SEC Football Q&A: With Newfound Confidence, Can Florida Knock off Florida State?
We've reached November, and just like we all planned, Florida head coach Will Muschamp got his signature win.
Wait...what?
Florida's 38-20 win over Georgia on Saturday afternoon in the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party was one of the most surprising developments of the college football season—particularly considering the Gators threw just six passes and ran 60 running plays.
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Is Florida back? What will Georgia running back Todd Gurley do now that the season appears to be lost? Can Mississippi State finish off its perfect season?
Those questions are answered in this week's SEC Q&A.
"@BarrettSallee Based on the Florida-Georgia game performance, can Florida be the one to knock off FSU?
— Phil Webber (@61Webhead) November 2, 2014"
Let's not get carried away.
Sure, Florida looked good against the Bulldogs—particularly running backs Kelvin Taylor and Matt Jones, who combined for 389 rushing yards and four touchdowns. And yes, Florida State's rush defense hasn't been great this year. The Seminoles are giving up 148 yards per game while the Bulldogs are allowing 144.25.
Being one-dimensional against good teams gets you beat. Sure, the bruising rushing attack worked against Georgia, which likely expected at least something from freshman quarterback Treon Harris in the passing game. It won't in the long term, though.
Simply put, that identity has to be part of Florida's identity, not its entire identity.
Meanwhile, Florida State was busy on Thursday night producing the biggest comeback in school history, digging out of a 21-point hole on the road to beat Louisville 42-31. Louisville came in as the No. 1 defense in the country, which is something that FSU fans will certainly use as a selling point for their program without realizing that the "Granthamization" of that defense under first-year defensive coordinator Todd Grantham is still ongoing.
It was a good win for the Seminoles, not a great win or a sign of the offense fixing all of its problems.
Still, the 'Noles are a proven heavyweight with a full repertoire of knockout blows at their disposal while the Gators are nothing more than featherweight with one move at this point.
Give me the heavyweight all day, every day.
No.
NFL folks will tell you it's the smart thing to do for his NFL future, and they're probably right. If you're a running back, you know your shelf life as a pro is limited in this day and age, and the fewer carries you get in college, the more you can get as a pro.
With that said, though, Georgia still has SEC title and major bowl aspirations, and Gurley can play a big part of that. If the Bulldogs win out and gets dominoes to fall around them, they still could enter the Georgia Dome as a two-loss team that would be 60 minutes away from making a "New Year's Six" bowl.
That counts for something. After all, his teammates are the same guys whom he worked with all offseason for the past three seasons, the same guys he spends several hours of days with even when they aren't on the field and the same guys who are depending on him.
That counts for something.
I don't buy the idea that Gurley should hang up his cleats right now simply because Georgia's season might—might—be lost. He and his team still have room to improve, and that starts now and will continue when Gurley comes back for the Auburn game next week.
I'm not sure Mississippi State is being written off as quickly as you think it is, but there's certainly a sentiment out there that the Bulldogs' magical run will be coming to an end soon.
I'm part of that group.
Mississippi State's defense didn't exactly set the world on fire two weeks ago on the road at Kentucky when the Wildcats racked up 401 passing yards against the Bulldogs. Last week against Arkansas—not exactly the world's most explosive passing team—quarterback Brandon Allen racked up 238 passing yards and was picked off in the end zone by Will Redmond with 15 seconds left to preserve the win.
These aren't exactly two of the SEC's best teams, and they had a reasonable amount of success against the top-ranked Bulldogs.
Looming is an Alabama offense that is loaded with talent. Can anybody on Mississippi State's roster cover Amari Cooper? Nobody else has this year, so it's hard to imagine a scenario in which Mississippi State starts a trend.
It's a raucous environment inside Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, and Mississippi State certainly has looked beatable—even at home.
It's more skepticism than anything else.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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