Teachable Moments: UF Takes Lessons Into SEC Play
Monday, September 14, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Suffice to say, the Florida Gators will come to meetings this week with their ankles taped.
Coach Jim McElwain's venting after Saturday night's 31-24 defeat of East Carolina -- not to mention a certain in-game rant that got some pretty good Internet run the past couple days -- raised the collective consciousness of the UF program with regard to how to behave during a game; not just on the field and off of it, but all the days leading up to it.
The Gators were penalized 12 times for 105 yards against the Pirates, including a pair of dead-ball infractions after touchdowns that caused McElwain to lose a gasket on the sidelines for the ESPN cameras on hand. Those “selfish” infractions (McElwain's words) especially grated on the coach because he has constantly made such penalties -- specifically, eliminating them -- a point of emphasis since his first day on a Florida practice field.
His tirade directed at tailback Kelvin Taylor, whose taunting penalty after his fourth-quarter touchdown run gave the Pirates a leg up on late-game field position and helped lead to a score, quickly became a YouTube sensation.
“Yeah and rightfully so,” McElwain said Monday. “At the same time they're lessons that even I learn. And yet, we've talked about acts that hurt the ball squad and by that 15 yards they ended up getting a heck of a return and put us in a predicament. It's one of the things that we've got to learn. Unforced errors are something that we cannot do. Really good teams, prominent programs, that doesn't happen to.”
Those words were spoken with a different measurement and demeanor than two nights earlier. After the game, McElwain said he saw the makings of a sloppy week of preparation when some 30 players showed up for position meetings last Monday without their requisite ankle-tapings done.
The week's tone had been set.
“It was the small stuff,” senior safety Marcus Maye said. “You know, guys showing up one or two minutes late, just small stuff like that. Getting taped. Just the small details he harps on.”
And when you're a detail-oriented coach, there are no "small details" when a 15-yard penalty can put a team in danger of losing a game.
Both the coaches and players hope these teachable moments are absorbed immediately and carried into the Southeastern Conference season, which commences Saturday night when the Gators (2-0, 0-0) take on Kentucky (2-0, 1-0) at sold-out and new-look Commonwealth Stadium.
UK is coming off a 26-22 road upset of South Carolina, which put an entirely different spin on the the annual meeting between two SEC East Division rivals. The Gators have won 28 straight in the series -- the nation's longest such streak of an FBS team over another dates to 1986 -- so the Wildcats and their Big Blue faithful figure to be locked and loaded for another crack at UF in the confines of their $120 million renovated ballpark.
"This team we're playing is not your same old Kentucky,” McElwain said. “These guys are really good.”
In case anyone forgot, the Wildcats of last year gave Florida fits, taking the Gators to triple-overtime at The Swamp before UF escaped with a 36-30 victory. Quarterback Patrick Towles, the 6-foot-5, 230-pound junior, passed for 369 yards and three touchdowns against that game. He's back. So is sophomore wideout Garrett Johnson, who as a true freshman ripped the Gators for six catches, 154 yards and two scores. Sophomore running back Boo Williams has eclipsed 100 yards in both games this season.
Defensively, Kentucky surrendered more than 400 yards against both Louisiana Lafayette and South Carolina, but the Cats list seven seniors and two juniors as starters on that side of the ball, with Coach Mark Stoops expected to have a solid plan to test UF's youthful quarterbacks and even younger offensive line.
As for that winning streak that is going on three decades?
“I could care less,” said UF senior offensive guard Trip Thurman, reminding everyone the Gators lost to Vanderbilt at homecoming two years ago. “You just don't roll your hat out there and expect to win. We still need to do what we need to do up front and communicate on offense. It's all about us. It's not about what they're going to do. It's about what we need to do.”
On the SEC road, that requires solid (preferably turnover-free) quarterback play. The Gators again plan to play both redshirt freshman Will Grier (74.3 percent, 317 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT) and sophomore Treon Harris (70.4 percent, 269 yards, 2 TDs). Both have started one game. Both have played essentially a half of each.
Which one gets the start in Lexington will be determined this week.
“Both had good things, both had things we need to work on,” McElwain said. “Then again, I look at it as they weren't fatal flaws. They weren't just some of those real scratch-your-head deals. I really believe we're better, and again, [this is] just another opportunity. ... As of right now, both guys did an OK job.”
Florida figures to have junior safety Keanu Neal, who sat out the first two games with a leg injury, back in the lineup, but the status of inside linebacker Alex Anzalone, the quarterback of the defense, is in doubt after he left the ECU game with a shoulder injury. Offensive tackle Martez Ivey, the heralded true freshman from Apopka, Fla., who has missed the first two games following arthroscopic knee surgery, could be available to make his college debut.
The addition of Ivey will help that inexperienced offensive line that struggled at times dealing with East Carolina's stunts on the defensive front and blitzes from both the second and third levels.
Stoops and his UK staff took note, no doubt.
“Kentucky does a really good job defensively as far as getting up there and giving you some different looks and mugging the [linebackers] up and causing you to really be on your game and showing something and bringing it differently each time,” McElwain said. “So keying the safeties and some things, we're going to have to be on that.”
On defense, they're going to have to get pressure on Towles and know where Johnson is on defense. On special teams, converting a field goal, after Austin Hardin went 0-for-2 on a pair of short ones last week, would help also. So would taking advantage of red zone scoring chances. The Gators were just 2-for-5 against the Pirates.
And they'd better start policing themselves better on the discipline front. Do it now and make it a habit.
That's what McElwain's plan was when he got here.
“He told us right away that he wasn't going to allow us to beat ourselves because we could be that good if we don't beat ourselves,” Maye said. “The less penalties we get, it's just a better chance for us winning.”
The more ankles taped on time, the better too.
