Florida's front seven must control things up front

Published Oct. 15, 2015 4:33 p.m. ET

foxsports

It will be a battle of wills during Saturday's clash between Florida and LSU.

LSU will want to establish its vaunted rushing attack. The Tigers are averaging north of 345 yards per game on the ground. Leonard Fournette has been arguably the most dominating player in all of college football in 2015.

On the other side of the coin, opponents are averaging only 99.2 yards a contest versus Florida rushing the football. This is good for No. 12 overall in the country. A front led by Jonathan Bullard, Joey Ivie, and Alex McCalister has been very stout and active.

In essence, something's got to give in this contest.

It might behoove Florida to stack the box, and make LSU quarterback Brandon Harris beat it with his arm. This scenario may leave the Florida corners out on an island versus LSU receivers, but the group led by Vernon Hargreaves III is a relative strength of the team.

In terms of slowing Fournette, Florida will have to tackle well. It can't afford to have the talented back break off big runs via missed tackles. This also means the linebacker duo of Jarrad Davis and Antonio Morrison will have to fill gaps effectively towards the line of scrimmage.

This narrative could truly tell the tale as to how the game will go on Saturday evening.