SEC Trap Games: Florida

by Year2 on Aug 25, 2010 12:01 PM EDT in SEC Football

The Game: Florida vs. Mississippi State

Date: October 16

The Setup: Florida at Alabama, October 2; Florida vs. LSU, October 9

Thanks to the rotation of the SEC West schedule, Florida has a very tough back-to-back to start October. First comes the Armageddon game at Alabama (where Urban Meyer somehow got waxed 31-3 by Mike Shula in '05), followed by LSU's biannual trip to the Swamp. Both games will be about as intense as they come. I don't need to tell you why the Bama game is big, and Florida's coaches always make a big deal of LSU.

Standing in between those games and the Gators' bye week is Mississippi State. Normally the Bulldogs play their tough games against Florida in Starkville, not Gainesville. They've had a lot less luck on the road. Even so, UF will be pretty beat up after the two previous weeks, a time period in which MSU takes on Alcorn State and Houston. The Cougars will be tough to defeat, but they don't exactly play a punishing style.

Despite the fact that Florida's offense will have changed a bit under the guidance of Steve Addazio and Scot Loeffler, it will still be very much an Urban Meyer offense that the Gators run this fall. If anyone outside of Gainesville knows that kind of offense well, it's State head coach Dan Mullen. His defense gave Florida some fits in last year's contest, even if it didn't have the personnel to shut it down entirely. That defense should be a bit stronger this year.

The game will probably be a noon hour contest on the SEC Network, and we all know what happened the last time a team from Mississippi played under such circumstances. If the Gators are looking to get an early start on their bye week and overlook the visitors on this day, they'll greatly regret it.

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Comments

there's a difference between Ole Miss and Miss. State

Miss. State isn’t as good as Miss. is on the road, Bob Patrino was never good on the road especially when he was in Atlanta. After that game in ’08 Myer never looked past an opponent and I doubt he ever will

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by southman on Aug 25, 2010 12:11 PM EDT reply actions

O RLY?

Ole Miss went 1-3 on the road in the SEC last year, only beating Vandy.

by hailstate on Aug 25, 2010 2:12 PM EDT reply actions

Oh, God, I can't believe I'm one of "those people" now...

… but it’s biennial trip to the Swamp. LSU has a biennial trip to the Swamp. Biannual means every 6 months.

by vineyarddawg on Aug 25, 2010 2:21 PM EDT reply actions

Biannual can mean both twice a year and once every two.

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by Year2 on Aug 25, 2010 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions

I think the main differences between the '08 Ole Miss and the '10 Miss. State team is

that Ole Miss was able to sneak up on many teams, we had quite a few offensive weapons at our disposal (Mike Wallace, Good Snead, Shay Hodge, Dexter McCluster), and a great defense with great DEs. State however will not be able to quite sneak up onto other teams as we did in ‘08 since last year they alerted teams that they were stepping up there team play. The other thing is they lost their game changing offensive weapon Anthony Dixon, I don’t see as yet that they have the capability this year of improving their offense (I think they could possibly regress unless they find some good replacement backs). Especially since their starting QB has questionable passing accuracy but can run, and their other QB Russell has not taken an SEC or college snap yet. They could be decent on offense or they could be a bust. And just like Mullen knows Meyer’s offense, Meyer should know Mullen’s offense.

by Jalakin on Aug 25, 2010 2:51 PM EDT reply actions