The Gators’ meetings with the Gamecocks this season and last have both come at precarious times in Florida’s grueling schedule. For the second year in a row, the Gators will head into the game following a loss, which is quite the coincidence considering UF has lost just four games in the past season and a half.
Florida’s win over South Carolina last season changed the perception of Dan Mullen’s first season as the Gators head coach. UF trailed by 17 points near the end of the third quarter of that game. Florida was also in danger of losing its third game in a row to an SEC East opponent after back-to-back losses to Georgia and Missouri.
I’m sure you know how that turned out: Feleipe Franks leads the comeback, shushes the home crowd and Florida rattles off 10 subsequent victories.
If that comeback doesn’t happen? The Gators miss out on a New Year’s Six Bowl and Mullen’s first season win total falls to nine which, while respectable, just doesn’t have the same ring to it as a 10-win campaign.
Now, 11 games later, Mullen and the Gators square off against Will Muschamp’s South Carolina team on the heels of a loss once again.
But this time around, Florida heads into the game with a top-25 defense and improved offense in tow. This is not the same group that was reeling when these two teams met last year.
The Gators total offense is up 48 yards per game despite a dip in its passing efficiency (184.9 to 140.7 this season), which is due to an offensive shift toward the pass led by quarterback Kyle Trask. Through seven games last year, Florida ran the ball on 59 percent of its plays compared to 49 percent this season. Accordingly, UF’s offense averages almost 100 more yards per game through the air this year going into the South Carolina game than last year.
Florida’s defense is also performing much better than the team that the Gamecocks hung 31 points on at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 2018. UF is ranked top-five in sacks per game, takeaways, interceptions and opponent red zone touchdown percentage this year, all improvements from last season’s rankings.
Along with the offensive and defensive upgrades are personnel changes. Instead of Jachai Polite anchoring the defense and Franks leading the offense, Jonathan Greenard (who Mullen said is a gametime decision) and Trask took over those roles.
Trask did not play against the Gamecocks last season after he was hurt in practice following the Missouri game. Similarly, South Carolina is rolling out a new quarterback, or potentially quarterbacks, against the Gators.
Ryan Hilinski took over for the injured Jake Bentley but was hurt in the upset last week against Georgia. In his place, Dakereon Joyner filled in. When asked about going up against Joyner, Amari Burney compared him to Emory Jones and Kadarius Toney.
“He’s a little bit like KT, you know, a little, quick guy,” he said. “He can shake us, run the ball and things like that, do read options and things like that, just like Emory.”
These are two entirely different teams from when they last met playing for very different things at this point in the season. South Carolina has the potential to play spoiler against a top-10 team from the SEC East for the second week in a row. Florida can assert its lead in the division if it takes what Mullen is billing as the biggest game of the season.
“Big challenge obviously this week, really the biggest game of the year for us right now,” he said. “You know, you can look coming in, the last two weeks, top-10 matchups, were big games but they weren’t against SEC East teams.”
This game was buried by some when discussing Florida’s four-game stretch including Auburn, LSU and Georgia, but after South Carolina downed Georgia, it proved this is not a game that can be overlooked.
Follow Kyle Wood on Twitter @Kkylewood. Contact him at kwood@alligator.org
Kyle Trask leads a UF offense that averages 100 more yards through the air than it did last year.
