Florida vs. USF, Film Room: Are the Gators ready for Alabama?

The tune-ups are over. The season begins in earnest this week. Florida is hosting the top ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, and it’s time to break out the fine china, so to speak.

Florida has been pretty vanilla schematically, I think, in the first two games. Multiple USF players were asked in the postgame media availability if Florida did anything they didn’t expect. All responded no. Linebacker Dwayne Boyles said that Florida ran pretty much all the same plays they did in Week One, with a few exceptions. Multiple players said that Florida ran their “basics.” Maybe that’s a result of breaking in new starting quarterbacks, but I would tend to think that Mullen and staff may have been saving some things.

Speaking of quarterbacks, do we have a good old fashioned controversy on our hands? From what Dan Mullen has stated publicly, the answer seems to be a resounding no, even if the numbers are saying other things. He has also said that both quarterbacks have done some great things, and some bad things. We take a look at each QB in the video below.

Defensively, Florida played a lot of guys against USF. I saw mostly backups or young guys the entire second half, but some of those same guys got in early. The defense did some nice things against the Bulls, but they also got away with some things that Alabama will punish this week. I take a closer look at those below.

After this week, we will have a much better idea about the destiny of this Gators team. It should be a great atmosphere. If you’re gonna be in attendance, start resting your voice now — and whether you’re heading to The Swamp or not, you might want to get a prayer chain going for whoever the cornerback is opposite Kaiir Elam. I have a feeling they will be seeing a lot of action on Saturday.