Overview
Date: Saturday, 28 September 2019 at 4:00 Eastern on the SEC Network.
SEC Hosts: Taylor Zarzour, Matt Stinchcomb, Alyssa Lang
Gator IMG Announcers: Mick Hubrt, Lee McGriff, Tate Casey on Sirius 137/ XM 190 or on WRUF/ Tune-In
Team Information
Florida: Dan Mullen (83-49, 40-42) 11 seasons overall; (14-3, 7-3) 1+ seasons at Florida
Towson: Rob Ambrose (65-67) 12 seasons; (62-60, 39-43 CAA) 11 seasons at Towson
Description
The Florida Gators host the Towson Tigers in an FBS-FCS tune-up before the Gators head into the SEC gauntlet that includes #7 Auburn (in Gainesville, 5 October), #4 LSU (at Baton Rouge, 12 October), South Carolina (at Columbia, 19 October), and #3 Georgia (neutral site Jacksonville, 2 November).
Intel
Towson (3-1, 1-1) is outscoring its opponents 40.00 to 24.75, or a total of 160-99. Their victories were a close 28-21 battle at the Citadel, a Johnny Unitas Stadium home opener curb-stomping of North Carolina Central, and a 45-23 beatdown of Maine. Last year the Tigers were 7-5 (5-3), with a notable 20-51 loss to Wake Forest. In the loss to Wake Forest, QB Tom Flacco engineered touchdown scoring drives on it first two possessions and went 35/51 for 345 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 INT. The Tiger hurry-up, spread offense was aided by excellent special teams giving Flacco a shorter field to work with as he spread the ball to nine different receivers. Towson does not have much of a running game in terms of overall yardage, but they are earning 4.9 yards per rush on the few rushes they attempt. They average 22 yards per kickoff return, but they also allow 22 yards per kickoff return. Due to their lack of running game and their sometimes hurry-up spread, they tend to come out on the short end of time-of-possession. The Tigers do have one of the best red zone offenses in all of football (FBS or FCS) with a 90% red zone scoring rate, including a respectable 71% red zone touchdown rate.
The Tiger's defensive leaders include:
- 50 Robert Heyward, 19 solo tackles, 3.5 TFL, 2 INT
- 27 S.J. Brown II, 16 solo tackles, 1.0 TFL, 1 INT
- 55 Christian Dixon, 22 solo tackles, 4.0 TFL, 1 FUMREC
- QB Tom Flacco, 77/134 1092 YDS 1 INT 139.2 RAT / 34 ATT 281 YDS 6.7 YPR 2 TD
- RB Shane Simpson 22 ATT 168 YDS 7.4 YPR 2 TD
- RB Yeedee Thaenrat 25 ATT 93 YDS 3.6 YPR 8 TD
- WR Shane Leatherbury 19 REC 299 YDS 15.7 YPC 3 TD
- WR Darian Street 12 REC 164 YDS 13.7 YPC 1 TD
- WR Caleb Smith 10 REC 145 YDS 14.5 YPC 0 TD
- WR Chris Clark 8 REC 140 YDS 17.5 YPC 1 TD
Towson is not a team that sparks interest in many Gator fans, nor do they seem scary to most FBS teams, but in the FCS this team has a penchant for scoring a lot of points rather quickly. Last year against Wake Forest, the Tigers scored touchdowns on their first two scoring drives, only to get worn down by larger, faster, strong ACC talent in the second half. Given the Gators' habit of starting slowly (with the exception of the 2:10 scoring drive vs Tennessee), I would expect the game to be frustratingly close in the first quarter before the Gators wear down the Tigers with a running game that has been absent to this point. Dan Mullen will want to score early to give Kyle Trask tune-up time for the SEC gauntlet before trying some new wrinkles to jumpstart the running game without giving away too many plays for SEC film study. Although the Towson passing offense is dangerous, I do expect the Gator secondary to clamp down on deep passes. The Tigers will likely dink-and-dunk their way through the linebackers to get yardage.
Prediction
This game will go one of two ways. Either the Gators will sacrifice total yardage in order to work on the rushing game, or they will roll out the same plays with minor tweaks to personnel. Expect the first quarter to be close before the Gator offense gets going and the ferocious defensive line begins camping out in the Tiger backfield. Do not be surprised if Towson scores first, but this game should end up being 42-14 or 32-14 depending on how well the Gators figure out the running game.
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