Week 7 Florida Gators Stock Report: Offense, Composure Up; Secondary Down
Photo credit: University of Florida athletic association
As with any Florida-Georgia game, things tend to get weird. That's exactly what happened this year, when Georgia took a 14-0 lead just minutes into the ball game.
Despite the early Georgia lead, Florida stormed back and quickly tied the game before trading blows with Georgia, just for the Gators to pull away towards the end of the first half.
Ultimately, the Gators beat Georgia for the first time in three years, an immense and important win for head coach Dan Mullen and the Florida program. With that being said, let's dive into who saw their stock rise and fall against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Stock Up
QB Kyle Trask
After this weekend's performance, It is safe to say that the former two-star prospect has solidified his spot as a top quarterback in all of college football.
Even with his two best targets not making much of an impact, Trask still posted video game numbers in Jacksonville. The Texas gunslinger hung up 474 yards and four touchdowns on one of the most sound defenses in the nation, albeit down a few starters. Even though Trask threw a pick-six in a vital moment, he came back with a vengeance and immediately scored just three plays later.
Trask saw the field, only missed a select few reads throughout the afternoon, and diced up Georgia's secondary with all sorts of throws, including multiple deep passes of 15+ yards. Trask found all sorts of receivers and only saw a slight decline once Kyle Pitts left the game, partly due to the fact that the play-calling became more conservative with the Gators holding a lead.
All in all, the senior quarterback proved he could compete with the best of the best, and that he should be in any and all Heisman trophy consideration through five games.
The running backs
In one of the best performances from Florida's RB room seen in some time, the three-headed-attack of Dameon Pierce, Malik Davis, and Nay'Quan Wright was quite the sight on Saturday.
Pierce, the power back of the group, was getting the treatment he deserves as he racked up 52 yards on 15 carries while specializing in short-yardage situations for the Gators. He was especially efficient earlier in the game, tallying nine first-quarter carries for 43 yards and a touchdown.
Although he isn’t used as much in the passing game, Pierce found himself making an impact with a 35-yard reception on a wheel route, extending a drive when Florida was already behind the sticks on 2nd and 14.
Davis was the main pass-catching back, as he posted a whopping 100 receiving yards on only five catches. Many of this receiving success came on Florida exploiting matchups, as Georgia could not find a way to cover wheel routes. The Dawgs rolled out both man and zone coverages, yet, Florida found a way to post over 200 yards receiving on the wheel route alone, most of which were run by the running backs.
Wright also made his presence felt, accumulating 71 yards in the passing game, 50 of which came on an aforementioned wheel route. Florida’s usage of their running backs outside of the run game has been remarkable, as two backs led the way on the box score when it came to receiving yards. For that, Running backs coach Greg Knox deserves tremendous praise for his development of those in his room.
Run defense
Despite allowing a 75-yard run on the first play of the game, the Florida run defense was stout, only giving up 165 yards on 29 rushing attempts. If you were to take away the 75-yard scamper from the total, Florida only allowed modest 90 rushing yards on 28 attempts, averaging around three yards a carry.
Defensive tackle Kyree Campbell's recent addition to the lineup has paid major dividends, as the Gators' front seven and gap control was much better when he found himself in the game. Florida stuffed the run all afternoon, causing Stetson Bennett and D'Wan Mathis to pass, which came with varying levels of success.
Although Florida's run defense played well against one of the most explosive rushing teams in the nation, there are still problems to be figured out on the backend, but we'll get more into that later.
Team composure
Despite being down 14-0 with just under four minutes in, Florida took its "Don't flinch" mantra and put it into practice, quickly answering Georgia's early success.
This was one of the most important takeaways from the entire game, as Florida was down but never out of the biggest game of Dan Mullen's three-year tenure despite falling behind by two touchdowns in the early minutes. The Gators picked themselves up and quickly answered the call with a seven-play drive that ended up a touchdown to Justin Shorter, only for the defense to quickly get the ball right back after a three and out. UF took control of the game from there.
Stock Down
Secondary
The main concern coming out of the win of Saturday was with the secondary, as Georgia missed multiple wide-open throws due to coverage busts and guys getting beat.
Luckily for Florida, Georgia didn’t have a quarterback to get the ball to open receivers, allowing Florida to catch breaks even when the plays were wide open. Communication within the Gators' secondary was once again in question with some clear missed assignments, despite a cleaner game communicating between defensive backs against Missouri just over a week ago.
This problem must be addressed quickly, as strong arm and former UF quarterback Feleipe Franks makes his way to The Swamp next week. Arkansas offensive coordinator Kendal Briles won’t be afraid to take the top off the Gators defense and will no doubt challenge the Gators' secondary in the vertical passing game.
