In the latest episode of Locked On Gators, host Brandon Olsen provides a deep dive into the upcoming clash between the Florida Gators and the Miami Hurricanes. With both teams gearing up for their season opener, Olsen breaks down the critical factors that could determine the outcome of this high-stakes matchup. He examines key elements such as the performance of each team’s quarterback, the effectiveness of their respective offensive lines, and the impact of their defensive units. Olsen also explores the significance of game-time decisions, including player injuries and strategic adjustments, that could sway the game in favor of one team or the other. Additionally, he analyzes the role of the home-field advantage and how the atmosphere at Ben Hill-Griffin Stadium might influence the game. By dissecting these pivotal aspects, Olsen offers a comprehensive preview of what fans can expect and what might ultimately tip the scales in this thrilling encounter between the Gators and the Hurricanes.
INSIDER PROGRAM: https://joinsubtext.com/lockedongators
Locked On Gators Discord: https://discord.gg/Rysm73k72Y
Whole Nine Sports YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAejxQmqA4tGamuTCveKqLA
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.
Factor Meals
Head to Factormeals.com/lockedoncollege50 and use code lockedoncollege50 to get 50% off your first box PLUS 20% off your next month while your subscription is active!
eBay Motors
From brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.
FanDuel
FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and add a big win to your summer bucket list!
FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)
Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes Deciding Factors for Week One Matchup
It's the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. Every summer I find myself spending way more money than I need to going out and eating and I finally put a stop to it. Thanks our friends at home chef who have helped me save time and money with over 30 options every week. Chef design recipes, fresh ingredients delivered directly to my door for limited time. Home Chef is offering our listeners 18 free meals plus free dessert for life and of course free shipping on your first box. Go to home chef dot com slash locked on for 18 free meals and free dessert for life must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. And welcome back to another episode of lockdown gators part of a lockdown podcast network, your team every day. Thanks for making lockdown gators your first listen of the day, every day we are available daily and free rivers to the podcast and on YouTube. Happy Tuesday. I'm Brandon Olson, find me on Twitter at WMS underscore Brandon. Now through September 22nd, all fan dual customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV visit fandled.com slash locked on to get started. And I do have to talk about the deciding factors between this game because I've said, I think this game is going to be really close. You could disagree. Are you want? That's fine. A lot of people will disagree. Some side will be wrong, right? But for me, I think the biggest deciding factor for the Florida Gators is the offensive line. You look at the offensive line last season. Some of the worst offensive line play that we've seen at the University of Florida. And we've seen a lot of bad offensive line play. Yikes. There were obviously multiple reasons for that. Some of it was injury, some as in people getting forced into spots for people playing while injured, like Austin Barber is a namely one there that did not play well, dealt with injuries for the overwhelming majority of the season last year. But Richie learned the fourth, Mike Amazooka, gone Damian George from tackle to guard. Maybe starting. We'll see officially when the depth chart comes out, which is usually on Wednesdays. So should be tomorrow, but tomorrow we will talk about the Florida Gators depth chart and who I think winds up where. But Florida Gators last year gave up a lot of pressure, right? Again, I mean, Damian George is back. He gave up 29 pressures at tackle, blocking a guard is easier, past blocking a guard is easier than tackle, but still 29 was not a good number. Austin Barber gave up 16 again, spent a lot of the season banged up. And Jake Slaughter gave up nine pressures last season. That's not bad. There's another 30 from Richie and Michael, but obviously they are not here this year. And I've kind of gone on record and I've said, Hey, I'm not entirely sold on Miami's defensive line. And here's I'm not even saying that Miami's defensive line is going to be bad. That's not at all what I'm saying when I say, I'm not sold on them. It's that there's production, but they are different schools. I was Austin was productive at Marshall, not a powerful level, right? I think we can say it's reasonable to have some doubt about things like that. Sydney and Barrow, not a good pass rusher, but whether or not that Miami defensive line is good to have recently put together defensive line, whether or not it's good, great average or horrible. The Gators offensive line needs to do their part, right? We saw far too often last year, the offensive line that you down in the run game. I think this year, especially or this week, especially, it's really important to keep yourself ahead of the stakes, keep yourself in a situation where the run is at least a threat. That's I'm not saying to run the ball all the time, I'm just saying, keep yourself in a situation where the runs a threat, you can run play action without running the ball. That's not even an opinion. That's a fact. Everything will back it up. Even if you're not running the ball, well, play action passing more efficient than dropping or more effective than drop back passing. So you need to keep yourself in a spot where the runs at least a threat, it'll help your play action game, whether or not you actually hand it off or not. So keeping yourself in that spot is important. And running the ball, particularly run blocking will play a big part in that. You're going to need to pick up yardage on first down when you're probably going to run like that's a decent tendency of Billy Napier is to run the ball in first down, gotta put yourself in a plus situation at that point. And of course, we have to talk about pass protection, which we've talked about a good bit in recent weeks, pass protection for the floorigators against Miami Hurricanes. I think that even if we talk about all thin messadore, stimmy and barrow, CJ Clark, whoever you're talking about on that defensive line, I excluded one name in particular, whether you're talking about any of them, whether they work out or not, you still have to deal with Ruben Baine, who Ruben Baine's a very good pass rusher. We've acknowledged this on the show. By the way, if you're one of those Miami fans where you're like, you think Ruben Baine's a very good pass rusher, he's elite, he's the best you've ever seen shut the hell up. No one cares. I'm still complimenting the player just because I'm not complimenting him as much as you think. Yeah, it just sounds stupid. Ruben Baine, very good pass rusher, but the rest of that defensive line, I need to see it. I need to see a messadore struggle to stay healthy, which means it's been hard to really get a proper evaluation of him. Tyler Barron has not been productive against Florida throughout the entirety of his career, and it's like he played opposite James Pierce last year, and James Pierce is probably going to be a top five pick, so it's not like Tyler Barron has struggled as the top pass rusher on the team, he hasn't been the top pass rusher on the team, and he hasn't been productive when he's played Florida. So I'm not going to just randomly believe he's going to, like this is one of those spots where you can go, oh, that was at his last school, that was whatever, yeah, but it was against this school when their offensive line was historically bad, and he still wasn't good. I'm not banking on him being productive all of a sudden. CJ Clark's a relatively unproductive pass rusher. We could talk about production here in terms of snaps count, but most of Miami's defensive line has not had proven production in 2023, or against the Florida Gators, so I need to see it. Ruben Baine, absolutely agree. He's going to be a really good pass rusher. The rest of them though, I just need to see it. Again, not saying that they're bad, just saying I have seen nothing that's going to make me go, oh, they're definitely going to be good. And I think that when it comes to dealing with pass protection, like I said, Florida Gators offensive line last year was bad. I need to see it from them too. I know if you're a Miami fan and you're new here, I'm not saying, oh, Florida Gators offensive line's going to be good this year. I'm saying I need to see it from them. So that's why I've been saying, whether or not Miami's defensive line is good or bad or average, I still need to see the Florida Gators offensive line play well. I think that when you talk about Ruben Baine, for example, who, again, proven pass rusher last year for Miami, when we talk about that, I think that you put Hayden Anson in there. Hayden Anson's six foot seven and three quarters, 265 pounds, I believe. Big dude, right? He's been your pass blocking tight end. One of the best blocking tight ends in the entire country last year, which I also, that's another thing Miami fans just when they go, Miami's tight ends, how 200 yards combined last year. I don't care about a freshman like, no, Hayden Anson, one of the most productive pass blocking tight ends or blocking tight ends in the country, really effective as a pass blocker. He was a big reason or he was a big help last year on the right side, specifically halfway through the season, he started seeing him line up in between offensive linemen and blocking there. When we're talking about, oh, Miami's best rushing threat is Ruben Baine, an edge rusher, who has almost exclusively played on the edge. He played, I think, six snaps last year on the interior of the defensive line, but almost exclusively on the edge, you go, well, he's a really good edge rusher, we're going to have a tackle on him with a tight end. So I would expect that to be the approach instead of the running backs. I think a better approach for Florida's pass protection is, I'd end into pass block running back, maybe a block in release, maybe they go, hey, watch Francisco Mauigova, he's probably going to be their leading blitzer as an off-wall player, watch him. If he's blitzing, then you're pass pro. If he's not, then you're leaking out into a flat or whatever it is, maybe angle. But I think that's your plan when you're talking about neutralizing the Miami pass rush that in theory is going to be pretty good. That's how you have to approach a giant offensive, or Gator's offensive line, is going to be very critical. I said giant's offensive line because I covered the Giants for a sports illustrator as well. And both offensive lines were really bad last year. So a lot of parallels to there, but Florida, again, in theory, addressed a lot of the issues on the offensive line, but we have to see it in practice and not just in theory and in practice, that just means in execution. And until then, jury's out for me on the offensive line for Florida and the defensive line for Miami. We will talk about the next thing that I think will decide this game against the Miami Hurricanes next on lockdown Gators. Not about you. I get tired after lunch basically every single day. Even when I eat a light lunch, it's just like, oh, you can, my body just goes, oh, you can zoom something, let's go to bed. So I need to juice up a little bit, you know, in fact, research by the way shows that more than 70% of us hit the wall after lunch, let a five hour energy shot help you leap over the wall or run through that thing instead of just crashing into it, wily coyote style, which I don't blame you if it happens to you, I really don't. It's tough, but with zero sugar, which is relevant for me, carb, yeah, and a convenient portable size. The perfect pick me up for getting stuff done and the five hour energy website has a ton of flavors, watermelon, tropical burst, Barry, my three, my favorite is great. I like great anything. So as my favorite there, if you get a five hour energy dot com, that's the number five hour energy dot com and get some five hour energy product today, you can use our promo code of locked on CFP to receive 20% off your order to the five hour energy dot com today. You know, we love talking stats here at lockdown. Here's one that's super simple to remember, discover automatically doubles the cashback you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cashback match. That means with discover, you could turn $150 cash back to $300. That's right. You could put it towards some memorabilia you've had your eye on or treat yourself to a premium sports network. You earn and discover doubles. See terms at discover.com/creditcard. Thanks for making a lock on Gators your first listen of the day, every day, we are available daily and free reviews on the podcast and on YouTube. And the next deciding factor for the Florida Gators in this game on Saturday, I think you have to look at the Gators defensive backs. Again, we don't have an official depth chart yet, but my guess would be that the depth chart looks like corner, outside corner, Jason Marshall Jr., Devin Moore, safeties, Jordan Castell, Aisa Turner, Starr, Nickel, Sherry Benson. For Florida that means you've got a new starter, one of your safety spots, a new starter at the nickel, and a new starter at one of your outside corner spots. I understand Devin Moore has started a game before, let's be real here, first time as a starter this season, or this season is his first time as a true starter. So new starters at those three spots, Miami has three receivers on their roster that last year had 800 receiving yards. Granted, one of those receivers did not do that at Miami, and I need to get that point off because I need the Miami fans, like, oh, we had 800 yard receivers returning. I need you to know how stupid you are. That's something you said, okay, needs you to know how stupid you are if you go, well, we have three 800 yard receivers returning, no, you don't. You have two 800 yard receivers returning and one joining your team. He did not have 800 yards at Miami, where he was the wide receiver, wanted Houston. You see how that makes you sound stupid, production he did elsewhere? He comes over and you're like, oh, yeah, he's a returning 800 yard receiver. Be real here, all right. But Xavier Restrepo, very productive out of the slot last year, obviously lined up in the outside as well, but better as a slot receiver last year. You've got Jacobi George is back probably going to be pretty productive this year as well. He's one that I was like, well, kind of thought he might go to the NFL after last season, chose not to, but Xavier Restrepo, Jacobi George are back. Sam Brown has been added to the team. Apparently Elijah Arroyo is the greatest type and that's ever lived according to Miami fans. Yeah, I would expect Miami to take at least a few shots deep throughout the game. And I think they should, right? I mean, last year, Miami through the ball deep, about 10 to 15% of their total passing plays were deep shots. Probably expect to see a similar ish rate to that this year. Maybe, maybe more, you have more, obviously, more faith in can more. But however, he could also just take the underneath throws if they're there. He has actually been historically more of a conservative guy that we think about with big arm. He's actually been conservative when it comes to taking those deep shots, but I think this year we could see probably something shake up and change there. Maybe it's because the better offensive line, maybe it's because better passcatchers. But also I would say, hey, the Florida Gators secondary is unproven at quite a few spots. Last year, they were susceptible to giving up big plays. They should take those shots. And for Florida, that's what makes your DBs such a big deciding factor here. Obviously, your pastor has to get home, but there could be plays where Miami goes, hey, we're going to have a tight end and I'm running back in pass, bro. We're going to have seven blocking for us, three guys running routes in our QB, and we're going to get a deep shot off here. And for and I'm telling you now, I'm expecting that to be the first play of the game, a deep shot. Like that no doubt in my mind, honestly, I'm like Miami seem, first off, Florida gave up a bomb first play last year. And you know, you got cam war, this great offensive line, good weapons, why not take that shot right against a set against a secondary that last year was susceptible to giving up big plays makes perfect sense. But again, for Florida, your DBs, they're tall, they're fast like that, that's been one thing that Florida's done consistently under Billy Napier, bring in big, fast, athletic overall DBs with long arms, like the physical tools you're there to actually teach them to play corner, hopefully with Will Harris added to the coaching staff that will happen. I'm pretty confident in Will Harris's ability to develop. I mean, my stance overall has been, he was at Washington for a few years where they produced multiple first-round picks in the secondary. I mean, Jimmy Lake was their defense was their head coach or DC. And he's historically one of the best defensive back coaches around. So the way that I look at Will Harris is either he was doing a lot of the work that got guys trapped in the first round, or he was watching that guy do that work that was developing these guys to the first round picks. So the way that I look at him, his hands on there. So the way that I look at it is he's got that experience. He's been there. He's done that. Now do it here. You've got great athletes. You can truly put together a great secondary with a bit of coaching. It can happen. And I mean, they're getting tested right out the gate. Right out the gate. We've talked about it last week. It was maybe the week before where Florida last year on a per play basis was pretty decent defensively. It's just that when it came to giving up big plays, they were one of the worst in the country. That's what it was. It wasn't, you know, that, oh, every play was picking up 8, 10 yards. No, it's that you'd have a few good plays and then just a back breaking explosive play. Limit that secondary needs to be better this year. It's got to be a deciding factor in this game where it's an aerate offense, good weapons, good offensive line. So QB is probably going to have time to throw, which isn't even an indictment of your defensive line. I think if you generate pressure and it's like, okay, maybe you do it for a pretty damn good D line. But if you don't generate a ton of pressure, I'm not shocked about that. Miami is expected to have a really good offensive line. We will talk about the final deciding factor next on lockdown gators. Hey, lockdown gators fans, I want to take a moment to give you a heads up on a brand new mobile game that I think you're going to love as much as I do ultimate college football H.C. In this amazing game and simulation, you get to step into the shoes of a head coach and lead your college football program to glory. I'll tell you what, screw the ad copy, okay, we're going to, I'm going to tell you a story here. I took over Mississippi State, right? I was like, you know what, we're going to run an aerate, gonna run a zone blitz scheme. I got fired, right before recording, I was like, you know what, let me finish one more season. I got the little exclamation mark, like, hey, if you don't improve, you're gonna get fired. I got fired. Not great for us at Mississippi State, but Ultimate College Football Head Coach is completely free, has no ads and is 100% playable offline. Use promo code locked on CFB, all caps inside the game store and receive a free boost to your program. To download the game, visit ultimate-cfb.com or look it up on either of the app stores and begin your coaching legacy today with Ultimate College Football Head Coach. Thanks for being a lock on Gators, your first listen of the day, every day, we are available daily and free, we're visiting the podcast and on YouTube. And like I've said, multiple times before, and I will continue to say, until I'm proven wrong, which I don't think I'll be proven wrong, this week, at least this swamp, it's going to play a key part in the Florida Gators vs Miami Hurricanes game this week. And I was talking with someone earlier, and we were on the phone, and we were like, you know what, typically, historically, quarterbacks play worse in the first game of the season. Historically, quarterbacks play worse in the first game of the season. They do, because they generate more chemistry as the season goes on, things like that, right? So historically, quarterbacks perform worse in the first game of the season. Historically, quarterbacks struggle and perform worse at the swamp, okay? Two big factors, right? Historically, Cam Ward plays considerably worse on the road than he does at home. Maybe look it up if you want, almost 8% completion, percentage worse, yards per attempt are down, yards per completion are down, so even when he does complete passes down, more interceptions, less touchdowns, he's historically worse, significantly worse rating. Every metric you look at, he's worse on the road than he is at home. Compare that with, again, quarterbacks typically struggle earlier, quarterbacks typically struggle in Gainesville, they're less productive, they're less efficient, they're less effective. I'm just saying, you pair those together, and it's tough, just that historically, quarterbacks are worse there, and he's worse on the road throughout his career. And I understand Shannon Dawson was like, oh, he's played in big games on the road before. He's kind of, but he hasn't played in as big a game on the road before. He hasn't played in the swamp before. It's hard enough to win in the swamp. And I know there's Miami fans in his Twitter spaces and online, they're like, oh, yeah, it's really hard to win at the swamp, Arkansas won there last year. The only two losses that Florida had in the swamp last year were to Arkansas and Florida State, to beat you guys as well, who win 13 and 0. And yeah, they had a backup quarterback, Florida had Max Brown playing, he was now at Charlotte. Okay, so yeah, I don't take that as, oh, yeah, it's hard, it's easy to win in the swamp. No, it isn't, dummy. It's never been easy to win in the swamp, especially to start the year, Florida's won what, 32, 33, straight home openers. Come on now. Like, let's, let's be a little honest here. Florida's historically great at home. And even when they've been not good in recent years, they've still been good at home. Swamp always shows up. Cam Ward, historically, throughout his career, worse on the road. Quarterbacks in general, historically in recent years, especially, have struggled in the swamp compared to when they play at their home or even when they play at other places on the road, they play worse in the swamp. So it's not just, yeah, quarterbacks are typically worse on the road. It's that they may be worse on the road, but they are even worse in the swamp. Okay. And now there's a new thing with communication here, right? The helmet communication, the play call goes through the helmet to the quarterback. They get to communicate that to the line, get things going yet. Do you know how hard it's going to be for Cam Ward to hear the helmet all properly when the crowds just rock and pre snap? Like the crowd knows that now there's helmet communication. The crowd knows, hey, we've got to be allowed the entire time. Crowd knows that crowds going to be loud. That will probably cause an issue. If Cam needs to make an audible, you're going to have to do things silently, right? You have to. Offensive line communication. A little bit easier being right next to each other. It still might be a little tough for a center to tackle communication there, center to tight end communication there. Still my struggle there, especially because you've got a new center in his first game for Miami in the swamp, going to be a bit tough there. Granted, he's played in big game ad this year's before. He's played in loud stadiums before granted, you know, Miami had a new center last year. By the way, last year, early in the season, offensive line was probably at it at its worst where offensive lines typically get better as the year goes on. So it makes sense, right? It's all about chemistry, all about communication. That's probably going to be thrown off. You could work with a silent count, sure. Those typically still tend to have some sort of communication issue, delay of game, whatever maybe you fall start. There's going to be factors there of the swamp. That's why Florida has historically been very good at home. Even when they've been bad period, they've been very good at home. I know Miami fans could say whatever they want, but up to go into the swamp, I'm going to football game. That's all I'm saying, especially with a new quarterback, new center, things trying to gel little, little rough there, going to be honest with you. And then also there's communication on the back end, secondary communicating to each other. A lot of space gets covered there. Communication needs to be right, can't be playing the game at telephone. Crowd could be loud at times, right? You'll find out 93,000 people are going to be there this weekend. You'll find out. Don Gator is your first listen of the day every day. We are available daily and free revising the podcast and on YouTube for lockdown gators on Brandon Olsen. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter at WMS underscore Brandon. I will see you all next time. A prime member. You can listen to this lock-down podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)
