Florida football is in for a wild ride on Saturday night — and if their defense doesn’t play focused from the opening kick, this game will get ugly fast against one of the most explosive offenses in the SEC.
Ole Miss, which ranks No. 2 in total offense (behind Tennessee) in the SEC, can torch any defense that goes up against them. I mean, look at what they did against the best defense in the conference in Oklahoma. The Rebels had 431 yards on offense and put up 34 points on the scoreboard.
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They are relentless on offense, and they score quickly and often. With a snap of a finger, a team can find itself down by a couple of scores midway through the first quarter.
If the Florida Gators are looking for any chance to win this game, they need to do their best in limiting the Ole Miss offense. Obviously, it’s easier said than done, but that has to be the main priority for the Orange and Blue. And I hate to say it, but it doesn’t look very promising considering what they let a mediocre Kentucky offense do to them last week.
Kentucky put up 233 yards on the ground and averaged 5.3 yards per rush against the Gators. Of course, it didn’t help the defense that Florida constantly turned it over, but it was just an extremely poor showing against a subpar Wildcats offense.
Florida interim head coach Billy Gonzales understands that the defense needs to play a lot better against Lane Kiffin’s “explosive” offense.
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“They’re explosive,” Gonzales said during his Wednesday teleconference. “They’ve done a great job of spreading the ball. They’ve got three receivers that are pretty close in stats as far as getting the ball distributed to them and a tight end that’s right around the same number.”
Gonzales continued, “(Kiffin) does a really good job of scheming…His quarterbacks over the last couple years have always been really fantastic, and it doesn’t change this year.”
Ole Miss’ starting quarterback this season has been Trinidad Chambliss, a redshirt senior who played four years at Division II Ferris State before transferring to Oxford.
Not only can Chambliss throw, but he can do it with his legs, just like the Rebels’ previous quarterback Jaxson Dart.
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This season, Chambliss has thrown for 2,356 yards and 13 touchdowns at a 64% clip. He also had 99 carries for 434 yards and six touchdowns.
Gonzales also briefly talked about Ole Miss’ starting running back Kewan Lacy who has 200 carries for 912 yards and six touchdowns.
“They’ve got a running back that’s a 1,000-yard rusher,” Gonzales said. “And like I said, they’re extremely balanced offensively and defensively. But talking about the offensive side, they’re extremely balanced in the run game and the pass game.”
Look, I’m not going to say Florida’s going to limit the Ole Miss offense all night because chances are, that won’t happen. But again, what they can do is do their best in limiting the damage. That means DJ Lagway cannot afford to let the Rebels have extra possessions.
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Lagway needs to control the ball and Florida’s offense really can’t afford a single turnover.
When a quarterback has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns, that raises a ton of red flags.
However, Kiffin is looking past those numbers and hasn’t forgotten about what happened last year in the Swamp, when Florida essentially knocked Ole Miss out of a playoff spot.
“I do know this,” Kiffin said. “I watched the guy (Lagway) beat us last year and play great and have one of the highest yards per completion of any player in the country last year.”
Kiffin went on to say, “I know the guy can play as well as anyone in the country at times and we gotta make sure that’s not against us on Saturday night.”
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The game plan is simple: Don’t commit turnovers and have that bend, but don’t break mentality on defense.
Easier said than done, right?
Well, if Florida wants to let their fans know that they haven’t “given up” on the season just yet, they need to show some sort of spark on Saturday.
Have a bit of fight and look to play spoiler makers once again. Because like Kiffin mentioned, he definitely hasn’t forgotten about that afternoon in the Swamp a year ago.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida football needs an answer against an explosive Ole Miss offense
