Game 7 Discussion Thread: Florida @ South Carolina (Saturday October 14, 2023) @3:30pm EST

Go Gators!

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This is the make or break game.

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If we can win, we'll probably make a bowl.

If not...

I am going to hate myself for this, but I am relatively optimistic. I think our d-line has been getting better at rushing the passer, and if we can pressure Rattler I think we might be able to force some turnovers. I am worried about explosive plays against our corners though. It doesn't seem like they have a Ray Davis who can really hurt us on the ground.

Hopefully we can establish the run against them on offense. If we can stretch the field horizontally (I have given up hope on stretching the field vertically) with EW3 on those end arounds, I think we can pound the rock and keep their offense off the field and hopefully keep their crowd out of the game.

The biggest reason I am not getting overly optimistic is our issues on the road though. Our guys will need to step up in a situation where they have not been able to yet.

Getting married here in Columbia on Friday.

Will wear my Florida hoodie Saturday.


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I hope our D Line plays to its potential. If it does, I think we could pull it off.

But it's on the road. So I'm not getting my hopes up that they will, until they prove otherwise.

USCe offensive line has been terrible. If Spencer had a better team around him as good as he has played this year. But they had 2 weeks to put 9 in the box and make Mertz beat them will see if Florida can get pressure on Rattler and make him make some mistakes throwing down field.

This is a must win road game period. 5- 2 going into the most difficult part of our schedule is a must if this team wants to go Bowling.if somehow this team gets to 7 possibly 8 wins then that will be big going into next year because our schedule is brutal across the board next year. It's really crazy to me that our schedule next year is what it will be just a nightmare.

A very big game for Florida. SC hasn't looked too good this season but Rattler can create some scoring in games he isn't getting sacked like crazy. SC gives up the most sacks in all of the FBS - 5 1/2 sacks per game they average giving up in their FBS games. Florida is only # 106 in getting sacks against FBS teams though. Florida has only 7 sacks this year against FBS teams and 6 of the 7 sacks came against Charlotte (4) and Vandy (2). We only have 1 sack (TN) against the 3 good teams we have played this season. Our pass rushing specialist Princely has a grand total of 1 sack against FBS schools and that was against Charlotte. His other sack came against FCS McNeese. On paper not looking at our poor success at getting sacks you would think our defense would have a huge advantage in this game with SC having a poor running game and being unable to give their QB much time to pass but if we don't get Rattler on the ground he can get the ball down the field.

As far as our passing game against the SC defense its hard to say as they have a pretty weak defense but how effective will our line of scrimmage passing game be against that defense. It was pointed out by @finchmeister08 that we had a grand total of "28 air yards" against Vandy despite the decent passing yardage. Air yards are how far the ball travels past the line of scrimmage when the receiver catches it minus the yards of passes caught behind the line of scrimmage. So our completed passes averaged traveling less than 1 yard beyond the line of scrimmage when caught by the pass catchers. Our jet sweep attempts affect this number some but it still shows how close to the line our passing game is overall. SC looks pretty bad at times so maybe that can work against them but I highly doubt its too effective against remaining teams on the schedule that can score quite a bit.

Is this the first time Brown is officially listed over Miller.

Need to get Douglas back. Not sure why Etienne hasn’t been named starter at this point. I feel like he’s being drastically underused. Get him reps at WR for all I care, just get him playing time.