Florida Gators quarterback Jeff Driskel has been named the Southeastern Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week following his performance in Saturday’s 37-20 win at Tennessee.
Any time a quarterback leads his team to a come-from-behind victory while posting a 195.0 passer rating, he’s going to be leading the race for the league’s weekly honor. It didn’t hurt when it’s only Driskel’s second career start at quarterback either.
Despite Driskel’s value to the offense, he’s not going to be asked to be the team’s most valuable player because he’s only throwing 20 or so times per game. He played within himself, didn’t do anything to get his team beat (no turnovers, sacks) and made timely plays in heading up a 555-yard effort, the most by a UF team in an SEC game since 2011. He accounted for 300 of those yards with the team averaging 8.8 yards per play.
Driskel completed 14 of 20 passes for a career-high 219 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran eight times for 81 yards in piloting the team’s second consecutive road rally for victory. Florida was 0-5 when trailing at halftime last season. The 37 points is the most Florida has scored in Knxville, Tenn., since 1984.
On the season, the sophomore from Oveido, Fla., has completed 71.2 percent of his passes (37 of 52) for 495 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He is fourth in the SEC with a 170.2 passer rating.
The Driskel-led Gators return home after a two-game road trip to host Kentucky at 12:21 p.m. on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.