Mullen Defends Florida Gators' Struggles at Right Tackle
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
For the majority of the 2020 season, Florida's offensive line has been a strong unit. As UF has gone pass-heavy from start to finish, the unit has improved from a year ago in pass protection and kept star quarterback Kyle Trask's jersey clean. The Gators have given up just ten sacks in nine games.
However, it's very noticeable that the right edge of Florida's offensive line is regularly susceptible to allowing pressure on the signal-caller. Fifth-year right tackle Jean Delance has struggled more than any other starting Gators' lineman in protecting the quarterback, by a decent amount. However, head coach Dan Mullen has no intentions of swapping Delance out for another player at this point.
“On the offensive line, we’ve had injuries," Mullen discussed after the Tennessee game on Saturday. "We’ve had problems that way, so probably not. We’re trying to get our best guys on the field."
Florida has seen starting right guard Stewart Reese miss some time this season due to a shoulder injury, however, he has since re-entered the lineup. Otherwise, the only publicly-known injury on Florida's offensive line is that of sophomore Ethan White, who had knee surgery before the season began and missed the first five games. The unit was fine without White, an interior lineman, and has started five experienced players since the season began.
Reese has right tackle experience but it's hard to imagine he's Delance's true and only backup as a starter himself, elsewhere. White doesn't have right tackle experience, so his inclusion in this wouldn't make much sense. In "garbage time", we've seen sophomore Michael Tarquin take snaps at right tackle, and backup freshman right guard Joshua Braun also has ample experience on the outside from high school.
UF would seem generally healthy enough to make a move at right tackle if Mullen so chose.
Mullen defended a sack that Delance appeared to give up against Tennessee on Saturday, elaborating on the topic as he was pressed with in-depth stats via Pro Football Focus that depicted Delance's worrisome performance on the outside.
"The hard one to me, I think our sack came on a miscommunication on the quarterback," Mullen said. "Does Pro Football Focus know what play we called and that we missed the snap count? Not to take it that way, but there are, the statistic part is great in college football and in all of football. I love the statistic part but there are also some other things that go into it that you look at."
Whether he loves them or not, Mullen doesn't want to hear your stats, no matter how damning they are. Delance has allowed four of UF's ten sacks and 34 quarterback pressures on the season, giving up pressure on 9.21% of his 369 pass-blocking snaps (PFF). For comparison, Reese and left guard Richard Gouriage have allowed the next-most at 12 apiece, at a rate of 4.08% (294 PB snaps) for Reese and 3.2% (375 PB snaps) for Gouraige.
The numbers are blatant: Florida's right tackle spot has been a liability this season.
On the sack Mullen talked about, Delance and Reese were late out of their stances, but the remainder of the offense moved off the line in sync with the ball being snapped. Reese was able to take on an interior rusher, but Delance let an edge rusher run right by his outside shoulder and smother Trask for a loss of five yards.
Perhaps miscommunication helped Tennessee force the sack, but it would appear Delance was still partially responsible and that Reese wasn't innocent either.
Florida also gave up an earlier sack to Tennessee, but it was caused by good coverage on the Vols' end rather than a protection issue for Florida.
Mullen continued post-game by saying that Florida is "always trying to have our best five on the field at the same time," on the offensive line. The media doesn't get to observe practice, so we have no clue if Delance is truly the best option or not at right tackle when UF's coaching staff puts together the starting five for the week.
But if he is, Alabama's pass rush might have some fun in the SEC Championship on Dec. 19.
