Florida Football takes on Tulane today in the Gasparilla Bowl. The Gators are favored by 10.5 points and most expect that Florida should be able to take care of business.
As we chronicled yesterday, a win against Tulane isn't some magic springboard into the offseason, but there are three oddly specific things we would like to see to help lay the foundation for 2025.
LJ McCray gets one sack
With the departure of T.J. Searcy and Jack Pyburn to the transfer portal, Florida is going to need to lean on LJ McCray to step up in 2025. The five-star freshman played 148 snaps in 2024 and had one sack to go along with five hurries on the year.
McCray did get an extended run against FSU with 21 snaps and had two of his QB hurries against the Seminoles.
Presumably, McCray should get some extended snaps today, and it would be nice to get him a spark heading into 2025 if he could get a sack today.
Offensive line gives up six or fewer pressures
One of the subplots of the turnaround for the Gators has been the improved play of the offensive line, and in 2025, the Gators are returning four of their five starters from this season.
But the unit has been far from perfect, and against FSU, they gave up 11 pressures. Against Ole Miss it was ten. Those were two of the higher pressure rates of the year that were masked by the play of DJ Lagway, and the goal should be to get that number under six.
DJ Lagway 55% on throws between 10-19 yards
We all know DJ Lagway can throw a deep ball as well as anyone in the country. Lagway has a 60% completion rate on throws over 20 yards, and has a 70% completion rate on throws under 10 yards.
But for whatever reason, intermediate throws have been a struggle for Lagway. He is 43% on throws between 10-19 yards. Of QBs with at least 40 attempts in this range, he is 114th in the country on intermediate throws.
To reach his full potential, he needs to be above 60% in this category, but a 55% rate today would be a good start.