Thanks to Larry Vaught and the Advocate-Messenger I had an all access media pass to Saturday’s UK/Florida game. I was able to watch the game from the press box, and in the 4^th quarter from UK’s sideline. I was also able to see on the field interviews following the game, and attend the post game press conference in the Wildcat Den.

It was a fun experience for me and one I will never forget.

Being a coach, I looked at the game from a little different perspective. I pay great attention to schemes and adjustments looking at the chess game of coaching football. That will be reflected as I break down the offense vs. defense match-ups from Saturday’s game.

UK Offense vs. Florida Defense

Early on, UK did a great job of using checks at the line of scrimmage. What UK typically does on checks is break the huddle and line up quickly, QB Andre Woodson will go through a dummy cadence, then back away from center and look to the sideline to receive the play check from QB coach Randy Sanders, who has it called down to him from Offensive Coordinator Joker Phillips, who is in the press box. On UK’s first drive of the game (which resulted in a TD pass from Woodson to Dicky Lyons, Jr.) they checked five of their eight plays, including the final four. All were successful except a slip screen check that netted only 3 yards. UK also did a good job of using motion to get Dickie Lyons, Jr. matched up against a LB for a shallow crossing route that enabled them to get a good chunk of yardage on the run after catch.

Florida chose to play a defense that would provide safety help to their corners. They did walk up a safety, at times, but usually had only 5 or 6 players in the box while keeping 2 deep safeties against UK sets of 3 or more receivers. This philosophy stayed intact for the entire first half save a few key exceptions.

One was on a 3^rd and 2 during UK’s second series where the Gators tightened down a safety and UK checked into a hitch route on which Steve Johnson beat the corner and gained 14 yards on the play. On the ensuing play, UK checked to their inside zone to the 1 technique (DT lined up in ‘A’ gap) side against a 4-2 front and gained 12 yards. The big play of the drive was a play action pass where Andre Woodson was sacked which set up an unsuccessful FG attempt. It seemed that UK had specific trouble protecting Woodson on play-action calls and this would come back to haunt the Cats numerous times.

However, the long yardage defense that Florida used in the red zone during the first half left me confused. They put 8 in the box by walking a safety up over top of Jacob Tamme at TE, put both DT’s in ‘B’ gaps (guard/tackle gap), and walk up both LB’s in the ‘A’ gaps (center/guard gaps). This left 3 UK receivers playing against one-on-one coverage. On UK’s 3^rd series Keenan Burton had a corner beat on a fade route against this look on a 4^th down and 10, but the ball was overthrown in the end zone.

The only logical reason why I think Florida would use that defensive look in that situation is to try to get UK to check into a screen when they see 7 men on the line of scrimmage. I say this because Florida never rushed all seven as at least one LB would pop back out, at the snap, and sometimes a DE did, also. It just didn’t make much sense to me for them to place their corners in press coverage without any help in a passing situation in the red zone. Later, on UK’s 4^th possession, Florida got in the same front again on a 4th and 8 except they loosened their corners this time. UK ran a stop route in front of the corner and got an easy pitch and catch for the first down. After that play, I did not see Florida use that particular look again.

During the second quarter Florida started to react after some of Kentucky’s checks were called out by Woodson. On UK’s 4^th possession there were back to back plays in which Florida played Nickel Coverage, putting three DB’s into the wide side of the field leaving a 4-2 front. On both occasions, UK checked into their inside zone play. Florida stuffed the first one and then on the second one stunted their LB to the 1 technique side right into the play and got nothing. Following this, UK only checked to the inside zone one more time and that was on a 1^st and 15 in the 2^nd half when Florida greatly loosened their safeties and UK gained 15 yards.

One great check in the 2^nd half came on the 3^rd and 6 where UK called the middle screen to Lyons that went for a 50 yard touchdown. That was one of the last successful checks for UK since they had to work at a little faster pace in the 4^th quarter as they continued playing from behind.

In the 4^th quarter Florida began to stunt a little more up front. I saw some LB stunts and a twist on a 3^rd and 11 play that resulted in a sack of Andre Woodson. They also gave UK more looks with 6 DB’s while leaving only 5 in the box, knowing that UK would have to throw to get back in the game.

Overall, UK was able to get many big plays on the Florida defense. They all came in the passing game and most with matchups against DB’s where a receiver would only have one man to beat after the catch. This means that there was great execution on the part of the UK offense to take advantage of what the Florida defense was giving them in the passing game. I came into the game feeling that UK’s receivers were better that UF’s DB’s. I left the game feeling the same way.

Florida Offense vs. Kentucky Defense

The UK defense used a 4-2 front against the Gators nearly the entire game. When Florida would motion to or give UK a 2 back set (not counting QB) then UK would often bump back down into a 4-3 look. This was probably done because UK wished to try to take away Tebow’s running lanes and force him to beat them throwing the football. The reason I say this is because even against empty sets (formations with no backs) UK stayed in a 4-2 look. This meant that they were single covering all 5 receivers. You don’t see collegiate teams do that often (especially if they are not going to stunt due to having more defenders in the box than the 5 OL can block), but most college teams don’t have a Tim Tebow at QB.

I thought UK did a fair job of stopping Florida’s vaunted shotgun triple option. Florida had 7 or 8 plays where the give back received the ball with minimal success. Tebow only pitched the ball once, which resulted in a minimal gain. However, when Tebow kept the ball on the option he did have success. This can be attributed to the fact that against most any set UK kept their DE’s very wide. This was likely in an effort to keep Tebow from breaking contain and force him into the teeth of the UK defense. I think it was an excellent plan, but one that did little to affect Tebow’s ability to run the ball. However, I am not sure you could totally shut down Tebow’s ability to run the ball. The only way may be to bang Tebow up enough to where he will not run downhill near as hard. That could have been another reason for the use of UK’s particular front.

Besides Tebow keeping the ball on the option there were a couple of other things that hurt the UK defense. One was the use of slants and interior circle routes. There were four different 3^rd down situations that Florida converted using a slant or a circle route. Also, on Florida’s 2^nd possession of the second half there was a 3^rd and goal from the four in which a circle route was dropped. On the next play, Ingram dropped a slant route. Florida then had to settle for a field goal.

The other play that gave the UK defense fits was the jet sweep play. Florida ran jet sweep three times (all in key situations) with good success. Florida runs the jet sweep play out of the shotgun. A receiver will go in full speed motion aiming just in front of the QB. The ball will be snapped when the motion man gets to the near tackle and the QB will hand the ball to the motion man who tries to stretch the defense and sprint through the first vertical seam. The first time Florida ran jet sweep they ran it to the TE side (with no WR) on a 3^rd down and 4 to gain a key first down on their scoring drive to finish the first half. On their first drive of the 2^nd half the Gators ran it again, this time to the split side and gained 20 yards following a missed tackle. The 3^rd time Florida ran jet sweep Percy Harvin took it around UK’s right side for a 24 yard TD.

One cool play that Florida uses due to Tebow’s talents in the fake QB Draw Play-Action Pass (where Tebow will duck his eyes, tuck the ball, and take a couple of steps to the line before pushing off into a 3 step drop). Florida scored on this play during their 3^rd drive with an 66 yard completion from Tebow to Louis Murphy on a go route. One thing that I noticed on this play is that there were two receivers from opposite sides of the formation who were trying to cross about 15 yards downfield and ran into each other. Had Murphy been covered I don’t know if Tebow would have been able to hit his 2^nd or 3^rd options (the deep ball ‘peek’ is usually the first QB’s first look if there is no true read; and that is where Tebow’s eyes went on his drop).

Previous to the game I did not realize that UK cornerback Paul Warford would not play due to injury. In his place, E.J. Adams played admirably. I thought that the offensive staff for Florida might try to pick on Adams a little bit more than they did, but that didn’t happen. In high school football, we coaches salivate when backup corners come into the game.

I thought, as a unit, Florida’s receivers were very sub-par. They dropped many balls while Tebow and the UF offensive line kept many drives alive. One UK DB who I thought had a good game was Marcus McClinton. He made two big hits on UF receivers and did a solid job against both the run and pass. I think he has improved tremendously from last season. He also had a nice hit and wrap on a Tebow QB draw on the goal line before other Wildcat defenders got there to help McClinton bring him down.

For me, the biggest difference in this match-up was the Florida offensive line. They led the Gator rushing attack that averaged 4.6 yards per carry and only gave up one sack of Tebow. I was very impressed with each of the five Gator linemen.

All in all, I felt that the UK coaches had an excellent game plan for Florida. There were some obvious match-up problems for the UK defense with Tebow and their offensive line. However, the UK plan forced Florida into 3^rd down situations 11 times. Of those, Florida converted seven. If just one of those conversions turned out the other way then UK could have been throwing the ball in the end zone for the tie at the end of the game.

What about the kicking game, you ask. My next entry with be a short blurb about how the kicking game played a key role in the outcome of this game (just like any close game at any level). I will follow that up with an entry on my first-hand experiences as a member of the media. Until then, stay out of the rain unless you’re playing football.