Florida football Week 1 PFF offensive grades vs. Miami Hurricanes

The Florida Gators failed the eye test miserably on Saturday with a 41-17 loss in the season opener against the Miami Hurricanes, but a closer look at the numbers reveals where exactly things went wrong.

Of course, all numbers need a bit of context to make sense of. Thus, Gators Wire presents the first installment of a weekly series aimed to explain the data collected by Pro Football Focus.

First, we have to understand how PFF assigns these grades.

The grading scale ranges from -2 to +2 with increments of 0.5, and players are given a grade on every play they are on the field for. A zero grade means a player did his job, while the two ends of the scale represent extreme success or failure — think red zone interception at the end of a game or a game-winning touchdown pass when applying it to quarterbacks.

There’s a level of subjectivity to it, but each grade is reviewed at least once. Once all plus-minus grades are in, the numbers are converted to a 0-100 scale to easily compare players. Some have defined tiers within the system — 90-100 is elite, 85-89 is Pro Bowl level for NFL players, 70 to 84 is a starter and 60-69 is a backup. Anything 59 and below is considered a replaceable talent.

Since we’re talking about college, we will grade on a scale and consider anything above 65.0 as a solid performance.

Overall Breakdown

Florida earned a team grade of 60.7, which is below our 65.0 threshold. In fact, the only areas of the game where the Gators performed above replacement level came in running situations (75.1) on offense and against the run (85.5)  on defense.

The Gators struggled the most while passing the ball (37.1), and also performed poorly in coverage (50.7).

Offensive Grades

Only six players ended the Miami game with an offensive grade of 65.0 or higher, and one of them was center Roderick Kearney who played three snaps.

Left tackle Austin Barber led the offensive with a 73.1, followed by running back Montrell Johnson Jr. (70.9), wide receiver…