Jackie Sherrill - 5 Insights for A&M to Beat UF

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1. Play physical.
Florida is trying to find a quarterback, the coaches want Jeff Driskel and the fans want Jacoby Brissett.

Also, coach Will Muschamp is trying to convert Florida from a finesse team to a physical one by establishing the running game. If you look at the statistics from last week’s game against Bowling Green, they ran for 220 yards on 42 rushes. They had 63 snaps, only 21 of them passes. So it’s basically flip-flopped from what Florida has been.

2. Stop the run.
Muschamp wants to run the ball. Running back Mike Gillislee had 148 yards, but he had 24 carries. So he touched the ball more than they threw the ball. Our defense will be helped by the crowd, because Kyle Field will be as loud as

any stadium Florida has played in. They are not real confident with the quarterback, so they will want to put the ball in Gillislee’s hands and try to beat us running the ball.

3. Be able to run the football.

We have to control Florida’s speed by running the ball. Bowling Green ran the ball 27 times for 101 yards, which is 3.7 yards per carry. But Bowling Green doesn’t have the offensive line or the running backs that we have.

4. Win the kicking game.
Florida’s Andre Debose returned three punts for 45 yards, and he had a kickoff return for 38 yards. Gillislee also returns

kickoffs, so their return game is good. We have to keep the ball way from Debose and Gillislee.

Now Florida did not punt the ball very well. The Gators averaged only 33.8 yards. And their kickoff man, Caleb Sturgis, put only three of six into the end zone. So we should be able to offset their strengths, but we can’t punt the ball to

Debose. We just have to keep it out of Debose’s hands.

5. Don’t give the game away with fumbles, interceptions or silly penalties.

We can’t give up field position, and we have to keep the chains going on third down. Florida was only five of 16 on third downs last week.

We need to do these five things to win, because we’ll see the fastest football team we’ll see all year this week. Florida has always had track guys who played football, even back when I played, Florida was the fastest team in the SEC.

Jackie Sherrill coached at Texas A&M from 1982-88, going 52-28-1 and winning three Southwest Conference championships. He also coached at Washington State, Pittsburgh and Mississippi State, going 180-120-4 overall in 25 seasons. He played at Alabama from 1962-65 under Paul “Bear” Bryant, helping the Crimson Tide win two national championships.

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