Florida, just days after upsetting No. 11 Georgia and snapping a three-game-losing skid in the series, is wasting no time getting ready for its next opponent, Vanderbilt.
"We need to bury the game and move on," Florida coach Will Muschamp said Monday.
The Commodores, under first-year head coach Derek Mason, haven’t looked good this season, getting just three wins so far with all three of those victories being over non-Southeastern Conference opponents.
Mason was hired from Stanford University, where he coordinated some of the most talented and ruthless defenses in his tenor in Palo Alto, California.
Under Mason, the Cardinal ranked in the top 15 in defensive efficiency for three straight seasons. In 2012, Mason was also a Broyles Award finalist, which is given to the top assistant in the country.
"Derek Mason was, of course, the defensive coordinator at Stanford and probably fielded some of the better defenses in college football the last three or four years," Muschamp said. "He’s a really good football coach, extremely intelligent."
Although Mason’s defenses in years past have been dominant, Vanderbilt is currently 99th in scoring defense and is at the bottom of the SEC in pass efficiency defense. The Commodores switched from a 4-3 to a 3-4 scheme in the offseason.
"They’re a little young on defense but they do give you some issues mixing from odd and even fronts," Muschamp said. "So we’ve gotta be able to identify the move around guys for them."
The Gators are coming off of a 418 rushing yard performance — a number that was the most rushing in an SEC game for Florida since the 1975 season. Vanderbilt is currently giving up 171 rushing yards per game.
"I think we’ve blocked well up front, but we had some nice running lanes in what we were trying to do," Muschamp said. "I think it was a good plan by our offensive staff, to go into the ballgame."
Offensively for the Commodores, the run game features true freshman running back Ralph Webb, who graduated from Gainesville High School.
Webb is coming off of a record setting performance against Old Dominion last week, in which he ran for 166 yards — a school single-game record. Webb is also only 38 yards shy of the team’s freshman rushing record of 798 yards — the number posted by Kwane Doster in 2002. Webb’s 760 yards leads all SEC freshman.
Redshirt freshman Johnny McCrary had a five-touchdown performance against Old Dominion, a number that matches former Commodore quarterbacks like Jay Cutler and Bill Wade. The last SEC freshman to toss five touchdown passes was Missouri’s Maty Mauk, who did so against Kentucky last season. Last Saturday was only McCrary’s second start of 2014.
Vanderbilt beat Florida 34-17 in The Swamp last season, which was Homecoming weekend in Gainesville. That marked the Commodores’ first victory over the Gators since 1945.
Redshirt senior center Max Garcia remembers how that loss felt and thinks the team will use that as motivation this weekend in Nashville.
"We’re going to go to their house and we want them to experience the same disappointment they gave to us last year," Garcia said. "We have to redeem ourselves in that way."
Although the Gators are coming off of an upset over their most hated SEC rival Georgia, there is no worry about complacency heading into Saturday night’s game for Muschamp and the rest of the staff.
"We don’t have anything to be overconfident about," Muschamp said. "I think that one of the things you talk to your players about is how you respond after a loss and how do you respond after a win."
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Will Muschamp looks down the field following Florida's 38-20 win against Georgia on Saturday
