Thursday, October 11, 2018 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – More than 90,000 fans packed the Swamp last week for Florida's dramatic, confidence-building win over LSU.
Since the moment the Gators ran out the clock, a common question has been repeated over and over: Are the Gators back?
A victory on Saturday at Vanderbilt won't answer that question, but a loss certainly would. A better gauge to determine the speed of Florida's rise under Mullen comes Oct. 27 in Jacksonville, where the No. 14-ranked Gators are set to face No. 2 Georgia in a potential matchup to determine the Southeastern Conference East race.
In looking at the big picture of building a program, Mullen said one win doesn't change that overnight.
"I don't know that we're much ahead of where we were in the program in July," Mullen said. "Maybe, if any, we're a little. I think it's a positive buy-in from the guys that are on the team. The offseason, I think they got to see their physical gains in strength, and that builds confidence. Then they're buying into our offense, defense, special teams. Our plan to win football-wise, and they are starting to see success with that as well. So that always helps and makes the buy-in a little easier."
The Gators have won four consecutive games since a loss to Kentucky last month snapped their 31-game winning streak over the Wildcats. Historically, Florida (5-1, 3-0) has dominated Vanderbilt (3-3, 0-2) in similar fashion, winning 26 of the last 27 meetings between the schools.
What Mullen wants to see Saturday morning in Nashville -- the game kicks off at 11 a.m. locally -- is a motivated team refusing to rest on its laurels of the past few days. That's how you build a winning season, and ultimately, a winning program.
"The program's a multi-year thing," Mullen said. "We're doing solid. The guys are buying in. Our recruiting staff's working their tail off to get better players here. There's plans in place about facilities upgrades and improvements for us to get new facilities. Those are all program deals. That's a longer-term issue."
Short-term issue? Beating the Commodores.
In this week's edition of The Opening Kickoff, here is a closer look at the Florida-Vanderbilt matchup:
THREE QUESTIONS WITH … GATORS TIGHT ENDS COACH LARRY SCOTT
Q: What is your evaluation of Moral Stephens as a pass catcher?
A: Moral brings a little more of a different element because he is a little bit smoother athlete. He can run. He has good strides. He runs really well for being 6-4, 245 pounds, and has the ability to get in and out of breaks -- and doing that really well – and be on time for the quarterback. Larry Scott Q: What about Lucas Krull's retention of what he is being asked to do?
A: He is a pretty good athlete, so naturally some of these things are natural for him. It's just a progression of learning the game. When you haven't played the game at this level, especially in the SEC from the beginning or in a while, naturally it is going to take some time to pick it all up – how fast the speed of the game, all the different techniques, the protections, the route running, the details of the route running and all of those type of things. But he has done a really good job absorbing the pieces that we have been giving him little bit by little bit so it can all add up to a big picture.
Q: As for C'yontai Lewis, what is he providing to the group?
A: He has been playing a bit nicked up here, but he has been doing a good job of pushing through it. Practicing every day, never complaining and never missing a rep, leading the room and then leading the group. We just need him to continue, as he gets healthier, to keep coming along and bringing the guys along with him. Just this overall leadership and having him in the room and having him in the game, and having him in the huddle, and having him around and playing as hard as he does, it's kind of contagious. The guys feed off how hard he plays, even knowing he is a little banged up and the way he pushed himself.
THREE STORYLINES
Florida has won 13 in a row in Nashville, last losing at Vanderbilt in 1988. The Gators escaped with a 13-6 win two years ago in one of the closer games over that span. With an early kickoff time and coming off an emotional win over LSU, the Gators want to avoid a letdown heading into a bye week.
Led by senior quarterback Kyle Shurmur, Vanderbilt is averaging 398.7 yards per game, or 18.5 more than Florida on average. Ke'Shawn Vaughn (439 yards) leads the team in rushing in the Commodores' balanced attack. For a program known for its defense under fifth-year head coach Derek Mason, Florida's defense has a challenge against Shurmur and Co.
Gators head coach Dan Mullen was exuberant after the upset win over LSU, but he cautioned that for the Gators to continue to rack up wins, they must overcome a slimmer margin of error. Some of that starts with more offensive consistency, an area he hopes to see improvement in this week. The Gators punted nine times, committed 11 penalties and went 4 of 13 on third-down conversions against the Tigers.
THREE PLAYERS TO WATCH
Junior defensive end Jachai Polite is having a breakout year for the Gators with a team-high six sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss. Polite has a strong case for Florida's midseason MVP and with Vanderbilt averaging 32.3 pass attempts per game, Polite should have an opportunity to add to those numbers.
Nineteen players have caught at least one pass for the Gators, including quarterback Feleipe Franks on a trick play in last week's win over LSU. However, returning leading receiver Tyrie Cleveland has just nine catches for 96 yards through six games. Cleveland has excelled as the gunner on punt coverage, but he is due for a big catch and don't be surprised if it comes on Saturday.
Commodores junior receiver Kalija Lipscomb leads the SEC with 45 catches for 496 yards and six touchdowns. A 6-foot-1, 201-pound junior from New Orleans, Lipscomb is a player who has the attention of Florida's secondary.
THREE DIGITS
+11 –Florida's turnover margin (17 takeaways, 6 giveaways), second nationally to Kansas (+13). 4 – Forced fumbles by Gators defensive end Jachai Polite, which leads the country. . 26,110 – Average attendance at Vanderbilt Stadium in four home games this season, sparking a debate about whether the school needs to update the stadium to draw more fans.
"I got conservative. The next three possessions we seemed to be back to the wall and I got conservative, and that's a real bad combination for the offense. For the offense, you're already backed way up near your own goal-line, and now I got conservative with my play calling." – Gators head coach Dan Mullen on offensive inconsistency in LSU game
"If you don't take care of the little things, take care of your fundamentals, then really everything is a trap game, no matter who you're playing. It's not about Vandy, it's not about what they do. It's about us. If we can go out there and execute, then we'll win." – Gators center Nick Buchanan on whether Vanderbilt is a trap game
"We've got to be able to move people off the ball and knock people back more than we did. LSU is good up front, big up front, but to me our pads have to be low and we have to be able to knock people off the ball to run inside zone better than we do." – Gators offensive line coach John Hevesy
The Gators took a big leap in the Associated Press Top 25 after beating No. 5-ranked LSU at home. Florida jumped eight spots from No. 22 to 14th. That got us thinking about how the Gators have done in recent years when ranked in the top 15 nationally:
SEASON
RANKING
OPPONENT
RESULT
2015
No. 11
@Missouri
W 21-3
2015
No. 8
@LSU
L 35-28
2015
No. 11
Georgia
W 27-3
2015
No. 11
Vanderbilt
W 9-7
2015
No. 11
@South Carolina
W 24-14
2015
No. 8
Florida Atlantic
W 20-14 (OT)
2015
No. 10
Florida State
L 27-2
2016
No. 14
Georgia
W 24-10
2016
No. 10
@Arkansas
L 31-10
2016
No. 13
@Florida State
L 31-13
2016
No. 15
Alabama*
L 54-16
2018
No. 14
@Vanderbilt
TBD
*SEC Championship Game
NEWS, NOTES, NUGGETS
Florida leads the all-time series 39-10-2, including 18 wins in 26 games in Nashville. Florida has won four in a row since Vanderbilt snapped a 22-game losing streak in the series in 2013.
Gators quarterback Feleipe Franks is tied for second in the SEC in touchdown passes (13) with Jordan Ta'amu of Ole Miss behind Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa (18).
The Gators rank third nationally with 20 sacks, including 11 over the past two games. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt has allowed only six sacks through six games, third-best in the SEC.
Vanderbilt surrendered 560 yards of total offense to No. 2-ranked Georgia in last week's 41-13 loss in Athens. The game turned early in the second quarter when the Commodores, trailing 7-3, failed to convert a fourth-and-1 at Georgia's 14 early in the second quarter.
Gators junior defensive end Jabari Zuniga, who is second on the team with 4.5 sacks, has three career games with two or more sacks. Zuniga and former UF defensive end Alex McCalister are the only Gators to accomplish the feat since 2010.
In the only meeting between head coaches Dan Mullen and Derek Mason, Mullen's No. 4-ranked Mississippi State team defeated Mason's Vanderbilt team 51-0 in 2014, Mason's first season in charge of the Commodores.
Junior Jordan Scarlettcarried 14 times for 65 yards in the victory against LSU to overtake freshman Dameon Pierce as the Gators' leading rusher on the season. Scarlett 268 yards on 54 carries.
Junior running back Lamical Perine, who rushed for a season-high 85 yards and two scores against LSU, scored a career-high three touchdowns in last season's 38-24 win over Vanderbilt.
The Gators have scored 204 points through six games -- or just 39 less than all of last season. Florida is one of eight FBS schools to already surpass its win total from a season ago, joining Cincinnati, Hawaii, Illinois, Charlotte, Baylor, Georgia Southern and Kansas.
Vanderbilt senior linebacker Jordan Griffin had a team-high nine tackles against Georgia and leads the team with 50 on the season. Griffin ranks fourth in the SEC with an average of 8.3 tackles per game.
THE OTHER SIDE
Vanderbilt senior quarterback Kyle Shurmur threw for 264 yards and three touchdowns last year against the Gators, a 38-24 Commodores loss at the Swamp.
Shurmur continues to move up the school's all-time passing charts, surpassing 7,000 career yards in the Commodores' loss at No. 2-ranked Georgia a week ago. Shurmur (7,135 yards) trails only Greg Zolman (7,981) and Jay Cutler (8,697) on Vanderbilt's career passing list. His 49 touchdown throws are second all-time to Cutler's 59.
Meanwhile, Shurmur is expected to have a special fan in attendance at Saturday's game: his father, Pat, head coach of the New York Giants. The Giants play on Thursday night, opening Saturday as a rare opportunity for Pat Shurmur to watch Kyle play in person.
Shurmur ranks in the top half of the SEC in passing at midseason:
The Gators go back on the road after their biggest home win in years. Still, whenever Florida plays at Vanderbilt, a large contingent of homegrown fans make the trip to Nashville. The Commodores played Notre Dame tough but have lost to South Carolina and Georgia by wide margins. Vanderbilt often plays the Gators tough and that is likely to continue with the 11 a.m. (noon ET) local start. Winners of four in a row and starting to get some national attention, the Gators won't slip up. They win and head into the bye week – and then Georgia week – with visions of a special finish to the season.
