Key Matchups for Florida Gators vs. Arkansas Razorbacks
The last time Florida beat Georgia (2016), they played Arkansas the following week. The Gators went to Fayetteville and were curb-stomped 31-10 to a Bret Bielema led team.
Deja Vu? Probably not, but it won’t be easy sledding for Florida when the 3-3 Razorbacks come to Gainesville.
Arkansas sits at 3-3, and very easily could be 4-2 if it had not been for a rather auspicious ending at the end of their 30-28 defeat to Auburn. They’re coming off a comeback win against Tennessee in which they overcame a 13-0 halftime deficit to beat the fledgling Vols 24-13.
Here are the matchups that’ll determine whether quarterback Feliepe Franks’ homecoming to the Swamp will be one to relish, or one to forget.
Gators linebackers/safeties vs. screen/swing passes
One of Arkansas offensive coordinator Kendall Briles' favorite plays to run are swing passes to wide receivers. The Razorbacks will motion a wide-out behind Franks at quarterback and essentially run an elongated bubble-screen to that receiver. It gets even trickier when they run a reverse motion, and have the wideout get behind Franks and then switch back to the direction they came from.
This is going to put a lot of pressure on the Gator linebackers to fill lanes on the outside, and test their ability to run sideline-to-sideline. We saw the Florida backers struggle at times versus Georgia to get to the sidelines and make an impact on plays outside the hashes.
What will help the linebackers tremendously are safeties coming down to help. Shawn Davis typically excels at coming down from his safety spot and making open-field tackles on short passes. One that stood out was a key third-down tackle he made against Georgia’s Kearis Jackson in the first quarter last Saturday that forced a UGA punt. He’ll need to be sure in his tackling in space this Saturday as well.
More traditional spot-screens will be featured by the Briles offense as well, putting even more pressure on safeties and backers to fill lanes. It will also require the likes of cornerbacks Marco Wilson, Jayden Hill, Kaiir Elam and STAR Brad Stewart Jr. to be sound in keeping outside leverage and forcing plays back inside for linebackers and safeties to clean up.
Gators cornerbacks vs. Razorbacks wide receivers
Hot take here: Arkansas has better pass catchers than Georgia does. The Razorbacks have a legitimate number one target in Treylon Burks, who has emerged as Franks’ favorite target. Burks is incredibly reliable, leading the team in every pass-catching category ( 31 catches, 461 yards, five touchdowns, 14.9 yards per catch). Burks will likely see Elam across from the majority of the time, but Hill will likely have to deal with him as well.
However, Burks isn’t the only weapon the Gator secondary needs to worry about. Mike Woods is a high-quality option on the opposite side, while slot receiver De’Vion Warren is a burner that is the exact kind of player that gives the Gators defense fits.
Playing zone coverage will probably be Florida’s best bet to defend against the passing attack Arkansas brings to the table. They like to run slants off play-action, and Arkansas has exploited man-to-man coverage with these combinations often. Having the STAR sit in that hook-curl/robber spot could be advantageous to defend against the Razorback passing game.
Florida offensive line vs. Arkansas pass rush
Arkansas doesn’t get to the quarterback much, as they only average 1.8 sacks per game. But they do like to blitz a lot and this has led to them creating 15 turnovers this season, third-most in the nation.
Florida, on the other hand, is good for about a turnover a game. They’ve fumbled three times and thrown four interceptions (although Kyle Trask has gotten lucky a few times with not throwing interceptions). How the Gator offensive line handles defensive coordinator/interim beach coach Barry Odom’s blitz packages will be vital.
Especially with the makeup of the Gator offensive line in flux after Stewart Reese suffered a shoulder injury against Georgia, and is questionable for Saturday’s game. This means we’ll likely see freshman Josh Braun or sophomore Ethan White, who hasn't played yet this season due to injury but is now healthy, get snaps at right guard.
Braun filled in for Reese versus Georgia and performed admirably. He was stout in pass protection, even as Georgia brought numerous blitzes in the second half of the game.
"The thing [Arkansas] does a great job of doing is they play with great vision on the quarterback," offensive coordinator Brian Johnson said. "They see the ball in front of them and they break and they tackle well. We have to do a good job of creating situations where we get our playmakers in space and just be really consistent in our execution."
However, if Kyle Pitts isn’t able to go as he's questionable with a concussion, who will be the safety valve for Trask when the heat is on? Trask almost always targets Pitts when under pressure, and, against Georgia, Trask did seem a bit unsure where to go with rushers in his face. Will the running backs be the outlets? Or will someone like Jacob Copeland or Justin Shorter emerge as Trask’s go-to target in a pinch?
Florida vs. the expectations
For the first time in the Dan Mullen era, Florida controls its own destiny to get to the SEC title game. All five games left on Florida’s schedule are games the Gators should win: Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee and LSU. All of these teams are .500 or worse and games the Gators will be heavily favored in.
However, as mentioned at the top of this piece, Arkansas isn’t a pushover. The last time Florida beat a top-five team under Mullen (2018 versus LSU), Florida went to Vanderbilt and went down 21-3 before eventually coming back to win the game. Not saying that will happen again, but this is a prime letdown spot for Florida.
“As a football player, you know, every week of a football season you've got to get better,” linebacker James Houston IV said. “You not getting better, that means you're getting worse, and you run the risk of ruining your season off a fluke or anything like that. So, we've got to continue to get better if we wanna make the steps needed to accomplish the goals that we want."
Mullen is 6-4 in his head coaching career in games after beating a ranked opponent, 2-1 at Florida. This is a moment for Mullen to establish consistency and that winning top-10 matchups is the norm, not the exception.
Especially against an Arkansas team that is fundamentally sound and believes they can hang with anyone on any given night.
