2024 Game 1 Miami Hurricanes at Florida Gators Preview

operate in truth right operate in truth you know tell the [Music] truth hello everybody and welcome to the gator truth Florida football podcast I'm Daniel and on this episode we're going to take a look at the Miami Hurricanes taking a trip to Gainesville against our Florida Gators and I'll be honest this is one of the most exciting openers that we've had at home for quite a while I mean Utah was exciting two years ago with a Pack 12 champ coming in and it being coach Napier's first year but there's just something about starting week one against arriv Ral and doing so at home so definitely definitely definitely something I'm looking forward to it's going to be a great atmosphere where would ever color you want but if you're wondering the school did ask fans to wear white to the game and that's all I'm gonna say about that I know there's a debate about it I'm not entering that Fry at least not anymore uh but anyways let's go ahead and get to it uh let's take a look at Miami a little bit this will be one of our shorter previews I will be honest trying to get to some of the fun first night of college football but anyways Miami comes in brand new QB one of I believe seven new QBs at their schools that Florida will face this year they have Cam Ward who came over from from Washington State a guy who has many highs many lows he's thrown for all sorts of yards granted he's had almost 500 p attempts most seasons and um in his career cam ward has 30 interceptions but I do have to give him credit last year at Washington State he did have 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions so it 30 is a lot for a career but when you're looking at there's 23 in his first three seasons starting seven is not bad and a 25 and seven uh touchdown interception r rtio is not the worst thing there is of course the uh fact that he was playing Pack 12 defenses and not necessarily SEC defenses but there are teams he did face like a Washington team that did have pretty good defenses and heck we've got one of those safeties that he faced coming in and starting for the Gator and ASA Turner uh another interesting fact with Cam Ward is that he has 46 fumbles on his career now that's not 46 turnovers 46 fumbles loss he has recovered or someone on the team has recovered a good number of them but the fact is he does fumble if you can get to him and that's hopefully something that the gears can take advantage of which we'll talk about more when we talk about our defensive Keys another star player for the Hurricanes is wide receivers last name is rreo had almost 1100 yards last year I think it was 1080 5 to 95 somewhere like that any receiver that gets a thousand yards you do need to respect it and they're also returning another receiver who was close to a, thousand yards so this is a talented team I know they played in the ACC last year Miami seven and six including the bowl game not much better than us I mean argument could be made had they faced our schedule last year they may have been five seven as well but we'll again get to that but I do want to say despite that there is Talent on this Miami team they also have another transfer coming in on their offense starting running back Damen Martinez transferring from Oregon where last year he had he had 1185 so almost 1,200 yards rushing for the beavers and that includes a very not so great game against Oregon in the Civil War to cap off this season and we all know I mean heck we saw it last week in Dublin his quarterback was dju who is now at Florida State and dju is a very limited passer and so if you have Damen Martinez who's a pretty good running back from what we've seen didn't play against us too much in the bowl two years ago but did have a decent campaign as a secondary back for the beavers in 2022 but if you don't have that grade of a quarterback sometimes that does and actually does hurt your running backs because less of a passing threat means they can stack the Box more so 1,200 yards with dju as the quarterback is something to of note and coming over from Oregon State coming to Miami the thing we can hope for and again we'll get into this with the keys but the thing we can hope for is he's not quite acclimated to that Playbook he's not quite lated to his teammates and maybe in a place like Florida there will be miscommunication on the defense Bane uh who was a true freshman last year had a great year this is a guy who has a true freshman for all the true freshman we played on our defensive line this guy in the ACC put up seven and a half sacks two of those seven and a half were against Clemson so he did this not just feeding off of Bottom Feeders but also did well against some of the best in the ACC and definitely will be something to look out for for our our offensive line especially our tackles against him at defensive end Miami defense comes in last year 24th in the nation they were 55th in passing defense and 11th against the run so it'll be interesting to see how that works out in Gainesville but again this is one of our quicker preview episodes things that I do think are keys for the offense I do believe that the first key is to give Merz time I talked about Bane there's plenty of other Defenders that return um can't pronounce his last name he's got a brother who's on the offensive line it's like maluga um and again I probably butchered that I'm sure someone's going be in the comments this is how you pronounce it but either way linebacker was all ACC last year um multiple year starter I mean they've got plenty of guys who return on a pretty good Miami defense from last year and again there is some leaning towards competition uh in that but you got to give March time if we're gonna have any hope on offense we're going to have to be able to pass the ball because Miami's front seven is the strength of their defense so you've got to attack their weakness which is that secondary and again 55th in passing last year we want to try and take advantage of of that and get the ball you know where we can and soften up that interior of the space to create space for a running backs to get room offensive uh key number two is get the ball to Trey Wilson in space early and often and the reason we want to get Trey Wilson the ball in space is because he's quite Speedy he's quite Shifty and when we did that last year look at the first drive against Georgia he makes things happen I mean first drive against Tennessee he got the ball plenty makes things happen the thing is sometimes we get the ball I mean like last year first drive against FSU touches the ball three times the problem is sometimes we don't get on the ball too much after that first scripted drive and that's where Russ has come out he said he's a guy we're going to try and get the ball to more we're going to you know have get it two plays for Trey Wilson because again going back to that FSU game he touches it three times on the opening drive only touches the ball twice for the rest of the game and that can't happen if the Gators want success not only against Miami but in 2024 as a whole so that's why I say get on the ball in space space early and often because if he's in space he's going to make players Miss he's going to break tackles and he's going to what we talked about help open up that space for the running game granted we've got plenty of other Talent at wide receiver but guess what happens if get Trey Wilson the ball early and often well they're gonna have to double team they're gonna have to find ways to deny him the ball and that's going to open up more opportunities for the other guys on the field for an Elijah B Badger for a camir DK for an Aiden Wilson or khil Jackson or Aiden Melle sorry keep saying Wilson and it caught me there but either way you know it's gonna open up opportunities if they've got a double team if they've got to you know throw out some Zone if they don't run too much Zone you know all sorts of things and the third key I have for this offense is to get vertical last year a lot of our play were horizontal they were the jet passes behind the line lots of that the problem is if you're not doing that with depth it is not doing too much to soften that middle and other teams took advantage of that I've talked about how last year when we were in 11 personnel which is three R wide receivers our air yards were less than four yards per completion and sorry when you've got that low of an average defenses know hey we're not getting beat if you play action we know if we cheat against the run and Blitz there's a high percentage P chance that even if they do pass we're still GNA be in the way so we've got to get vertical I'm not saying we have to throw all of our plays you know throw bombs I'm saying vertical could be 10 15 yards down the field lots of intermediate routes get us that quick passing game I've been on about for years so I think Russ callway can bring to this team because you get those zero on step drops you know just say you know one yard and slant or one two steps and slant like that that's going to get Wilson the ball in space and then you're not gonna have to worry as much about Merz having time which is key number one but if you can get them time we can get those intermediate routes and kind of soften that D we can maybe take a shot or two deep and well whether they're complete or not now that's something the defense has to account for but again that all starts with getting merch time because if you're not getting merch time you're not going to have time for even the pot passes because the D will shut it down the back field you're not going to be able to run the ball because that means you're not blocking well so again for our offense the three keys are to give Merz time get Wilson the ball early and often in space and then number three is get vertical notice I didn't talk much about the running game I do want a running game to get well or do well um Montel Johnson is available for the game available I don't know exactly what that means it could mean he's ready 100% to go it may mean he's trying to play no matter what and he could be 75% and not quite the Montreal Johnson we need and that could be just fine that could not be we will see this is a Miami front definitely I think it's going to start by you know testing that front seven and making that front seven work in the passing game but we'll see how that works out for the Gator defense the three keys I have the first one is to stop the Miami running game I talked earlier Damon Damen Martinez coming in almost 1,200 yards on the ground last year with a QB like dju we can talk about it being you know in the pack pack 12 but again there are some decent defenses in the Pack 12 that he did face like Oregon in the Civil War and also he did face Washington so things that you're going going to see and you're going to want to see them do well is stop that running game they also have Mark Fletcher had some time last year and they've got an offensive line that returns a lot of guys including last year all ACC freshman I'm not going to butcher that name again he's a guy that we wanted here at Florida ended up at Miami and they returned quite a bit they do have some transfers on that line and so we're going to see what that is about but if we can stop the run game and I've talked to people not just you know talking to friends that are UF fans but talking to a buddy of mine that does a podcast for FSU he and I both said stopping that run game is the number one priority in fact you can find that if you search fourth and Florida uh on YouTube you can find the conversation about that but if you stop him now you've got a chance to let Ward show whether his passing game was competition or whether it was you know not great and he's more of the ward that through 30 ints you're going to see you know if you can stop that running game you're going to give your dline which I thing is the strength of this defense you know with guys like Dez Watson and TJ cersi and Joey slackman and all over the place you know Boon sap uh big Dez lots of people if you stop that run game now they can pin their ears back and try and make it like 2019 in the Citrus pool except for now you're in the swamp you have the crowd behind you and if you can harass Ward you can cause turnovers whether those are ints or he fumbles again 46 times in his career he's fumbled if you can harass him you have that chance to create turnovers and if you can get those turnovers Florida is going to have a very good shot at winning and then the third key and maybe this is the first key but the third one I've listed is solid tackling many times in the past and I'd like to go back to two examples of solid tackling that we failed at and it cost Florida games the first one I talk about 2022 FSU you have Jordan Travis in the backfield not once but twice on big Downs including at least one third down that I remember where if you just wrap them up tons of guys around them you wrap them up they kick a field goal may make it may miss but that's a four-point difference and that was a close game much less if they miss it then seven-point difference instead we don't tackle him he breaks Free Runs gets tackled inside the one FSU scores the touchdown and that happened twice in that game and that's a big difference in that game last year Arkansas game have KJ Jefferson in the back backfield FR Le gets to Jefferson hits him doesn't solid tackle Jefferson runs for a first down and this is on their last Drive of the game he gets that tackle it is game over so solid tackling definitely a key for this game and for the Gars to show this defense is not the defense that they've put on the field for the last few seasons and that this defense is something else and of course if you're solid tackling you're stopping the run and you're harassing cam Ward now again got to worry about rreo gotta worry about their other receivers but if you stop that run game it's going to be a lot easier to do that I do have some faith in our at least Talent on that back end whether with the new pieces they're working their best at the um whether they're working their best in cohesion that first game we will see and with that said let's talk about some intangibles the biggest and greatest intangible is the swamp I mean whether it was 2021 Alabama 2019 Auburn I heard someone talking about you know Tennessee last year 2023 it makes a difference in games yes sometimes we lose and it's hilarious when I hear people bring up well you lost to Arkansas we did but I can tell you the swamp was not the swamp that day against Arkansas heck I don't even think it filled up until halfway through the first quarter and by then we were down 14 to nothing with that said when we have Rivals when it's a big game especially it's now game one and there's been nothing but Trash Talk between the Hurricanes fan base and the Gator fan base for nine months if not longer you've got this going on it's going to be personal fans are going to be a lot more riveted than they are for a team that just got blown out by Georgia in a noon kickoff no this is 3:30 people have had time to get up get to Gainesville tailgate get prepared for the game and it's something they've been thinking about for months it's the first game of the season Hope Springs Eternal and that's where the swamp comes in that's where you know they've got inh helmet comms this year well it's G to be hard to hear those coms with 90 plus thousand people screaming it's going to hard be hard to hear the Cals when everyone is going nuts when Florida is on defense help out the defense if you're at the game with me be as loud as you can do whatever you can do to be loud and definitely this is not loud but anyways uh for those not watching I was doing the Jeff Collins and it'll forever be called The Jeff Collins on this podcast um but for those of you that love Jeff Collins he is coaching as I'm recording this at North Carolina from what I understand um anyways the swamp the biggest you know outside the field impact on this game so I think that's going to make a difference in this game I'm not going to say this is going to be a Florida blowout by any means I have gone back and forth about this game I do believe that is a must-win game that gets thrown out around a lot but as I've said on various podcast including this one it's two third-year coaches who have had the same recruiting uh environment have had the same transfer portal they could take guys from two different ways of doing things it's year three 247 Talent composite for whatever you want to make of it gives Florida slight Edge and talent over Miami it's a home game the home field advantage again the greatest and tangible this game comes down to Simply coaching if we want to talk about Talent acquisition that's a side of coaching if we want to talk about offense defense that's coaching that's what it comes down to it's not going to come down to did everyone wear white or wear blue to the swamp it's not going to come down to you know this or that it's going to come down to how' you coach did you coach with a low margin of error so that at the end of the game a kick matters did you coach with a high margin of er of hey we're going to try and score every single time we're going to be aggressive we're not going to play conservative and hope to run out the clock when we're up seven and oh no we're suddenly down as we've seen happen with both of these coaches I'm very excited for this game cannot wait to be there like I said I think it's going to be close I know some people are throwing out 42 to 17 Gators I've seen that I don't think it'll be that I would love for it to be that with that said I think we're going to see some scoring with the new clock rules I'm not quite sure how many possessions we'll get so for my official score I'm gonna throw out 2824 Gators um I don't pick against Florida and this isn't just one of those I'm not picking against Florida but I really think that the defense does improve I really think that they are facing a more talented team than lots of Gator fans want to give Miami credit for however the swamp I do think makes a difference I do think the experience of gr Ms in the system fifth year starter and also granted I say fifth year starter so but he's done that the FBS level where so is Cam Ward fifth year starting two years at FCS Incarnate Word two years at Washington State now he's coming to the loudest most aggressive Stadium he's ever been in I there's Miami fans that may see this and be like he was in odson andson one time reached the record recording well that was one small moment minute for minute it's not louder than the swamp be prepared this is gonna be a fun game Gators again I believe are going to win 2824 and with that said thank you all for listening and as always go Gators [Music] oh [Music] [Music]