Gators stock report entering LSU week!

Who's up and who's down entering Week 7 for the Florida Gators?

The Gators ended up pulling out a close, 24-13 win against the No. 7 ranked Auburn Tigers on Saturday. For the most part, the team played well throughout the game - specifically on defense. 

However, the win was not perfect, given several turnovers and some play-calling woes. With that being said, its time for another installment of our weekly stock up, stock down segment.

STOCK UP

The safety unit: I was pleasantly surprised to see Florida's safeties play so well, as the Gators were finally healthy with Jeawon Taylor and Shawn Davis getting back into the rotation. 

Davis is the best safety on the team, as he has played lights out all year aside from missing a few tackles here and there. Brad Stewart has been paired with Shawn Davis on most of his snaps, and he has quietly done his thing this season both in coverage and coming down to make stops. Donovan Stiner seems to have arrived, or so we hope. He recorded an interception and made a huge tackle for loss on a scramble by QB Bo Nix as Auburn was in Florida territory. 

Coach Ron English has the safeties playing in pairs and rotating between drives, pairing Davis with Stewart and Stiner with Taylor. I personally believe you should play your best players, but the method does seem to be working. There were a few busted coverages, but overall the safety play has improved tremendously since the beginning of the season.

Emory Jones: The third-string quarterback came in and did his thing after Kyle Trask went down with a knee injury in the 2nd quarter. He drove down the field and led the team on a nine-play, 51-yard drive which resulted in a vital field goal to boost UF up by four points heading into the half. 

Jones looked comfortable and did his thing in the pocket. He only threw for 28 yards on 5 completions, but he was poised and made the right play. The redshirt freshman still has some work to do, and just missed on two big plays to Swain and Pitts. I’d still like head coach Dan Mullen to utilize him in a bit more in order to get the run game going with some RPO’s, but Mullen decided to keep Trask in once he got back in the game. 

The Georgia product got it done when he needed to and should be getting more snaps soon enough. Either way, his stock went up given how he handled the pressure of a big-game situation.

RB Lamical Perine: He’s back ladies and gentlemen! Perine ended up breaking off on an 88 yard rush against his home-state team, which declined to offer him back in high school. Auburn’s staff believed Perine was too slow for their system, and Perine used that criticism as motivation as he turned on the jets down the sideline to seal the deal in the 4th quarter. 

Hopefully, this run will boost Perine’s confidence after a rough start to his senior season. Malik Davis also got into the game, getting five touches and running for 16 yards. He did well with ball security while he filled in for the injured Dameon Pierce.

STOCK DOWN

Kyle Trask and the offensive line for causing turnovers: Auburn’s elite defensive line caused four turnovers, due to Kyle Trask holding the ball too long in the pocket and the offensive line getting beat by Derrick Brown and Co. 

The first fumble came on a blitz, and I really can’t blame the offensive line or Trask for this one. Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele just dialed one up, and Trask got nailed and let go of the ball. The second fumble was mostly on left tackle Stone Forsythe getting beat off the edge, but Trask again put the ball on the ground as he got blindsided. According to my unofficial count, it was approximately 2.5 seconds from snap to fumble on the second fumble. 

The last fumble was completely on Trask. Although the pocket was collapsing, Brown simply ripped the ball from Trask on this rep. Trask needs some work on his pocket presence, as he’s been holding the ball a bit longer than he did when he was tossed in against Kentucky.

Fourth down: The Gators are 0-3 on fourth down in the past two games, which included two failed attempts against the Auburn Tigers. Mullen pulled out a risky fake punt late in the 2nd quarter, as he was deep in his own territory and tried to catch Gus Malzahn off guard. Tommy Townsend had a small hole, but the execution was weak. The Gators went for it again, this time after a botched first down call. I'm not sure why Mullen called a QB draw with Trask, who isn't overly mobile and was playing hurt, but it has failed Florida twice in the past two weeks on fourth down.

The Referees: I think both sides can agree these refs were terrible, and they were already suspended once after the 2009 Florida-Arkansas game. Unfortunately, this crew somehow got put back together, and 10 years later, they are still awful. They missed multiple holding calls on both sides, a major targeting penalty which left Dameon Pierce concussed, and multiple defensive pass interferences were missed as well. I normally don’t complain about officials, but these refs have a rough history, and they should 100% be split up.

Josh Hammond: The whole team played a complete game, and I admittedly couldn’t come up with many other names. Hammond dropped a couple of passes, ending his streak of games without a drop since the 2017 season. He made up for it with a touchdown though, so all is forgiven.