Florida continues march to Atlanta with 21-point win over Vanderbilt

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The SEC Championship Game is scheduled for December 19.

Until then, the only thing that matters is that Florida wins. That holds for next week against Kentucky, a week later in Knoxville or finishing up the season in the rescheduled match-up against LSU.

The same was true for the match-up Saturday against Vanderbilt, and if that’s the metric, the Gators passed the test with flying colors in a 38-17 victory.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t things to work on. There are always things to work on, even for elite teams. And after Georgia’s narrow 31-24 win over Mississippi State, there’s still some doubt whether Florida can truly be counted among the elite.

But style points don’t matter at this point. The SEC Champion is going to the playoff. If Florida keeps winning, they’ll be the SEC Champion. And if Florida beats Alabama to win the SEC, there’ll be no doubt that they belong among the elite.

There’s also this. In 1996, Florida beat a 2-9 Vanderbilt team 28-21 en route to a National Championship. The 2006 team beat the Commodores (4-8) just 25-19. It turns out that getting up to play Vanderbilt at 11am local time at a half-empty (or nearly fully-empty) stadium can be difficult.

And while this game felt sluggish, it wasn’t ever really in doubt. Vanderbilt led 7-0, but Kyle Trask led the Gators right down the field to tie the game. Then Vandy went up 10-7, but Florida tied that score too. After the first drive of the second half, Florida was up 24-10 and the game was essentially over

I get the criticism. It’s frustrating to give up 406 yards to a Vanderbilt team that has been terrible offensively. But big picture, I think it’s important to realize what we’re criticizing: a 21-point win on the road after two emotional victories against Georgia and Feleipe Franks.

If you’d have told me 38-17 would be the outcome prior to the game, I would’ve taken it in a second. Because Florida doesn’t have to look pretty. The Gators just have to win.

Offense

It felt like Kyle Trask played okay, but I wouldn’t say this was his best game.

But then you look at the stat line and he went 26-35 for 383 yards (10.9 yards per attempt) and 3 TDs. His Yards above Replacement (YAR) – which is my proprietary statistic used to evaluate QBs – was 3.04, which puts him at 2.56 for the season. Joe Burrow won the Heisman with a YAR of 2.41 in 2019, so thus far Trask is putting up a better season than Burrow, at least by that metric.

After not running the ball in the first half (23 for 85 yards, 3.7 per att), Florida established the run in the second half (22 for 123, 5.6 per attempt). That included going for it on fourth-and-inches on the opening drive of the second half, turning that drive into a touchdown and breaking the game open.

In fact, if Toney doesn’t fumble early in the fourth quarter, the offense would have come close to matching its season average (46 points per game).

The play that typified this offense – and its QB – most to me was after the fumble when Vanderbilt subsequently pinned Florida at its own one-yard line. Most coaches run on first down to “try and get some room to operate.” That’s not what this offense does. This offense attacks.

Florida lines up with two tight ends to the strong side, Keon Zipperer (#9) on the inside and Kemore Gamble (#88) right next to him. By having two tight ends in the game, it forces Vanderbilt to play its base defense, which means that if they sent out both tight ends out, one of them will get a linebacker in coverage.

Zipperer runs straight up the field towards the Vanderbilt safety. Zipperer essentially runs a wheel route towards the sideline. Trask makes a great throw, over the linebacker hitting Gamble right in stride. This is a throw that if there’s too much air under it allows the safety to come over and break it up. If there isn’t enough, it could easily become a pick-six for the underneath linebacker.

During the telecast, ESPN showed a graphic comparing Trask to Nick Foles. I didn’t think that was really all that appropriate, but I couldn’t really think of who Trask reminded me of. Then I watched the throw to Gamble from behind.

The footwork is impeccable. He holds the safety with his eyes even though he knows he’s throwing to Gamble the whole time. Even the motion on the throw a little bit, it reminds me of Peyton Manning.

The offense definitely misses Kyle Pitts. Gamble and Zipperer are fine players, but Pitts is a game changer who opens things up for everyone else.

But as long as Trask is at the helm, this offense is going to go. Just look at the anticipation on this throw.

Trask throws the ball here to a spot before Toney even breaks. He knows exactly how much air to put underneath it. And all this while under pressure and throwing the ball off-balance.

We are spoiled. The offense puts up 38 points and the first thing we feel is that “it sputtered.” You’re not alone. I felt that way too.

But the offense didn’t just put up 38 points. It put up 586 yards, went 8-12 on third down and averaged 7.1 yards per play. It wasn’t the 63-point explosion like against Arkansas.

But it was more than enough to get the win.

Defense

How you feel about the Gators defensive performance probably has a lot to do with your expectations.

I picked Florida to win 49-21, so only surrendering 17 points is actually better than I thought. The reason I picked the Gators to give up three touchdowns isn’t because I think Vanderbilt’s great, or even decent. It’s because there are just limitations to what this defense is going to be able to do.

Yes, there are things that need to change. The safety play was atrocious at times. There are way too many wide-open slants for easy first down conversions (7-15 for Vandy). And the defense made Ken Seals look like a future star rather than a true freshman.

But I didn’t see as many mental mistakes as I did against Arkansas. The defense only gave up three explosive (20+ yard) plays. Two of those were one where the Gators just got physically beat, but were in the right coverage and in the right spot. You can live with those.

Florida has Marco Wilson (#3) in one-on-one coverage. Now, you can debate whether that is the player who should be out there, but what you can’t debate is that Wilson plays this perfectly except he doesn’t box out the receiver. This is a great individual play by Will Sheppard (#81) and is a play Wilson shouldn’t allow. But he was in the right place at the right time. All he needs to do is finish.

The same can be said for this play.

Again, Florida has Brad Stewart (#2) in one-on-one coverage. Stewart is step-for-step with the Vanderbilt receiver, Cam Johnson (#7). The ball is placed perfectly and Stewart is trying to get his hands in there at the end as is just unable to knock the ball away, but does make the tackle.

Even the ugly 58-yard touchdown to Chris Pierce in the second half where he carried Donovan Stiner nearly into the end zone is a matter of tackling, not playing the correct coverage. You could criticize Shawn Davis for giving him too much room, but the real error for Davis was not making the tackle.

It is true that on the opening drive of the game, the Gators weren’t getting lined up correctly and looked like they were sleepwalking. Kaiir Elam admitted as such after the game.

But they also know that they have enough talent to sleepwalk through a Vanderbilt game without the risk of losing the game. Plus, the coaches really set them up for it by altering the pre-game routine so significantly by getting off the bus only 60 minutes prior to game time.

And that didn’t stop the youth from getting out on the field. Mohamoud Diabate continued his development at linebacker with seven tackles and starting to look like he belongs at that position. Gervon Dexter had six tackles and a half sack. Khris Bogle had four tackles and a sack. And Ty’Ron Hopper flashed when they gave him some time in the second half.

It’s bad when you give up 406 yards to Vanderbilt, but I do think we need to consider the early start time, the emotional wins over Georgia and Arkansas, and the fact that this just isn’t a very good defense. To expect them to be more than that at this point isn’t being realistic.

Young players complaining

After the game, a few of the younger guys took to Twitter to express themselves.

True freshman Princely Umanmielen re-tweeted a fan saying he’d get two sacks with the comment “gotta get in more than one play to set 2 sacks.” Lloyd Summerall seemed to have similar sentiments, tweeting “When they gone let a dog out the cage?”

Both players have since deleted the tweets.

Now, I understand how players can get frustrated at not getting playing time. That is especially true given how the defense has struggled a lot of the time. And I’m not reading too much into this as I can’t imagine what some of my tweets would have looked like when I wasn’t getting playing time during my playing days.

I feel for these guys. I really do. Grantham – and Mullen too – favor older players. That’s what these guys bought into. They’re going to get the benefit of the doubt when they’re seniors as well.

But beyond that, I want to make a point to both of them, or any other Florida player frustrated with his playing time.

The Gators have zero blocked punts this season. The Gators have zero blocked field goals this season. The Gators have zero blocked PATs this season.

If you want to get on the field, show a willingness to be a difference maker on special teams. Go make a tackle on the kickoff team. Create push up the middle to block a kick.

Make plays there and the coaches will know two things. First, they can trust you to be prepared when your number is called. And second, you’re going to put in full effort when you finally get your chance on the field.

Takeaway

A 21-point win on the road in the SEC is something we should be thankful for. I mean, did you ever think for a second that Florida wouldn’t win?

It was the same formula we’ve seen all year long. The offense is going to have to carry this Gators team. If they have an off-game, then that’s going to be a problem. But Trask hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. His lowest YAR of the year is 1.62, which is still elite. The last three games, his YAR has been 3.21, 3.55 and 3.04, well into Heisman territory.

Florida now knows it has two more weapons at tight end when Kyle Pitts comes back. Expect there to be some formations Mullen can use against Alabama that forces the Tide into things they don’t want to do with Pitts and either Gamble or Zipperer on the field. The experience those two are getting is going to pay off down the road.

Did the defense struggle against Vanderbilt? Yes, yes it did.

But I didn’t expect Florida to cover the 30.5 point spread, precisely because in a seven-game stretch with no breaks against the SEC, you’re going to take breaks when you’re playing the Vanderbilt’s of the world.

You knew Florida would have a game where they came out flat. This was that. If it happens again next week, maybe you worry. But even then, with Trask pulling the trigger, I don’t know that you need to worry that much.

And while I know Gators fans want to see style points (like a 21-point win isn’t stylish), the reality is what I said to open this recap: the Gators don’t need style points.

Lose again, and Florida isn’t going to the playoff. Win out, and the Gators definitely are in.

So that’s it. Do enough to win and all your dreams – and the fans’ dreams – come true. That’s what they accomplished against Vanderbilt, whether it was ugly or not.

The goal is to go 1-0 every week. Do that enough times, and you get to play for something bigger. The Gators went 1-0 Saturday.

That’s all they need to do.

Dooley leaving the Gainesville Sun

It’s tough to put into words what someone means to you when you don’t really know them all that well.

I’ve met Pat Dooley in-person just one time. He and I were both speakers at the Gainesville QB Club in 2019 and he warmed up the audience after the win over Miami blissfully unaware that they were about to look at spreadsheets and graphs detailing the wonders of how yards per play correlate to scoring.

But I feel like I’ve known Pat Dooley for years.

Ironically, I didn’t read Pat when I was a student at UF. Instead, I was interested in the student takes in the Alligator or to be honest, busy doing my own thing on campus instead of worrying about what was wrong with the Ron Zook era. Back then, football was a time to relax on a Saturday after a busy week of classes and having too much to drink on Friday night.

But a couple of years after graduating, I found myself living in Virginia, completely disconnected from anything Florida-related. It was then that I found Gatorsports.com and got a little bit of that connection from Pat, Robbie Andreu and – at the time – Ed Aschoff and Zach Abolverdi.

It sounds like a small thing – and in many ways, it is – but having that connection to Gainesville and the football program meant something to me at that time and Pat was a big part of that. Gator Sports was where I first started reading about recruiting and considering its impact. It was where I celebrated a big victory (this was during the Urban days, mind you) soaking up all I could about the program from afar.

I’ve spent this past week really thinking about taking things for granted. My daughter turns 12 today and my time with her is rapidly ticking away. There is so much I want to do with her but I don’t want to take for granted the time I have left before she spreads her wings and goes out there to change the world.

We haven’t seen my parents since last December. There aren’t any plans to travel to see them due to the coronavirus. The drive down is awful. But I’d give anything to be able to do that drive this Christmas.

From a sports perspective, Kyle Trask’s 2020 season is being compared with Tebow in ’07-’08, Grossman in ’01 and Wuerffel in ’96. Clearly these types of performances don’t come around every day, even to a program as blessed with them as Florida.

And I suspect that I took Pat for granted too.

One thing you learn when you write about sports to any kind of audience is the value in showing up. There will be critics who are ruthless because they don’t get or appreciate what you’re doing. There will be times when you don’t feel like writing or times when you don’t feel like you really have something new to bring to the discussion.

But for 33 years, Pat has shown up and been a part of the Gator program and the lives of just about every Gator fan.

Pat announced this week that his last day at the Gainesville Sun is December 1.

Personal news: my last day at the Sun is Dec 1. My choice and they are treating me well. Not deposed football coach well. But well. New email will be Patrickdooley54@gmail.com. Radio will continue and so will podcast. Details to come. Love you all and it has been a privilege

— Pat Dooley (@pat_dooley) November 18, 2020

I’m happy for Pat. He is leaving by choice and is going to continue doing his radio show and podcast. In this age of newspapers struggling, the fact that it is his choice is really remarkable.

Clearly, Pat and I have very different styles. But there’s no way that his writing hasn’t rubbed off on me in some way. I’ve spent too much time reading his stuff.

Good luck, Pat. I look forward to seeing what’s next.

Featured imaged used under Creative Commons license courtesy photo-gator