No Turnovers Yet

For all the gnashing of teeth going on right now about Florida’s offense and how it hasn’t looked as good as last year’s did, there is one positive side effect of having an overall conservative scheme. A very positive side effect.

So far, the Gators are the only team in the country not to have turned the ball over yet. For comparison, over the last four seasons only one team that played 12 or more games has finished the year with fewer than ten turnovers on the season: 2004 Oklahoma State.

Tim Tebow is in the middle of the longest streak of pass attempts without an interception in school history, and so far none of the running backs have fumbled. Urban Meyer apparently still gets on Emmanuel Moody’s case in regards to fumbling, thanks to has spring game butterfingers, but his performance against Tennessee was nice to see: nine carries, 6.1 yards per rush, no fumbles.

On the positive side, the Gator D has forced nine turnovers so far, a very encouraging number considering they had just 20 takeaways last season. A hallmark of the 2006 national championship team was getting big turnovers at big junctures, and they certainly replicated that against the Vols.

I’m going to go more into detail regarding the offense later this week, but one thing is for sure: if they’re not turning the ball over, how many long plays they break off becomes less important.