Will Muschamp Needs to Lean on the Run If He Wants to Keep His Job at Florida

Conservative?

Florida has gone ultraconservative.

The Gators offense was effective on Saturday against Georgia, rushing 60 times and passing only six times in a 38-20 win over Georgia in the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville. Kelvin Taylor rushed 25 times for 197 yards and two touchdowns, while Matt Jones toted the rock 25 times for 192 yards and two more scores.

Of those six passes from first-time starter Treon Harris, only four were downfield according to Thomas Goldkamp of 247Sports.com.

Is that the start of a new offensive trend?

Being that one-dimensional in the SEC will get you beaten, but Florida has the luxury this week of tuning up against a Vanderbilt defense that ranks 11th in the conference in total defense (403.6 YPG) and is tied for 12th in yards per play (5.76).

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Will Harris, offensive coordinator Kurt Roper and head coach Will Muschamp open things up this week through the air?

"We have all the confidence in the world in Treon throwing the football," Muschamp said on Wednesday's SEC coaches teleconference. "He's an accurate thrower. He's a guy who's certainly capable of doing whatever he needs to do in the throwing game, so we're going to game-plan what we need to do each week to win the game. If that means throwing it 40 times, we're going to throw it 40 times."

Unsolicited advice to Muschamp: Don't throw it 40 times this week against Vanderbilt.

Fifteen? Sure. Twenty? That may be stretching it.

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Florida should be able to do its part if it gradually builds upon this newfound confidence in the running game against Vanderbilt this week, gives Harris a little bit more responsibility and then takes another small step against a South Carolina defense that's even worse than the Commodores.

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That will get Florida in the position to win the SEC East, which is the first step toward Muschamp saving his job.

The SEC East title? Sound crazy?

It isn't.

The Gators still have a chance to win the SEC East if they win out, if Georgia loses to Auburn and beats Kentucky and if Missouri loses two of its final three (Texas A&M, Tennessee and Arkansas), as long as one of those losses comes on Rocky Top. That would put all three teams at 5-3 in the SEC, but the Gators would have a 5-1 record in the division at that point and earn themselves the nod to Atlanta, according to three-team tiebreaker 2.B.

Team	Overall Rec.	Conf. Record	Div. Record
Missouri	7-2	4-1	4-1
Georgia	6-2	4-2	3-2
Florida	4-3	3-3	3-1
Kentucky	5-4	2-4	2-2
South Carolina	4-5	2-5	2-3
Tennessee	4-5	1-4	1-2
Vanderbilt	3-6	0-5	0-4

Would a division title alone keep Muschamp employed?

Maybe and maybe not. Closing strong and winning the East would be nice, but what if the Gators get worked by Florida State in Tallahassee to close the regular season and again in the Georgia Dome in the SEC Championship Game by the West representative?

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That might be difficult.

The schedule sets up in a way for Muschamp to ease Harris into the role in important games, give him bits and pieces of the playbook down the stretch and, in a perfect world, be more multi-dimensional for the intra-state rivalry with the Seminoles and beyond. 

That's something that Harris would be fine with, according to Muschamp.

"We ran the ball for 418 yards [against Georgia] and didn't need to throw it," Muschamp said. "I told him after the game that 'When you're number is called, we're going to need to throw this thing.' His response was exactly this: 'All I care about is winning.' That's the kind of team guy you want leading your football team."

For Muschamp to stay employed, he needs to build on Harris' team-first attitude, build on the ground game success and only pivot over the final two conference games if the game dictates. The offense can then try some things in the tune-up against Eastern Kentucky and be two-dimensional in the season finale against the Seminoles.

The success on the ground has to be part of the identity—not the entire identity. Building that identity starts right now but will only successful if the Gators take baby steps.

Baby steps, perhaps, to the SEC Championship Game.

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.