Five Key Takeaways from the Florida Gators' 34-10 Victory Over Kentucky
The No. 6 Florida Gators (7-1) have started games slow with defensive issues galore in two weeks straight, but each time have put those issues behind them by the time the second-half came around.
Florida's 34-10 victory over Kentucky on Saturday should once again have fans and onlookers feeling a bit skeptical when it comes to UF's chances of unseating Alabama in the SEC. It's possible, and the Gators' second-half showing provides as much reason for optimism, but it's hard to rationalize UF's flounders and inability to play complete football eight games into the year.
Maybe Kyle Trask-to-Kyle Pitts is all the Gators will need moving forward, as the duo showed no rust in Pitts' first game since the Georgia contest. That and more in our key takeaways below.
A tale of two defenses
In the first half, Kentucky had the ball for 23:23 and ran 41 plays. Comparatively speaking, UF had the ball for 6:37 minutes and 21 plays, and ventured toward a halftime deficit if not for a huge punt return touchdown by Kadarius Toney.
Kentucky controlled the clock for the entirety of the half, accumulating 146 rushing yards (not including sacks) on 30 attempts. Florida forced an early punt on Kentucky's first two drives but quickly turned into the defense seen against Vanderbilt: Struggling to line up, leaving huge gaps open in coverage, missing tackles, you name it. Kentucky, the SEC's worst offense, took advantage and put 10 points on the board.
Such a showing led to an enraged head coach in Dan Mullen on the sidelines, who was seen throwing a fit towards defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.
The shouting must have worked as the second half was a different story. UF allowed just 46 total yards and intercepted three passes when Kentucky started playing aggressively as Florida began to click on offense.
Florida flipped the script by virtue of Kentucky's faltering and held onto the ball for 20:04 of the second half, compared to UK's 9:56. Kentucky's six second-half drives all ended poorly: Punt, interception, punt, turnover on downs, interception, interception.
Why Florida's defense can't play a full game, no one knows. Again, teams such as Alabama won't crumble as Kentucky or Vanderbilt has over the last two weeks. However, it's hard to ignore that we absolutely saw a dominant defensive showing from the Gators when it mattered.
I mean, shoot. Emory Jones had as many passing yards in cleanup duty as Kentucky had total yards in the second half.
UF starts slow offensively, again, but that has yet to cause a legitimate concern
Man, what was that showing from Florida's offense in the first half?
Regarding the time of possession split, UF was contained very well by the Wildcats' defense other than Kyle Pitts' 56-yard touchdown on Florida's opening drive. Dropping eight into coverage often, UK still found a way to get quarterback Kyle Trask off his spot utilizing a three-man rush and limit UF from getting into a rhythm.
Trask still played well, going 11-of-15 for 175 yards, but UF simply couldn't find a way to extend or finish drives. Until the second half, when the tide turned.
Four of Florida's seven second half drives ended in scores, and a fifth was missed via Evan McPherson failing to connect on a field goal from 45 yards out. Another one of those seven ended at UK's one-yard line, as the game clock expired. Trask and Jones combined for 14-of-16 passing for 158 yards in the second half, with Trask tossing another two touchdowns Pitts' way. Toney threw a pass for 12 yards, too.
Trask ended his day by setting UF's longest streak of consecutive games with three or more touchdown passes, with eight, unseating Danny Wuerffel.
Florida has gotten off to a "slow" start offensively over the past two weeks, scoring seven points as a unit against Kentucky in the first half and 14 against Vanderbilt in the same stretch. Defenses are starting to figure out how to slow Florida down, no doubt, but that has yet to hurt the Gators up until this point.
Kyle Pitts shines in return to the field
Pitts said he was "real jittery" when he took to the gridiron for the first time since Nov. 7. You couldn't tell, as he finished his day with five receptions for 99 yards and three touchdowns. His first score came via a swiftly executed corner-post route where Pitts opened Kentucky cornerback Kelvin Joseph's hips to the sideline - at that moment, the play was over.
Pitts moved into UF's second all-time spot in receptions by a tight end as he's now up to 86, behind Kirk Kirkpatrick (111, 1987-90). He's also the first UF player since Taylor Jacobs in 2002 with three games of two or more touchdown grabs in one season.
While Florida's offense did just fine without Pitts, scoring 101 points in his absence, it's clear that Pitts elevates this offense. Without him, it's fair to wonder if the Gators' offense would have turned things around against the SEC's No. 1 passing defense on Saturday.
Much more rotation defensively
While the Gators did struggle defensively throughout the first half, you could see Mullen's desire for more defensive rotation at work.
As early as the second drive, at least five players substituted into the game in place of starting defenders - defensive end Dante Lang, linebacker James Houston IV, cornerback Chester Kimbrough, and safeties Trey Dean III and Rashad Torrence II stepped onto the field from what we saw. Snap counts aren't available yet, but 22 players could be found on Florida's defensive box score post-game.
Houston secured a team-leading eight tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss in his role. And it was backup STAR cornerback Tre'Vez Johnson who caught the final interception of the game, off of his high school quarterback Joey Gatewood.
Mullen has kept his hands off the defense for the majority of the season other than check-ins, but if there's one change he wanted to see, it was to "roll" more players throughout the unit as he said post-Vanderbilt. He seems to have gotten his wish.
Special teams excitement!
Toney's punt return touchdown wasn't the only fun Florida had with its special teams unit on Saturday. And while we usually don't factor special teams into key takeaways unless it's glaring, Mullen pleaded for improvement from the unit earlier in November. Things appear to be trending in the right direction, for the most part.
Toney, although likely to special teams coordinator Greg Knox's displeasure, fielded a punt inside the 10-yard line by jumping in the air to catch the ball with Kentucky defenders swarming him, somehow managed to not muff it, and ended up gaining nine yards on the return at the beginning of the game.
UF faced a first down on its first drive of the game and executed a fake punt from their own 25-yard line, as running back Dameon Pierce took the ball and rushed for 15 yards. Pitts scored his first touchdown two plays later.
Beyond fair catches and touchbacks, Kentucky never began a drive at or past the 25-yard line, and Mullen gave credit to UF's kick coverage team for the feat. McPherson has a rare-missed field goal from 45 yards, which was mentioned earlier, but otherwise connected on field goals of 34 and 40 yards in length. Punter Jacob Finn was able to pin two punts inside the 20-yard line, including one downed at the one.
