Five Things We Learned From The USC-Florida Game
posted by Scott Hood, Sunday, November 16, 2008
1. The ‘S’ In SEC Stands For Speed: The main difference between the SEC and the rest of the nation is the speed of the players. The last two BCS championship games have exposed the country to that reality. Within the SEC, there are differences as well. Urban Meyer proclaimed two years ago that he wanted Florida to become ‘the fastest team in America.’ Well, with lightning-fast players like Percy Harvin, Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey wearing Florida‘s blue and orange uniforms, it looks like he’s succeeded. As Spurrier said during his post-game press conference, a matchup between the Gators and Southern Cal would be something to behold. Talk about collegefootball on triple fast forward. Saturday’s game exposed one harsh reality for the Gamecocks: if they want to reach the top echelon of the SEC, and stay there, they must dramatically improve the team speed, especially on offense.
2. Youth Is Not An Excuse: How often have we heard a football coach try explain his team’s shortcomings by saying his team was ‘young.’ Well, Florida is pretty young, too, but they thrive. The Gators started eight freshmen or sophomores on defense in Saturday’s game, while six of the seven leading tacklers in the contest were underclassmen. Jeff Demps, who broke off a 38-yard TD run in the third quarter is a freshman, along with RB Chris Rainey, who had a 3-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. By the way, Demps and Gainey are UF’s top two rushers this season. Deonte Thompson, who caught a 46-yard TD pass from Tim Tebow, is a redshirt freshman. Florida is proof that sometimes abundant talent can overcome a lack of experience. It’s not necessarily about relying on experienced players, but recruiting quality players who can handle the pressure of playing right away. Right now, USC doesn’t have enough of those players.
3. Spurrier Sensed The Avalanche Was Coming: Based on his calm demeanor after enduring the worst loss of his coaching career, it’s clear Spurrier feared Florida had the potential to “clobber” (a favorite Spurrier word) the Gamecocks before the game began. And they did. In fact, he proclaimed the one-point loss to UF two years ago bothered him more than Saturday’s 50-point setback. Why? Because when they lose by a point or two, coaches start playing the “what if” game. But, there was no need to do that this year, not after your nationally ranked defense surrenders 519 total yards, including 346 rushing. USC came into the game allowing an average of 256.5 yards per game, but Florida had topped that by early in the third quarter. Pure and simple, the Gators overwhelmed the Gamecocks with one great player after another.
4. Winning Teams Have Big Play Capability: Florida had four scoring plays of 26 yards or more and averaged 8.2 yards per play in Saturday’s game. Contrastly, USC averaged 2.8 yards per play and the longest play went for 16 yards. USC was also 1-for-15 on third down conversions. Here’s the scary part for USC and Florida’s future opponents: UF quarterback Tim Tebow, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, didn’t have to do very much (he had only 39 rushing yards and attempted 20 passes) and the Gators still won by 50 points. As a columnist for the Jacksonville papers stated, Tebow might have the best supporting cast since Marlon Brando in the original Godfather. Here’s the best example: With the score, 28-3, Percy Harvin took a handoff on a counter play and sprinted 80 yards for a touchdown on the opening play of the second half. Game over. Right now, USC doesn’t have a single offensive player on their roster capable of doing that. Florida has three or four. Welcome to the SEC.
5. Games Can Be Lost In The First Quarter: When Florida scored 21 points in less than three minutes late in the first quarter, you got the feeling USC wasn’t going to dig itself out of the hole. Typically, when a team falls behind by two or three touchdowns in the early going, that’s like a 20-point first quarter lead in the NBA. The advantage can be overcome by simply playing the game. But, considering how fast and aggressive the Florida defense was, you knew the overwhelmed USC offense was going to struggle to get anything going all afternoon, and they did. Compound the offense’s woes with special teams miscues and you have the recipe for a major league blowout on national TV.
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South Carolina suffered an embarrassing 56-6 loss to Florida Saturday afternoon at the Swamp in Gainesville, Fla. Here are five things we learned from that game:
1. The ‘S’ In SEC Stands For Speed: The main difference between the SEC and the rest of the nation is the speed of the players. The last two BCS championship games have exposed the country to that reality. Within the SEC, there are differences as well. Urban Meyer proclaimed two years ago that he wanted Florida to become ‘the fastest team in America.’ Well, with lightning-fast players like Percy Harvin, Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey wearing Florida‘s blue and orange uniforms, it looks like he’s succeeded. As Spurrier said during his post-game press conference, a matchup between the Gators and Southern Cal would be something to behold. Talk about collegefootball on triple fast forward. Saturday’s game exposed one harsh reality for the Gamecocks: if they want to reach the top echelon of the SEC, and stay there, they must dramatically improve the team speed, especially on offense.
2. Youth Is Not An Excuse: How often have we heard a football coach try explain his team’s shortcomings by saying his team was ‘young.’ Well, Florida is pretty young, too, but they thrive. The Gators started eight freshmen or sophomores on defense in Saturday’s game, while six of the seven leading tacklers in the contest were underclassmen. Jeff Demps, who broke off a 38-yard TD run in the third quarter is a freshman, along with RB Chris Rainey, who had a 3-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. By the way, Demps and Gainey are UF’s top two rushers this season. Deonte Thompson, who caught a 46-yard TD pass from Tim Tebow, is a redshirt freshman. Florida is proof that sometimes abundant talent can overcome a lack of experience. It’s not necessarily about relying on experienced players, but recruiting quality players who can handle the pressure of playing right away. Right now, USC doesn’t have enough of those players.
3. Spurrier Sensed The Avalanche Was Coming: Based on his calm demeanor after enduring the worst loss of his coaching career, it’s clear Spurrier feared Florida had the potential to “clobber” (a favorite Spurrier word) the Gamecocks before the game began. And they did. In fact, he proclaimed the one-point loss to UF two years ago bothered him more than Saturday’s 50-point setback. Why? Because when they lose by a point or two, coaches start playing the “what if” game. But, there was no need to do that this year, not after your nationally ranked defense surrenders 519 total yards, including 346 rushing. USC came into the game allowing an average of 256.5 yards per game, but Florida had topped that by early in the third quarter. Pure and simple, the Gators overwhelmed the Gamecocks with one great player after another.
4. Winning Teams Have Big Play Capability: Florida had four scoring plays of 26 yards or more and averaged 8.2 yards per play in Saturday’s game. Contrastly, USC averaged 2.8 yards per play and the longest play went for 16 yards. USC was also 1-for-15 on third down conversions. Here’s the scary part for USC and Florida’s future opponents: UF quarterback Tim Tebow, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, didn’t have to do very much (he had only 39 rushing yards and attempted 20 passes) and the Gators still won by 50 points. As a columnist for the Jacksonville papers stated, Tebow might have the best supporting cast since Marlon Brando in the original Godfather. Here’s the best example: With the score, 28-3, Percy Harvin took a handoff on a counter play and sprinted 80 yards for a touchdown on the opening play of the second half. Game over. Right now, USC doesn’t have a single offensive player on their roster capable of doing that. Florida has three or four. Welcome to the SEC.
5. Games Can Be Lost In The First Quarter: When Florida scored 21 points in less than three minutes late in the first quarter, you got the feeling USC wasn’t going to dig itself out of the hole. Typically, when a team falls behind by two or three touchdowns in the early going, that’s like a 20-point first quarter lead in the NBA. The advantage can be overcome by simply playing the game. But, considering how fast and aggressive the Florida defense was, you knew the overwhelmed USC offense was going to struggle to get anything going all afternoon, and they did. Compound the offense’s woes with special teams miscues and you have the recipe for a major league blowout on national TV.
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.