Gator Country

Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel posted a 195.0 passer rating in leading the Gators to a 37-20 come-from-behind win at Tennessee on Saturday. / Gator Country file photo by Curtiss Bryant

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.

About the author

MikeCapshaw

Mike’s 15 years in the business has included more than six years of covering SEC sports and recruiting at a daily newspaper in Arkansas. He has also helped launch a newspaper, magazines, websites and even a sports talk radio show. Mike has won Florida Press Association awards for Best Sports Game Story and Best Sports Feature Story in the past two years as well as a company-wide award at his former newspaper group that includes some 60 publications, for Excellence in Sports Reporting.

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