Grading the Florida Gators vs. Miami (OH) game

Each week following a Florida Gators game, ONLY GATORS Get Out Alive grades the team position-by-position based on each unit’s performance. This week, we look at how the Gators fared against the Miami (OH) RedHawks in the first game of the 2010-11 season, which took place at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL.

QUARTERBACKS: C+
Starting off with perhaps the most difficult position to grade after Saturday, we have redshirt junior quarterback John Brantley, who did some things right but also had a role in a number of miscues throughout the game in regard to the team’s snapping issues. If you look strictly at his numbers, going 17-of-25 for 113 yards and two touchdowns is a pretty solid day, but a few of his incompletions were bad misses and his second touchdown was basically a wounded duck he threw up on a fourth down that was luckily brought down by redshirt junior wide receiver Chris Rainey in the end zone. Though it is tough to tell not being on the field, Brantley did not seem to show much leadership and even mishandled some bad snaps that he certainly could have corralled in. The offensive play calling did not help him either.

RUNNING BACKS: B-
Speaking of not getting a lot of help, the offensive line seemed unable to open up a single hole for the running backs at the start of the game. Aside from his 72-yard TD run, junior Jeff Demps carried the ball seven times 26 yards. The same goes for sophomore Mike Gillislee, who only notched 14 yards on five carries if you take away his 41-yard breakaway. But the truth is, both players did have those nice long runs and the rushers showed flashes as the game went on. We will also include freshman QB Trey Burton’s Wildcat snaps here, one of which went for a TD. Overall, the unit could have played better, but you have to give them some credit for putting the game out of reach.

Read the rest of Florida’s grades from the season opener after the jump…

WIDE RECEIVERS: D+
Aside from sophomore Omarius Hines, the Gators’ receivers just played downright bad. Redshir junior Deonte Thompson, trying to prove to everyone that his propensity for dropping the ball was a myth, proved his critics right once again mishandling a perfectly thrown deep touchdown toss by Brantley to start the game. Rainey was used the most out of the bunch on screen passes but managed to fumble a ball away early on. And redshirt senior Carl Moore was held catchless. Once again, the offensive play calling did not do this unit many favors – there were rarely opportunities to move the ball down field, but we have to grade the position based on what was called…and their performance was simply not very good.

TIGHT ENDS: C+
Without a single true tight end on the field Saturday, it was decently impressive what those called on to play the position were able to accomplish. Sure, Hines is WR playing the hybrid role and sure, Burton is not much of a TE after only playing the position for a few practices, but in the stead of converted redshirt freshman Jordan Reed, each performed fine in their particular assignments. With Reed coming back for the South Florida game, those who filled in will see less snaps there – which will ultimately be a good thing.

OFFENSIVE LINE: D-
Senior center Mike Pouncey delivered poor snaps 13 times, redshirt senior left guard Carl Johnson was held out of the game due to a team suspension, both starting left tackles were out with injuries and redshirt junior right guard James Wilson (who started on the left side) went down with an injury of his own. Nevertheless, with guys playing out of position and the unit being as much of a patchwork as has been seen in years at Florida, they played terrible as a group. There is a reason that senior right tackle Marcus Gilbert (who played LT Saturday), was the only one in the unit who graded out as a Champion. Aside from the two nice holes opened up at the end of the game and the decent pass blocking that Brantley received when the Gators actually decided to throw it a bit down field, no unit on the team played worse as a whole than this one. Period.

DEFENSIVE LINE: A-
The exact opposite could be said for the Gators’ defensive line, which performed admirably and at times even dominated Miami (OH). The RedHawks’ leading rusher carried the ball five times for 19 yards and the team, as a whole, was only credited with four rush yards on the game. Redshirt junior defensive tackle Jaye Howard, the Southeastern Conference Defensive Lineman of the Week, notched two sacks and five tackles. However, it was surprising to see Miami QB Zac Dysert with a good amount of time in the pocket on occasion.

LINEBACKERS: B+
No linebacker stood out more to us Saturday than sophomore Jon Bostic, who earned the starting role, was tackling all over the field and even nabbed an athletic interception at the start of the game. Redshirt freshman Jelani Jenkins, redshirt senior A.J. Jones and senior Lorenzo Edwards also played well, but none did anything that spectacular to warrant a higher grade for the unit overall.

SECONDARY: A
Junior cornerback Janoris Jenkins was beastly all game – even if you forget about his big-time 67-yard interception return for a TD. Jenkins was a tackling machine and swatted balls in a Joe Haden-like manner. Senior CB Moses Jenkins had been playing admirably until he hyperextended his elbow, an injury that brought redshirt sophomore CB Jeremy Brown (who otherwise may have sat with a sprained ankle) into the game. What did Brown do for you? He corralled an impressive interception (making sure to get his feet down in the process) to close the game. Of course there was also freshman Matt Elam, who played nickel corner rather than his natural safety position; all he did was break-up a pass in the end zone and notch four tackles.

And then there are the safeties. Senior Ahmad Black – with a team-high 12 tackles and a 40-yard interception return – was truly the leader of the unit like he had hoped to be all summer and fall. Redshirt freshman Josh Evans, filling in for suspended junior Will Hill, was not that impactful and is one of the reasons why RedHawks’ receiver Armand Robinson notched 111 yards on the Gators’ defense Saturday. Nevertheless, the unit as a whole was impressive and collected three interceptions.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B-
Return-wise, Demps and Gillislee played fine, totaling 121 yards on four Miami kickoffs. Senior Chas Henry’s one punt – a 27-yarder – was OK as well, but junior Caleb Sturgis missing his lone 44-yard field goal (badly) and shanking one of five extra points (in what was a closer game than it should have been) was simply unacceptable. A easily-forgotten punt pressure early on could have been a momentum-changer, but the Gators failed to capitalize. We decided to grade the returners out at an A, which along with the pressure on the first miffed punt, is the only thing that helped the grade here appear respectable.

COACHING: C-
Defensively, it did not look like Florida missed a beat, even after losing their defensive coordinator, secondary coach and four of their best players to the NFL. New DC Teryl Austin seemed to have the Gators primed and ready to attack, calling some nice blitzes and knowing when to throw a few extra guys in the secondary. Offensively, no one can be questioned as much as offensive coordinator Steve Addazio. Also the offensive line coach, Addazio’s position players simply did not play well – even as a patchwork unit. If Pouncey did not exhibit snapping problems in practice, then you cannot blame Addazio for that, but the rest of the group should have been better prepared at their respective positions. Play calling, while done with the input of QB coach Scot Loeffler and WR coach Zach Azzanni, is left up to Addazio in the end and it was, for lack of a better word, bland. Florida hoped to get the ball in the hands of its playmakers – that much was obvious – but seemingly refused to spread the field and give Thompson and Moore additional opportunities to catch the ball for serious chunks of yardage. Then again, perhaps some of Pouncey’s fumbles negated plays that otherwise would have gone down the field – we just don’t know. And then you have head coach Urban Meyer saying that Azzanni simply forgot to play redshirt freshman WR Andre Debose? Meyer’s depressed and enraged looks on the sideline were certainly understandable, but even after he took Brantley aside for a one-on-one talk, nothing seemed to be fixed. The Gators were lucky to get out of there alive.

OVERALL: D+
As much as you want to give Florida the benefit of the doubt about their performance Saturday, you have to look at what was actually accomplished on the field and compare that to what the team is capable of doing. There is no question that the defense played well and, without such a strong performance, there is a legitimate shot that Florida could have been upset. However, the offense’s ineptitude – Meyer called it incompetent – was the glaring problem. The Gators can and will play better this season, but it is up to them how much improvement is made before next Saturday against South Florida.