The Florida football season was at a crossroads this Halloween night and the Gators appear to be back on course for SEC and, therefore, national relevance. It’s impossible, of course, to predict what lies ahead in this COVID impacted season. Every week brings a new challenge and another adventure. Resilience has been a characteristic all three seasons for these Dan Mullen lead Gators. Florida has done a good job of not allowing disappointments, like the recent loss at Texas AM, to spawn additional hardships. The Gators have also handled in-game adversity with better poise than the teams from the seven seasons prior to his arrival. Mullen has the leadership qualities necessary to compete consistently at the elite level. He combines toughness with superior mental acuity that resonates for players. His work ethic and ability to develop players into winners are impressive traits. These Mullen characteristics have returned the Florida football program to prominence.
While the overarching context for Florida’s 41 to 17 victory over Missouri connects to Mullen’s leadership, the in-game X factors were the play of Kadarius Toney and consistent, solid play by the short handed Gator defense. Toney’s electrifying athleticism, displayed prominently in the last three minutes of the first half, turned a 7 -6 deficit into a 20 -7 halftime lead. From there, Florida seized opportunity and squeezed the life out of the Tigers. In their first three games this season, the Gator’s struggled to close out opponents. This was not the case against Missouri as Florida scored 28 unanswered points over the last two minutes of the first half and the third quarter.
The beleaguered Gator defense answered the call by holding a good Missouri offense to 122 yards and three offense points through the first three quarters of football. In mop up time, the Tigers gained another 126 yards and scored one inconsequential 4th quarter touchdown against reserves. In light of the defensive struggles over the first three games of the season, Florida fans must be thrilled to see the progress made on defense. This accomplishment occurred despite the absence of three starters in the Gator secondary. The difference, perhaps, was much more consistent defensive line play. Missouri’s talented running back, Larry Roundtree was held to 36 yards rushing for the game. Last week, against the Kentucky Wildcats he ran for 126 yards. Once the Tigers were made one dimensional, the pass rush was effective and Florida tallied three quarterback sacks.
After a slow start offensively, the Gators gained momentum throughout the game and looked every bit like the best offensive team in the SEC. The Florida offense wasn’t very good on third downs, but played so well on first and second downs that it didn’t matter very much. The Gators will want to clean this and some early game redzone problems up before next week’s match up with Georgia. Kyle Trask was about as poised and consistent as we’ve learned to expect. He got away with a couple of forced passes, but typically made the right reads and got the ball to the right receivers. Nine Gators caught passes, six of them catching more than one. Kyle Pitts had five catches for 84 yards, but Toney with his aforementioned day (4 catches for 60 yards and two TDS) was the star. Florida’s running backs ran hard and made several important pass catches out of the backfield. Running back has really become a position of strength for the Gators. Offensive line play was solid again this week. Richard Gouraige played particularly well at right guard.
Kyrie Campbell saw his first action of the year for the Gator defense. As a senior, two-year starter, his presence has been missed. Defensive tackle has been a position of particular concern this season. The combination of career ending injuries and recruiting challenges in 2017 and 2018 has left Florida thin at this position. The depth here is provided by talented freshmen. The Gators have also played a lot of snaps with true freshmen in the defensive secondary. COVID, suspensions, and injuries have been the causes for the absences. The upside is players like Rashad Torrence and Travez Johnson and Jaydon Hill have gained important experience.
Special accomplishments by the Gator defense this week included holding Missouri to 4 of 13 success on 3rd down conversions and only allowing Missouri one offensive play that gained over twenty yards. Florida did a better job of balancing aggression levels with playing assignment-based football. We don’t hear Kaiir Elam’s name very often because teams avoid throwing in his area. Brenton Cox is consistently disruptive and this makes a big difference for Florida.
Chris Howard and the Gator special teams took care of business against the Tigers. There might have been concern among Gator fans with All-American caliber kicker, Evan McPherson, sitting out due to a positive Covid test, but Howard was great. He made both field-goal attempts and all five extra points. The field goals were both short, severe angles. Making both early in the game was important. Kudos, as well, to Jacob Finn who who punted well and held for the placekicks. There were no coverage gaffes, but also no special successes, for Gator special teams.
The brawl at the end of the first half warrants discussion. The Missouri late, high hit on Kyle Trask on the first half’s last play should have been penalized by the officials and Mullen deserves praise for sticking up for his players, but probably needs to understand that rushing out onto the field in the way he did would exacerbate the situation. Angry words were being exchanged by the players, but the officials probably had the circumstance under control until Mullen added fuel to the flame with his animated arrival. The ensuing fight resulted in three player ejections, two of these Gators. The announcers for the game reported that these players would miss the first half of their next games as a result of the ejections, but I believe they may be confusing the consequences of the targeting rule with the consequences of the unsportsmanlike conduct rule. If I’m wrong, Zachary Carter will be an important Gator loss for the first half of next week’s game against Georgia. For the most part this season, Florida players have played with composure.
Turning to next week’s game, it’s hard to know what to expect. Georgia is certainly a talented team. Like most teams this season, they’ve had ups and downs. We also don’t know who will and won’t be available as a result of COVID tests. I expect Georgia to be listed as about a 7 point favorite.