Well, this Ian Boyd piece got my attention in the second paragraph:
At times the Gators seem like one of the most controversial teams in college football for the upcoming season. There are those that think they’re wildly overrated with little chance of showing up, and then there are those that expect that they could be “back.”
The post explores what he calls “Florida’s big strategic challenge”, and I have to admit it surprised me to learn what he pointed out. Take a look at this chart:
For some reason, the state doesn’t produce quality offensive linemen in the numbers you might expect. From the Gators’ perspective, that problem is only made worse by the number of schools fighting over the talent pool.
Compare those numbers to Georgia’s.
Georgia has half the population of Florida, yet is producing quality offensive linemen on roughly the same level. And Kirby Smart hasn’t had to share with two in state P5 programs, either.
Boyd concludes that Dan Mullen is playing the hand he’s been dealt with this “challenge”.
For now the interesting factor is that the 2020 Gators don’t need to be a dominant run blocking offensive line. It’s more important that they’re reliable in pass protection.
For years, championship Gator lines were built around making the most of Floridian skill talent in power running schemes. Despite serving as an architect for those championship Gator units of years past, Dan Mullen now has Florida on a path to win by unleashing Floridian skill talent with the passing game.
Will that work? Stay tuned.
Get The Picture 
Fuck those motherfuckers!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Would like to see those numbers as they relate to students from the state not transfers from other states……#FTMF
LikeLike
If you cant express yourself any better than that then you should not even take up our time with any comments.
LikeLike
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
LikeLike
LikeLike
“Dan Mullen now has Florida on a path to win by unleashing Floridian skill talent with the passing game.” That is there only offensive hope. When your rushing offense ranks 13th in the SEC and you played against the 11th, 12th and 13th worse SEC opponents at stopping the run, the passing game is the only place you can go.
LikeLike
Kirby has “Charlie-Stronged” Mullen.
Out-talented him on defense and bullied his offense into underperforming yearly vs the their scoring average. Mullen’s lack of physicality will play against lesser teams, but will get consistently exposed against elite defenses.
We’ve held UF to 7,17,17 in the past 3 years.
I think that holds this year. I would be surprised if they break 20 without a huge amount of turnover luck. May have been good enough if we kept Coley, but I just don’t see it against a competent OC.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Including negative yards rushing last game.
LikeLike
Maybe Bergman’s rule?
LikeLike
When were Florida championship teams built on power running schemes?
LikeLike
Yeah, I’d like to know that also. They’ve never been a ground and pound team.
LikeLike
What do you think they were doing with Tebow all those years? He was UF’s leading rusher in 2009, with 217 carries.
LikeLike
I’d consider those 3 years an outlier due to GPOOE, and Corch’s obsession with Timmy breaking Herschel’s legitimate TD record.
LikeLike
Related: when did the team who couldn’t run win in Jacksonville?
LikeLike
One point that I might disagree slightly with Senator is the idea that the Gators have to contend with 2 in state power 5 competitors and Georgia has none. For all practical purposes, Auburn and Clemson are essentially in-state programs and maybe with Collins, Tech becomes a “somewhat” more challenging foe. Obviously Kirby has not let any of this bother him in his recruiting crusade, but sometimes I think Georgia’s in state competition is greater than folks think.
LikeLike
You can’t go there and not acknowledge, as Boyd does, that Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson recruit the state of Florida hard.
LikeLike
True. But they, and Tennessee, also recruit Georgia hard, too. Floruda has tons of athletes and also HS weightlifting is a sport. Surprising they don’t produce more OL, or at least keep more at UF
LikeLike
Anybody know which state produces the most quality offensive lineman.
LikeLike
How’d that Floridian skill talent in the passing game work out on 4th and an inch last year?
LikeLike