If you’re Urban Meyer, you know that the last thing that you have to worry about heading into this season is where offensive production is going to come from.
Not only do the Gators have the reigning Heisman winner in Tim Tebow, who returns his 4,181 total yards and 55 touchdowns for a run at being only the second person to win two Heismans, but there’s a whole host of offensive options, highlighted by an abundance of speed, speed, and speed.
The big name besides Tebow is junior Percy Harvin, who had 858 yards receiving, 764 yards rushing, and 10 touchdowns as a sophomore. Harvin’s currently recovering from heel surgery, but this won’t affect him from being able to terrorize SEC defenses yet again before presumably jumping ship with Tebow for the NFL, unless they’re committed to being four-year men.
Besides Harvin, Tebow doesn’t have to worry about who he’ll be throwing to, even with Andre Caldwell off to the next level. Louis Murphy had a breakout junior season, and Cornelius Ingram made a smart decision to return for his senior season. Redshirt freshman Deonte Thompson was one of the top pass-catchers in the 2007 class, and he’ll provide Tebow with another lightning-quick target.
Besides Tebow and Harvin, Meyer has the ‘problem’ of having about 25 running backs that he can shuffle in and out of the lineup from down to down. Kestahn Moore, who ran for 580 yards and six touchdowns, returns, but a lot of the talk right now is about speedster Chris Rainey, who had 75 yards rushing and a touchdown and a 65-yard touchdown catch in the spring game, along with running a 4.24 40.
Throw in USC transfer Emmanuel Moody, who will vie for a prominent role, and a healthy Mon Williams, and the Gators actually do have one question on offense on offense: Are there enough touches to go around? And this is without taking into consideration the impending arrival of running back and star sprinter Jeff Demps, who ran a 10.17 100-meter dash recently at the Florida Relays, one of the fastest times ever by a high-school sprinter.
While what projects as the nation’s #1 offense is plenty good enough to win several games, what will make the difference in whether or not Florida’s got another Capital One Bowl team on their hands or if they’re going to be a serious contender for a second national championship in three seasons depends solely on the defense.
After losing the likes of first-round picks Jarvis Moss and Reggie Nelson, and pretty much nearly all of their entire defensive starting lineup from the 2006 national championship team, there were undoubtedly going to be some bumps in the road, and there were. The defense allowed 25.5 points per game, and surrendered 30 or more points five times, including allowing 42 in a loss to Georgia and 41 in a Capital One Bowl loss to Michigan.
As explosive as the offense will be, the defense is going to have to improve, because relying on having to put up a lot of points every time out can only get you so far, especially in the SEC.
There’s plenty of talent from the front line to the secondary, but whether or not they have a legitimate chance at reaching the BCS title game in Miami depends on if that talent can produce.
The run defense was pretty good overall, allowing only 103.3 yards per game, but who can forget Knowshon Moreno’s breakout game in Jacksonville, and they also allowed 247 yards on the ground in a loss to LSU.
While the D held steady for the most part against the run, the secondary allowed 258.5 yards through the air, and while that doesn’t really make much of a difference if you’re up by four touchdowns in the second half, it cost them dearly in their bowl loss to Michigan, where Chad Henne had a career day and led the Wolverines from behind in the final minutes.
While the front seven has a lot of responsibility to ensure that the likes of Moreno and LSU’s stable of backs don’t run wild again, being able to get to the quarterback and help out in coverage makes a difference in opposing offenses racking up the yards against them. The front seven was strong last season, but it has the potential to be better this season, even without Derrick Harvey, and that’s bad news for SEC quarterbacks.
Offensive linemen won’t miss having to face Harvey, but they’re going to have to deal with Jermaine Cunningham, who had 64 tackles (12 tackles for loss) and 6.5 sacks in 2007. Expect another big year from him, but he’s not the only guy who can rack up the sacks. Justin Trattou had 6.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks as a freshman last year, and fellow soph Carlos Dunlap has a ton of potential.
Torrey Davis had two sacks in limited time as a freshman, but will be a key part of the D-line, and redshirt freshman John Brown will get a chance to show off why he was almost as highly-rated of a tackle as Davis was. After picking up those guys in the 2007 class, Meyer picked up one of the top DTs in the recent class in Omar Hunter, a former Notre Dame commit that decided to stay closer to home. That decision will pay off, as he stands to immediately be a part of the rotation in the middle.
Behind the front line, the linebacking corps will make a lot of plays, led by one of the nation’s best. Middle linebacker Brandon Spikes had a monster season last year, with 131 tackles, 16 TFL, and three fumble recoveries, and he has first-rounder and potential Butkus winner written all over him. He and Weakside linebacker Dustin Doe (85 tackles, 5 TFL, two fumble recoveries) will likely lead the team in tackles again.
A.J. Jones started nine games at strongside, and Ryan Stamper, Lorenzo Edwards, and Jerimy Finch, whose promising freshman season was ended by an injury in the Tennessee game, will fit into the equation.
The Gators also signed three of the nation’s top prep linebackers in Brendan Beal, William Green, and Lerentee McCray, and you can expect at least a couple of those guys to get early playing time.
The biggest point of interest might be the secondary, which took a really big hit after the loss of Nelson, Ryan Smith, and Reggie Lewis. After Smith (eight INTs), Nelson (six), and corner Reggie Lewis (four) led a defense that had 21 interceptions in 2006, only 11 passes were picked off last season, and no one had more than two.
That number should go up in 2008, as there’s a very talented group in the defensive backfield, led by a couple of super sophs in the secondary in corner Joe Haden (63 tackles, 3.5 TFL, INT, 12 pass breakups) and Major Wright (67 tackles, INT, 4 forced fumbles), who had impressive freshman seasons.
Junior corner Wondy Pierre-Louis could be set for a big season, and so could junior Dorian Munroe. Incoming safety Will Hill, the top-rated safety prospect in the country, should make an instant impact, and Dee Finley will also compete for early playing time at safety. Not only should the number of plays made in the secondary go up, but the number of plays allowed should go down.
So, there’s definitely not a shortage of talent on defense, as they’re loaded with elite players that have the ability to be one of the top defenses in the country. A few seasons ago, USC’s defense was in much the same position, with a plethora of talent that didn’t always translate into being able to slow teams down, but now might be more feared on defense than they are on offense.
While I don’t think that will be the case with the Gators, especially given all of the speed and production that they have on offense, their defense can be very, very good, and if that turns out to be the case, their case as a national title contender gets even better.
Many are anointing Georgia as the team to beat in the SEC - and possibly in the nation - but if Florida’s defense is as good as they can be, then their game against the Bulldogs on November 1st should be one that not only decides the SEC East, but play a role in who ends up being in Miami on January 8.
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