The Florida Gators are coming off one of the most significant wins in the Dan Mullen era. The Gators went into Jacksonville and defeated the Georgia Bulldogs 44-28. Gators quarterback Kyle Trask had a career night against one of the top-ranked defenses in the country.
Trask might have put himself in the conversation for the Heisman with his incredible performance against Georgia. He made some really nice throws and good decisions for most of the night.
The Gators defense had a really rough start as they gave up two quick touchdowns against the Georgia offense. After those two quick scores, the Florida defense quickly rebounded as they held the Bulldogs to under 300 total yards of offense.
Florida also forced three interceptions which was the most amount of turnovers they had forced. The Gators only had one interception on the entire season which was by freshman defensive tackle Gervon Dexter. Nonetheless, the Gators had a huge win against one of their rivals and are now #1 in the SEC East. Here are three takeaways from the Florida – Georgia game.
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Kyle Trask has Heisman Game
Gators quarterback Kyle Trask had the best game of his collegiate career. Trask completed 30 out of 43 passes for 474 yards with four touchdowns and an interception. He also did a great job of spreading the ball around to different receivers. He didn’t have to rely on his star tight end Kyle Pitts and wide receiver Kadarius Toney.
Florida’s lead receiver of the game was their redshirt-junior running back Malik Davis. He had five receptions for 100 yards. While redshirt-freshman running back Nay’Quan Wright had three catches for 71 yards. Backup tight end Kemore Gamble stepped up when Pitts went down with an injury. Gamble had three receptions for 51 yards and a touchdown.
Trask made some big throws in the game like the 50-50 ball to Trevon Grimes that resulted in a touchdown. Trask and the Florida offense used the wheel route multiply times and were very successful using it with their running backs in the backfield.
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Defense contains Georgia offense
The Florida-Georgia game didn’t have the type of start the Florida Gators were hoping for. The first play of scrimmage for Georgia, running back Zamir White broke the game open with a 75-yard rushing touchdown.
After a Florida three and out, Georgia scored another quick touchdown from Stetson Bennett to Marcus Rosemy. After a great game against Missouri, it looked like Florida’s defense was back to their old ways.
However, the Florida defense rebounded and was able to keep Georgia off the scoreboard until the late third-quarter touchdown. The defense made life very difficult for the Georgia quarterbacks Stetson Bennett and D’Wan Mathis. Combined they completed nine out of 29 passes for 112 yards.
Sophomore cornerback Kaiir Elam picked off Bennett which ended the game for him. Redshirt-freshman D’Wan Mathis wasn’t any better as he threw two interceptions to safety Shawn Davis and linebacker Amari Burney.
Since the COVID-19 spike at Florida, the defense has improved exponentially. They had two weeks off due to the coronavirus and it looks like the Gators and their defensive coordinator Todd Grantham might have corrected some problems in the defense.
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The biggest win for Dan Mullen?
When you become the head coach at the University of Florida, the expectations are very high. Your fan base expects not only to win but beat your rivals. Florida’s biggest rivals are the Florida State Seminoles, Tennessee Volunteers, and the Georgia Bulldogs.
Mullen is 4-0 against Florida State and Tennessee but he was 0-2 against Georgia. Florida State and Tennessee have been down for a few years but Georgia has been the leader of the SEC East pretty much since Kirby Smart arrived in Athens.
Florida hadn’t beat Georgia in the past three meetings while Georgia continued to recruit at an elite level. Gator Nation was wondering if this would be the year Dan Mullen gets the monkey off his back and knocks off the Georgia Bulldogs.
Mullen got his win and beat Kirby Smart’s Georgia pretty convincingly. Now, Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators are the top team in the SEC East and need to win out in order to qualify for the SEC Championship Game. Mullen had had some nice wins during his time as the Florida head coach but this one means a little bit more against a big rival and a team that has had control of their division.
