{"id":33091,"date":"2020-12-06T13:00:55","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=33091"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:44:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:44:25","slug":"florida-gators-clinch-sec-east-in-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2020\/12\/06\/florida-gators-clinch-sec-east-in-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Gators Clinch SEC East in Win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida Gators officially clinch the SEC East division with a win over Tennessee. The Gators will play the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game. Florida knocked off the Tennessee Volunteers 31-19 in Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>Gators 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 impressive performance to add to his Heisman resume. Florida\u2019s offense didn\u2019t perform to the best of its ability but was able to secure the win.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Florida Gators Clinch SEC East<\/h2>\n<p>The Florida defense played pretty good for most of the game but gave up two garbage-time touchdowns that made the game look closer than it actually was. It was also the first game that the Florida defense didn\u2019t force a turnover. However, the Gators got the win and have one more regular-season game before taking on the Crimson Tide for the SEC Championship.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Tennessee Volunteers<\/h3>\n<p>The Tennessee Volunteers started true freshman quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/harrison-bailey-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harrison Bailey<\/a> but also played two other quarterbacks. Bailey had an okay performance as he completed 14 out of 21 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown. Redshirt-sophomore <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/jt-shrout-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">J.T. Shrout<\/a> was the leading passer for Tennessee. Shrout completed 12 out of 14 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>The Tennessee rushing attack was contained by Florida\u2019s front seven. Tennessee rushed for 94 yards on 39 carries averaging just over two yards per carry. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/ty-chandler-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ty Chandler<\/a> was the leading rusher. He rushed for 49 yards on twelve carries and a touchdown. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/eric-gray-2.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eric Gray<\/a> also rushed for 47 yards on twelve carries.<\/p>\n<p>Redshirt-senior wide receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/velus-jones-jr-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Velus Jones Jr.<\/a> was Tennessee\u2019s leading receiver. Jones had four receptions for 70 yards and a touchdown. Gray had seven catches for 46 yards and a touchdown. Senior <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/josh-palmer-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Palmer<\/a> also caught four passes for 36 yards.<\/p>\n<p>On defense, Tennessee did a pretty good job of containing Florida\u2019s offense. The unit made the Gators one-dimensional on offense limiting their ground game to 19 yards on 17 carries. Sophomore <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/warren-burrell-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Warren Burrell<\/a> led the Volunteers in tackles with eight including seven solos.<\/p>\n<p>Linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/henry-too-too-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Henry To\u2019o To\u2019o<\/a> had a nice game as he recorded eight tackles including six solos and two-and-a-half tackles for loss. Tyler Baron and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/jaquain-blakely-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ja\u2019Quain Blakely<\/a> both recorded a sack against the Gators.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Florida Gators<\/h3>\n<p>The Florida Gators got the win against one of their rivals but the team didn\u2019t have their best showing. The offense struggled as their rushing attack was nowhere to be found forcing Trask to throw the ball more than usual.<\/p>\n<p>Trask continues to look good in his redshirt-senior season. He completed 35 out of 49 passes for 433 yards and four touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>The Florida rushing attack was terrible. The offensive line had its worst game of the season. They couldn\u2019t create any running lanes and their running backs were constantly getting hit behind the line of scrimmage. The lead rusher was wide receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/jacob-copeland-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacob Copeland<\/a> and he only had one carry for 17 yards.<\/p>\n<p>Star tight end <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/kyle-pitts-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Pitts<\/a> had another great performance as he had seven receptions for 128 yards. Senior <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/kadarius-toney-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kadarius Toney<\/a> had eight catches for 108 yards and a touchdown. Another 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 big game as he caught six passes for 55 yards and two touchdowns. Copeland also had three catches for 57 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>The Florida Gators defense had a pretty solid game against Tennessee for the most part. The Gators defense had six sacks against one of the top offensive lines in the SEC. Redshirt-junior linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/ventrell-miller-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ventrell Miller<\/a> led the Gators in tackles with 12 including eight solos, a sack, a tackle for loss, and a pass breakup.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/trey-dean-iii-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trey Dean<\/a> had eight tackles including six solos and a sack. Defensive end <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/zachary-carter-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zachary Carter<\/a> had four tackles including a sack and one-and-a-half tackles for loss. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/amari-burney-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amari Burney<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/khris-bogle-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khris Bogle<\/a> both had two tackles and a sack. True freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/princely-umanmielen-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Princely Umanmielen<\/a> also recorded his second sack of the season.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">What\u2019s next?<\/h3>\n<p>The Florida Gators will return to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for their regular-season finale against the LSU Tigers. The LSU Tigers have a 3-5 record and are coming off a 55-17 blowout home loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. This game will be playing on Saturday but the time and channel of the game have not been announced yet.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"2rHDZv-zQxRTcjnE8AStKA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1229967072\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'2rHDZv-zQxRTcjnE8AStKA',sig:'EpVF_Aatv9nRJ0OhTHjE_D2p4H7ZFLhdN-6uT6Y5hjM=',w:'594px',h:'388px',items:'1229967072',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida Gators officially clinch the SEC East division with a win over Tennessee. The Gators will play the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game. Florida knocked off the Tennessee Volunteers 31-19 in Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday night. Gators quarterback Kyle Trask had another impressive performance to add to his Heisman resume. Florida\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2113,"featured_media":33098,"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":[3,2,35573,35587],"tags":[79,244,4845,4561,1978,126,20,59,3561],"class_list":["post-33091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-featured","category-florida-gators","category-tennessee-volunteers","tag-college-football","tag-florida-gators","tag-harrison-bailey","tag-henry-tootoo","tag-kyle-trask","tag-ncaa","tag-sec","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-ventrell-miller"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33091","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=33091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77686,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33091\/revisions\/77686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}