Florida's gameplan for a 5-0 start has been a whole lot of dominant defense and tough running, with a touch of passing.
The Gators ran the ball 48 times for 193 yards and passed the ball 16 times for 134 yards in their 13-3 win against LSU on Saturday. The offensive results were underwhelming, but the suffocating defensive effort turned 13 points into an insurmountable deficit for the Tigers to overcome.
"The reality to me is, yes in the big scheme of things, that's our goal (to be balanced)," offensive coordinator Steve Addazio said. "But the No. 1 goal is to go win the football game. Your defense is playing their tail off and we controlled - we almost had double the time of possession that they had - and that's a team win like that.
"Now, to think that it's always going to be that way - no. No. That scenario, that day, that game, that's the way that was."
But UF has been missing offensive balance between the pass and the run in all of its Southeastern Conference matchups thus far. Florida ran the ball 52 times for 362 yards and passed the ball 16 times for 133 yards against Kentucky, and the breakdown was 44 runs for 208 yards and 19 passes for 115 yards against Tennessee.
The ratio of run plays to pass plays in the three SEC games is close to 3:1.
"Obviously, you're always striving for balance," Addazio said. "There's not a coach that wouldn't say you want to get balance, but the No. 1 thing you want to do is win. That's No. 1: Win the game. Every situation is different. We went into that game, we consciously managed that game for a host of reasons and we're going to keep doing that. Yes, in the big picture of things, you're always looking to stay as balanced as you can stay, without question. But ultimately it's real nice to be 5-0."
The Gators haven't needed to stray from their run-heavy strategy to maintain their No. 1 ranking and undefeated record. Still, coach Urban Meyer admitted there is some cause for concern about losing down the road if the team is unable to get its passing game going.
"A lot of concern. Yeah," Meyer said. "We worked awful hard at it today in practice."
Meyer said they are making a concerted effort to get the wide receivers as well as tight end Aaron Hernandez more involved. He specifically mentioned redshirt senior David Nelson, who did not catch a single ball against LSU and has logged seven catches on the season.
Addazio, however, didn't express the same concern that Meyer did in regards to the passing game, saying that he isn't worried about whether or not the Gators will be able to pass the ball when the time comes.
"Oh, we can get the passing game going. We can get the passing game going," Addazio said. "I'm not worried about the passing game. We're the No. 1 team in the conference on third-down conversions. I'm not sweating that right now."
