Truth Takes: No Pitts No Problem

Lets all be honest, we are watching a passing season that we may never see again from a Gators QB, especially as Mullen moves to his dual threat type play-calling next season. With four games left in the regular season Kyle Trask is only 11 TD passes from tying Danny Wuerffel for most TD passes in a season by a Gators QB. He is averaging over 4 TD passes per game. He is also doing this against an SEC only schedule while Wuerffel had 11 regular season games and two games that included 1-AA Georgia Southern and the Ragin Cajuns of Louisiana. The SEC defenses were probably about the same. Say what you want about Mullen, but this passing offense is one of the best UF has ever seen (In before someone doesn't read the phrase "one of" and rants).

Going into the game, many thought this game would be close and would be the last great chance at a loss in the regular season. After the defense got the first stop of the game, it never felt close. Despite some failures by back ups in the 4th quarter, we still won by 28 and put up the most points on an SEC opponent since 2008. I don't know how the season will end, but this is the offense we've waited over a decade for. The smallest margin of victory we've had in 5 wins is 14 points. Yes, A&M was an abortion, but there hasn't been any UF team in history without one of those. Arguably, '96 had two, but we escaped Nashville with a win. It's time to enjoy this ride for what it is. It may or may not end with some hardware, but we should also sit back and enjoy what we've wanted for a decade, a dominant offense.

Offense
Kyle Trask just completed 79% of his passes (with some drops) against what has been one of the best SEC pass defenses coming into the game and 12 INT's coming into the game. He again almost threw for 300 yards in the first half. He threw for 6 TD's. He hit 10 different receivers again. He had 4 receivers get catches of 30+ yards for the third week in a row. All of this without his best weapon playing in the game. This is insanity.

Pierce, Wright and Davis each averaged over 4 yards per carry. They were leaned on during the first drive (which took 7:30 and if you told me we would score 63 points after that, I'd think you were drunk) and in the second half. Pierce showed that if he had gone to a Big Ten, 3 yards and a cloud of dust, offense he would be more than capable of being a feature back. These guys ran hard and hard a good number of yards after initial contact.

The receivers stepped up to help with the loss of Pitts. Grimes got another 100 yard receiving day for his Florida career as well as two TD's. He even had an impressive catch in the second quarter where he managed to hang on to the ball despite being hammered almost immediate upon touching the ball. Justin Shorter got a TD catch for the third straight game. It looked like he and Grimes are playing H-O-R-S-E with spectacular TD catches as he repeated Grimes catch against Georgia in the second quarter. We definitely worked towards getting Henderson his first TD during the game. After we blew a TD on a bad flea flicker pitch, though it still went for 43 yards, we tried it again with a PI being forced to stop the play, and then we finally got him in late in the game. Copeland again only had one catch, but if he had to only get one, a 33 yard TD catch is a good get.

The tight ends weren't as explosive as Pitts, but Zipperer made sure to do his best. Zip had 3 catches, 47 yards, and 2 TD's. That's more than we can ask for from the position after the loss of perhaps the best TE in UF history (whether or not we discuss a murderer). The offensive line was overall really good in the game and outside of killing the first drive of the second half, were definitely up to the task. I give them enough crap that I should recognize a good game once in a while.

While Trask was in the game, Arkansas only stopped us twice. Once was a 4th and 1, where I believe we should've ran because we were getting like 4-5 yards per carry on the drive, but they also needed a missed facemask call to force a bad throw. The other was a big OL failure to lose 10 yards on a sack when Arkansas rushed 3 followed by a dropped ball. TD's on 7 of 9 drives against a .500 SEC team is really good.

Defense
I said that Franks would hit one or two long ones against us. Before we started throwing in a ton of back ups, he hit one early. Then we basically shut the Razorbacks down through the air until we were up by 35. Outside of the last ridiculous TD pass (and arguable push off), Franks had less than 170 yards passing. I'll take that when this was a team some thought would throw for 250+ when the game was on the line.

The run defense did struggle. In the third quarter there was a time where Arkansas was averaging over 9 yards a carry. We did blow a big run for a second straight week and allowed Franks to make a few long runs on third and long (but still stopped short), but this is still awful. We need to get better.

Not much else to say about the defense because we know what they are at this point. They are inconsistent, but capable of making some stops. Most of the time, those few stops are enough to get us a several score lead and the offense will do the rest. Do I wish they were closer to the 2016 defense? Yes, but at least if we are going to have a defense like this, at least we have the offense we do. I'd rather be able to win a shootout than pray we keep the opponent under 21 points.

Quick Hits

• Good to see a defensive touchdown. It's been a while since we've seen one. Fumble may not have been forced, but Diabate's hit ensured that Boyd didn't recover and Carter did the rest.
• I'll take bets that the loss isn't what hurt Franks the most last night and it wasn't to booing when he first entered the game (I personally don't see why, sure he had mixed results at UF, but he didn't trash us on his way out the door). It was the "Trask for Heisman" chant at the end of the 3rd quarter. A guy who was booed as QB at Florida gets to hear the adoration for his replacement.
• Rick Wells showed why we don't see much of him with a drop on a nice deep ball by Emory, but did have a good catch later on.
• Emory showed some good passing ability, but please do not put him in until garbage time. As I said to someone on the Twitter machine, this isn't '06 where the switching was almost a necessity to keep the offense moving. Trask dominates defenses on his own.
• Good to see Ethan White get some time and get his feet under him. He may start pushing the starting O-line now.
• With the loss last night, Florida State has their third straight losing season. This will be the worst one yet for them. However, their bowl streak may be alive.
• The Mizzou/UGA game was cancelled for a single positive test. We can't be serious.
• Michigan and Penn State are historically bad, but could you imagine if this is Harbaugh's year against Ohio State (it's not, but imagine if it is).
• I feel for Kentucky, their tribute to their OL coach was a nice one.

Another Gators win and now we face what might be Derek Mason's worst Vandy team. I expect us to get everyone's best efforts going forward. That's the nature of doing well. A place we have wished to be for years. Now we just need to continue to improve and enjoy the ride.

Go Gators!

 

Still, we don't see this happening with any other team. Hopefully, it will pay off in the future. I just hate when we are dominating and then we switch it up. More times than not this year it has lead to something negative including multiple false starts, an INT, and a 4 yard loss on a pass. Some of this is cadence and just playing differently with different QB's and asking the rest of the offense to adjust on the fly.

This is totally correct. My biggest fear is safety play. Relying on Stiner who still makes plenty of mistakes. Granted the big pass plays were not on him last night, but some of the long runs were.

I think he might be one of the top 3 passers in UF history with Danny and Rex. I don't believe he should be judged on awards, but I know there will be people that feel that way. The advantage Trask has is in pure number of weapons. Don't get me wrong, I think overall the Eli/Fred/Terry triple headed back edges out Pierce/Davis/Wright (at this point), but the depth at receiver and TE outweighs 1996.

 

If we can remain consistently inconsistent, we may have a shot. Better than being consistently bad like at the beginning of the season. With this offense, get a three/four stops a game and I feel good about our chances.

You're not wrong. On the other hand, wish he had more yards and TD's against Carolina and UGA when Mullen was taking his foot off the gas...imagine if he put up 500 yards on UGA, the best defense in the SEC.