With No. 10 Florida set to take on Vanderbilt at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, alligatorSports editor Graham Hall reached out to Ben Weinrib, sports editor at the Vanderbilt Hustler, for his thoughts on the Homecoming showdown and who he thinks will win on Saturday.
GH: Florida quarterback Treon Harris had a rough outing against Georgia, completing just 42.1 percent of his passes. How do you expect the Commodores to play Harris, knowing that he can struggle at times as a passer?
BW: Vanderbilt’s defense has been more or less its lone bright spot this season.
They’ve faced three quarterbacks who are top-10 in the nation in passing along with Heisman candidate Greg Ward Jr., yet only two quarterbacks have passed for more yards than their season average and only one has completed a higher percentage of his passes than his season average.
Harris looked better last week than he did against LSU, but I expect Vanderbilt to load the box and put plenty of pressure on him.
GH: With Gainesville native Ralph Webb returning to his hometown, how critical is it for Vanderbilt to establish a consistent running game against the Gators?
BW: If for no other reason than to take the ball out of Johnny McCrary and Kyle Shurmur’s hands, establishing the run will be critical for Vanderbilt this week.
They only averaged 2.9 yards per carry two years ago when they won in The Swamp, but they also picked off Tyler Murphy three times and held Florida to 39 rushing yards on 34 attempts.
Expect to see a good deal of Darrius Sims running the ball to the outside as well, and he’s been Vanderbilt’s most dangerous weapon lately.
GH: Like Florida’s Harris, Johnny McCrary has the ability to run the football and beat you with his legs.
The Gators struggled earlier this season against the read option — Tennessee’s Josh Dobbs ran for more than 130 yards against UF at home.
How do you expect coach Derek Mason to utilize McCrary on Saturday?
BW: It’ll be interesting to see how the quarterback situation shakes out this week.
Shurmur has started the past two weeks with a healthy dose of McCrary sprinkled in throughout the game, but Shurmur is also dealing with a concussion.
I’m guessing we’ll see a lot more McCrary this week. Interestingly enough, most of McCrary’s runs have come on broken down plays (partly thanks to an injury-riddled offensive line), so I’m not sure how much they’ll expand the playbook to include more read option.
GH: What about Vanderbilt’s defense? How can the Commodores exploit Florida’s offense?
BW: Vanderbilt’s biggest areas of strength are in 3rd down defense (5th nationally at a .252 first down rate) and red zone defense (17th nationally at a 75 percent score rate).
If they can hold Florida to less scores (and more field goals), that’ll be about their only way to keep up. They’ll need to focus on stopping Kelvin Taylor (18th nationally in run defense) so that they make Treon Harris beat them through the air.
GH: How does McCrary throw against UF’s vaunted secondary? Will the Commodores get creative or will Mason insist they stick to the formula?
BW: I’m not so optimistic here. McCrary (and Shurmur) has struggled with turnovers, and they absolutely can’t afford to lose the turnover battle in this game.
My best guess is that Andy Ludwig keeps the throws conservative, tries to get the ball to Trent Sherfield and Sims as much as possible, and there’s quite a bit of running.
GH: Who do you think will win on Saturday and what’s the final score?
BW: As much as I’d love to see a repeat of two years ago, Jordan Matthews isn’t walking through these doors again.
Florida wins 20-10.
Follow Graham Hall on Twitter @Graham311
Follow Ben Weinrib on Twitter @benweinrib
Vanderbilt running back Ralph Webb carries the ball during Vanderbilt's 10-3 win against Missouri on Oct. 24, 2015.
