blow assignments when the Eagles cross-cross their routes. Certain members of Florida’s safety group aren’t the greatest at that.
It’s Eastern Washington’s heavy set that should at least create intrigue early on. The Eagles love to use offset tight ends, fullbacks in the backfield, and center-guard pulls on running plays to give running back Micha Smith as many lead blockers as possible on run plays.
Florida football has struggled this year when faced with heavy sets. Against Utah, it was whatever because the Utes specialize in pounding the rock. Against USF, it was a disaster because the Bulls couldn’t even run the ball the week before against Howard.
Ventrell Miller playing will stabilize many of these problems, but the rest of the linebackers and safeties have to do their part. Amari Burney, Shemar James, Scooby Williams, and maybe even Diwun Black should all have opportunities on Sunday to atone for the sins of the USF game.
Trey Dean might even be able to step up and make some tackles that are before the first down marker.
Again, Oregon held Eastern Washington to 14 points. Anything above that for Florida football’s defense would be very disappointing. But as USF showed, anything is possible.