Gators Game Preview: Vanderbilt Has Nothing to Lose; UF Must Stay Focused
Florida Gators 56, Vanderbilt Commodores 0.
Last season when these two faced off, the Gators were coming off a heartbreaking defeat to the Georgia Bulldogs, and their focus was on bouncing back against Vanderbilt in the Swamp.
Despite a slow start for the Gators, Vanderbilt proved to be no match for Florida, who demolished the SEC East opponent as the first step en route to their Orange Bowl victory.
Not only did the UF win this ball game handily, but they produced one of their best all-around performances in 2019. Totaling 560 yards and eight touchdowns on the game, Florida showed a glimpse of the high powered offense that has run roughshod over the SEC in 2020.
However, Heisman contender Kyle Trask wants to improve off of last year's blowout and get off to a fast start against Vandy.
“Well, last year we kind of got off to a slow start against them. Now this year, we're going to be looking to obviously get to a faster start than last year,” Trask said when he spoke to media earlier in the week.
Fast forward to the coming weekend, the story has shifted from the necessity to stay afloat after dropping two of their last three to staying focused on the task at hand as they control their own destiny in the East.
“You’ve got to treat every game the same. You can’t take one team lighter than you take any other team. Everybody’s on the same scale to us. Got to practice like they’re No. 1 and go out there and handle business,” freshman safety Rashad Torrence II shared about staying motivated to play Vandy, when asked.
Fresh off a game against Arkansas in which Florida placed their highest point total of 63 onto the scoreboard since last year's meeting with Vandy, the Gators travel to Nashville, Tennessee, to take on the winless Vanderbilt Commodores in a battle of the SEC East.
Despite their lackluster record and performances as a whole on the year, what does Vanderbilt do well enough to create concerns for the Gators?
Young talent, good coaching, and nothing to lose.
Ranking 100th in total offense and 88th total defense out of 126 qualified teams, Vandy hasn’t been a difficult team to overcome for SEC teams this season.
To put it frankly, they’ve been abysmal.
Averaging just 16.8 points per game, it can be easy to look over an opponent like the Commodores in the coming weeks. Or, given the remaining opponents on Florida’s schedule, even start looking to Atlanta as the 2020 season wears down.
That, simply, cannot occur. This is as close as Florida’s going to get to a tune-up game in 2020, and they must maximize the opportunity. Utilizing it to their full advantage is paramount, but the motivation to perform must be found from within.
“They're not going to have many fans, but this whole entire season, we haven't really been used to having a lot of fans anyways, so we've been having to create our own energy for every single game. It's just going to be another week of creating our juice from the inside out,” says Trask.
Defensively, Vanderbilt allows 443 yards per game and just over 7 per play, a losing recipe against any team and especially against one of the best offensive units in all of college football.
With little expectation to stop the Gators' offense, any hope of hanging with Florida falls into the hands of their freshman quarterback offensively.
With the Gators defense withstanding its fair share of peaks and troughs through the six games this season, a drastic increase in production has occurred in the past three games, but that increase still hasn’t brought comfort to many around the program.
With the squad led by freshman quarterback Ken Seals, the Florida defense will have to endure a difficult test to handle a talented yet still developing quarterback.
Totaling 1,291 yards on 66.8% completion, eight touchdowns and an equal number of interceptions on the season, there has been evident flashes of success for Seals, but times of inexperience has played a part in his decision making.
Equipped with multiple intangibles that look to be promising for the future of the program, Seals will be called upon greatly to give the Commodores a shot at taking down the sixth-ranked team in the nation, especially if their leading rusher Keyon Henry-Brooks can’t suit up.
Under the tutelage of head coach Derek Mason—despite the Vanderbilt football program may not be producing on the field the way they may want to—there is an undeniable energy and confidence that he exudes that the entire team carries into contests on Saturday's.
No matter the record, this is still college football the land of the unexpected, and Vanderbilt has nothing to lose. As the old saying goes, no one is more dangerous than someone who has nothing to lose.
Any team on any given Saturday can produce what’s needed to take down their opponents, no matter the circumstances.
While the matchup is likely to fall in favor of the Gators simply due to the talent gap between the two squads, the Commodores putting up more points than expected and staying within the 31.5 spread is a very viable outcome.
Playing this game with something to prove and using it as an opportunity to tweak some of the issues that the team has suffered from, especially defensively, is necessary as they attempt to close out the 2020 regular season with just one loss.
