GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Just before we step into the new decade, the Florida Gators will travel to South Florida to take on Virginia in the Orange Bowl, the second oldest bowl game behind the Rose Bowl.
The 24th ranked Cavaliers are coming off a 62-17 loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship. Although they lost, they were still good enough to make it to their conference championship, something the Gators weren’t able to accomplish this year.
“We know they are a very hungry team,” said quarterback Kyle Trask. “We are also a hungry team, too. They have a lot of talented guys. They wouldn’t be in the Orange Bowl if they didn’t.”
On the defensive side of the ball, they have some talent. Junior linebacker Zane Zandier is one of their most powerful weapons with five sacks and an interception that resulted in a touchdown on the season.
“I know they got some real players, some really long, lengthy guys, very physical,” said linebacker Jonathan Greenard. “It’s going to be a hard-fought game. It won’t come easy. Obviously, we’re going to do what we impose, impose our will.”
As a team, they’ve racked up 45 sacks for 287 yards this year. They come in at seventh in the FBS on that statistic, which could pose a challenge to Florida’s shaky offensive line. The guys on the line will have to pay special attention to protecting the quarterback in this game if they want to come out on top.
“A group of guys that plays really hard and they throw a lot at you,” said offensive lineman Brett Heggie. “They do a lot of different blitzes. Just something we’re going to have to adjust to and get used to with these two weeks of practice.”
On top of that, Bronco Mendenhall’s team has forced four fumbles and caught 11 interceptions for 279 yards and two touchdowns. Their pass rush is also impressive, breaking up 43 passes on the year.
“They play really, really hard,” said wide receiver Josh Hammond. “He has those guys fired up every week. They come out and play extremely hard and they throw a lot of different variations out there. They blitz a lot, confuse the offense, and put a lot of pressure on us to make plays in one-on-one situations."
Those one-on-one situations will give the Gators the chance to choose their best matchups, so they can execute and bring the win back to Gainesville.
One area where the Cavaliers seem to struggle defensively is in the red zone. They’re ranked 57thin the FBS, allowing 15 rushing touchdowns and nine passing. As long as Florida can get into a good rhythm on offense and keep the ball moving down the field, they should be able to make it into the end zone without much trouble, not to say that it’ll be easy. It’s been a while since the Gators have been on the field, so getting back into that rhythm will be key.
“Getting ready to play, I think one of the keys of the bowl game too, it's not always your opponent, it's you,” said Dan Mullen. “Do we have that mental and physical toughness, within how we prepare, and how we go execute in the game when we haven't been in our in-season routine of going every week, every week, every week, you take all this time off, do you have the mental and physical toughness to prepare and execute at an extremely high level. I think you'll see that in a lot of bowl games, it's not always just your opponent but it has a lot to do with yourself as a team to have success in bowl games."
“We have a lot of off time right now, we are not in school,” added Hammond. “We will prepare, prepare, prepare, and try to prepare ourselves as much as possible so that we can execute at a high level when the time comes.”
