Florida Football: Why are the Gators so bad at 3rd down?

Last season, the defense for Florida football was one of the worst in the nation when it came to stopping teams on third down. The problems were so profound and glaring that it was hard to have faith, no matter the situation.

This season, the defense is much improved and is capable of getting consistent stops. The problem is that what plagued the defense last season seems to have manifested itself and transferred over to the offense in 2023.

Why is this the case?

Florida Football: Third and who cares

Here is a not fun stat. The Florida Gators have only converted 32% of their third down opportunities on offense. That’s 116th in the country out of 130 teams.

If you remove the McNeese State game and only compare FBS vs. FBS games across the country, Florida has only converted 26% of its third downs. That’s 8th worst in the country.

The simple answer is that Billy Napier doesn’t run creative routes that make the defense feel threatened, thus inviting them to load up the box to stop the run.

The deeper problem is that despite these loaded boxes, Napier still runs the ball and then has a shocked Pikachu face when it is stopped.

Again, taking out the McNeese State game, Florida is 13 of 49 on third-down conversions. Of the 36 failed third down conversions, only six have come from an incomplete pass.

This means that 61% of Florida’s third-down attempts have either been stuffed on a run, sacked, or thrown a complete pass short of the first-down marker.

Three times Florida has been sacked, nine times Florida has completed a pass but it has been short of the first down marker, and 18 times they have been stopped on a run.

It doesn’t help that Florida has been placed into some tough third-down situations due to penalties and/or sacks. As a reminder, Florida has been sacked on 9.02% of their passing attempts, bottom 30 in the country.

But Napier’s conservative playcalling is giving Florida football next to no shot of converting these moments to keep the ball moving.

Think of it this way: Of the 49 third-down attempts, only seven have been converted via a pass. Combined with the aforementioned six incompletions, this means on only 13 of Florida’s 49 third down attempts, the Gators even attempted to throw a ball that, if caught, would result in a first down.

There are pros and cons to timid playcalling. Against Tennessee, Napier trusted his defense and was correct in the end to bleed out as much clock as he could. But against Utah and Kentucky, the lack of urgency to try to do anything to get back in the game was frustrating to see.

In time, Napier is going to have to take some chances as he goes up against the meat of the schedule during the back half of the season.