Fox Sports' Eric Esteban breaks down the Gator offense

[DMoney]

The Gator game is ten days away, so it’s time to go behind enemy lines. CanesInSight sat down with my longtime friend Eric Esteban, Vice President of Media Relations for Fox Sports, a veteran of Scout.com, the Alligator, the Miami Herald, ESPN.com, the Palm Beach Post, Fox Sports Florida, guest lecturer at the University of Florida journalism school, and expert on the Florida Gators. A summary of his thoughts on the Gator offense is below:

On Graham Mertz: Offense was the strong point...

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[grover]

Watched it last night on YT. Mertz and a couple of his wide receivers are the only known high quality starters. I suppose you could argue the LT is decent though he is injury-prone and we see how that sets back players especially OL, and the C has a high PFF grading though we know how those stats can be misrepresentative. Feels like a rationalization given how bad that OL was last year and both of those guys contributed to it. Regardless, the RG and RT spot are not going to hold up against our DL.

I just don't see how that collection of characters is any better than what we regularly play in the ACC, teams like VT or Pitt or UNC that all have a few quality players surrounded by typical P4 players. Don't get me wrong. We have given up 30 points a game to those types of teams half the time these past 2 decades. But if our defense just plays to its skill level and we take care of business, UF is scoring less than a TD a quarter. Which means all Dawson and Ward need to do is get to 28 and we win this game.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

. = .

 

[Reyrey]

Listened to this as well as the one with Manny Navarro. The talk from the Gator side on their team reminds me of how people in the media would talk about the canes in previous years. Feels like justifying the roster and trying to be optimistic despite what is a lackluster team. I can see it getting very ugly for them fast.

Offensively, there is Mertz who is solid but has some flaws. And then maybe 1-2 oline that have “potential” and Wilson. Outside of that it’s a whole lot of question marks. I omit Johnson because I doubt he plays vs us. If he does, he will got to be limited/on a snap count.

I really didn’t listen to their defensive break down. I expect it to be a similar tone of optimism. They were not good on that side of the ball and gave up a ton of explosive plays. Maybe they improved.


Personally, if we just protect the ball and don’t make big mistakes (handle the environment) I think we pull away convincingly. Similar to a Texas AM game last year.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Listened to this as well as the one with Manny Navarro. The talk from the Gator side on their team reminds me of how people in the media would talk about the canes in previous years. Feels like justifying the roster and trying to be optimistic despite what is a lackluster team. I can see it getting very ugly for them fast.

Offensively, there is Mertz who is solid but has some flaws. And then maybe 1-2 oline that have “potential” and Wilson. Outside of that it’s a whole lot of question marks. I omit Johnson because I doubt he plays vs us. If he does, he will got to be limited/on a snap count.

I really didn’t listen to their defensive break down. I expect it to be a similar tone of optimism. They were not good on that side of the ball and gave up a ton of explosive plays. Maybe they improved.


Personally, if we just protect the ball and don’t make big mistakes (handle the environment) I think we pull away convincingly. Similar to a Texas AM game last year.

Think about this.

The Gators need a MASSIVE step forward from nearly every single one of their 22 starters from last year. The only guys on offense (who will start on the 31st) who were good last year were Mertz and Wilson.

Their defense was terrible last year.

So if you think 15-20 positions will suddenly all be better than they were in 2023 during the first game of the season...

 

[Reyrey]

Listened to this as well as the one with Manny Navarro. The talk from the Gator side on their team reminds me of how people in the media would talk about the canes in previous years. Feels like justifying the roster and trying to be optimistic despite what is a lackluster team. I can see it getting very ugly for them fast.

Personally, if we just protect the ball and don’t make big mistakes (handle the environment) I think we pull away convincingly. Similar to a Texas AM game last year.

 

[skyman]

The best is his defensive preview.. defense got COOOOOOOOOOOOKED