ONE MORE CHANCE: With Mertz injured, Florida turns to Max Brown against FSU

it is winning season at my bookie use promo code Gators on a deposit of $50 or more and you can receive up to $200 in cash instantly to your mybookie account hey that's not much longer to bet on college football so join in now bet any bet anything anytime anywhere at my bookie Gator breakdown because there's never a dull moment in Gator Nation the gator breakdown podcast is ready to go I'm your host David Waters you can find me on social media at Gator Dave and at Gator breakdown here we are Monday night Edition ahead of Florida State and joining me tonight hey that's is not will miles that is Seth Vador joining me right here on Gator breakdown will is in Florida I'll actually see will in person Saturday for the Florida State game but he's in in the state visiting family so um we got Seth here like we have a couple times this year and always bringing it and his latest at Gator breakdown. comom basically saying Florida's got to become a winning team a losing team right now we'll get into a little bit of that as well but Seth and I were joking before we came on here there might be some good news for Florida this weekend Seth we got there's a couple I just thought of another we got a couple good Trends in Florida's favor here uh the first one is also cover USF so um sometimes I'm at a game for USF and and can't put my full attention on the Florida game because they're at the same time and I I think Florida's won every game I haven't been able to watch in full and they've lost everyone I've been able to watch in full so uh that might be an issue and then the other Trend I just thought of I think I came on before the Tennessee game by myself so undefeated hey we gon keep the trend going KK Kirk and Herby are calling the game uh Saturday as well for the Gator they called the Tennessee game so hey there we go we're just we're just we're just getting all the good mojo going in could watch that whole game those are USF game so it all lines up yeah there we go so he we go hey guys if Florida wins we're coming back to this I'm just gonna replay it we're GNA come back to this and uh and really uh we'll have to figure something out some combo out to get this keep and keep it going for Florida but uh hey Seth thanks for joining me right here thanks for everything you've been doing at Gator breakdown. comom this season as well as the season comes to a close um at least the regular season hopefully we get one more bowl game to talk about for the Gators but uh thanks for your input there all season long there at Gator breakdown. comom scheming with Seth a whole series he's been there uh since the the since the beginning of Gator breakdown. comom so guys there's a lot more to check out there Billy neers for transcript from today and also a look into Graham mertz's season he will not play the Florida State game did a nice little write up about him his bounce back from Wisconsin all the stats he's provided for Florida this year to help this offense take a step so good stuff there at Gator breakdown. and if you want even more go chat with some Gators breakdown fans you can go to Gator breakdown plus link is in the description extra episodes ad free episodes you get the Discord chat Seth pop there every now and then as well to talk some scheme stuff there in the uh football no recruiting channel of course because we know how recruiting goes so uh a lot of good just pure football talk out there on Gator breakdown plus Discord access to all of that link is in the description for Gator breakdown plus so just mention it Seth and let's get into to it g Merz of course will not be available for Florida on Saturday versus the the simol as expected um suffering a non-displaced collar bone fracture per Billy napor surgery hasn't been rolled out yet but there won't be answers on that front for roughly about two weeks and um quote it was is what Billy a had to say today we took another image yesterday we felt good about that image we're basically going into a two-e period here where we're going to give a chance for the fracture to start the process of growing back and then we'll re-evaluate things I think in the meantime we're going to do exhaustive research on like cases in college football in the NFL relative to players that have been through similar injuries just making sure we're giving him the best map for him going forward with the rest of his career so Seth of course transferring from Wisconsin we didn't know what type of quarterback we we going to get here at Florida I had you on in the offseason we talked gr Merz hey one more Trend you talked about gr Merz and and he comes and does some good things for Florida at the quarterback spot um so you know Four Seasons at Wisconsin starting quarterback for three years 5,000 yards passing there 38 touchdowns 26 interceptions just under 60% completion percentage we were Runing wondering if he came to Florida would he be able to get with a run game that would help you out help him out would be able to get to some athletes at receiver that would help him out offensive line well he's had to overcome an offensive line there so uh really good bounceback for him and it's sad that we won't really get to see him play on Saturday yeah he's had a really really good season um you know I thought he was talented and that's kind of what we talked about uh in the offseason I thought he was talented but he he kind of lacked consistency at Wisconsin now some of that was uh situations he got put in and maybe some players around him as well um but that was my biggest question coming into the year could he be consistent and or could he be a guy that kind of flashes consistency for the first time in his career and you see the numbers up there it's I mean it's it's hard it's hard to get better than you know almost 73% uh completion percentage right so that that's pretty consistent all his numbers are up pretty much across the board from last year and he's playing I think a tougher competition so um I think he gave you about everything you could have expected and more and you know I think if you would have thrown these stats out before the season and asked everybody what Florida's record was it would be a lot better than five and six right now so yeah we'll get into that too because of uh this defense I got some Conference stats but yeah it shows you right there I mean merch production significant Improvement this season at Florida compared to his last year at Wisconsin that's a comparison you see here if you're watching the YouTube version but 11 games this year for the Gators Merz was 261 for 358 resulting in 72.9% basically 73% completion percentage also averaged 8.1 yards per attempt maybe the only Bugaboo that you can put there for him is maybe you like to see that a little bit higher uh but throwing for 20 touchdowns only three interceptions and say that's the big one you look at interceptions as well um I put too much there on the graphic he only had three interceptions there in 2023 I I'll have to fix that but yeah only three interceptions there in 2023 I don't know why I put 11 there don't know where I got you're Roman numerals before last game yeah that's what it was only three interceptions here this year in 23 but you go back to last year he had 10 interceptions I mean seven less this year and throwing the ball more uh and a lot less interceptions there one more touchdown this year and one less game uh and then look the completion percentage up 57 7.3% last year up to 73% this year like I said throwing the ball a bit more probably would have been around a 100 more attempts uh if he would have played versus Florida State so uh grah Merz of course you as I said in sayth honestly for the way just the way it happened too uh of course it was the hard hit I mean he was wearing number 15 they looked like TBO out there for a play running over guys and that was the that was the weird part and of course I'm sure was adrenaline was a big part of it but um talking about the offensive line I mean how many times this year he's had to show that toughness how many late hits probably should have been col how many hits in that game alone in that game alone so yeah it's not just the the numbers part of it he was a good leader um resiliency shot a lot of toughness too for the Gator yeah and and just talking about the the interceptions really the one on Saturday was the first one all year that's really his fault yeah they've all been tipped but the first two were catchable balls the last was a little high so I mean really he's not thrown ball mer many just even in danger there's been a few but like cut way down on those interception but yeah he's been he's had to be tough now I I wish he' gotten better at throwing the ball away a little a little bit and uh that comes back to bite him seemingly once a game um but if he comes back next year that's something he can look to improve on but you know he definitely showed his toughness because you know we went through looking at the biwe or you know around the biwe at Arkansas game trying to look at the sack figures me and uh JP Gator and in the Discord and then uh Bud jbd Davis friend of the friend of the Discord uh we we were kind of looking through the sacks and and trying to see what who we thought was kind of at fault for a lot of them and we put like a quarter maybe of them on merch just in terms of getting the ball out of his hands not throwing it away but a lot of it was on other guys so he definitely got beat up this year and you know that's a tough way to get hurt you can see his body kind of get from both sides um but he gutted it out and got the first down which was big at that point of the game so I think Florida scored on that drive if I recall correctly so it was a big conversion too so um tough way for the season to end but man he's been everything you could have wanted and more yeah absolutely so um you know big uh big you brought up too maybe coming back back next year we've seen a lot of quarterbacks uh do that transfer and stay another year and take another lead and he took a huge leap in year one from his Wisconsin days a good point about we could see even more you know the things that he can improve on if he does come back and Billy AER did mention he's going to let him uh announce his plans uh when they would discussed that in the press conference today um so I mean I don't think there's a whole lot of NFL even with the jump up this season I I'm not sure there's a whole lot of NFL love I mean maybe you got more on that I don't know if you're hearing anything um from that perspective but of course I think it would be a plus if he returns to Florida we'll see how Max Brown plays Saturday as well not my factor into it DJ lagway coming in uh but I mean as of now I would I would think he'd be back but I guess I guess it's still could be in question I would think said too but I I think he's a guy that'll probably do well in a workout setting M um throwing the ball and if he's one thing you heard about him the offseason after he kind of visited Florida was that this this dude is really smart and he's really good on the board he understands all that kind of stuff so he might be a guy that interviews well uh too in the pre-draft process so I wouldn't be shocked you know you you you kind of had the talent you were a highly rated recruit and you got a you got a season you can make maybe feel like I can go out on a high with my values highest but um I could defin I would I would imagine more likely that he would come back and try to take that even higher next year especially this is a pretty good quarterback class in terms of the draft so he come back and have a really good year yeah and maybe the injury plays a part too if he doesn't like he can work out if you're saying he's a good maybe could work out well well if that workout hampered at all then it may be best want to do yeah can't put your best foot forward he's a guy I mean he's a guy that probably would uh and with the injury probably takes that away but would benefit from uh you know if he has another good year going to a Senior Bowl type game uh having a good week of practice getting around to coaching staff because he seems to we everything we've heard about him is that you know his teammates love him his coaches love him you saw that like you you describe he's been tough all year a good leader uh so that's one of those games where you get around a NFL coaching staff for a week probably helpful um so yeah the injury maybe he wants to just run it back and he can maybe lift his uh lift his stock a little bit more and then get those kind of postseason opportunities and take advantage of them all right well now steth it's time to turn the page a bit and it is the Battle of backups on Saturday Jordan Travis out for Florida State of course the Tate roadmaker of leading the charge to them but of course for Florida we saw it Saturday night there in Missouri Max Brown plays pretty well in his first meaningful action there for the Gators um and look going forward five 56 yards had a long of 27 five games this season 10 of 12 106 yards but nothing really meaningful until this last game versus Missouri of course good back Seth Oklahoma district 33a MVP is a senior through for 2750 yards 41 passing touchdowns about, 1300 rushing yards with 20 rushing touchdowns at Lincoln Christian and Tulsa Oklahoma and in two seasons there uh accumulated 4,416 passing yards six 8 passing touchdowns so uh has some legs has some ability we saw that on displ Saturday night but of course can throw the ball as well uh and of course now against one of the you know pretty good defense here in in in FSU especially up front uh we'll see what that means there but here's Billy Napier on Max Brown from today I think Max kind of did what I thought he would do you know I think Max is a competitor uh he's got a he's got a level of belief in himself you know has always been a very confident guy um and you know uh for the most part I think we had the one ball exchange you know the ball handling issue uh outside of that you know he did what he was supposed to do you know and I think um we changed gears a little bit there to try to get help him out and I think um critical fourth down throw you know into a tight window and then he threw a nice ball outside on the double move so um you know first plays in there he throws a strike to Ricky on the The Naked so um you know he did a lot of good things you know he's been working hard since the first day he's gotten here he's improved um and I'll tell you I think the players have a there's a you know he's got good connection and camaraderie with the players so I think U they see him every day they know who he is and what he's capable of I think you know ultimately you know we just have to we have to play a brand of football that you know relative to Max and his experience what he knows um you know what he's got confident in right and I think we still got to feature the players that we know are important each week but ultimately every offense that I've ever been a part of starts with what the quarterback can do well right so um that'll be part of the plan Seth we're going to come full circle here because I remember pre-season you wrote an article about how much this Florida offense would change with gr Merz leading the way away from a mobile quarterback somebody like Anthony Richardson and now you get those legs back you get that athleticism back a bit now with brown taking over now look there's not a lot of tape on and the most tape that we probably have from this past weekend would be the Zone replays read option him you know keep having the keepers and of course that's going to be part of this offense now and we saw it in that game against Missouri it did open up the middle of that that run game and allow Johnson and etn to get some big chunk yardage so that comes back around to something that you wrote before the season how much this offense was going to change without that at the quarterback spot when now Florida has it back how much of an advantage is it then of course I think it's still an element of surprise but through the passing game there's not a lot there I guess for FSU to study but at the same time he's going to go out there had to prove it to to to pass the ball especially with now most of it being on tape of him being running quarterback yeah I would I would guess you're going to see a lot of play action he's he's an athletic guy he's got a smooth uh stroke throwing the ball um you saw him they rolled him out twice off play action I think they wanted to do it a third time and the exchange got fumbled unfortunately um but both times you made positive plays completed one pass and then was able to to get yardage um so that'll probably be a big part of it I think the Run game the the the read game will will definitely be a part of it as well they did a little bit of you know what people call Modern triple option now where you have a receiver or a tight end run to the flat and then you're running your read option so if he pulls it I can throw it out wide now if I get a safety or somebody screwing down so I'm sure you'll see some of that but I I think just the threat of him running um helps in the Run game that's kind of what the the big thing before the season was that you don't have a way to control the backside or you didn't as much this year without Richardson now they're not going to pay him as much attention as they did Anthony Richardson but I'd imagine you'll get even Missouri you saw just a little bit slow you know the backers may be a little bit slow to fold back inside he's a you know they they stay a step wider for a second longer and then you crease them up inside so and and I think that's something that you're probably going to need against the Florida State team that's got pretty good pass rushers um you know and if you can't you know one way to neutralize good pass rushers is to run the ball at them so um you may see a little bit of that but you know I I I would I think it's going to look not too dissimilar I think the Run game will probably be the biggest change and you probably hope to not getting a ton of dropback situations but I I think it's something we talked about earlier this year the passing game is built on certain Concepts that they rep a lot in a bunch of different ways so he's probably practiced the stuff they're running already a ton since he's been on campus so it shouldn't be anything crazy new but you you kind of want to limit probably his dropbacks against some pretty good Edge rushers especially if you're going to be down two tackles so um I'm sure that part of the game plan to maybe limit those drop backs but probably a lot of play action a lot of him in the Run game and you can't really worry about injury because you need to win so you gotta kind of cut it Loose yeah it's a conversation I was having today with some friends too about this game was first of all how much did the play does he know now this is his second year you hope he knows a whole lot of it because I mean look we've seen it lately Billy a can dial up some first drives but with a Young quarterback like Max Brown I'm sure this first second drive would be pretty pretty designed you know they'll they'll be pretty scripted but after that you know how much of the Playbook can they give him when they need a score when they got to go score when they got to keep up maybe you know can they can they expand the Playbook or is it just a few select plays I mean it is a second season he should know the offense pretty well but it's a whole lot different when you got to go out there and and perform it but as far as knowledge goes you hope that he has a pretty good grasp of the Playbook here and now you can expand it a little bit with his legs yeah I wonder if you see less of you know him in charge of protection him in charge of making checks it might be where this game it's a little bit more on Napier to just hey I got to call the play I Can't rely on him to make a perfect check every time and you can saw Merz kind of kind of fall that where he's trying to make the perfect check too often too and get to delay of games and things like that but uh so it may be more of hey we're just going to run with it and hey this is this is the play call just run it so you may see less of that I I would imagine the shifting in motion stays as because it kind of stayed in when he got in against they didn't change too much so I don't think you're G to see big widespread changes uh but maybe like I said maybe less drop back I I would wonder if you see more screen against Florida State uh make their corners and things and those guys tackle instead of worrying about these guys rushing the passer just get it get the ball out of your hands and then run downhill out you had success last year running right at right at him yeah um and it seems like they're starting to around into form a little bit up front in terms of the Run game so I'm sure you'll see a good bit of that but the the areas where I think is going to be a lot less than typical is kind of making those checks at the line making you know making protection calls changing that that's probably gonna be a lot more on Billy than it has been this season um and maybe Slaughter maybe Slaughter to at Center and kingsley's been out and now he's been really good at that part of it now he has struggled physically to play the game this year um but his knowledge of the offense should be there as well so both your centers may help out at the same time but uh and do wonder if Austin barbar will be back this week too as as a tackle but of course you know Florida dealing with the injuries there like you said but s a interesting storyline here now with this with this quarterback spot uh yeah just just when you thought like you obviously aren't happy for it but uh just when you thought you're going to catch a pretty big break against Florida state with them not being able to play their starting quarterback you lose yours in the same week so um yeah fsu's been on a run of playing a lot of backups or quarterbacks this year so um I wonder how good the defense really is I don't know but we'll see interest note on Tate rodmaker uh he was committed to USF and the coach he committed to Kerwin Bell yeah yeah your little connection there longtime commitment to Kerwin and kwin left he left so I gota remember R maker I got I gotta say that last name right so dad's a big time coach in valasta I believe yeah NE said he knew him uh they they knew each other for or his dad knew R Maker's dad so there was a connection there so um I do uh wonder how much that'll come up uh in Gainesville but n you're already talking about it today uh but on Saturday I wonder if the the r makers will be in attendance there for uh hopefully hopefully watching a loss so yeah I bet they'll make the trip down yeah I would imagine too but uh all right plenty more we'll get into uh we'll get into a little bit of this uh Gator team this year in conference play uh and kind of expand on something Seth wrote for Gator breakdown. comom as well that I released this morning about you know kind of how close Florida is to being a winning team but right now they are a losing team so before we get there hey when your money's on the line choose a trusted sports book that gives you the tools to win like my bookie and there's action for new and existing customers it's Thanksgiving weeks so there's a lot of action for you and a lot of action on the grid iron with the NFL and rivalry week in college football make this week even more exciting by betting at my bookie use mybookie for daily odds boost same game parlays and take advantage of huge prize pool contest plus my bookie has a no strings attached cash bonus that lets you deposit and withdraw quick just use promo code Gators in your first deposit and receive up to $200 in cash that's promo code Gators to claim your own cash bonus now existing customers get up to 50% in a bonus reload so bet anything anytime anywhere only for my booking Seth uh Billy n was asked today hey you guys a game-winning kick away against Arkansas and a fourth and 17 stop away from being seven and four do you think this team is better than its record right now I think we're a ke a team that can be competitive with about anybody if that makes sense we're capable um of beating anybody and anybody's capable of beating us if that makes sense I mean I think that's kind of who we are you know I think our struggles have been inconsistency you know we have we're yet to put it together you know a dominant performance in all three parts of our team um some of that is it you know injuries lack of depth use I mean we're not going to allow you know we're not going to allow excuses to creep into what we're trying to accomplish if that makes sense you know we we are trying to improve we're trying to get the most out of our players right and I think it's a fun team to coach because we got some veteran players that are just awesome um in their approach attitude leadership um they've maintained energy uh the work ethic the practice habits um and then we got a lot of guys that don't they don't know any different right I mean we got a lot of young cats that are just showing up and it's like what's next you know so um you know and I think there's some things about that that you respect um so look you know we are what our our record indicates you know we've come up short you know in a handful of games so and we we can coach better and play better you know that's what I think about you know I think we we I'm thinking about things we can do so Seth Billy was also discussing was look there's 12 to 15 plays in in a game I think that impacted the end result says when you lose these games by these Point totals it's all magnified to every possession counts we're talking about 12 possessions a game on average both sides of the ball I think each one of those where you don't maybe gets the result you want there's something in that possession you can point to that you can do better that's where we're at as a program every time we put the ball down no matter who the opponent is that margin for error that you're talking about I think that's who we are that's where we're at every play counts every possession counts yeah this this margin for error for this team is very very thin we've seen it on you know in Full Circle two out of last three games for sure with Arkansas in Missouri and kind of goes back to something you said Seth when we're talking about just so many plays that are so gamechanging for Florida that resulting in losses it's there for a win as well and I'll just read the beginning of your because it kind of goes to what nap said today the beginning of your article Florida is a losing football team they have a chance to get back to even in the backup Bowl this week but as of now it's true and it's not just true for this season but also Billy A's tenure as a whole Beyond experience and talent level which basically na was talking about there the biggest difference between losing teams and winning teams is that winning teams make plays yeah I like winning plays aren't necessarily the big explosive plays it's just the winning teams they do the little things correctly um you know I think the one a lot of people are poined to and I think they even got mentioned today in his press conference is the simp as simple as you know ET and running out of bounds instead of just falling to his knees gaining zero yards you're either getting the timeout from Missouri you're getting 40 seconds off the clock so those are the kinds of things if you want to make that leap those are the plays you and those are kind of routine and like he said he knows he should not have done that and I'm sure they practice it you know I I I put a story in there the my first year of coaching the guy I coached for is really meticulous we practice every single situation every week we spend a lot of time on it the kids would groan and suck their teeth but we're like hey this is important um and one of them was four-minute offense running out the clock and you know it was you know make the ref ask you twice to get up off the ground make him ask for the football twice you know if you toss it to him toss it at his feet so he has to bend over and get it and the clock doesn't start you know he doesn't wind the clock but most important is keep two hands on the ball we're we're going against the clock we don't need yards we need time off the clock um we're playing a district game kid tries to fight for a couple more yards he fumbles they go down and score we end up getting a touchdown right at the very end of the game kind of lucked out and but then the very next week we're in the same situation he kept two hands on the ball and we were able to run out the clock so unfortunately failure is a really good teacher and sometimes uh it sticks with you more than the 10 minutes you put in every you know Friday in in your walkth through practice um you know seeing that field goal go through and maybe they wouldn't have got a chance to get there that proba that'll probably stick in your head a little bit more than you know coach at practice just telling you hey make sure you get down make sure just fall to your knees right here so it's unfortunate but that's that's how it goes sometimes and and that's the tough part especially when like he said the margins are thin and the margins are thin for like you know just think about you're the head coach man and you've been banging that drum every week and the guy doesn't do it and you get fired you know like that that happens every every year in college football and it's a tough but that's why uh that's why they get paid big money so coach uh say from a coaching perspective two areas I want to go to and maybe you could Dive In You dove in a little bit on on the article uh I'll go in sequential order and I put this tweet out about an hour before we came live here and it's been B hooded and talked about a whole lot was Billy a too conservative at the end of the game and that that's the etn where he runs out of bounds and just clock has to stop but you know V is in scoring position they're in field goal range and they're running the ball really well at that point um that's why I don't cons consider it conservative Billy naer is a run first coach by Nature the Run game was working and they called three straight runs the third down inexplicably does go out of bounds that hurts more than anything and that kind of just blew the whole plan up anyway um but I think if pass on first down do you pass on second down or do you you know I thought maybe on third down you could but if you told him hey your running back's going to run out of bounds he would have thrown on he would right like it's I think it's a lot easier to look back on that and say oh he's too conservative they should have thrown it's like 40 seconds off that clock or missou burning that if Missouri Burns that timeout they don't get it they were scrambling before that fourth and 17 yeah called a timeout were able to compose themselves get into a good play if they don't have that timeout they probably don't convert right and not only that said they probably can't throw it to the middle of the field yeah so like there there's it's it compounds that issue kind of compounds things so yeah I think if you told him uh yeah uh you're your running back's gonna run out of bounds if you run the ball he may have he may have thrown it or he may have just I mean he might have just told you know Max Tak take a knee just take but that's another that's another part F's running the ball well and you have a Young quarterback so you're gonna ask him to make the right decision maybe thr a pick and you don't get the field goal at all and with your with the way your kicker's been kicking for most of the year you feel like you're pretty much guaranteed to take the lead there if you kick a field goal so you're going to yeah put in a hostile environment against a guy that will bring exotic pressures on third downs and they had trouble blocking so who's to say brown doesn't get hit and ball fumbles and'll you take a sack and you're out of field goal you know it's funny I was the people I was kind of talking to during the game I said this I said you know how scarred Florida fans are because we were all kind of talking amongst ourselves and and most of the people saying just run the clock out and kick a field goal with no time left that's that's the goal we don't so when he broke out and it looked like he may have had a chance to score everyone was kind of like get down get down you rather because you knew anytime on the clock you had a chance to lose the game so yeah I it's it's kind of I I don't look I don't think it was about being AGG I thought he played it pretty smart but the you know the back going out of bounds kind of takes takes that out of your hands a little bit and and makes it look a little bit less smart but you'd have to anticipate he's not going to do that so yeah and look I'm sure it was I'm sure it was even talked about hey you can't go out of bounds but in the heat the Moment In the Heat of the Moment yes like I said I'm sure they've drilled this one day one one day every week of practice for a portion of practice they probably drill this exact just like they drill two minute they drill the other side of it so I guarantee they've gone over this probably a hundred times since that guy's been on campus and yeah like you said he the moment sometimes it just just happens especially a guy that's had some injury history you know this year and maybe doesn't want to take a shot you know on it on like if he's got a shoulder may maybe want to take a shot on the shoulder just Instinct and you know it's just kind of bad luck and um unfortunate so uh and then the next one and hey I had the Discord up and JP gator just puts it up right now I mean literally I don't even think he's watching but hey timing just works out but uh Billy A's quote on the 4th and 17th that's the I was going to go in there next to you you detailed it a little bit on in the article but here's neer's explanation of it we've got we've just got to do a little bit better job in the hook areas of the field n said on the fourth and 17th completion that's area where receiver runs to the mark and hooks around for a pass uh Rush was also not good enough on that play says Napier um so that was in response to me putting in the Discord Seth that maybe nuner should drop a little bit deeper and that was the response you know JP Gator quoted and and put in there so does that go hand inand with the maybe we should have little bit better job in the hook areas of the field I mean of course you're at the sticks it's none of the linebacker it goes over his head and there's two DBS behind him Burton still jogs in between them what what is Billy ner saying there by saying maybe we get to do a little bit better job in the hook areas of the field yeah so they were and he didn't answer exactly what they're running but he did after the game you heard him say we were in a weak rotation and it was a weak rotation cover three so the safety from the weak side uh rotates down into he's probably a curl flat player and it looks like they might have had uh both the linebackers is playing the hooks um I think it was anticipating a Crossing route because as the safety rotates down number three crosses right where he is and he picks him up takes that out so then the linebacker if he's the hook player and it's third and 17 I can get depth he had nothing in front of him so you you know maybe if he's supposed to drop you know so hook kind of between that curl flat is kind of hash and then closer to the sideline right five six yards of the sideline Cur maybe closer to the hash inside the hashes is kind of that hook area and so if I just drop straight back in my hook area to 20 yards I'm probably getting the ball thrown to me if I'm NY right and so after the third receiver crosses the formation that safety takes him you've got four Defenders on two receivers I think you had Jaden Hill kind of stay outside a little bit because they run a ton of corner routes and they actually got Florida on that last year on a third and 18 or third and 19 or maybe even been it was a it was like a third and 17 they ran a basically a flood route so anticipating that you had four guys covering two guys and I think one of your guys just didn't get enough depth you probably was playing it like it was third and 10 he's got to realize hey it's third and 17 fourth and 17 yeah fourth and 17 I gotta just keep get in depth I don't care if the quarterback takes off I've got all these dudes with eyes on him cuz we're playing Zone we're going to rally and Tackle him for at you know 10 yards that's fine what you can't do is let a guy get behind you and just sit in the zone because Missouri's running the whis is running a vertical straight down the field so middle safety's got to get depth because if he doesn't they'll throw it over his head so there's a pocket between him and so I I think your linebacker just didn't get up dep and there really wasn't a big reason to um because he had nothing in front of him and it's Fourth and 17 so hey man get depth and if you do that I think the ball's either not thrown or it's intercepted yeah and JP actually put in the Discord hey folks this is what you get on the on the football no recruiting Channel like I said it's pure football strategy talk and he just replied there he goes so it does look like the strong hook nuny didn't get enough depth kind of going what you were just saying there Seth he goes I have to think that the middle of the field safety Castel got too much depth there at the same time um so he goes originally I was frustrated that they didn't have Hill carry the number two receiver in the seam but I think they might have been expecting here you go a deep outbreaking concept like cell or something so kind of going into what you were talking about Hill working the outside most wide receiver and getting debt would have put him in perfect position to take that away yeah and JP shared with me earlier today uh I don't know if you follow SCC stat cat yeah he's kind of showed where Missouri's kind of hit charts are in the passing game they don't throw a lot of 15 to 20 yard balls down the middle of the field that aren't like post shots so this is not something they run a ton they run a lot more out Breakers so with that in mind you want to make sure you got somebody in the out but regardless you've got four over two you should be in good shape with basically the two guys that are underneath are getting underneath the route and you got two guys on top of the route you should be you're basically bracketing both those two routes you should be in really good shapee uh now is like the perfect call I I may have preferred pressure just to get the ball his hands quicker but it's a call if you execute it it works like it's it's not like it's a bad call so but that's how it goes s big sigh uh all right so we'll wrap it up uh Florida finished SEC play uh with their game against Missouri of course one more game left out a conference versus FSU and I posted this on Twitter yesterday or last night got pretty good traction on it and hey it's a comparison for Florida in SEC play from last year to this year and boy what a story it tells so last year points per game for the Gator offense 28.9 in play it Rose to 30 and a half there for so the offense scoring about a couple points more a game there this year um yards per game uh about the same 4 423 and a half last year 422 this year uh and then oh here's the ugly one uh hey how many years have in a row have we said it can't get any worse on defense and somehow it finds a way to get worse defense points per game last year 28.6 this year five more at 33.6 and you can see why defensive yards per game last year in SEC play 44.3 this year 4713 o ouch not many ways around that one I mean it's oh 67 yard difference there for yardage from last year's defense to this year's and sayth it doesn't paint a pretty picture um for this Gator defense ever since 2020 um it's just been a a side of the ball that you cannot count on no matter how good the offense is they have to make up for a pretty bad defense um and in this year it just kind of kind kind of crept up again uh for Florida and hey look I mean defensive points per game last year 28.6 this year 33.6 if you just duplicated last year in the turnovers that that defense last year created you might have two more wins that's just that's how it may look small in some ways but given the margin for error that we just talked about for this Gator team even last year's defense maybe gets him a couple more wins yeah and you know I think the the biggest part of that is you it's it's strange to look at really because you look at they they've gotten better at a couple places like success rate really good but I saw you shared a tweet uh suddenly shared with you that um you know basically when Florida gives up a successful play it is insanely successful it is and that's kind of where the explosives come in like the EPA numbers are terrible but the success rate numbers are good so you get like two good plays in a row or a couple good drives in a row and then bang you're giving up a huge explosive and that just kind of skews everything and you know that's that's kind of been the big issue this year is you are really really giving up explosive plays I think a lot of that comes down to kind of your back end your kind of Youth on your back end a little bit and not being able to generate a pass rush up front really and then not turning that's the other thing when you turn people over you get the ball a lot more they get the ball a lot less yes right so uh so people are having the ball a lot more this year than they did last year so that can contribute to those yardage numbers going up too good point yeah uh but you know I was looking at something because it's something I noticed in the Kentucky game uh Kentucky really attacked the edges of this defense um like to the tackle and outside in the Run game and then you see a couple weeks later South Carolina's trying to do the same thing and then Georgia is doing the same thing and then Arkansas's trying the same thing LSU so I I went and looked and they're giving up on runs just designed runs not quarterback runs not anything like that outside the tackle they're giving up almost seven yards a carry inside the tackle it's four and a half so it they're just I think a lot of that is you're having to have safeties fitting downhill and we're seeing that in the passing game as well short passes like they played a lot of they played I think they may have played a little bit more Zone last year but you know you play zone this year ball gets thrown in front of you just think Arkansas Game LSU game you know first third down of the LSU game play zone the ball gets thrown in front of you you make a tackle it's maybe a first down maybe a yard short you miss the tackle becomes like a 40- yard P so it's just a lot of compounding issues and and you don't have the high up side with the turnovers either so yeah you're just having to kind of sit and take your medicine for the most part yeah so that Florida State one of the most explosive offenses in the country of course that was with Jordan Travis so we'll see how that translates uh for for Florida but I mean but the way this team is just giv up explosives it almost as and it kind of going to your point because of a lot of reasons to some of the explosives like the missed tackles okay it doesn't really matter who the quarterback is if if the quarterback gets the ball to a playmaker like R maker probably can a bit and given fsu's Playmakers okay you still got to go make a play no matter who the quarterback is if the ball is in the skill players hands you have a chance to make a tackle you got one more game to maybe just flip a switch and let me tell you they're going to run a lot of counter and they're going to run a lot of runs outside the tackle that's kind of their bread and butter in the Run game is really good at that um now it doesn't have the element of Travis keeping it as much but um that's going to that's going to be a big part of their game so you're going to have to be able to take on those blocks on the outside um and they're going to attack your edges in the Run game so you know what's interesting is I see I hear Florida State people talking about the game and they were kind of worried how they're going to do up the middle I think their Center got hurt as well in the last game so you know maybe you can get some push on the interior uh but I'd imagine it's going to be a lot of those hey we're going to we're going to take the ball outside and make your safeties come up and tackle and you know if you get your best game of the year and a tackling front you know maybe you're in really good shape if you don't it's pretty much the same thing all so yeah I just looked it up last year Florida was a 100th in success rate this year they are 39th but they're worse in EPA giving up so oh that's those explosive plays man dang all right man uh Seth you got your film review up yet or not yet I mean listen I I put I I put a lot of time not a lot of time but I recorded for about an hour on the Arkansas game a couple weeks ago and had like nobody watch I'm trying to readjust my strategies here to see what what would so I may um I'm I'm probably gonna try to find some uh Max Brown Max stuff and see um we'll talk maybe talk about Max a little bit later this week what he's done this year maybe look at the spring game I think I still got it so look at what he did there and maybe what kind of schemes we might see from Florida in this Florida State game that'll probably be coming out next day or two but maybe even maybe even highlight that uh outside FSU Run game uh I don't want I don't want people to be too depressed before the game start I mean just show the Kentucky film from Florida that's probably all we gotta go by and see there so hey Seth thanks man one more time joining us right here on Gator breakdown right there on YouTube Vador films you can check his work out there also Gator breakdown. comom as well you can check out Seth's work so all right that'll do it for this episode of Gator breakdown Florida Florida state coverage coming up this week right here thanks for Seth for joining us right here I am the host of Gator breakdown David Waters you can find me on social media Gator Dave guys and girls out there thank you for joining us on this episode of Gator breakdown