Florida coach Urban Meyer pointed to quarterback John Brantley’s ability to convert 3rd-and-longs against Tennessee as one of the positives to take from Saturday’s 31-17 victory.
But it’s how Brantley and the offense got in those positions that makes the coaching staff nervous.
The Gators were 6 of 10 when needing seven yards or more to move the chains on third down, something they hope to not have to repeat this weekend.
“Our first-down production, we’re off schedule too much,” offensive coordinator Steve Addazio said. “What I mean by that is, you like to have four yards, whether you run or pass is irrelevant. You like to stay on schedule, and we have to do better at that.”
Addazio elected to run 21 times on first down and throw only seven times in the same situation against the Volunteers to try to stay on that schedule.
The Gators averaged just more than four yards per first-down rush attempt, while Brantley completed only two first-down passes for 18 yards, an average of 3.8 yards per play.
Addazio said they made an effort to balance the run and pass plays on first down against South Florida the previous week but wanted to go with more under-center packages against UT because of the crowd noise in Neyland Stadium.
Pounding the ball proved more successful on first downs, but it may have tired out their best big-play maker.
The increase in first down rushes led to starting running back Jeff Demps, who is averaging 6.9 yards per carry for the season, setting a career high with 26 carries for the game.
“I think we really consciously try to watch the fatigue factor,” Addazio said of Demps, who also handles kickoff return duties.
Demps averaged 2.8 yards per carry for the game due, in part, to the bigger workload, but Addazio said Emmanuel Moody and Mike Gillislee will be counted on to take some of those carries this weekend against Kentucky.
In practice, the coaching staff is stressing starting series off with a better effort on first down so Brantley doesn’t have to convert 3rd-and-long situations as often as he did against the Volunteers.
Senior offensive lineman Carl Johnson thinks improved communication on the field will fix a lot of the first-down problems, as missed assignments and failure to line up quickly hamstrung the offense.
“We have to take more of our own leadership role,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of mistakes out there starting with the line and all the way down to the running backs. We have a lot of miscommunication out there. Our talent is only going to keep us afloat for so long.”
In the end, Johnson said he will measure the team’s success in wins, not first-down yardage. Even though the offense has struggled with consistency from quarter-to-quarter, series-to-series and even down-to-down, Johnson was encouraged by the team’s resiliency and 24-point second-half effort.
“It’s football — the ball doesn’t bounce up and down. At the end of the day, I don’t really care how the offense is per se going-going,” Johnson said. “I just want to win. Isn’t that the main objective? Because no one remembers how the offense performs when you’re holding that crystal ball.”
