Faulkner Preparing for First Road Test as Gators OC

The Florida Gators get their first taste of SEC football this season against the Auburn Tigers on Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium. It is also offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner's first road test as the Gators' playcaller.

Although Faulkner knows it will be a challenge against the Tigers on Saturday, playing in a raucous environment, he is still preparing his guys as if it is no different than the last.

“Yeah, you know, the one thing about me and the one thing about us is each week it’s the same exact preparation, right? Like we’re gonna prepare the same way every week no matter who we’re playing," Faulkner told the media.

Florida's offense has been efficient and productive in its first two games this season with Faulkner at the helm. It posted 66 against FAU in the season opener and followed that up with 52 point against Campbell.

However, a different beast awaits them when they face Auburn. Tigers defensive coordinator DJ Durkin has built a defense that limits points, applies pressure and is unpredictable, which Faulkner touched on this week.

"DJ’s done a great job everywhere he’s ever been," Faulkner said. "He’s always presenting a bunch of different looks, which makes it tough on an offense. He’s committed to stopping the run, always has been. You can see his defense’s; everywhere he’s been, they play with their hair on fire, they play fast, they play confident, so we got a great deal of respect for them."

One key unit that makes the Tiger defense dangerous is its linebackers. It starts with linebackers Elijah Melendez and Xavier Atkins. Melendez leads the SEC in tackles (18), while his running mate has started slowly this season. Still, Atkins produced 17 tackles-for-loss and nine sacks a year ago, showing his true level.

Moreover, what makes the linebackers hard to deal with is that Durkin knows where to position them and how to get the most from them on the field.

"One thing you see is you see fast, quick, explosive, twitchy, play with great pad level, run through you, and they’re confident in what they do on defense," Faulkner said about the linebackers. "It goes back to DJ. He knows what he’s doing; he knows what he wants those guys to do. You can see it. There’s an identity with what he wants them to do. They’ll be a big part of our game plan.”

It cannot all be about what the opposition is doing, though. Florida's offense also needs to control the controllables, such as communication. For the Gators' offensive line, it is an area they have struggled with in the first two games.

"Obviously, this week will be big with the crowd noise and making sure we’re all on the same page. I thought that at spots we took steps forward last week, and then I thought at another spot we took maybe a step back," he said.

That will have to be cleaned up for the game against the Tigers if they want any chance to leave the stadium on top.

Ultimately, Faulkner knows his job is to prepare his guys for the upcoming road test.

"Obviously there’s things that come with that preparation that are different than when you’re at home, you know, crowd noise," he said. "You got to practice that. So we’ll prepare them, you know, all the way up until kickoff with everything we want to be able to go do throughout the game, and that’s what they pay us to do.”

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