No. 6 Florida steamrolled Arkansas 63-35 on Saturday night in The Swamp to further solidify itself as the top team in the SEC East and stay in the mix for the College Football Playoff. Quarterback Kyle Trask was 23-of-29 passing for 356 yards and six touchdowns, becoming the only Florida player to have two games with six more touchdowns passes in a single season in program history. Danny Wuerffel, the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner, is the only other Gator quarterback to have two games with six or more touchdown passes in his career.
The touchdown party got started on Florida's first drive when Trask hit Trevon Grimes for a nine-yard score. Former Florida quarterback Feleipe Franks, who transferred to Arkansas in the offseason, came right back and tossed a 47-yarder to Mike Woods on the ensuing 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 make this a blowout before the teams even entered the locker room.
Franks was 15-of-19 for 250 yards and two touchdown passes in a losing effort for the Razorbacks.
The win moves Florida to 5-1 on the season, while Arkansas falls to 3-4.
Trask has been the focus of takeaways for the last two weeks. So, instead of talking about him being this year's Joe Burrow and a front-runner for the Heisman Trophy, let's mix it up a bit.
Down to two
There's a great bar on the Florida-Alabama border near the Gulf of Mexico called the Flora-Bama. It might as well open up a franchise at Mercedes-Benz Stadium because the battle for the SEC title between the Gators and Crimson Tide is going to be as legendary as the annual Flora-Bama mullet toss (look it up … it's worth it).
Florida is Alabama's only threat in the SEC because it's the only team in the conference that can play Bama's brand of football at an elite level. It doesn't matter how great your defense is against the Crimson Tide -- Georgia proved that last month. Teams that are going to contend with the Tide have to be able to go point-for-point against the crimson-and-white juggernaut.
Florida can do that because of the weapons it has all over the field. If it's not 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 ground. It's the reason 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 trust that coach Dan Mullen has in Trask. The senior quarterback has full control of the offense and knows how to get his team in the right play without looking toward the sideline. That means that the Gators can crank up the tempo to a ludicrous speed if they need to -- something that has routinely caused problems for Nick Saban's Crimson Tide.
Florida's last two trips to the SEC Championship Game served as Alabama victory laps. That won't be the case if and when the two meet in Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Dec. 19. Coach Dan Mullen is now 26-6 through 32 games as the Florida head coach -- the same record Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer had. Those two guys won national championships. Could Mullen follow in their footsteps?
Setting the tone
While Trask gets all the love in the passing game and his possible Heisman Trophy campaign, some unsung heroes are flying under the radar. Most notably Pierce in the run game.
The 5-foot-10, 215-pound junior had 34 rushing yards on six carries on Florida's first drive of the game, which resulted in a Trask touchdown pass. The same thing happened against Georgia last week when he had 24 rushing yards on the first two drives of the game, which, again, set up the Trask air show that soon followed.
Championship teams can't be one-dimensional. They have to keep defenses honest. Pierce does just that … and Trask takes it from there.
Nothing to be ashamed of
Arkansas walked into "The Swamp" without coach Sam Pittman against a team that was coming off of a big win over a rival for the first time in four years. That win put Florida squarely in the national title hunt. On top of that, the Razorbacks got punched in the face but kept punching back to at least make this game interesting.
Pittman wasn't there, but his toughness, attitude and heart were. Arkansas teams under Chad Morris and Bret Bielema would have packed it up at halftime after giving up four touchdown passes in two quarters. It's clear, though, that this Razorbacks crew has bought into what Pittman is selling and his vision for the future.
That's called a foundation … and Pittman has already cemented it within his program despite the fact that he had never been a head coach at the FBS level prior to this season. Moral victories matter for teams like Arkansas that hit rock bottom. The Razorbacks are on the rise thanks to Pittman -- who should be the SEC Coach of the Year.
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November 15, 2020 at 10:54AM
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Florida vs. Arkansas score, takeaways: No. 6 Gators continue to light up the scoreboard in blowout win - CBS Sports
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