Gameday

There are two games from this season that provide insight into today's Florida vs. Alabama game. First is Florida vs. Georgia. The Bulldogs have an offense with some significant similarities to Alabama's offense. They have a great, power running back (Knowshon Moreno) and a big play wide receiver (A.J. Green). Florida's strength is its pass defense, and they are good at both man-to-man and zone. They played a lot of man-to-man against Georgia to limit Moreno (17 carries, 65 yards.) Georgia was productive through the air (292 yards) but also produced three interceptions. Florida will try this same formula against Alabama.

Alabama's Glen Coffee might actually be a more explosive runner than Moreno, and their stellar freshman receiver, Julio Jones will definitely be playing on Sundays. However, I don't think Alabama has the confidence in John Parker Wilson to let him attack Florida's man-to-man play on the WRs. If they can make some big plays in the air earlier in the game, then they can win. If not, then it is hard to see Bama putting up enough points or controlling the clock enough.

The other important game is Alabama vs. LSU. LSU's running backs, Keiland Williams and Charles Scott, combined for 180 yards, 2 TDs on the ground against the vaunted Alabama defense. Alabama must do better against Florida's running backs. Look for Florida to use Rainey and/or Demps out of the ever-popular Wildcat formation. They have been experimenting with Percy Harvin out of that formation, but Harvin is out today. Everything has been pretty vanilla out of it, but you gotta figure Urban Meyer would save the more creative Wildcat plays for a game like this. Florida's rush attack is very similar to LSU's, so Alabama has to do better against it. They can't count on turnovers like they got against LSU. The thing that is going to be tough for them is that this game is on artificial turf, giving a boost to Florida's speedsters.