Michigan Football vs. Florida: A Defensive War Awaits

Michigan football will have a defensive war on its hands when it takes on Florida in the Citrus Bowl. Get prepped now.

Have you seen Florida’s defense? Have you seen Michigan’s defense?

The overlords of advanced statistics are burning out their computers trying to place the two on the same field.

The Florida defense is headlined by linebackers Antonio Morrison and Jarrad Davis, defensive end Max McCalister and cornerbacks Vernon Hargreaves and Jalen Tabor.

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Morrison and Davis have combined this season for 191 tackles and 23 tackles for loss. They’ve collectively dropped opponents back 91 yards. While we were watching Michigan’s linebackers being exposed at times this season (especially against Ohio State), this duo was terrorizing its opponents.

McCalister is a strong weak-side rusher. He leads the Gators with 6.5 sacks and has 7 quarterback hurries to add to his resume. He’s a monster at 6-foot-6, 239 pounds. It’ll likely be Mason Cole who spends most of his time trying to keep McCalister out of the backfield. Look out for that.

Hargreaves is a player who has always been praised for his work ethic, and he’s got the numbers to back it up. His 4 interceptions on the year is tied for best on the team (Tabor also has 4) and he’s also forced a fumble. Tabor has a very comfortable team lead with 14 pass breakups this season, but that number is a bit inflated with 5 of them coming against Florida Atlantic.

Florida’s defense this season is giving up 295.4 yards per game (6th in FBS) and takes the ball away almost twice per game. The most important stat might be how often it gets off the field on 3rd down. Teams are only moving the chains 31 percent of the time, which is an imperative area of success when your offense struggles as badly as Florida’s does.

Michigan would love to go out there on New Year’s Day and run the ball to the end, but Florida’s defense isn’t going to let that happen. And through the air? That’s unfortunately what it’ll probably come down to, but the Gators aren’t budging there either.

Fortunately for the Wolverines, Florida isn’t going to be running a power-run spread like Ohio State and Indiana. Not as well, anyway. It’ll be a very similar look, with very similar ambitions, but the Gators haven’t had the success of the Buckeyes and Hoosiers.

Michigan’s defense should hold up fine against this attack, even if there’s no revelation at linebacker.

You know who Michigan’s defensive leaders are—I won’t spend forever outlining them. If the run defense is strong enough to make Treon Harris throw the ball, it’ll be a good day.

Even if that is the case though, and Michigan has one last great defensive game this season, the Wolverines are hardly equipped to deal with the Gators’ defense.

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What’s clear is that this could very likely be an epic defensive struggle. What’s unclear is which side will come out alive on the other end.

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