Pete Golding Has Had This Game Before. He Fixes It. | Ole Miss Bye Week

Florida averaged 37.8 yards per kickoff return on Saturday. Ole Miss averaged 17.0. Four returns for 151 against five for 85 — the Gators gained 66 more yards of field position on one fewer attempt, and nobody in the country has reported it. Here is what that actually looked like. Third quarter, 5:21 left, Trinidad Chambliss runs in his second rushing touchdown and it is 24-21. The game is genuinely in the balance. Ninety-six seconds later Florida is back in the end zone, and that scoring drive was three plays and 26 yards. They did not drive down the field. They started on our side of it. Three things from the Swamp, what this bye week is actually for, and the SEC Week 5 board with five Ole Miss opponents on it. 📌 THREE THINGS 1. This team was running on empty and the calendar did it. September 6, No. 24 Louisville on a neutral field, won 41-38. September 12, Charlotte — the only breather all month. September 19, No. 7 LSU, 32-24. September 26, No. 21 Florida on the road in the first true road environment of the year. Three ranked opponents in 21 days, two decided by one score. Florida held the ball for nearly 37 minutes and ran it 53 times for 302 yards. The tell: Jadan Baugh, their starter, went 29 carries for 138 — 4.8 a clip. Duke Clark, the backup, went 12 for 126. That is 10.5. The second back doubled the starter on less than half the work, and Florida scored 21 in the fourth quarter alone. 2. Special teams had a terrible day, and that is a weird sentence about this program. The specialists were fine — Lucas Carneiro went 2-for-2 including a 46-yarder, and the punt team averaged 53.7 with one inside the 20. The units were not. Special teams is the one phase where effort and organization matter more than raw talent, which is exactly why it stings and exactly why two weeks should fix it. 3. Ole Miss is a pass-to-run offense. Accept it. Through four games: 117 rushing attempts, 153 pass attempts, 270 plays, 57% of them throws. 322.5 passing yards a game against 117.5 rushing — 2.7 times more production through the air. That is not a criticism, it is working, and this team leads the SEC in passing at 3-1. But it explains Saturday. A pass-to-run offense still needs the run credible enough to hold up its end, and without Kewan Lacy it was not. Plus: the two four-star freshmen this bye week belongs to, why you cannot play the transitive property in college football, and the path that still runs through Austin on October 24.