It wasn't Florida's prettiest victory of the season, but the No. 6 Gators rolled through Tennessee on Saturday anyway, improving to 8-1 with a 31-19 road win over the Volunteers to clinch the SEC East for the first time since 2016. The win leaves a home game with LSU next week as the final roadblock standing between Florida and an SEC Championship Game showdown with No. 1 Alabama on Dec. 19 that will determine both teams' College Football Playoff fate.
Quarterback Kyle Trask completed 35 of 49 passes for 433 yards and four touchdowns in yet another prolific performance for the Heisman Trophy favorite. The aerial assault was a necessity because Florida mustered just 19 yards rushing in the game. Trask's outing brought his season total to 38 passing touchdowns, just one shy of Danny Wuerffel's school record of 39. That Trask has done it in just nine games -- all against SEC competition -- is even more impressive.
Florida took a 24-7 lead on a five-play, 75-yard scoring drive to begin the third quarter, and Tennessee did not get back within two possessions until a garbage time score with 27 seconds left. But the Gators did go three-and-out on consecutive possessions for the first time this season in the third quarter as their offense sputtered a bit. In regards to the outcome, those brief struggles were of little concern against a struggling Tennessee team that gave true freshman quarterback Harrison Bailey his first career start.
Bailey showed flashes of promise, especially on a 96-yard scoring drive in the first half, and he finished 14 of 21 for 111 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. But the Vols generated only 94 yards on the ground and gave up six sacks while dropping their sixth straight game and falling to 2-6 on the season.
Give and take
Florida coach Dan Mullen lit into defensive coordinator Todd Grantham on the sideline during the Gators' 34-10 win over Kentucky last week, raising some questions about Mullen's satisfaction with Grantham's work after lowly Vanderbilt racked up over 400 yards against Florida the week before. But aside from allowing a 96-yard scoring drive in the first half, Florida's defense shined for the most part against Tennessee.
The Volunteers finished with 334 total yards, but 161 of those came in the fourth quarter when the outcome had been decided. Tennessee's ground game, which had been the best part of its anemic offense this season, averaged just 2.4 yards per rush.
That success for Florida was juxtaposed against its own struggles running the football that will need to be addressed. Florida finished with 19 yards rushing on 17 attempts with a pair of wide receivers accounting for the team's only runs longer than 5 yards.
Heisman Trophy favorite?
Trask's status as the Heisman favorite likely held steady, unless Clemson's Trevor Lawrence or Alabama's Mac Jones turns in a particularly heroic effort on Saturday night. With four more passing touchdowns, Trask is up to 38 against just three interceptions for the season. The diversity of his distribution was particularly impressive against Tennessee as he hit nine different receivers and connected with three players for touchdowns. That's been the case all season for Trask.
Ohio State's Justin Fields put up four total touchdowns in the Buckeyes' 52-14 win over Michigan State on Saturday to stay on the periphery of the Heisman race, but all signs point to a showdown between Trask and Jones in the SEC Championship Game potentially bearing a heavy influence on who takes home the hardware.
Where does Tennessee go from here?
Bailey offered some encouraging flashes, but the Volunteers have lost six straight games by double digits. That's embarrassing for a proud program led by an athletic director in Phillip Fulmer, who is a legendary former coach at the school. So could Pruitt be coaching for his job next week against Vanderbilt? If the Vols can't beat the winless Commodores, selling a fourth year of Pruitt's regime may be impossible, especially when division rivals Vanderbilt and South Carolina have already fired their coaches this season.
Yes, Fulmer made the decision to hire Pruitt, and it might be a bad look in the eyes of some for him to cut ties with Pruitt after just three seasons. But he made the hire under duress after a fan-led revolt against former athletic director John Currie's effort to hire Greg Schiano. If it's clear in Fulmer's opinion that Pruitt's tenure is going nowhere, then he should take a mulligan and make a run at Liberty's Hugh Freeze or Coastal Carolina's Jamey Chadwell.
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2020-12-06 00:05:00Z
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