{"id":27779,"date":"2015-10-03T10:39:54","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T15:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=27779"},"modified":"2015-10-06T16:04:28","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T21:04:28","slug":"florida-preview-saturday-october-3-2015-at-6-pm-at-the-swamp-ben-hill-griffin-stadium-gainesville-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/florida-preview-saturday-october-3-2015-at-6-pm-at-the-swamp-ben-hill-griffin-stadium-gainesville-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Preview: Saturday, October 3, 2015 at 6 pm at \u201cThe Swamp\u201d Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a long time since Ole Miss<\/strong> and Florida<\/strong> last met, and a lot has changed since 2008. Ever since that tear-inducing victory in The Swamp<\/strong>, Florida and Ole Miss football have experienced the highs and lows of life in the SEC: national championships (Florida that year), 2-10 seasons (Ole Miss just two seasons later), failed coaching experiments (Will Muschamp<\/strong>), and wildly successful ones (Hugh Freeze<\/strong>).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"239-sports-1\"<\/a>These days, the Rebs find themselves the bigger player on the national stage, and are favored by a touchdown in this crucial SEC matchup. But if this series\u2014which Ole Miss leads by two games, by the way\u2014lives up to its history, fans should be prepared for any number of outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have a huge sample size of Jim-McElwain<\/strong>-coached Gator football, so the jury is very much out on whether or not the program is back on an upward trajectory. But, three solid (albeit close) wins over ECU<\/strong>, Kentucky<\/strong>, and Tennessee<\/strong> would seem to indicate that things are looking brighter down in The Swamp.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personnel-wise, Florida might remind you of the Vanderbilt<\/strong> team that gave the Rebs fits this year. The strength of the team is on the defensive side of the ball, where a talent-laden secondary (led by all-everything CB Vernon Hargreaves III<\/strong>) will look to shut down the Rebels\u2019 vaunted corps of wide receivers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should this prove successful, Ole Miss might be in trouble; when receivers can\u2019t get open, offensive lines either have to hold their pass blocks longer, or pave ground for the rushing attack. The Rebs\u2019 banged-up, young, Tunsil-less OL is perhaps the team\u2019s weakest link, and weak links tend to break in primetime SEC road games.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"239-sports-2\"<\/a>The same could be said, however, for when Florida will have the ball. The Rebels are the stiffest defensive threat that Florida\u2019s as-yet unsolidified offense have seen this year, and the inexperienced Gator quarterbacks will have their hands full against some of the country\u2019s fastest and most athletic defenders.<\/span><\/p>\n

Expect much to be made of the matchup between Hargreaves and Laquon Treadwell<\/strong>, arguably the best players in the country at their respective positions. It wouldn\u2019t be out of the ordinary for either coach to scheme around this duo\u2014using them as decoys and looking for success elsewhere\u2014but it also wouldn\u2019t be out of the ordinary for one of these guys to completely embarrass the other on a national stage. At the least, lazy ESPN camera switchers will be sure to have this sideline angle ready at all times.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see a 17-10 sort of game here. I also wouldn\u2019t be too surprised to see scores in the 40s. Both teams are dangerous, both teams are hungry, and both have room for improvement in this young season. A fumble here, an onside kick there, and things could get really interesting for Ole Miss on the road. But that\u2019s why SEC football is so entertaining\u2014nobody gets a week off from the madness. \"The<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a long time since Ole Miss and Florida last met, and a lot has changed since<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":27781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ole-miss"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015floridaFEAT.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}