Florida’s Defense By The Numbers

by ccmachine on Dec 9, 2008 2:32 PM CST in Football

The Florida Gators are holding their opponents to an eye popping 12.8 points per game. While the "superiority of the SEC defenses" debate rages on I don’t want to take anything away from the Gators accomplishments but I do want to take a look at the opponents that they built their stats against.

Opponent	Points Against Florida	Season Average
Hawaii	10	24.9
Miami (FL)	3	27.9
Tennessee	6	17.3
Mississippi	31	30.8
Arkansas	7	21.9
LSU	21	30.3
Kentucky	5	22.4
Georgia	10	32.1
Vanderbilt	14	19.4
South Carolina	6	21.7
Citadel	19	27.3
Florida State	15	32.7
Alabama	20	31.2

Florida’s 13 opponents in 2008 average a combined 26.14 points per game. That is a far cry from Oklahoma’s average of 54 points per game but we still need to give due credit to a Gators squad who only allowed one opponent to score more than their season average against them. On average the Gators are holding their opponents to less than half of their season average in points.

In comparing defenses it should be noted that there are only three teams in the Big 12 that have a lower scoring average than 26.14 points per game and of those three (Iowa State, Texas A&M and Colorado) only A&M (25 ppg) was on Oklahoma’s schedule. In contrast, Oklahoma’s opponents averaged 28.76 points per game which isn’t a lot higher than Florida’s opponents but it is higher. The major difference when comparing the two defenses is the in conference offenses they faced. The average points scored among Oklahoma’s nine conference opponents was 32.6 opposed to 25.2 average posted by Florida’s nine conference opponents. In fact the most potent offense that the Gators played this year was Florida State’s 32.7 points per game. Oklahoma played six conference opponents with higher averages and one with the exact same average.

However, when you look at more than just scoring defense you can see where numbers could be a little deceiving.

Gators Against The Run	YPA	Attempts Per Game	Yards Per Game	TDs
Opponents Average	3.3	31.6	105.3	9
Gators Against The Pass	YPC	Attempts Per Game	Yards Per Game	TDs
Opponents Average	10.48	31.9	174	10

To me the plan is obvious when attacking the Gators defense. You go at them through the air! Florida is very strong against the rush but when it comes to defending the pass they are in bottom half of the pack in the SEC ranking 8^th. Beyond that the Gators are allowing opposing quarterbacks a 52% completion rate.

Don’t confuse this with an attempt to discredit the Florida defense. Instead look at it as evidence that scoring against them isn’t an impossible task. Keep in mind that we are only talking stats here but if there was ever a weakness that Oklahoma was built to exploit then it would be a pass defense that is prone to the occasional breakdown.

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I didn't watch...

the entire Florida-Alabama game, but at the beginning the commentators mentioned that Julio Jones had a significant height advantage on the Florida cornerbacks, most of which are under six feet tall. I was surprised that Alabama did not attempt to exploit that advantage further. I’m not sure how many times they looked Jones’ way, but I believe he only had about 5 catches. The times I saw him get the ball, he made things happen. Also, in the Ole Miss game they gave up several big passing plays, but it appears the secondary has improved since then.

I hope that Gresham and Chaney could use their tremendous height to their advantage….especially in the red zone.

by Sooner71 on Dec 9, 2008 3:47 PM CST reply actions

I could barely watch the Florida/Alabama game

Because the commentators wouldn’t stop slurping all over Tebow.

Boomer Sooner!

Come check out FanIQ for your one stop spot for all sports

by Jubanator14 on Dec 9, 2008 3:51 PM CST up reply actions

That's true...

just get yourself ready for a lot more Tebow loving on 1/8.

by Sooner71 on Dec 10, 2008 9:01 AM CST up reply actions

the FL pass rush is supposed to be awesome.

From other boards the smack talk was that the D-ends are fast and gave Bama fits all day. I gathered Wilson got smacked around but JPW is not a great passing QB nor a scrambler. The UF peope speak highly of their LB Brandon Spikes. Anyone know the real scoop?

by scarab on Dec 9, 2008 7:51 PM CST reply actions

Brandon Spikes- Monster in the Middle

Brandon Spikes will play on Sundays.He plays with a nasty attitude and covers running backs with ease.He is the heart and soul of the UF defense.

· Bronko Nagurski Trophy Finalist

· Chuck Bednarik Award Semifinalist

· Lombardi Award Semifinalist

· Lott Trophy Quarterfinalist

· Butkus Award Watch List

by conchybong on Dec 9, 2008 8:57 PM CST reply actions

pass rush and gator numbers

the gators have a good pass rush, not the best in the league but strong. spikes will be a first round pick, perhaps the first linebacker to go. he’s probably the strongest physically, has good speed, and has real nose for the ball.

as for the gators D (“by the numbers”), that can be really deceiving considering many of the points that were given up happened toward the end games where they had a lot of the second team D in there because they were blowing out the other team. FSU, The Citdel, Bulldogs, Cocks, Vandy all come to mind.

That’s not to say that their pass D can’t be a bit soft at times, just that they were tough when needed. The gators did have the second most interceptions in the country.

by jdr24 on Dec 9, 2008 9:43 PM CST reply actions

Cotton Bowl

will be really interesting to see how Big 12 Offense and SEC defense match up.

by SoonerDutch on Dec 9, 2008 10:49 PM CST reply actions

First-team Gator Defense has given up 2 touchdowns since 10/11/2008

It’s hard to statistically break-down Florida’s offense/defense. I tried before the Alabama game, but it physically involves going to the NCAA’s website and tracking who is making the passes and/or tackles, but didn’t have enough time. I may end up doing it before the 8th of next month.

Against the Citadel this year, I can tell you which Gator defender ‘gave up’ the last touchdown in the 4th quarter (to make it 19 points). His name was Andrew Fritze. He’s a walk-on, non-scholarship defensive back. I can also tell you who gave up the 2nd-to-last touchdown (to make it 13 points): William Green, a true-freshmen DE who was playing safety in that game.

And who made the touchdown pass against the Gators in the Florida/Georgia game? It was Joe Cox and not the starter Matthew Stafford. Third-string WR Aron White beat Gator 3rd-team CB Moses Jenkins. I can literally go through each game with that and you can go on the NCAA’s website to verify by examining the play-by-play.

And if it’s like that for scoring, you can be sure that the total statistics are skewed too, everything from rushing numbers to passing numbers. So it may very well be that the Gators give up 10+ yards per catch. But it could also be that the 1st team gives up 5 yards per catch and the 2nd-3rd team gives up 15 yards per catch. There is no way of knowing by looking at the box score.

by gatorpower on Dec 9, 2008 10:59 PM CST reply actions

Yep.

Another Gators fan here and I approve of this message. I’m not sure what the specifics are, but those sound about right. As far as scouting the UF defense is concerned, they’re more of a bend-but-don’t-break unit with a knack for turnovers and even scoring TDs. If you had to choose what aspect to attack, it’d likely be the defensive backs, but your best bet is to stay balanced and pick your spots either way wisely.

And remember, just as the SEC defensive stats are deflated by the fact that SEC offenses are generally weak, Big XII offensive stats are inflated because Big XII defenses are mostly sub-par. Should be a great match-up and I agree with the poster above that mentioned that the Cotton Bowl (Ole Miss v. Texas Tech) is an interesting, though altogether unbinding, look at the battle between our conference’s strengths and yours. Hope this all helps, even if just a little bit.

Here we go again: http://thefulldeck.blogspot.com/

by ejruiz on Dec 10, 2008 6:15 AM CST up reply actions

While I have no stats to back me up

I’d flip your statement on the Big 12. I think the defenses look week, because of all the high powered offenses. With so many teams running this spread offense, and no one has yet to figure out quite how to stop it, the defenses look worse then they really are. Holding teams like Tech, and Okla. St, and even Missouri to less than 45 points is pretty good accomplishment.

Thought Clint Hurdle should be fired before it was cool.

by Redhawk on Dec 10, 2008 9:12 AM CST up reply actions

Just go to NCAA.ORG > Statistics & Records > Football

…the corollary to that statement about offenses/defenses is this. The SEC was replacing 7 QBs this year from last year, so the offenses are going to look very average against the defenses in the SEC. You can go back 10+ years and see that the SEC has averaged about 5 teams in the top-25 of total defense and the same is true this year.

But even though SEC offenses are ‘down’ this year, there are FIVE teams from that conference in the top-35 of scoring offense (Florida #3, Georgia #29, Alabama #30, Mississippi #32, LSU #34). If you look at scoring defense, you only have ONE team in the top-50 from the Big XII (Texas #20).

So while some offenses in the SEC have ‘respectable numbers’, you can not say the same about the defenses in the Big XII as only one of them can even be mistaken for having a respectable defense.

by gatorpower on Dec 10, 2008 9:45 AM CST up reply actions

Right but

if a league has a lot of offense points….the defense will be giving up points (it has to come from some where). My point is, the defenses in the Big 12 look bad, not because they are so bad…but because the offenses in the Big 12 are SO good.

To infer that the Big 12 defense are not respectable, because of all the points they give up……is looking at the wrong end of the elephant.

Take UF as an example. They are the only one running a Big 12 spread type offense (that I know of), and look at where they are offensively. If more SEC teams ran this offense, you would see lower Conf. Defensive numbers as well, same as the Big 12

Thought Clint Hurdle should be fired before it was cool.

by Redhawk on Dec 10, 2008 11:35 AM CST up reply actions

Okay, so what teams are bad in the Big XII

If you had to pick the Big XII’s worst six teams, what would they be? The teams with the worst coaches, the worst players, the worst game plans and simply put, the worst available. This has to be the case in every conference because that is just the reality of college football. There will always be a huge drop-off between the best and the worst.

And after you give me your worst-six, or better yet, just rank them from worst-to-first, we’ll grade your best teams based on their performances against the worst teams from their own conference. We should find that they are statistically immune to them, right? To say otherwise goes counter to the logic that they’re bad teams.

…average-to-bad players and average-to-bad coaches should NOT produce good numbers against teams with good players and good coaches.

by gatorpower on Dec 10, 2008 12:31 PM CST up reply actions

not sure your point.

are you saying a bad team, should never put up points against the better teams?

I hate debates where one side, doesn’t want to listen. So here’s what you want to hear: The SEC is the greatest every conference. No big 12 team could possibly hope to even be playing one of you big tough he men teams.

Blah….I just said that the big 12 defenses aren’t as bad as their numbers indicate. If they were playing in the SEC and their style of offenses (low scoring, grind it out), their scoring numbers would be better. If more teams in the SEC ran the big 12 style of offense, your defensive numbers would be less and your offensive would be more. It’s the current offense that defenses have not cought up to yet.

Your gist is…the offenses in the big 12 are only good because the defenses are bad. That’s wrong…sorry. It’s the other way around, the defenses look bad, because these spread offenses are so ahead at the moment.

Thought Clint Hurdle should be fired before it was cool.

by Redhawk on Dec 10, 2008 12:42 PM CST up reply actions

It's not the X's and O's, it's the Jesse's and Joe's.

I am listening. I am listening to you tell me how good the Big XII defenses actually are because they’re going against great ‘offenses’. Well, which offenses? Are you saying they’re ALL great? So I asked you, basically, to justify specific teams instead of just labeling every offense in the Big XII as ‘great’. Because every offense in the Big XII is not great.

IMO, the Big XII has 3 great offenses, 2 respectable offenses and 7 average-to-bad offenses. This also follows the logic that usually half the conference is going to be bad. That goes for the Big XII, the Big 10, the Pac 10, the SEC and the Mountain West.

And it pains me to have to do all the background work for literally everyone I talk to. But the SEC does not run ‘low scoring, grind-it-out games’. They haven’t done that since the ’80s.

Florida, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Mississippi and Auburn run versions of the spread offense (Mississippi runs more Nutt play-action). South Carolina runs Spurrier’s ‘Fun n Gun’ offense that was popular in the ’90s with the Gators. Arkansas, LSU, Alabama & Georgia runs a pro-style offense. Mississippi State and Tennessee are the ONLY conference teams who run a very conservative run-style offense.

Oklahoma is one of those ‘great offenses’ I mentioned earlier. They do not have to play themselves. They play four non-conference games against teams without great offenses and games against bad teams, so whatever disadvantage they got from playing a couple great offenses should have been averaged out throughout the season.

So I’ll ask you again, which teams in the Big XII would you say are NOT good?

by gatorpower on Dec 10, 2008 1:06 PM CST up reply actions

Sounds like the Gators are indeed tough with the D

I expected that. What about speed. You hear numbers like 4.5 and then its said that the D man is very fast. I always wondered if 4.5 was faster in another state than it is in a second state. I would look at the payers reaction time, and how quick they get off the snap. That would be the part that makes a player super fast. Does anyone keep that type of stat?

I would expect the Cotton Bowl to be a very good matchup with Tech having the sight edge.

by scarab on Dec 10, 2008 7:56 AM CST reply actions