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Florida No.6 beat Arkansas 63-35 on Saturday night at The Swamp to further solidify as the SEC East’s top team and stay in the mix for the college football playoffs. Quarterback Kyle Trask had 23 of 29 passes for 356 yards and six touchdowns, becoming the only Florida player to have two games with six more touchdowns in a single season in program history. Danny Wuerffel, the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner, is the only other Gator quarterback to have played two games with six or more touchdowns in his career.
The touchdown game started in Florida’s first practice when Trask hit Trevon Grimes for nine yards. Former Florida quarterback Feleipe Franks, who transferred to Arkansas during the offseason, came back right away and threw a 47-yard yardage at Mike Woods on the next drive. At that point, the boat race was on.
Trask hit Grimes again, followed by Justin Shorter, Jacob Copeland and Keon Zipperer in the first half to blow it up before the teams even entered the locker room.
Franks finished 15 of 19 for 250 yards and two touchdowns in a losing effort for the Razorbacks.
The win takes Florida to 5-1 on the season, while Arkansas drops to 3-4.
Trask has been at the center of take out for the past two weeks. So instead of talking about him as this year’s Joe Burrow and a favorite for the Heisman Trophy, let’s mix things up a bit.
Up to two
There is a great bar on the Florida-Alabama border near the Gulf of Mexico called the Flora-Bama. It might as well open a franchise at Mercedes-Benz Stadium as the SEC title battle between the Gators and Crimson Tide is going to be as legendary as the annual Flora-Bama mule throw (watch it… it’s worth it).
Florida is Alabama’s only threat in the SEC, as they’re the only team in the conference that can play Bama football at an elite level. It doesn’t matter how good your defense against the Crimson Tide is – Georgia proved it last month. The teams that will face the Tide must be able to go point by point against the crimson and white juggernaut.
Florida can do this with the weapons it has on the ground. If it isn’t all-star tight end Kyle Pitts, it’s Trevon Grimes (who was the star on Saturday). If it’s not Grimes, it’s Kadarius Toney. If it’s not Toney, it’s Dameon Pierce on the pitch. That’s why the Gators have scored 40 or more points in three straight SEC games for the first time since 2008 – the last time they won a national title.
What’s even more impressive this year is the confidence that coach Dan Mullen has in Trask. The senior quarterback has full control of the offense and knows how to get his team into the right play without looking towards the sideline. This means the Gators can pick up the tempo to ridiculous speeds if they need to – something that has regularly caused problems for Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide.
Florida’s last two trips to the SEC Championship game served as victory laps in Alabama. That won’t be the case if and when the two meet at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 19. Coach Dan Mullen is now 26-6 in 32 games as Florida head coach – the same record Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer had. These two guys have won national championships. Could Mullen follow in their footsteps?
Set the tone
While Trask receives all the love for the passing game and his possible Heisman Trophy campaign, some unsung heroes are flying under the radar. Most notably Pierce in the racing game.
The 5-foot-10, 215-pound junior rushed for 34 rushing yards on six carries in Florida’s first practice of the game, which resulted in a touchdown pass from Trask. The same happened against Georgia last week when he collected 24 rushing yards on the game’s first two drives, which, again, set up the Trask air show that quickly followed.
Championship teams cannot be one-dimensional. They have to keep the defenses honest. That’s exactly what Pierce does… and Trask takes it from there.
Nothing to be ashamed of
Arkansas entered “The Swamp” without coach Sam Pittman against a team that had come off a big win over a rival for the first time in four years. The victory put Florida squarely in the race for the national title. On top of that, the Razorbacks received a punch in the face but kept hitting to at least make this game interesting.
Pittman wasn’t there, but his tenacity, his attitude and his heart were. Arkansas teams under Chad Morris and Bret Bielema reportedly packed him at halftime after giving up four touchdown passes in two quarters. It’s clear, however, that this team of Razorbacks bought what Pittman is selling and his vision for the future.
It’s called a foundation… and Pittman has already cemented it in his program despite the fact that he had never been a head coach at the FBS level before this season. Moral wins matter for teams like Arkansas that have hit rock bottom. The Razorbacks are on the rise thanks to Pittman – who is set to be the SEC Coach of the Year.
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