Florida's 48 for 2014, No. 21: "Give us 21"

Last fall, in one of the many postmortems of the 2013 Florida football season, Jonathan Bullard was quoted as saying this, in advance of the Gators' month-long search for an offensive coordinator:

"Right now, whatever they do hopefully is changed for the best," sophomore defensive end Jonathan Bullard said once the season was over. "Give us 21 [points] a game. If they can do that, then I would put the blame on us if they score 21 points or over. Hopefully change for the better, because what we're doing right now just ain't working."

It stuck with me because 21 points — three touchdowns — is a more than reasonable request in most games, even for a unit like Florida's 2013 offense.

It also stuck with me because I looked up whether Florida scoring 21 really does put the onus on its defense. And the answer is an emphatic yes: Florida is 19-1 (only loss: Louisville in the 2013 Sugar Bowl) under Will Muschamp when scoring 21 or more points, and 2-15 (only wins: LSU and Missouri in 2012) when not.

That's an insane split. It might be the killer stat of Muschamp's tenure at Florida; it's certainly dramatic enough to be. I can't imagine Muschamp doesn't know it.

And given that Duke failed to score 21 points just seven times in the last two years, it's also yet another reason I'm very excited for Kurt Roper's offense to help Muschamp's defense win games in 2014 — and maybe beyond.