The Florida Gators Can Control the Clock With RB Dameon Pierce
There are several key ingredients to creating a great offense; one needs a passing game, a rushing game, and other key pieces, along with a bit of luck. While the Florida Gators have plenty of it to go around, they have been missing one key piece: game-clock management.
Now, game-clock management can come in plenty of forms. For example, a play-caller or head coach coule get a play wrong and run the football with no timeouts left knowing the team needs to keep the clock as much as possible. Or a head coach could simply not call a timeout in a key situation. Those metrics do not apply to Florida at this time, head coach Dan Mullen has done great in those aspects.
What the Gators do need to do a better job of is controlling the football, keeping its defense off the field as much as possible for breathers and simply grinding out the clock in key situations, specifically while the team is up big in the third or fourth quarter of a game.
With that, one player Florida could lean on in this aspect is running back Dameon Pierce. Pierce, currently the team's leading rusher with 25 carries for 130 yards (5.2 yards-per-carry) and a touchdown, has proven to have the ability to be the team's bellcow, at least on first and second downs.
In Pierce, the Gators have a player who essentially can take over a game for them when they need a long sustained drive after the Florida defense has been on the field for so long. For example, in the team's Week 2 contest against the South Carolina Gamecocks, Florida controlled the football for just 23:37 while the Gamecocks controlled the football for 36:23.
In total, Florida ran just 53 plays to South Carolina's 83. Now, the game was never truely close in the end as Florida won 38-24, however, the team could have been in trouble near the end due to its inability to grind out the playclock. Luckily, South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp would do just that for them.
Down 14, South Carlona ran 18 plays taking a staggering 7:23 off of the clock, ending the drive with zero points. That is an example of poor clock management as there was only 8:11 remaining in the game.
On the flip side, Florida simply gave the South Carolina offense far too much time. The team's second-half drives, discounting the final kneel-down drive, in the contest consisted of drives of 1:33, 1:36, 1:22, 1:18 and 2:10. While the Florida offense has been the most efficient in the nation thus far this season, it isn't without its own faults.
On those remaining five drives,, the Gators had two punts, two touchdowns, and an interception.
With a power-running back like Pierce at its disposal, the Gators simply didn't use him often enough. In the first half, Pierce had six carries for 31 yards and a touchdown, while carrying the football just three times for 19 yards in the second half. Florida simply didn't use him.
Although the South Carolina game is just one example of the team's inefficiency in having sustained drives, the team has been behind the eight-ball when it comes to time of posession all season thus far. In total, the Gators average 27:30 in time of possession per game while allowing the opposing team to average 32:30 per game.
Moving forward, expect Florida to become a more-balanced offense while allowing its potent passing offense to continue to flourish. The team will be more effective down the stretch, they simply need to remember to hand the ball off at times to its bellcow in Pierce.
