Florida football: Gators can go by ground or by air on Charlotte defense

Florida football is looking to roll their momentum from a big win over Tennessee into a dominant week four showing against the Charlotte 49ers.

While Napier has talked about how the team wasn’t handling their success very well early in the week, the accountability we’ve been seeing tells us they’ll get it fixed by this weekend.

And if Florida is locked in, the offense should look the same way they did in the second quarter against the Vols for all 60 minutes.

When they line up head to head with Charlotte’s defense, the Gators should have their pick on moving the ball by the ground or by the air.

Florida football: Not a whole lot of resistance

Starting off with the running game, where we can expect the Gators to press the advantage, Charlotte hasn’t looked too formidable up front so far.

In their week two matchup with Maryland, they allowed the Terps to run for 243 yards on 34 attempts, which is 7.1 yards per carry.

Maryland’s leading rusher, Roman Hemby, ran the ball 19 times for 162 yards and a score. I like both Trevor Etienne and Montrell Johnson over Hemby, so there’s no reason they can’t both have great games.

Now, if Florida wants to mix in the pass a fair amount, there shouldn’t be too many challenges there either.

Last week when Charlotte played Georgia State at home, the Panthers did whatever they wanted in the air.

GSU QB Darren Grainger was 27/33 for 466 yards and three touchdowns. If you allow that type of passing attack on you at home, what will you be vulnerable to on the road in the SEC?

The blueprint has been laid out over the past two weeks to shred this Charlotte defense. They don’t have a strong push up front and lack speed in the secondary.

Florida has a chance to show off this weekend and put up a lot of points as they get closer to their full SEC schedule.