In 2018 the Florida Gators lost to Georgia and then turned one into two the following week against Missouri.
Now, this Vanderbilt team didn’t have an NFL quarterback like Drew Lock did in Missouri. They were a 2-6 team coming in but Florida still needed to get its mojo back on Saturday, regardless of the opponent.
“I thought this week challenging our guys the intensity starting Monday to come out, play with a little chip on our shoulder. Play a little, competitive nature, I want to go out there and play, I want to go out there and win,” Dan Mullen said. “And we have been. And that’s all we talked about. It can’t just be within our preparation, it also has to translate to our performance on the field to play with a little edge and a little chip on our shoulder.”
Consider that done.
Florida won 56-0 on Saturday, its first shutout of an SEC opponent since beating Kentucky 38-0 in 2012.
Florida needed this kind of game. Vanderbilt was medicine prescribed by the football doctors to help forget the demons of last week. Florida is a good football team. They’re good enough to beat Georgia but they weren’t last week. They didn’t play up to their standard and it cost them what every football team craves — control of their future. Florida’s loss to Georgia ceded that control. It was the same scenario last year but we saw a different result on Saturday.
“Games like this are a confident booster as well as statement games. I feel like we needed a game like this just to get everybody’s confidence back up,” Trevon Grimes said. “After a loss, everyone’s obviously down. We don’t want to be, but it’s just the nature of the game. But we came out here where everybody’s back, head high, and we’re looking forward to playing good football the last couple games.”
The Gators have two games left this season. They’ll look for revenge from last year on the road at Missouri next week before getting FSU and an interim head coach to finish the regular season. There’s still life and hope to get to Atlanta but it’s not the main focus now.
“There’s still a lot to play for,” Kyle Trask said. “There’s still a shot at the East with some help. But none of that matters if we don’t take care of our business and our goal is just to go one-and-0 every week from now on.”