The Florida Gators are back in the win column and one win away from making it back to Atlanta for the SEC Championship for the first time in 2009 in back-to-back years.
The Florida Gators went undefeated (5-0) at home and never allowed more than 14 points on defense and outscored opponents 161-35 – this was the first season they finished the season undefeated at home since 2009.
With the SEC East crown on the line, out of division against LSU next week, on the horizon, the Gators played smart football against South Carolina, doing enough to control the game from the onset, never relinquishing the lead. With two fumbles within the South Carolina 40-yard line, a 20-7 lead could have easily been at least 30-7 and much more palatable than the final score.
The Gators beat Will Muschamp at his game – defense – and then did enough on offense to not only beat the Gamecocks, but actually, maybe, provide a glimmer of hope under quarterback Austin Appleby.
Offense
- With 201 passing yards, the Gators have now passed for over 200 yards in seven games this season – the second year in a row under Jim McElwain. Under Will Muschamp, it only happened 16 times in four years.
- Antonio Callaway has now amassed the same number of catches he did in all of last season – 35. This season, he has 533 yards and two touchdowns to last season’s 678 yards with four touchdowns.
- The Gators have had seven games with at least 100 yards and had their fourth highest average yard per carry (4.62).
- The Gators have officially scored more points in nine games this season, than in 12 games in 2013.
- If Jordan Scarlett keeps pace, he will be the first Gators running back to have more than 150 rushes on the year and average more than 5.0 yards per carry since Chris Rainey in 2011.
- Austin Appleby has a higher completion percentage and yards per attempt than Luke Del Rio, but gets sacked about 3.5 times more per 100 pass attempts.
- However, the Gators rank 25th in the country in fewest sacks allowed per game – up from 121st last season.
- With an 81% completion percentage, Appleby had the highest completion percentage in a game since last season’s Ole Miss game with Will Grier at quarterback.
- The Gators currently, the same from last week, rank 123rd in 3rd quarter offense.
- Florida is 126th in red zone offense, down from 125th last season.
- With two turnovers inside the Gamecock 40-yard line, the Gators now rank 100th in the country in points per trip inside the opponent 40-yard line with 4.06.
Defense
- The Gators allowed 7 or less points for the fifth time this season. They haven’t allowed that few since 2009. The Gators rank 5th in the country in fewest points per game (13.3).
- The Gators defense is only allowing 3.32 points per trip they allow indie their own 40-yard line.
- The Gators are stopping opposing running backs at the line of scrimmage about 26% of the time.
- Jabari Zuniga has 5.0 sacks on the season. Last season, all freshmen on the team combined for only 6.0.
- Jabari Zuniga leads the team in tackles of loss. The Gators haven’t had a freshman lead that category since before my stats go back to 2004.
- The Gators forced their opponent to punt seven (or more) times for the fifth time this season.
- The Gators held an opponent under a 30% third-down conversion rate for the fifth time this season.
Miscellaneous
- The Gators have amassed 209 more penalty yards than their opponents this season.
- Johnny Townsend ranks fourth in the country in punt yard average and ranks sixth in the country in punt success rate. 60% of his punts land inside the 20-yard line or are fair caught.
- Eddy Pineiro ranks number one in the country on kickoff distance.