Urban Meyer is all about fast. He talks about speed as if he were a sprint coach in track as opposed to a head football coach. He has stated umpteen times how he wants to sport the fastest team in America, and believes it to be the key ingredient to building a consistent winner in the SEC.
Shrinking the big picture into the little picture, namely Saturday night at a potentially soggy Tiger Stadium (would a rain game hurt or help the Gators?), speed will be the name of the game. Not necessarily in matching athlete for athlete with LSU, but more about playing fast. Or to be totally accurate, starting fast.
The Gators have to come out of the gates swinging and clicking, performing as crisply and sharply as they have at any time this season. I'm generally not a believer that games are won and lost in the opening 10 minutes – after all, there's another 50 to follow. But for many reasons, a strong start for the Gators is imperative against the top-ranked Tigers.
Unfortunately, that's not been the pattern for the Florida offense since SEC play began this season. In three SEC games, the Gators have opened with a pair of three-and-out series on offense, scoring one offensive touchdown in the first quarter against Tennessee, Ole Miss and Auburn.
Meyer has stated flatly that with the new kickoff rules in place, he would take the ball at the outset of the game rather than defer to the second half, if Florida wins the toss. He would always defer in the past, wanting the ball to start the second half, even though Florida had next to no success on the opening possession of the third quarter last season.
Now he wants the ball (not sure the five yards makes that much of a difference, but oh well), and in his words, "Get it and go." Only problem is, the Gators aren't going anywhere to start the game. Last week was a perfect example.
Brandon James makes a healthy return of the opening kickoff to the 43-yard line. The crowd is revved up. But the Gators did not take advantage. A Tim Tebow run up the middle followed by a Kestahn Moore run up the middle followed by a Carlton Medder false start and what do you know, it's third-and-10 and eventually a quick punt. And we all know what happened next, when the defense recorded its own three-and-out, only to have Jamar Hornsby run into the punter, prolonging a possession that wound up as an 86-yard touchdown march. It was an opening that would serve to set the tone for the rest of the night for the Gators.
The Gators need to establish a much different tone on the road tomorrow night. While road teams have had tremendous success in this league (a 24-23 record last year, off to an 8-6 start this time around), Meyer's Gator teams have not been great away from The Swamp.
In year one, there was an easy stroll against Kentucky followed by stinkers in losses to Alabama, LSU and South Carolina. Last season, there was a critical come-from-behind win at Tennessee in which the Gators mounted an impressive comeback but did not play particularly well the entire night, followed by less-than-impressive wins over Vanderbilt and Florida State, not to mention the setback at Auburn. And then there was the escape at lowly Ole Miss two weeks ago.
We are not sure about the makeup of this team yet. Last year's veteran team became masterful at handling adversity – Florida trailed at some point in the game nine times out of 14 last season. With a young club, that is not the advisable method to travel in Tiger Stadium.
There's no doubt the Gators will have to be clicking on all cylinders tomorrow night and turn in a premium performance to knock off the Tigers. But we'll know in the first 10 minutes – the Gators can simply not afford another sluggish start and expect to knock off this week's No. 1.
GRAND HIGH EXALTED MYSTIC RULER
The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler (GHEMR) is the player on Florida's team who deserves notice above all others for his play in the previous game. And my selection of the GHEMR is totally subjective – feel free to offer your own.
For week five, we're going to go with a guy who is slowly becoming the glue of Florida's young defense, sophomore middle linebacker Brandon Spikes. Spikes is simply all over the field and had a stellar outing against the Tigers, credited with 10 tackles including 3.5 tackles for losses and a half-sack. He is disruptive in the run game and has become one of the rocks of the defense. At a tender age, having been on campus barely more than a year, our GHEMR Spikes is already one of the acknowledged leaders of the team.
STOCK UP
Ah, the rising fluctuation of the Gator stock market, identifying players who are moving up or down based on the past week's outing. On offense, it's tough to find a lot of folks who fit the bill. It was clearly Florida's most disappointing performance of the season offensively, mustering just 312 yards of offense and 17 points, including being shut out in the first half for the first time in 15 years. Since none of the main guys stood out, we'll give a nod to a local guy who has just quietly done his job as a blocker, senior fullback Eric Rutledge. Why not?
On defense, we're going to give some props to a player we frankly never thought had much promise, junior defensive tackle Javier Estopinan. Recruited to Florida as a linebacker, he quickly out-grew the position but is kind of a 'tweener, not really big enough to play defensive tackle. But that's where he is and he had probably his best night as a Gator, standing tall against the inside Auburn running game, registering five tackles and 1.5 for losses.
STOCK DOWN
Perhaps it's a little unfair to single out one guy, because more than any other unit, the offensive line performs collectively and not individually, but as the face of the line and the apex of the offense, senior center Drew Miller draws the most attention. And as the leader of a line that really struggled against Auburn's tough defensive front, Miler will stand in as the representative of an O-Line that had a rough night.
On defense, we're going to give it to senior strong safety Tony Joiner, more for what happened since the game ended than for anything last Saturday night. We all know Joiner's deal, and whether it's small stuff or not, he should not have put himself in that position, therefore jeopardizing his ability to play and subsequently hurting the team on the eve of the most important game of the season.
AROUND THE SEC
Business picks up this week in the league after a relatively ho-hum week slate of games, Auburn's upset over Florida notwithstanding. You've got three sweet matchups this week, last night's Kentucky-South Carolina tilt, plus Saturday's showdowns – Georgia at Tennessee and Florida at LSU. Elsewhere, it's Auburn avoiding the trap against Vanderbilt, Arkansas playing another pitiful non-conference game against Chattanooga (the Razorbacks also have North Texas and FIU on the platter), and Alabama (Houston), Ole Miss (La. Tech) and Mississippi State (UAB) all handling cream puffs.
The Georgia–Tennessee contest shapes up to be an elimination affair – with each team suffering from one league loss to an East foe, a second loss within the division will be curtains. Certainly Phil Fulmer has to be feeling the heat in Knoxville – the denizens can't be happy with the direction of a program which hasn't played in a BCS bowl game since '99 and won't this season either. With the heat on the Vols, I like the Dawgs, who have played quite well on the road.
MARTY LIKES
OK, we continue to struggle as college football experiences one of its most unpredictable opening months in recent memory. Last year's .600 record against the spread is in the rear view mirror – we're hoping just to stay above water at .500. After a 1-2 week (winning with Troy covering against Louisiana-Monroe but failing with Miami not covering over Duke and Texas to ahem, not covering, over Kansas State), the season ledger is now 7-8. On to better days. Here are this week's picks:
1) Ball State minus-13 over Central Michigan: Ball State appears to be the class of the MAC and is averaging 40 points a game in its last four games, including the 41-40 loss at Nebraska. Central Michigan has given up 44 or more points in three of its five games, including a 30-point home loss to Division I-AA North Dakota State.
2) Troy minus 19.5 over Florida International: We'll try and ride this train one more time. Troy appears to be the class of the Sun Belt and is benefiting from playing its third straight winless team after beating Louisiana-Lafayette and Monroe. In five games, FIU has been outscored 210-28 and is coming off a 47-6 drubbing by previously winless Middle Tennessee.
3) Southern Cal minus-38 over Stanford: I know it's a lot of points, but Stanford is awful. This will be the Cardinal's first road game and in three home defeats to Pac-10 teams (UCLA, Oregon and Arizona State), they've been outscored 141-51. Southern Cal has not looked great, but has a chance to fatten up during the next three weeks against Stanford, Arizona and Notre Dame before hitting the meat of the schedule (road games at Oregon, Cal and Arizona State then UCLA) down the stretch.
Also under consideration were Ohio State minus-7 at Purdue, Ole Miss minus-13 over La. Tech and Boise State minus-23 over New Mexico State on Sunday night.