Stat Watch: Florida

While last week was absolutely the nadir of the LSU football team in recent years - heck, probably in the last decade plus - it was a weird week for the stat watch. The stats told us it wasn’t going to be any sort of get-well game for the LSU offense, as Troy possessed at least a middle of the road SEC caliber defense. And yet, LSU did move the ball and put up a good yards per play number, but they also turned it over five times. And while Troy’s offense shouldn’t have been able to stand up to LSU’s defense, it in some ways did, albeit again it was helped by LSU’s turnovers. Now we turn our attention to Florida, to see what they can tell us about tomorrow’s game, even if that’s been somewhat fruitless for LSU games so far this season.

Last Season: A note on these stats: The offensive and defensive S&P+ marks are calculated as adjusted scoring averages and for the situational ratings, above 100 is good and below 100 is bad. Links to an explanation on the various stats here:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaa

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/fei

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/fplus

• S&P+ (Percentile): 87.7% (15th in FBS)
• Offensive S&P+: 26.0 (88th in FBS)
• Offensive Run S&P+: 97.5 (86th in FBS)
• Offensive Pass S&P+: 105.9 (53rd in FBS)
• Defensive S&P+: 13.3 (4th in FBS)
• Defensive Run S&P+: 122.9 (12th in FBS)
• Defensive Pass S&P+: 131.0 (6th in FBS)
• FEI: .126 (21st in FBS)
• F/+: 30.8% (16th in FBS)
• Preseason S&P+ Ranking: 18 (15th in FBS)

This Season:

• S&P+ (Percentile): 79.4% (25th in FBS)
• Offensive S&P+: 29.2 (69th in FBS)
• Defensive S&P+: 19.2 (14th in FBS)
• F/+: 32.6% (22nd in FBS)

Florida last season was phenomenal on defense and terrible on offense. You know the drill. This is what the Gators have been for years. This year that is still the case, albeit the defense is a little bit worse and has been prone to giving up more plays than they have in recent years. And the offense is a little bit better. However that may change this weekend as Feleipe Franks, who has struggled mightily during his playing time, has to step in to replace Luke Del Rio, who is injured for the duration of the season. LSU’s defense has some much needed talent and depth back on the defensive line and this is a chance for them to assert themselves. For the LSU offense...well, it’s going to come down to them. All the talk of schemes and who’s the starter are going to go out the window when the game starts. Just go play. If they can and can play well, LSU may be able to get this crucial win. If not, the toxic nature in Baton Rouge isn’t going away.