UF V. BAMA: DEBUNKING THE POWER V. SPEED MYTH PART 2, AND OTHER PEARLS…

  SNL would like to begin by noting that the majority of his peers, in typical fashion, have moved past Florida’s dominating win over Alabama and are now scouting Oklahoma while making reservations in Miami on their Blackberry.  Sad, but true.  SNL’s attempts to stave off this laconic approach to Saturday’s game with the top-ranked team in the Country have been unavailing. 

More on that later.  Right now, SNL would like to revisit the “Speed v. Power” lexicon as it relates to tomorrow’s game, which has been embedded in the collective psyche of the print media since this matchup became a possibility.

The “thesis” of this post can be summed up as follows:  Florida’s so-called “spread” offense is deceiving and Florida  is every bit the power team that ‘Bama purports to be. 

To explore this contention, there must be a baseline by which the term “power team” is defined.  For SNL’s purposes, a power team is loosely defined as a run-oriented team which emphasizes ball control and field position with a dominant run game and a commensurately dominant defensive front 7.  A power team also excels in the red zone on both sides of the ball.

Using this loose definition as a baseline confirms that Florida is every bit the power-team that ‘Bama is albeit with faster players at the skill positions.  Those who contend otherwise seek support in the flimsiest of ways, which is by comparing and contrasting the base sets of the respective offenses; ‘Bama in the traditional power-I and Florida in the shotgun with receivers and backs all over the place.  The statistics, however, reveal how thin the veneer of this wooden contention is.

CATEGORY	TEAM A	TEAM B
Rush Offense	237 ypg	201 ypg
Yards Per Carry	6.2	4.82
Carries	459	502
Pass Efficiency Offense	#5	#52
Interception Percentage (per 100 attempts)	1.08%	2.15%
Red Zone offense	#9	#51
Red Zone Defense	#5	#58
Sacks allowed	#15	#21
3rd Down Conversion Defense	#15	#1
Sacks	2.5 per game	1.9 per game
Rushing TD’s	40	30
Percentage of plays run/pass	62.4%/37.6%	64.2%/35.8%

Team A, of course, is UF and Team B is ‘Bama.  For comparative purposes, it is useful to note that the foregoing chart is limited to statistics with relevance to the Power v. Speed argument.  There are more compelling statistics that lack overall relevance to this argument-such as total offense (UF #17/’Bama #53), Scoring Offense (UF #3/’Bama #28) and passing offense (UF #61/’Bama #97)-which generally favor UF.  

Irrespective, the conclusion to be drawn is that UF is a power running team which uses unconventional (at least by Bear Bryant standards) means to achieve this moniker.  Though lacking an Adre Smith or Antoine Caldwell, UF’s offensive line is deep, powerful, and more than capable of slugging it out with Cody & Co.  Likewise, UF’s defense is a unit capable of playing gap control against ‘Bama’s behemoths, which will force Parker-Wilson to take to the air early and often.

That said this is not a game to be taken lightly.  Saban is the coaching equivalent of a Sith Lord and will have his team amply prepared for this game.  Saban and his Visigoth hordes should be further motivated by the national media’s love of Florida and the 10-point spread assigned this game by the Vegas degenerates. 

So, while Florida may well prevail, this game will cause some angst amongst the Gator faithful and should end up very close to the Vegas number, let’s say Florida 33, ‘Bama 24.  See ya’ in South Beach playas’!

-So Sayeth the Shepherd