The trend continued in the second quarter — Appalachian State had the ball for one second less than 9 minutes but again couldn’t get near enough to scare the Gators’ end zone.
The only touchdown of the second quarter came after an ASU turnover. After Presley found Brian Quick over the middle for 2 yards, the receiver was met by senior Brandon Hicks, whose tackle dislodged the football and Black, who had tears in his eyes when he ran onto Florida Field before the game for the final time, picked up the loose ball and advanced it three yards to the ASU 28.
On first down, Brantley was sacked for a loss of five yards. Emmanuel Moody then gained 4 yards on second down. On third-and-11, Brantley fired to Rainey, who came up a yard short of a first down. Florida went for it on fourth down, and Burton got it with four more yards to spare. On first down from the 14, Moody took a handoff and raced nine yards. On second-and-1 at the ASU 5, Brantley split left with Reed at quarterback. The 6-foot-3 redshirt freshman took a direct snap and rolled to his right before throwing the ball over an ASU defender to Brantley, who leaped and caught the ball for his first collegiate touchdown and second game in a row that he has caught a pass (he caught his own deflection last week against South Carolina for a loss of 10 yards). Chas Henry’s PAT made it 28-0 with 5:02 remaining and that’s how the half ended.
In the 12 minutes and 29 seconds it had the ball, Florida outgained Appalachian State 327 yards to 140, running three more plays (39) than were run by the Mountaineers, who had the ball for 5:02 more. The Florida yardage was almost 50-50, with the Gators gaining 165 yards through the air and 162 yards on the ground. Brantley was 10-of-15 passing for 160 yards, while Chris Rainey had 81 rushing yards on five carries. Meanwhile, the Mountaineers had just 36 rushing yards on 14 carries.