Florida Vs. Texas A&M 2012: Game Time, TV Schedule, Spread And More

The Gators face Texas A&M on Saturday in an SEC clash.

Florida Football: Gators Offense Should Improve After Shaking Off Rust

As the Florida Gators prepare to take on the Texas A&M Aggies in their SEC opener on Saturday, the Florida offense will have improve after struggling against the Bowling Green Falcons last Saturday.

At Alligator Army, Andy Hutchins gives some compelling reasons why the offense will improve against the Aggies this week, starting with offensive coordinator Brent Pease opening up the offense after keeping things close to the vest in Week 1:

Florida didn't play very well on offense against Bowling Green. Players looked rusty and uncomfortable, and Brent Pease's offense stayed basically conservative despite deploying a variety of formations. If that is the true talent level of this offense — which is, in fairness, possible, if unlikely — then Pease will prove to be a terrible coach and Florida will struggle to average 20 points this year. I don't think it is, and I think a week of practice in the wake of that lackluster performance should help get things moving in the direction of competence, if not excellence.

The Florida offense should also see some improvment now that Jeff Driskel has been named the starting quarterback. Giving him the majority of snaps in practice will build a rapport with his wide receivers going forth this year.

For more on the Gators, head over to Alligator Army. For more on Aggies football, visit Good Bull Hunting. For more news, notes and information, be sure to check out SBNation's college football hub.

Florida Gators Redzone Issues Continue

The Florida Gators struggled to score touchdowns once they reached the red zone in 2011, and it was more of the same in their season-opening win over Bowling Green. The Gators took three trips inside the Falcons' 20, but were able to punch it across the goal line just once on those occasions.

That touchdown conversion rate was even worse than last year, when the Gators converted red zone opportunities to touchdowns at a 49% rate, good for just 113th in the country. Florida was lucky to have kicker Caleb Sturgis, as his accuracy on field goals allowed the Gators to score on 86% of their red zone trips overall.

If Florida doesn't want to rely on field goals for offense in 2012, they need to turn those red zone chances into touchdowns. Offensive coordinator Brent Pease emphasized how much value the Gators are putting into the red zone this season, from alligator.org:

"We can’t settle," Pease said. "We’ve got the best kicker in the nation, but we’ve got to be greedy. We can’t settle for field goals."

The Gator players understand the importance of red zone play, as guard James Wilson explained what it means to score touchdowns instead of field goals.

"That’s how you step on teams," guard James Wilson said. "They’ll tell you, ‘Put the emphasis at the end. That’s how you win.’ That’s definitely our main goal: to score in the red zone."

The Gators will likely need those extra points in the red zone when they travel to College Station to face Texas A&M on Saturday.

For more on the Florida Gators, head over to Alligator Army. For more on Aggies football, visit Good Bull Hunting. For more news, notes and information be sure to check out SBNation's college football hub.

Gators Want To Lessen Penalties Vs. Texas A&M

The Florida Gators committed 14 penalties in their season-opening win against Bowling Green, but they know they can't let that happen again if they hope to earn a road victory over Texas A&M on Saturday. The Aggies are famous for having one of the loudest and most intense crowds in the country, with their fans embracing the "12th man" mantra.

Players and coaches, including offensive coordinator Brent Pease, talked on Wednesday about working towards limiting penalties, from alligator.org:

"We’ve got to understand to be cleaner with their hands or cleaner with their blocks and do that," Pease said. "We’ll get better at those. You go back and look at it. I don’t think the management of things or time (are) issues. I don’t see us having any of that. We had a good tempo and all of that."

The Gators averaged 7.7 penalties a game last season. The 14 on Saturday were the most since Florida amassed 16 penalties against Tennessee in the SEC-opener a season ago.

For more on the Florida Gators, head over to Alligator Army. For more on Aggies football, visit Good Bull Hunting. For more news, notes and information be sure to check out SBNation's college football hub.

Gators Offense To Expand, Says Brent Pease

The Florida Gators travel to College Station, TX to face the Texas A&M Aggies in A&M's first-ever SEC Conference game on Saturday. Florida offensive coordinator Brent Pease hopes to show more on offense against the Aggies than he did in the season-opener against Bowling Green, according to GatorZone.com.

"This is a growing process. I want it to be more than what it is right now,'' Pease said Tuesday. "You are always going to see different things. I want to be more productive. I want to be better on third downs. I want to score more points. We need to create more first downs. I want to be more balanced in run and pass. Is that all going to happen in the first game?"

Pease comes to the Gators from Boise State, where he led an explosive Bronco offense. Florida fans are hoping he can do more of the same with the Gators, but offensive transformations don't happen overnight and SEC defense are tougher than the squads in the MWC and WAC.

For more on the Florida Gators, head over to Alligator Army. For more on Aggies football, visit Good Bull Hunting. For more news, notes and information be sure to check out SBNation's college football hub.

Florida Using 2011 Houston Film To Prepare For Texas A&M

In most SEC games, teams know each other intimately, with players knowing many of their opponents from their high school days while coaches have years of game tape between the two schools to break down.

That won't be the case for the Florida Gators this Saturday, as they travel to College Station to play the Texas A&M Aggies in A&M's first game as an SEC team.

Not only was Texas A&M's opening-week game cancelled due to Hurricane Isaac, but the Aggies are breaking in an entirely new coaching staff after hiring Kevin Sumlin from Houston in the off-season.

As a result, while Florida has been watching a lot of Cougars game tape from Conference USA last year, they'll have to be ready for anything on Saturday. That's what Gators linebacker Jonathan Bostic said in talking with reporters earlier in the week:

"We don’t really have too much film on them and we don’t know what they could come out in," Bostic said. "We are expecting them to be a spread, no huddle team, but they could come out in the I-formation and run the ball down our throat."

The good news is that Will Muschamp does have experience with most of the Aggies players, from his days as a defensive coordinator at Texas.

For more on the Florida Gators, head over to Alligator Army, and be sure to check out SBNation's college football hub.

AP Top 25: Florida Gators Ranked No. 24

The Florida Gators dropped one spot in the AP Top 25 poll on Tuesday to No.24. After their 27-14 victory over Bowling Green on Saturday, the Gators have announced that Jeff Driskel will start at quarterback against the Texas A&M Aggies this Saturday. In their win over Bowling Green, Driskel went 10-of-16 passing for 114 yards and a touchdown with 24 rushing yards.

The Alabama Crimson Tide are No. 1 in the rankings, receiving 45 first place votes. The USC Trojans are No. 2, the LSU Tigers No. 3, the Oregon Ducks No. 4 and the Oklahoma Sooners round out the top five. The Michigan Wolverines dropped from No. 8 to No. 19 after losing to Alabama. The Boise State Broncos, after losing to the No. 11 Michigan St. Spartans, dropped out of the top 25 for the first time since September 2008, after 62 straight weeks, which was the second longest active streak behind Alabama.

Here is the complete AP top 25 poll.

1 Alabama (45) 1-0 1481
2 USC (11) 1-0 1435
3 LSU (4) 1-0 1382
4 Oregon 1-0 1295
5 Oklahoma 1-0 1170
6 Florida State 1-0 1135
7 Georgia 1-0 1083
8 Arkansas 1-0 992
9 South Carolina 1-0 980
9 West Virginia 1-0 980
11 Michigan State 1-0 915
12 Clemson 1-0 788
13 Wisconsin 1-0 664
14 Ohio State 1-0 634
15 Virginia Tech 1-0 604
16 Nebraska 1-0 603
17 Texas 1-0 584
18 Oklahoma State 1-0 558
19 Michigan 0-1 446
20 TCU 0-0 355
21 Kansas State 1-0 339
22 Notre Dame 1-0 198
23 Louisville 1-0 190
24 Florida 1-0 145
25 Stanford 1-0 131
Dropped from rankings: Boise State 24
Others receiving votes: Boise State 79, Tennessee 73, BYU 63, North Carolina 48, Baylor 38, Utah 34, Washington 15, Georgia Tech 14, Ohio 10, Texas State 10, Missouri 7, Texas A&M 5, South Florida 5, UCF 4, Mississippi State 3, Auburn 3, Cincinnati 2

For more on the Florida Gators, head over to Alligator Army. For more on Aggies football, visit Good Bull Hunting. For more news, notes and information be sure to check out SBNation's college football hub.

Florida Gets Invaded By Texas A&M Billboard

Will Muschamp Stifling Florida Gators Offense?

The Gators opened their season last Saturday against Bowling Green and came away with a rather unimpressive win -- by Florida standards -- as they beat the Falcons 27-14 on just 365 yards of total offense, which is un-Gator like, to say the least.

Fans have been concerned with new head coach Will Muschamp's decision to play his two quarterbacks, even opening the game on Saturday with both of them on the field. It would seem that offensive coordinator Brent Pease is taking the heat for many of these play calls and on-field decisions, but according to the Orlando Sentinel, it's Muschamp who is calling the shots on offense and that seems to be the main issue:

It comes down to this -- it was Muschamp's decision to force the run game against Bowling Green. Just like it was his decision to play two quarterbacks - Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel - against the Falcons. And just like it was his decision to have both players on the field for the start of the game.

Perhaps Muschamp's worst enemy could be himself.

For more on the Florida Gators, head over to Alligator Army, and be sure to check out SBNation's college football hub.

Florida's Jeff Driskel Named Starting QB Vs. Texas A&M

At least for this week, the Florida Gators have decided on a quarterback. Heach coach Phil Muschamp has chosen sophomore Jeff Driskel to start on Saturday against Texas A&M.

It appears that Driskel will not have to worry about Jacoby Brissett getting any of the snaps in the game.

Muschamp on Driskel: "It will be Jeff's game to play. I told him I don't want you looking over your shouder, but you've got to play well."

— Mark Long (@APMarkLong) September 3, 2012

With Driskel under center for the majority of Florida's game over Bowling Green on Saturday, the Gators came away with a 27-14 victory. Driskel played well, completing 10-of-16 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for 24 yards.

Brissett finished 3-for-5 with 31 passing yards.

For more on the Florida Gators, head over to Alligator Army, and be sure to check out SBNation's college football hub.

Florida Vs. Texas A&M: Will Muschamp Undecided On Starting QB

Jeff Driskel completed nearly two-thirds of his passes Saturday and led the Gators to 20 of their 27 points, but UF coach Will Muschamp says the job is not his just yet.