Call it the understatement of the season: Florida coach Will Muschamp said on his Sunday TV show “We’re inept offensively right now, and we need to make some changes as we move forward.” (via the Gainesville Sun)
No kidding. The offensive carnage for Florida is brutal: 106th in total offense (336.9 yards/game), 103rd in scoring offense (21.1 points/game), 116th in red zone scoring percentage (70.4 percent), just to cherry-pick a few.
Muschamp said his main focus is improving along the offensive line, which has paved the way for a mediocre rushing attack (161.4 yards/game) and hasn’t protected its quarterbacks well (17 sacks).
Mizzou was in the backfield an awful lot on Saturday, pressuring quarterback Tyler Murphy and forcing a number of poor decisions. Freshman back Kelvin Taylor gouged the Tigers’ defense for 74 yards on 12 carries, though, possibly an encouraging sign going forward for the stagnant Gators offense.
At 4-3 (2-2 in the SEC), Florida gets a bye week before squaring off against Georgia Nov. 2 in Jacksonville. The Gators still have a road date against South Carolina (Nov. 16) and home games against Vanderbilt (Nov. 9) and Florida State (Nov. 30).
Something has to change quickly for the Gators, because if it doesn’t, there’s an outside chance they could head into their season finale against Florida State needing a win for bowl eligibility. Of course, that’d take losses to everyone on their remaining schedule outside of FCS side Georgia Southern.
But with that “inept” offense and a defense that gave up 500 yards to an offense starting a greenhorn quarterback, it’s impossible to rule anything out right now.