“When the opportunity presented itself, the Gators feasted on opposing quarterbacks.”

David Wunderlich looks at how Florida tops the conference in terms of returning sack production in 2020.

Historically speaking, 2019 was an impressive year in that regard.

As a team, UF came up with 49 sacks. The only teams with more in the conference since 2009 were the 2015 (52 sacks) and 2016 (54) Alabama teams that featured a trio of sackmasters in Jonathan Allen, Tim Williams, and Ryan Anderson.

However, those Crimson Tide teams played 15 games versus the Gators’ 13 of a year ago. On a per-game basis, Florida’s 3.77 per game is the most in the SEC since ’09. When you rack up a ton of sacks, you can lose the league leader and still have the most coming back.

That being said, the bulk of that production came in just a few games.

You probably remember that the Gators had a remarkable ten sacks in the Week 0 opener against Miami. They also had six against Vanderbilt and eight against FSU’s dreadful offensive line. Total those three games up, and you come out with 24. So, roughly half of the team’s sacks came in three games.

I will highlight that those were all Power 5 teams, because against FCS competition Florida had five sacks against UT-Martin and four against Towson. They probably could’ve had more if they didn’t empty the bench and go relatively vanilla against those teams.

But, add in those two lower-division opponents and you get 33 in five games.

And when you look at sacks on a per game basis against ranked teams, Florida finished twelfth in the conference last season.

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