[W12: UF Post-Game] Mizzu, Bowling and Recruits

[Weeze]

Gators Dismantle Tigers! 

Florida Powers its way to 6th Win and Bowl Bid

Jr RB Ryan Bowman, 20 attempts for 164 yards and 2 touchdowns, 2 catches for 12 yards, 1 touchdown. 

 

          The Gators return to Gainesville following a dismantling of the Missouri Tigers for their first conference road win of the season, and just the second while under the direction of Coach Weeze. The first came against Vandy in Week 8 last season when the Gators won 38-7. The Gators have struggled horribly on the road this season, honestly they have struggled on the road the last two seasons. Every road game last season was a big loss. This season... the Gators have improved slightly with two road wins and 1 close loss. However that close loss was against Georgia in Jacksonville where the Bulldogs pulled off a 21 point comeback to beat the Gators 24-21. Every other road loss was not at a neutral site and the Gators have loss by ten points or more. The worst being against LSU last week falling 34-7. This win was not only important in restoring some moral after the LSU beatdown, but the win allowed the Gators to be Bowl eligible for the first time. It was said early in the season that this team was perhaps the worst on paper that coach Weeze has coached in his 3 seasons. Given how good that Arkansas team was, and how much better the Florida team was last season compared to this season, Few expected this team to win more than 2-3 games. Yet here we are with 6 games in the W column, and a chance for a 7th next week against a Florida State team with a young QB coming into a hostile environment and a Florida D-Line that has been surprisingly active at getting to the QB.

 

Sr WR Kai Benkert 3 receptions for 38 yards.

 

          The Gators offense rebounded after losing to LSU last week. They Scored a season high of 45 points, as well as a career high for Coach Weeze. The Florida Faithful have not had much to cheer about with the QB play of the Gators really the last two years, but much more this season as Kelly has just been the best option of a bad group. On the ground he has been very good running the triple option. But when ever he dropped back to pass, you can't help but hold your breath. He has been, to his credit, been able to keep the ball away from the opposing defenses allowing only 2 int. His Accuracy an appalling 47% kind of makes that less impressive though. Still, he is only 2 TD away from having the single touchdown record for Florida(until Howard hopefully wipes that record off the map) and Saturday he had a hell of a game. By far his most impressive, he was 10 of 14 with 2 passing touchdowns. His backup, Matt Goldman 3 of 4 and 47 passing yards made his own Prescence felt. The two of them helped keep drives alive, and manage to score a few points for themselves. As far as their receiving weapons, its hard to say anyone had a great day, but when you have 9 different receiving targets, no one is going to look like an allstar. Sr Kai Benkert did walk away with the most receiving yards at 38 yards on 3 receptions. 

 

          The heart and soul of this offense, as it has been all season has been Junior Runningback, Ryan Bowman. Bowman had another wonderful day as he continues to push the single season and career rushing record higher and higher. On 20 carries, Bowman rushed for 164 yards and two touchdowns. Through the air, he caught 2 passes for 12 yards, and a receiving touchdown. So far on the season, he has ran for a total of 1184 yards and 11 touchdowns. Add another 18 receptions for 138 yards, 1 touchdown. Considering how often he shares carries, he has been putting in some work. FB Tommy Murton, RB Mason Matthews and of course Shereece Kelly all put in solid work on the ground as well. Murton posted 65 yards on 13 attempts and 2 touchdowns. Matthews had 16 attempts with 64 yards, Kelly rounded out major contributors with 14 carries for 59 yards. All in all, the Gator offense turned in 359 yards of offense on the ground. Their rushing offense this week was higher than their entire offense against LSU the week before. 

 

Sr ILB Keenan Williams, 4 Tkls, 1 TFL

 

          The Gator Defense was much more active this week than it had been the last couple. In fairness, they did manage to get one sack last week against LSU, but the one lone good play on defense didn't help the team much in the blow out. This week alongside sacks, tackles for loss and take aways, they manage to keep Mizzu off the board the entire first half. Mizzu didn't do much of anything until the first string defense came off the field. Darrell Capela claims, easily, the defensive player of the game. The senior CB came away with 2ints to help continue the gator dominance in the first half. he only walks away with 2 tackles, but we will forgive that when you also have a couple take aways. DE Chad Iyiegbuniwe managed to find the score sheet after a few weeks to gain another sack on the year. He is back to leading the team in Sacks with Wilfredo Smith only half a sack behind him. No defender in this game has eye popping numbers as most of them only played half a game, and even in that half they weren't on the field that often between Florida controlling possession so well, and Floridas ability to get Missouri off the field. 

 

Florida Commits SS Paul Pomposelli(Left) and CB Juan Hartmann(Right)

 

          Florida has fallen a little over the last couple weeks in the recruiting Rankings. Unfortunately for the Gators they lost a few targets who committed elsewhere, which did include some needs. A Safety, TE, WR and FB. This left Florida to struggle and find the next wave of recruits to focus on. They did finally Land a couple targets, one who was a major need, Safety Paul Pomposelli out of Watkins Georgia chose Florida over Eastern Michigan. The 3* Freshman to be will likely be the direct backup for Chris Nieves. Nieves will be the only remaining SS on the team at the end of this season, and has spent the last two seasons playing the nickel spot. The Gators as a whole have very few options at Safety. Aside from Nieves, only Fr(Given redshirt this season) John Lee and Junior Joel Wright will be on the team next season. Shaun Thomas, is another safety that the Gators landed earlier this year who will be fighting in camp for a back up role. Wright is the starter to be next season across from Nieves. After that, Lee and Thomas will be fighting hard to see who will be starting alongside Pomposelli.

 

          Juan Hartmann will be joining a crowded CB room. Mendoza and Moore, 2 freshman that are currently redshirted, are more than likely the starters come next season in the 1 and 2 spot. They will battle it out again this season to see who is 1 and who is 2. Hartman will be fighting with everyone else to see who can claim that 3 and 4 spot. Regardless how this battle shapes out, Florida fans have a lot of reason to be excited about the secondary to come. That is a lot of 4* about to be on the field defending against the pass. 

 

          The Gators currently Ranked 8th in the nation, 3 spots lower than their highest rank of 5. They are still 2nd in the SEC behind Tennessee. So far they have 14 Signed commits with 1 or 2 more possible signings this week.

	Forename	Surname	Pos	Stars	Potential	Type	City	St
	Gordon	Battista	K	3*	B-	Power	Miami	FL
Spec. Teams	Charles	White	P	3*	B	Balanced	Key West	FL
	Forename	Surname	Pos	Stars	Potential	Type	City	St
	John	Harwell	DE	4*	B	Speed	St.Johns	FL
Defense	Michael	Baig	DT	4*	C+	Pass Rusher	Minneola	FL
	Juan	Hartmann	CB	3*	C+	Ball Hawk	Ft Myers	FL
	Shaun	Thomas	FS	4*	B	Zone	Tampa	FL
	Paul	Pomposelli	SS	3*	C	Zone	Watkinsville	GA
	Forename	Surname	Pos	Stars	Potential	Type	City	St
	Maximillian	Howard	QB	5*	B	Balanced	Bolles	FL
Offense	Edward	Watkins	WR	4*	B+	Route Run	Melbourne	FL
	Bubba	Payne	OG	4*	A-	Pass Blocking	Flem Isl	FL
	Robert	Alvey	C	3*	B+	Line Capt	Orlando	FL
	Mark	Yamada	C	3*	B-	Pass Blocking	Miami	FL
	Christopher	Turnbull	OT	4*	C	Run Blocking	Oviedo	FL
	Joshua	Leale	OT	4*	C+	Balanced	Naples	FL