Trending Upward: Gators Seek to Stay the Course with South Carolina Looming
Monday, November 10, 2014 | Football, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- During his 27 minutes Monday with the media, Florida coach Will Muschamp got 26 questions. Three of them were about Leon Orr, the senior defensive tackle who quit the team and kicked up some headlines Saturday mere hours before the Gators played Vanderbilt.
Total number of words Muschamp devoted to reiterating Orr's situation was unchanged: five.
Clearly, the coach had zero interest in wasting time on a topic -- a former player who deserted his teammates on game day -- that had zero impact on the positive direction the Gators appear headed following a second straight Southeastern Conference victory behind Treon Harris, its new true freshman starting quarterback, and a ball-hawking defense that forced four turnovers and put constant pressure on the opposing quarterback.
Early in the game, Harris got popped pretty good on a failed third-down play and was slow to get up. As Harris made his way toward the bench, Muschamp went to the QB and asked if he was OK.
“Go worry about someone else,” Harris said. “I'm fine.”
That kind of toughness, combined with more productive and error-free play, have the Gators in a completely different place mentally than where the team was just weeks ago. And the attitude seems to be contagious.
“Very proud of the offense," Muschamp said of a unit that posted its second straight 400-yard effort in Saturday night's 34-10 defeat of the Commodores and has only turned the ball once in two games with Harris at the helm. “He's doing a great job of taking care of the ball, converting third downs, taking the ball to the right spots. I'm really proud of him; very efficient throwing the football.”
Quite a statement, that last one, considering the week before Harris threw just six passes in a 38-20 wipeout of rival Georgia that was fueled by a devastating rushing attack. Harris went 13-of-21 for 215 yards at Vandy and netted 10 first downs through the air, as UF offensive coordinator Kurt Roper made good on his vow to put a little more on Harris' passing-game plate.
Look for even more this week when the Gators (5-3, 4-3) welcome Steve Spurrier and the struggling South Carolina Gamecocks (4-5, 2-5) Saturday at noon in The Swamp, where they'll seek a sixth victory that would make UF bowl-eligible a year after missing the postseason for the first time since 1990. Florida can also remain alive in the SEC Eastern Division race with a win, pending results elsewhere on their side of the league.
One of the themes this week, Muschamp said, will be treating the UF home crowd to something it has not experienced since early in the season: a home victory. The Gators defeated Eastern Michigan and Kentucky to open the season in September, but in the last two home games Florida lost on a last-second field goal to LSU and were trounced on homecoming by SEC East front-runner Missouri.
Time to retake the home field.
“We're all about that and our fans do deserve something to cheer for in The Swamp. We've got to defend it," senior center Max Garcia said. “Especially me, being a senior, only being able to run out of that tunnel two more times. We know time's running out and we only get so many opportunities. I feel like we're going to go out there and just love to play the game with each other.”
Add Garcia to the checklist of positive things happening within the program right now.
Muschamp said Garcia, who was moved inside from guard last spring, is playing as well as any center in the country. Against the Commodores, he was the man in the middle of an offensive line that Muschamp referred to after the game as “makeshift."
Not only did it start without right guard Trenton Brown -- he missed the game with a sore knee but could be back this week -- the offensive line had to shuffle pieces due to injuries to tackles Chaz Green and Rod Johnson, plus guard Tyler Moore.
Example: At one point, the unit was so thin, offensive line coach Mike Summers ordered junior tackle D.J. Humphries to play guard for the first time since he was in high school.
“When everybody started going down, Coach Summers was saying, 'OK, this is where we see how tough we are,' and told me I had to play guard,” Humphries said after the game. “I told him I'd never played guard [in college]. He said, 'So what?' When you have that sense of urgency coming from your coach, you just want to keep it moving.”
Garcia knows about versatility, having played all five line positions since transferring from Maryland. He believes his colleagues can do so, too.
"That's huge for Chaz to be able to move inside, for D.J. to be able to move inside, just to be confident in what they're doing,” Garcia said. “Obviously it's not their position, but we're just going to have to do what we have to do to make it work."
Such will be the case again this week against the Gamecocks, as the Gators figure to open up even more of the playbook for Harris. Like the last two weeks, the Gators better plan on scoring some points. South Carolina may be struggling when it comes to winning football games, but the Gamecocks still rank fifth in the league in both total offense (479.6 yards) and scoring (35.9 points per game). They will move the ball.
Muschamp, as he often does, praised Spurrier for the way the iconic former Gators coach -- the one with “the statue out in front of here” -- has treated him.
“He's a fun guy to be around. He's an outstanding football coach. He's a Hall-of-Fame player and coach,” Muschamp said. “He's been very supportive of me since I've been here [and] gone out of his way to support me. I really appreciate that.”
Still, he'd like nothing better than to beat the guy with the statue Saturday and keep this good stuff going for another week.
