Florida Football: Gators don’t have great answers for Georgia tight ends

We here at Hail Florida Hail try to take a positive outlook for Florida football each week when we do our previews of the opposing offense. We have gone into each week with a pathway the Gators can follow on defense and be successful.

Spoiler alert, the Gators haven’t followed our pathway most weeks. And this week against Georgia during a party that might be quite large the unfortunate reality for the Gators is that even if they follow the pathway we are about to lay out they still might not have the answers needed to stop the Bulldogs on Saturday.

Florida Football: Large men catching passes

Georgia’s offense isn’t flashy, but it is effective. While the Bulldogs are throwing the ball more this year (52% of the time), their running game is still very effective. Georgia has had four different running backs get at least 25 carries this season, led by Daijun Edwards, and are 5th in the country in yards per carry with 5.8.

This has been an obvious problem for Florida’s defense, ranked 115th in the country in opponent yards per carry with 4.9, as Ventrell Miller seems to be the only guy capable of stopping a run. Georgia loves to pull guards and their tight ends to simply overpower and outnumber opponents.

As crazy as it sounds though, Florida can survive Georgia’s rushing attack. Again, they are throwing the ball far more often this year than last, but where Georgia has had success this year is ensuring positive yards on almost every play.

Stetson Bennett, who you might have heard of, has a 70% completion rate this season and even though Georgia is only 50th in the country in yards per completion at 12.5, they are 11th in the country in yards per attempt.

The biggest reason for Bennett’s high completion rate is his two large tight ends that can run block and provide an automatic safety valve.

Brock Bowers is 6-4, 230 pounds and Darnell Washington is an eye-popping 6-7, 270 pounds. Respectively, they are number one and number three for Georgia in receiving yards.

Florida has struggled all year long with guarding tight ends. This isn’t new information. Part of it is because Ventrell Miller is a better run-stopper than he is in pass coverage and teams have schemed to match up one-on-one with him. Part of this is also because Florida football has played fairly static zones that opposing tight ends have been able to exploit.

Even though Georgia doesn’t have a deep threat, it has a matchup nightmare that Florida doesn’t have a great answer for even if they get Georgia to third-and-long.

The teams that have been able to slow Georgia down for at least a little bit of time, like Missouri and Auburn, we willing to get in the face of the Bulldogs and challenge Bennett to beat them with a single high safety. This is something Patrick Toney has been unwilling to do for the bulk of the season. As we know, his go-to in third-down scenarios is cover-three.

The Gators will give up 40 points and Bowers and Washington will have over 100 yards receiving each if Florida retreats into a static zone.

And that’s just by halftime.

Frankly, if Florida can get Georgia into third-and-long situations, it may want to consider having Burney and Shemar James out there and bring Miller to the sideline. Does that sound crazy? Yes. But knowing the bread and butter for Bennett is to find Bowers or Washington, Florida is dead in the water if it leaves Miller on one of those two.

Billy Napier loves to say “Scared money don’t make money.”

Florida could play man against Georgia and still give up 40 points. That is a possibility. But playing safe will ensure it.

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