Florida vs. Vanderbilt 2012: Gators plan to pound Commodores on ground

The No. 4 Florida Gators have all of a sudden become a run-first, ground-pounding offense under Will Muschamp. These Gators are a far cry from the Urban Meyer track-speed spread offenses of a few years ago. This new philosophy shouldn't change against Vanderbilt Saturday night, writes the Miami Herald.

The Gators are averaging 214.8 rushing yards per game, a daunting stat for any defense to face. But that's even more the case for Vanderbilt, which is giving up 179 yards per game on the ground. Florida is using a lot of six lineman fronts on offense to overpower teams, a formation offensive coordinator Brent Pease said is working:

"Some of the [defensive] ends are used to having tight ends on them and all of a sudden you have D.J. Humphries or Ian Silberman -- you've got a guy that's 300 pounds. When you look at that one time, there's seven guys there that are probably 300-plus [pounds]. What's your math on that? Seven times three is, what, 2,100 pounds coming at you? That's probably not -- I don't know that I would want that falling on me.

"You know what they say: ‘Mass kicks ass.' So that's our theory behind it."

The Gators and Commodores meet Saturday night at 6 p.m. ET in Nashville, Tenn. The game will be televised by ESPN.