In 2020 the Florida Gators all but abandoned the running game completely. At the time Florida was putting up the kind of passing numbers reserved for a video game with the settings turned on the easiest mode. It left the running backs an afterthought, glorified offensive linemen — until the Georgia game where they led the team in receiving — but they certainly weren’t the feature of the offense, far from in.
With the departures of Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts, and Kadarius Toney the conventional wisdom all offseason was that Dan Mullen and Florida would go back to a run-heavy offense.
The first game showed just how dangerous a completely new style of offense could be. The Gators rushed for 400 yards in the season opener — the most in a season opener in program history, breaking the previous record of 369 rushing yards vs. Charleston Southern in 2009. Florida actively tried to press the issue and pass more against USF the following week but still went back to what it does best, rushing the ball for 363 yards and three scores.
“Do I really gotta answer that,” Dameon Pierce said jokingly when asked if he’s having more fun this season being featured in the offense? “It’s fun, you know, anytime my number called, I’m just trying to make something that I prepared for, ready to make a play. But, obviously, it’s fun, they don’t know whether to go for the quarterback or the running back, so it makes it easier to run on my end.”
The true test came in the third week of the season. The vaunted Florida run game was facing a true test against Alabama. Sure, Florida was leading the nation in rushing but they hadn’t been tested by a Power Five opponent. There’s no way they’d be able to move the ball like that against the No. 1 Crimson Tide.
What happened was Florida imposing its will on Alabama. The offensive line pushed the Tide around, they created holes, and they dominated.
Still, Florida came up short, something their gruffly spoken coach John Hevesy mentioned after the game.
“To this point, we’ve done enough to be successful, two out of three games,” Hevesy said bluntly. “We got to be more successful. In my mind, I told my kids, we’re 36 inches short of being successful last week so we’ve got to get back to the drawing board and get better at it this weekend, what we’re doing.”
Like Pierce, however, this style of offense is more fun for the linemen as well. First-year starter Kingsley Eguakun is having the time of his life getting the opportunity to not only start but lead the way for the Gators’ rushing attack.
“Personally, I really like running the ball, you know what I mean? I think as an O-line we have a different mentality now,” Eguakun said. “Like, we really want to come off the ball and knock people back and. like, assert our dominance on people.”
This week presents a new challenge. The Tennessee Volunteers have the SEC’s second-best rushing defense allowing just 54.33 yards per game. Granted, that’s against Bowling Green, Pittsburgh, and Tennessee Tech. The Gators present a much heartier challenge than Tennessee’s opponents to this point but the goal for the Volunteers will be to stop or at least slow down the Gators’ rushing plans.
“A lot of positives in what we’ve done (defensively) in the run game,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said during the SEC Teleconference. “There have been times when the quarterback has escaped the pocket and made plays with his feet. That’s a big part of the ballgame in this one. Both of their quarterbacks have the ability to use their feet and be a real threat out in space — make plays and can throw it down the field. They also run like runners. They have the ability to make you miss or run through a tackle too. Tackling will be a big part of it, containing them inside the pocket and bottling them up will be a big part of it, too.”
Nobody has been able to stop it and Florida will be looking to blow through any stop signs or red lights the Vols try to put up.