Florida enters Saturday as the favorite against Ole Miss, which may be a bit of a surprise for those looking in from the outside. But if we are being honest, and this may be drinking a bit of the Jon Sumrall Kool-Aid, Florida as the favorite isn’t that wild.
But we will be the first to admit that the Gators do need a handful of players to step up in order to get over the finish line in The Swamp.
Five Florida players who need to step up against Ole Miss
Ben Hanks III
Coming into the year, we thought the cornerbacks would be solid enough. After all, on paper, the Gators had two borderline five-stars slated to be starters. Cormani McClain has had his struggles too, but he did have an interception against Auburn.
Ben Hanks III, though, has been a bit of a letdown. He had the one pass break up early in the game against FAU, but that has turned out to be the only one of the season so far. He has been targeted 20 times with 13 receptions, and he has two missed tackles.
Part of the struggle has been the scheme of Brad White having him off the ball to allow players to run a simple comback underneath, but even with that we haven’t seen enough of the flash that made Hanks a borderline five-star out of high school.
Emeka Ugorji
The offensive line has been better than advertised to this point, and Aaron Philo has been kept mostly upright so far. Through three games, Philo and Tramell Jones have been hit just four times.
That’s the good news.
This unit has had some of its flaws in the run game covered up because Jadan Baugh has been that good, but there is plenty of room for improvement. Right tackle Emeka Ugorji in particular could offer a bit more push to open up those lanes for Baugh.
Myles Graham
For all the focus on the secondary of the defense being a problem, and frankly for the attention that has been cast on the defensive line, Myles Graham has been pretty quiet through three games.
After 10 tackles against FAU, Graham had just four against Auburn. And when one watches back the Auburn game, there were moments where it felt like he could have made a play and we just didn’t see the normal burst to the ball that we are used to seeing.
He isn’t listed on the injury report, but if he has another down game, we can’t help but wonder if something is going on.
Bailey Stockton
Now, before you start taking a screenshot and go running to social media how Hail Florida Hail doesn’t know ball, let us clarify why he is one this list.
As a blocker and a member of special teams, Bailey Stockton is top-tier. And if you go back through our content, we have made sure to highlight Stockton as a plus player for the Gators.
What we would like to see is for Stockton to be a bit more of a receiving threat out of the slot, especially if he needs to continue to fill in for Eric Singleton Jr. Through three games, he has nine catches for 73 yards. Of receivers around the country with at least 10 targets, his yards per route run of 1.46 is 247th out of 334 eligible players.
Again, he does a ton of things right off the ball. We just want to see him more with the ball.
LJ McCray
It feels like the writing might be on the wall for the former five-star. He does have five QB pressures and a sack this year, so it’s not all gloom and doom for LJ McCray. But for all the offseason talk about how McCray was taking a leap and rounding into form, we just haven’t seen that “it” moment out of him through three games.
And now, with Emmanuel Oyebadejo starting to shoot up the depth chart, one has to wonder how much of a shot McCray is getting moving forward.
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