{"id":32571,"date":"2020-11-16T16:00:20","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T21:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=32571"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T18:56:07","slug":"three-takeaways-from-the-florida-vs-arkansas-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2020\/11\/16\/three-takeaways-from-the-florida-vs-arkansas-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Takeaways from the Florida vs. Arkansas Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida Gators returned to the Swamp with a blowout victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Gators looked <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2020\/11\/15\/florida-gators-look-razor-sharp-in-63-35-win-over-the-arkansas-razorbacks\/\" target=\"_self\">razor-sharp<\/a> as they routed the Razorbacks 63-35. Florida quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/kyle-trask-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Trask<\/a> had another great performance against the second-ranked pass defense in the SEC.<\/p>\n<p>Trask didn\u2019t have any trouble against the Arkansas defense and despite not having his star tight end available. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/kyle-pitts-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Pitts<\/a> was not available since he\u2019s still in the concussion protocol. The Gators needed some of their other players to step up in the absence of Pitts and they did.<\/p>\n<p>While the Florida offense continues to amaze, its defense didn\u2019t have a great night. Former Florida quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/feleipe-franks-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Feleipe Franks<\/a> didn\u2019t get the win but he played well against his former team. The Gators&#8217; defense had a difficult time avoiding the explosive plays. The Razorbacks had 458 yards of total offense and 212 of those yards came on three plays. Let&#8217;s look at three takeaways from the Florida vs Arkansas game.<\/p>\n<h2>Three Takeaways from Florida vs Arkansas Game<\/h2>\n<h3>1. Is Trask the Heisman frontrunner?<\/h3>\n<p>The Florida Gators&#8217; offense has been terrific all season and might be coming off their best performance yet. The redshirt-senior is in the middle of an amazing season in which he might have become the Heisman front runner.<\/p>\n<p>In the Arkansas win, Trask completed 23 out of 29 for 365 yards and six touchdowns. With that performance, he broke the SEC record with most touchdowns by a quarterback in their first six games. Former Alabama quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/tua-tagovailoa-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> previously held the record with 27 touchdowns and Trask broke it with 28.<\/p>\n<p>Trask might have had his Heisman moment when he threw for 474 yards and four touchdowns against the Georgia Bulldogs. The rest of the schedule should play in Florida\u2019s favor as its final four games are against Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee, and LSU. If Trask can continue to perform like this for the rest of the season, he might be the fourth Gator to win the Heisman.<\/p>\n<h3>2. No Pitts, No Problem<\/h3>\n<p>The Gators&#8217; offense was without their star receiver, Pitts, on Saturday night. Under those circumstances, Florida needed some of its other receivers to step up in which they did. Senior wide receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/trevon-grimes-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trevon Grimes<\/a> had a career night with six receptions for 109 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>True freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/xzavier-henderson-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Xzavier Henderson<\/a> had three catches for 62 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore tight end <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/keon-zipperer-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keon Zipperer<\/a> had three receptions for 47 yards and two touchdowns. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/jacob-copeland-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacob Copeland<\/a> had his first touchdown of the season and Penn State transfer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/justin-shorter-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Shorter<\/a> caught his third touchdown in three straight games.<\/p>\n<p>The Florida offense had some of its younger players make plays and didn\u2019t have to rely on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/kadarius-toney-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kadarius Toney<\/a>. While Trask did a great job of spreading the ball around and making good decisions. It\u2019s unlikely that Pitts will be available this Saturday against Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Defense needs to limit explosive plays<\/h3>\n<p>The Florida offense was the talk of the game but the defense struggled. The Gators&#8217; secondary, which has been a strength in the past, is a weakness now. The unit as a whole gave up 458 yards of total offense and most of it was through the air.<\/p>\n<p>Arkansas quarterback Franks has one of the strongest arms in college football and he used that to his advantage on Saturday. Franks was able to throw the deep ball with precision downfield accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>However, it wasn\u2019t all bad for the Gators&#8217; defense. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/zachary-carter-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zachary Carter<\/a> had Florida&#8217;s first defensive touchdown of the season. Carter scored a 35-yard scoop and score late in the game. The Gators also recorded their 19<sup>th<\/sup> sack on the season which now places them #1 in the SEC.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida Gators returned to the Swamp with a blowout victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Gators looked razor-sharp as they routed the Razorbacks 63-35. Florida quarterback Kyle Trask had another great performance against the second-ranked pass defense in the SEC. Trask didn\u2019t have any trouble against the Arkansas defense and despite not having his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2113,"featured_media":31454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35588,2,35573],"tags":[314,79,1977,244,1921,1978,126,20],"class_list":["post-32571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-arkansas-razorbacks","category-featured","category-florida-gators","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-college-football","tag-feleipe-franks","tag-florida-gators","tag-kyle-pitts","tag-kyle-trask","tag-ncaa","tag-sec"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77697,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32571\/revisions\/77697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}