Head coach Sylvester Croom has consistently talked about teaching his players not only to be better football players, but better people.
He’s checked up on his players’ progress by showing up in their classes.
Saturday Croom and his players walked on to Scott Field 24 point underdogs. They wound up using the turf as a chalkboard to teach upsets. Here’s a quick review:
Lesson 1: Clock Management — The Dawgs held the ball for 32:38, compared to 27:22 for the Gators.
In the fourth quarter State held the ball for almost 10 minutes.
Don’t think Florida’s D was tired? Ask any Gator how hard it was to catch Jerious Norwood on his 37-yard game-winning scamper or on any other run he made during his 118-yard fourth quarter. Norwood’s performance garnered him Southeastern Conference Player of the Week honors.
Lesson 2: Protect the pigskin — The reason State maintained the ball is they fumbled just once and forced two fumbles and an interception.
The Dawgs also converted nine of 16 third downs, which kept the potent Gator offense from getting back on the field so soon.
Florida has so many offensive weapons, it should be a felony every time the Gators change states.
Converting third downs tires the opposing defense and holsters the other team’s offense.
Conversely, the Gators couldn’t reciprocate the favor. Florida converted just three of 10 third down attempts.
Lesson 3: Bend but don’t break — The Bulldog defense allowed 441 yards of offense, but limited the number of big plays.
Florida scored touchdowns on a 55-yard run by Ciatrick Fason and a 46-yard pass from Chris Leak to Chad Jackson, but State dammed the levee.
Lesson 4: Special teams become magnified — Kicker Keith Andrews stymied Florida’s kickoff return game with five touchbacks.
Punter Jared Cook had an even bigger effect on the game. Cook averaged over 55 yards a punt to earn SEC Special Teams Player of the Week.
Florida returned three punts for six yards. State’s lone punt return came when freshman Jonathon Lowe reeled a 73-yarder for a touchdown.
Lesson 5: Don’t listen to the experts — The true underdog ignores Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Las Vegas.
Maybe class on Saturday wouldn’t be so bad–if Croom is the prof.
Craig Peters can be reached at [email protected].