Florida’s defense walked into Saturday already carrying questions, and Missouri made sure those questions got louder fast.
The Gators had at least shown a route to keeping Missouri under control. In Missouri’s three previous games against FBS opponents this season, the Tigers had produced just four touchdowns on drives that began with a punt or kickoff. Against Florida, they matched that total and then some, scoring five touchdowns on those kinds of possessions alone.
That kind of damage doesn’t happen by accident, and the biggest culprit was Florida’s secondary. Jon Sumrall didn’t sugarcoat it afterward, either. When asked about the explosive plays the Gators surrendered, he made clear there isn’t some quick patch waiting to be applied.
“It would be a really easy fix if it was just one guy. It would be a really easy fix if it was just one thing. The problem is, right now, it's different guys wearing the hat that maybe are giving something up, and then different issues that are presenting that are really, when you're trying to maybe plug one hole, and another one opens.
And then when you're calling the game, like Coach (Brad) White, he can't protect everybody. Somebody has got to win a one on one down. Like there's 11 guys on each side, and we have to win some one-on-ones out there on the perimeter, which we are not doing enough of right now.”
That’s what makes the whole thing so unsettling for Florida: this isn’t a unit short on recruiting pedigree. The starting corners are both former top-50 overall players in their recruiting classes.
The rotation pieces at corner are highly rated four-stars, too. Even at safety, where the Gators may not have the same star power, there is experience.
And still, the results keep pointing in the same direction.
The two most troubling snaps came in the second quarter. On one, Florida was in a standard cover three, and Missouri attacked it exactly the way you’d expect a prepared offense to attack a defense it knows well. The Tigers understood White leans on cover three, so they set up a play that pulled the safety down and opened the seam behind him.
On the other touchdown, Florida had defenders eight yards off the line of scrimmage and still got beaten by five yards.
That’s where the larger issue lands. If the whole point of Brad White’s defense is to avoid explosive plays, and the defense keeps giving up explosive plays anyway, then the obvious question is what exactly the Gators are accomplishing.
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Georgia Alabama Suddenly Faces One Massive SEC Decision
The buildup to Saturdays Alabama-Georgia matchup has quickly been complicated by Tropical Storm Isaias, which has strengthened and is now forecast to become a strong Category 2 hurricane as it approaches the northern Gulf Coast. With the storm bringing the threat of strong winds, heavy rain and even tornado risks to parts of Alabama, the logistics around one of the SECs biggest games of the week have suddenly become part of the conversation.
The storms exact landfall point is still uncertain, but the forecast is serious enough that the conference could be forced to weigh whether the game needs to be postponed or moved. For now, no official announcement has been reported, leaving both programs and their fans waiting on the next update as the weather picture continues to sharpen. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Alabama Just Got A Storm Threat Fans Can't Ignore
Saturdays showdown between Georgia and Alabama already had enough weight attached to it, and now the forecast is adding another layer. A tropical system is expected to bring very wet weather to the game, though there are still no plans to push it back for now. That leaves the matchup in the same uneasy spot plenty of big SEC games have found before, where the football is scheduled to go on even as the conditions start to look less than ideal.
Georgia has lived through weather-affected battles with Alabama before, so this is not exactly a new kind of backdrop for the Bulldogs. Elijah Griffin and Peyton Woodring both framed it as part of the games physical reality, especially when the elements turn the night into more of a grind. The postponement question is still hanging out there, though, and it is one of those calls that could end up depending on local emergency management decisions rather than anything inside the stadium. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Smart Faces His Biggest Early Georgia Test Yet
Kirby Smart is heading into one of the early measuring sticks of Georgias season, and this one comes with familiar stakes. The Bulldogs travel to face Alabama in an SEC showdown between unbeaten, ranked teams, with Georgia trying to break a long drought in Tuscaloosa and prove its offense can travel as well as it has played at home. Gunner Stockton has helped give Georgia a high-scoring look, while the matchup also carries the kind of national weight that tends to follow these two programs whenever they meet.
Alabama brings its own challenge with quarterback Keelon Russell leading the way, and both coaching staffs have already acknowledged the respect and difficulty built into the game. For Georgia, it is more than another conference trip, because a win would say plenty about where Smarts team stands this early in the season. For Alabama, it is another chance to protect a home field that has been a hurdle for the Bulldogs for far too long, which is why this one feels like an early-season test with a little extra edge. [Read more 🡒]