Florida football: Amari Burney must keep Missouri passing vertically

There isn’t a reason Missouri should beat the Florida Gators on Saturday, and yet Florida football is only 5-5 against Missouri since the Tigers joined the SEC.  

Missouri has a pathway to make it 6-5 against the Gators. Florida’s defense has had its ups and downs through five games. The defensive line and the cornerbacks have been mostly solid. The linebackers (sans Ventrell Miller) and safeties have been highly suspect at times, and it will be the play of Trey Dean (if healthy), Rashad Torrence, and Kamari Wilson that might make or break Florida football in The Swamp.

Florida football: Brady Cook will throw deep

Before last weekend’s game against Georgia, there wasn’t a reason for Florida’s defense to fear Missouri and quarterback Brady Cook. He only had one touchdown pass against an opponent that wasn’t named Abilene Christian, Missouri only scored 12 points against Kansas State (six of which came on a garbage time touchdown) and 14 against Auburn.

Then against Georgia, the first-year starter had a very competent game. Cook went 20-32 passing for 192 yards and one touchdown as Missouri was five minutes away from pulling off the upset against the Bulldogs. Part of why Missouri found success against Georgia is because the Bulldogs overcorrected to stop the Tigers’ offense and it will be the cat-and-mouse game that Florida football has to play this week.

Against Kansas State and Auburn, Missouri’s offense was based around check-down throws to the flats and runs that featured plenty of pulling guards. The goal for the Tigers is to suck the defense in take away the flat and allow for Cook to launch a deep bomb, usually to Dominic Lovett. And to be fair Missouri did hit a 40-yard pass from Cook to Lovett in both of those games as well as a 79-yard connection in the Abilene Christian game. But for the most part, Missouri’s all-or-nothing style wasn’t sustainable and their offense was easily stopped.

Against Georgia though, the only super obvious change was Missouri ditching the pulling guards on run plays, and instead, the Tigers stuck to a zone-running scheme for Nathaniel Peat and Cody Schrader to run behind. Peat was noticeably physical when given the chance but maintained solid patience to wait for holes to develop.

The reason Missouri had early success was that Georgia struggled with the zone running scheme, almost like they were expecting more pulling linemen, and because too often the Bulldog safeties sold out on the flat routes and Cook was able to hit multiple vertical routes.

Florida football: Trey Dean redemption game

This is where the real test for the safeties of Florida football will lie against Missouri. Early as defensive coordinator, Patrick Toney has employed a decent amount of cover three and it wouldn’t be surprising for Toney to utilize the look on Saturday given Missouri’s desire to be vertical.

This will put pressure on Florida’s corners to correctly gauge depth when falling back into their deep zones. Against Eastern Washington, Jason Marshall played very conservatively with his backpedal and it allowed for some easy curl-routes and slant-routes underneath.

But for Florida football to shut down Missouri on Saturday, Trey Dean, Rashad Torrence, and Kamari Wilson will need to be spot on with their rotations, especially if they are left as the single-high safety. One would assume Toney’s instructions this week during film study is to rotate towards Lovett since he is the main vertical threat. Missouri can use that against Florida if they feel the safeties are always rotating to Lovett and can utilize routes to take advantage of the vacated space.

Florida football: Amari Burney is the cog that will keep it all together

It wouldn’t be surprising for Missouri to stick with the zone running scheme against Florida. This will put the onus to clean up the run game on Miller and Amari Burney, which Miller should be fine handling.

If Florida opts to play man, Burney might not have a lot to do in the passing game. Missouri doesn’t utilize their tight ends very often.

But if Florida does opt to play zone, this leaves Burney as the key cog to slowing down Missouri. Cook will look for checkdowns and short routes while he sets up the deep shot. If Burney can recognize these routes, he has the speed and athleticism to cover and make the tackle. But we have also seen where Burney is prone to get caught in traffic while trying to get to a spot to make a tackle.

If Burney can shut down these east-west routes, it will force Missouri to stay vertical. And while by the end of the game, Missouri may hit a big play or two, the Gators’ should be capable of holding the Tigers to 20 points or less. Anything over 30 points should be considered an abject disaster.

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