Florida Gators: 71 percent in the red zone in 2016.

There are 71 days remaining till college football season, and today we focus on the most important part of football: finding the end zone.

The Florida Gators struggled mightily on the offensive side of the ball. The Gators were 14th out of 14 teams in the SEC in total offense, and they were even worse in the red zone. But on the flip side, as frustrating was Florida was on the offensive side of the ball, they were dominant on the defensive side of the ball, especially in the red zone.

And that leads us to no. 71 in the Southbound and Down College Football Countdown.

Florida Gators red zone offense scored at a 71.4 percent rate, while their red zone defense allowed scores at a 71.8 percent rate in 2016.

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The Gators’ 71.4 red zone scoring percentage was tied for 126th out of 128 FBS teams. Florida was tied with Indiana (6-7) and only Rutgers (2-10) had a worse red zone scoring percentage, and those two teams combined to go 8-17 last season.

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Florida had 42 red zone attempts last season, which was 90th in the nation. On those 42 attempts, they scored touchdowns 21 touchdowns, and settled for 11 field goals.

Defensively, however, Florida was as good as it gets. They were fourth in the nation in defensive red zone scoring percentage, allowing opponents to score on 71.8 percent of attempts. Vanderbilt was the only team in the SEC that was better last season.

Another impressive statistic is that Florida only allowed 39 red zone attempts last season, which was 25th in the nation, and the third best in the SEC. Only Alabama (25) and LSU (33) allowed fewer red zone attempts than the Gators.

When it comes to the red zone, if you’re going to be the best at one and the worst at the other, the Gators chose the right combination in 2016. And if they repeat that in 2017, they could find themselves back in Atlanta for a third straight year.

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