First off, happy Veterans Day to everyone out there. A big thank you to all who have served. My wife is active duty Navy and we both have grandfathers who served during WWII. Serving the country is a sacrifice that is worth remembering.
The 56-0 win over Vanderbilt had something for everyone. A whopping 15 different players registered a pass, rush, and/or reception. The quarterbacks tied each other for the team lead with five non-sack carries each. Trevon Grimes led the team with four receptions. A ton of guys got involved.
A whole 26 Gators got to collect a tackle, including Nick Buchanan registering his first and hopefully only career tackle after an interception. It was a nice form tackle, too. Three of the top four Gators in this category were James Houston, Lacedrick Brunson, and Tedarrell Slaton, showing how much the team was able to rotate guys around.
Kyle Trask had three passing touchdowns. Emory Jones had three rushing touchdowns. Everyone’s favorite newcomer Jonathan Greenard, who’s been an absolute warrior for the team with elite play despite fighting through injury, had himself an 80-yard fumble return touchdown. If only every spectacular defensive player got a chance to get in the end zone.
The fans in attendance got clear skies, comfortable temperatures, and a laugher of a win to watch. And, if the crowd shots late were any indication, plenty of chance to make it home in time to catch the beginning of the LSU-Alabama game. I’m not judging, by the way; Vandy is so bad this year it made me feel bad for those Commodore players that they couldn’t just do a running clock after the Gators scored those two quick touchdowns after halftime.
The coaches got something too, which was a chance not only to play a ton of young guys in a lopsided victory but also a game full of mistakes to go over on tape this week.
Dan Mullen is not Nick Saban, and in this regard, thank goodness. Mullen was his normal self after the game in his press appearances. He smiled some. He was loose. In the end it was a good win. His offense scored 56 in a conference game and the defense logged its third shutout of the season.
Yet for how things went in the first half, Saban would’ve been dour and irritable afterwards. When the beat writers would ask him about the fun of getting an easy win, he’d get combative and talk about how the effort wasn’t good enough. That it wouldn’t be sufficient against a better team. That he’d need to see more from the players during practice this week. I’ve covered Alabama plenty for other sites, and Saban would be absolutely insufferable if he didn’t win so much.
Trask’s progression as a starting quarterback is still a work in progress. Avoiding sacks is still not his forte, and he had a small number of awful throws that went right to defenders. Communication issues are still there too. The first pick where Kyle Pitts ran a post and he threw the dig (crossing) route is one I can’t definitively place on him because I don’t know which was the right one on the play. Either way it’s the third time this year where it was readily apparent that he and his receiver were not on the same page.
Don’t get me wrong, Trask had a wonderful performance overall. He completed two thirds of his throws for almost ten yards an attempt. But Hypothetical Coach Saban is correct: there were some bad plays in there that would’ve cost the team against a better opponent.
We also got to see the third major offensive line configuration with Ethan White subbing in while Brett Heggie was out following a concussion. Hopefully it’s not going to lead to anything, but it’s at least Heggie’s second after he had one in 2017.
White played with great energy and appeared to my eyes to be quicker on pulls than Chris Bleich was, but it was still the same 2019 line in that Trask took sacks and the running backs had nowhere to go most of the time. The RBs combined for 34 yards on 13 carries, or 2.6 yards per carry. Vandy had been allowing a shade under six yards per non-sack carry heading into the game. This year’s offensive line is just not going to consistently get openings for tailbacks.
And the defense? Well, there’s not a whole lot for Hypothetical Coach Saban to complain about there. Vandy ended up with only 128 total yards. More than 100 of them came on just three drives: the one with Greenard’s score (67 yards), the one that ended with a missed field goal (28 non-penalty yards), and the two rushes that ran out the clock at the end (11 yards). Set aside those and the couple of plays that killed the first half clock and the Commodores had 25 net yards on 11 drives. It’s hard to ask for more than that even against a team as bad as Vanderbilt is this year.
As far as I know at the time this goes out, we don’t know the status of Brad Stewart. If he has to miss some time with whatever leg injury he sustained, that’d be the only unqualified bad thing to happen Saturday.
Vandy would be the worst SEC team in years if not for how crushingly terrible Arkansas is this year. With UF having a recent history of trouble getting up for games after losing to Georgia, few better opponents could’ve wandered into the Swamp. I mean, Towson put up more of a fight, not the least because Joe Flacco’s little brother Tom is miles better than either of the backups VU could put on the field.
The real test of the team’s mettle will be playing an early game on the road this coming week, pending Kelly Bryant’s health. The signs for Florida after Saturday are positive, but even this blowout win provided fodder for film study. You couldn’t draw it up any better.