NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Treon Harris appears to be settling in nicely as Florida's starting quarterback.
Harris totaled career highs of 215 yards passing to go with 49 rushing and a pair of touchdowns, as the Gators won a second straight with their true freshman at the controls with a convincing 34-10 road defeat of Vanderbilt Saturday night.
The win not only avenged last season's humbling loss to the Commodores, their first in Gainesville since 1945, but also was a jolt of confidence for an offense that only two weeks ago was dysfunctional diaster in a blowout homecoming loss to Missouri.
New leader. New reason to believe.
"You go as your quarterback goes, that's football," junior offensive tackle D.J. Humphries said. "If he keeps producing and playing like that, we'll keep it going."
With the win, UF (5-3, 4-3) remained alive in the Southeastern Conference East Division race, provided the Gators can beat South Carolina at home in their league finale next weekend. As for the bigger SEC picture, UF also would need Missouri to lose at least twice (one of them being Tennessee) and Georgia must lose next week against Auburn.
But seriously, all Coach Will Muschamp and his players are thinking about right now is becoming the best team they can be.
"We need to take care of Florida and the let the chips fall where they may," Muschamp said.
The new starting quarterback has given all Gators reason to believe.
Harris, who led Miami Booker T. Washington to back-to-back state championships, ran for both his touchdowns in the fourth period. His 60-yard bomb to senior wide receiver Quinton Dunbar set up his 7-yard scoring run on the second play of the period and four minutes later he scooted through the middle of the Vandy defense for a dazzling 33-yard scoring dash.
He finished 13 of 21, hitting six passes for first downs, plus a 48-yard completion to go with the 60-yarder.
"He's special," said sophomore cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III, one of several UF players who had to speak on Harris' behalf due to a team rule that prohibits freshmen from talking to media. "He does it at a high level and it's impressive for a freshman."
Florida trailed 7-0 early in the game, but seized command with 24 unanswered points and finished with 429 yards of total offense -- a balanced 214 rushing and 215 passing -- while not turning the ball over. The running game may not have been as overpowering as it was last week when both both Kelvin Taylor and Matt Jones went over 190 yards in an upset of Georgia, but it was plenty effective, with Jones gaining 82 yards and Taylor another 55.
Defensively, UF limited Vanderbilt (3-6, 0-6) to just 308 yards and forced four turnovers, converting three of those takeaways into 13 points.
"Turnovers, that's the best you can do," junior defensive tackle Jon Bullard said. "Get on the field, get off the field, get the offense the ball back to score points. The more points they score the less pressure on us. So the more turnovers we can get, the better it can be."
And the more the offense can move the chains and maintain drives, the better the defense will be.
"It keeps us rested and let's us come out fresh," senior linebacker Neiron Ball said. "And now they're putting points on the board, which is always good. I hope they keep that up."
Jeff Driskel's 1-yard touchdown plunge on fourth-and-goal in the second quarter gave Florida its first lead. Driskel, benched in favor of Harris two weeks ago, was inserted several times during the game to take advantage of his running ability. His TD came one possession after Jones was stuffed on a fourth-and-goal from the Vandy 1, but UF got a second chance almost immediately when Commodores tailback Ralph Webb fumbled on the ensuing possession and safety Jabari Gorman recovered at the 9.
Driskel capitalized with his leaping touchdown.
Vandy gave the ball back on its next possession when Webb fumbled again and Vernon Hargreaves IIII recovered at the Commodores 23. After a holding penalty, UF settled for Frankie Velez's 40-yard field goal a double-digit lead, 17-7, which stood until the Harris heroics in the fourth quarter.
The Gators trailed 7-0 after surrendering a 33-yard touchdown pass from Johnny McCrary to tight end Steven Scheuto, but tied the score late in the first period when Taylor darted through the Vanderbilt defense for 13-yard touchdown run with 3:34 to go in the first period. The Gators marched 60 yards in 10 plays, twice converting on third down to keep the drive alive.
"Really proud of our football team," Muschamp said. "We had a big win last week, but we came back and took care of business"
