How fast is too fast for an offense? Texas A&M ran 99 plays in its season opener against South Carolina, and Baylor ran 97 in its debut against Southern Methodist.
Offensive coordinator Kurt Roper’s former employer, Duke, ran 86 plays Saturday and Eastern Michigan, UF’s next opponent, ran 86.
As the hype continues around Roper’s up-tempo system, just how fast the Gators will go is a key topic of discussion.
But one down in particular makes the difference, said Roper.
"It all really is determined by how successful you have been on third downs in a lot of instances," he said.
Of the 10 teams which ran the most plays in college football’s first week, eight of them converted on 10 or more third down attempts.
Another type of efficiency Roper will need from his offense is from quarterback Jeff Driskel.
Roper said during his career, the benchmark has risen for how accurate a quarterback needs to be in his offense during a game.
A 60-percent completion rate won’t cut it anymore, and in Roper’s best season, quarterback Sean Renfree completed 68 percent of his passes for Duke in 2009, leading the Blue Devils to the ninth best passing attack nationally in yards per game.
Jeff Driskel is near that mark already.
Driskel threw at a 63.7 percent clip in his only full season as Florida’s starter in 2012.
Before being sidelined against Tennessee in 2013 with a broken fibula, he had a 68.9 completion percentage.
But Driskel is not one to be caught up in numbers.
"When you start to think about numbers, you start to just take easy things to get the numbers up," Driskel said. "But if you do take what the defense gives you, at the end of the day you’ll be at around 65-70 percent. That’s kind of a number you want to be at the end of the year."
McGee has strange Saturday: For the first time since 2010, tight end Jake McGee wasn’t on the sideline of a Virginia Cavaliers football game as UVA fell to UCLA in a hard-fought 28-20 contest.
McGee was sitting in a hotel room, getting ready to play for his new team for the first time, a game that never ended up happening thanks to lightning and the condition of Florida Field.
"I watched as much as I could in the hotel," McGee said. "It was tough to watch, a lot of weird feelings but I thought the guys played hard."
Gorman ready for opener: Defensive back Jabari Gorman can’t think of anything else but Saturday’s opener against Eastern Michigan.
He, like the rest of Florida’s team is chomping at the bit to get on the field after having lightning ruin the game against Idaho.
As Florida prepares for Saturday’s game against Eastern Michigan, they ready themselves for a run-happy unit, content to pound the rock with power more than they are to play pitch and catch all over the field.
Gorman isn’t worried though.
"They’re a power team, nothing tricky about their formations and stuff like that," Gorman said. "They just run the power in different formations and with a good defensive line as we got then we look like we’ll have a great chance."
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
Jeff Driskel warms up in the rain before Florida's suspended game against Idaho on Saturday in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
