ANALYSIS: Inside look at Florida Gators’ biggest strength, weak area as the Miami Hurricanes continue preparations for huge season opener

Miami Hurricanes fans are confident heading into the season opener.

Florida Gators fans likewise are confident.

It’s that preseason optimism that springs eternal, right?

Vegas sees the opener as a pretty even match, with Miami generally favored by two or three points on the road.

Which brings us to today’s topic: A closer look at the Gators … from the Florida side. Because while Miami media and fans have been playing close attention to the goings-on in Coral Gables, perhaps they haven’t been quite as tuned into what is happening up the road in Gainesville.

Today GatorsOnline’s Nick De La Torre shares his take on Florida’s biggest strength and weakness … areas that Miami coaches no doubt have already taken clear note of and are preparing for.

Florida’s biggest strength?

“The Gators biggest strength this year was actually a huge question mark heading into last season, and that’s Graham Mertz ,” per De La Torre. “Billy Napier said they scouted more than 20 quarterbacks in the transfer portal and chose Mertz. Most Florida fans looked at Mertz as a quarterback coming from a program in Wisconsin that didn’t play like they knew the forward pass was legal. Sure, go to Wisconsin to get a transfer portal offensive lineman, but a quarterback? Mertz also had major interception issues for the Badgers. The Gators went into the 2023 season a major question mark at quarterback and Mertz nearly every question. Mertz led the SEC with a 72.9% completion percentage (261-358). The 23-year-old set career-highs in completions (261), passing yards (2,903), touchdown passes (20), completion percentage (72.9), passing yards per game (263.9), and efficiency (157.8) while throwing a career-low three interceptions, and tied his career-best with four rushing scores. A lot of what he was asked to do in the first half of the season was simply to manage the offense. The Gators ran the ball effectively and threw short to intermediate passes. They never asked Mertz to win a game with his arm until Florida went to South Carolina. That week the Gators trailed late and needed Mertz to win a game with his arm, which he did leading a fourth quarter comeback while throwing for a career-high 423 yards.

“Mertz goes into year two of the Florida system. We’ve spoken to him about his level of comfort in and knowledge of the system and he contends that he’s light years ahead. There’s historical reason to believe that he should take a leap in his second year. Now, there are still some questions about Florida’s ability to push the ball down the field consistently in the passing game. Mertz has enough arm strength, but he didn’t have a lot of time to throw last year.”

In other words, Miami’s D line better be gearing up to really get after Mertz, right? So this game will have a lot on the shoulders of Akheem Mesidor, Rueben Bain, Elijah Alston, Simeon Barrow, CJ Clark et al.

As for the Gators’ perceived biggest weakness, per De La Torre? Well, that also feeds into the above … because he points to the UF offensive line.

“This has been the area where I differ the most from the Florida coaching staff,” he says of Florida’s biggest weak area. “The Gators contend that they have more talent and depth on the offensive line than they have had in the past three years. I’m not sure that Florida’s offensive line is markedly better heading into the 2024 campaign. The Gators return starters in left tackle Austin Barber and center Jake Slaughter. Barber moved from right tackle to left tackle ahead of the 2023 season but struggled at his new spot. He won’t use injuries as an excuse, but I think the foot and shoulder injuries — the latter of which needed surgery immediately after the season — hampered his production. I think he’ll be better as long as he’s healthy this year. Florida found something in Jake Slaughter, who had spent three years at Florida backing up Kingsley Eguakun. Slaughter played well and they expect big things from him in the middle of the line. Sophomore Knijeah Harris is expected to start at left guard. He played well as a freshman and should be a solid starter. The right side of the offensive line is where I think Florida could struggle. The Gators slid Damieon George from tackle to guard after a really tough 2023 season. They added a redshirt senior transfer in Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson to start at right tackle, but are continuing to work other players in both of those spots and I don’t know they have landed on a true starting five.”

A final takeaway from De La Torre hits the nail on the head when it comes to Miami’s DL vs. UF’s OL being a key in this game, especially since the Canes need to get a lot of pressure because their secondary lost four starters and is somewhat a question mark area even with transfer portal additions like safety Mishael Powell and CB D’yoni Hill.

“Miami’s defensive line is a tall task for any team, and the Gators will need to figure out how to stop or slow down the likes of Rueben Bain in order to give Graham Mertz time to try and attack Miami’s secondary,” De La Torre says.

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