THE QUICK SLANT
No. 10 FLORIDA 56, VANDERBILT 0
WHAT HAPPENED: Fourth-year junior quarterback
Kyle Trask passed for a career-high 363 yards to go with three touchdowns and shared top billing with a UF defense that held the overmatched Commodores to just 128 total yards in Saturday's blowout/shutout Southeastern Conference victory at Spurrier/Florida Field. Trask, in helping guide UF to 560 yards of offense, fired scoring strikes of 1 yard to tailback
Lamical Perine, 66 to wide receiver
Trevon Grimes, and 15 to tight end
Kyle Pitts, eventually giving way to backup QB
Emory Jones, who rushed for a trio of touchdowns after halftime. Freshman outside linebacker
Mohamoud Diabate had three sacks, one of which produced a fumble (one of three UF forced turnovers) that graduate-transfer linebacker
Jonathan Greenard returned 80 yards for a touchdown in the third period. UF squandered several first half scoring opportunities, thanks to a pair of turnovers, a missed field goal and failed fourth-down conversion, and led just 14-0 at the break. Such was not the case in the second half, as the Gators scored four touchdowns in the third quarter alone. Trask's passing yardage total was the most by a UF quarterback since
Tim Tebow bombed Cincinnati for 482 in the New Year's Day 2010 Sugar Bowl and the outcome marked the first scoreboard blanking of a league opponent since defeating Kentucky, 38-0, on Sept. 22, 2012.
Senior tailback Lamical Perine gets a group congratulation from teammates after catching a 1-yard touchdown from Kyle Trask on a fourth-and-goal play to open the scoring Saturday against the Commodores. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
WHAT IT MEANS: That's 28 wins in the last 29 meetings against Vandy, dating to the 1989 season (with the lone blemish coming in 2013). The Gators were fat 27-point favorites over the Commodores, a team that came in ranked last or next-to-last in the SEC total offense and scoring offense, plus total defense and scoring defense. UF did what it was supposed to do in this game, especially at home, which means there's still a ton of good things to play for this season.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Diabate, a true freshman from Auburn, Ala., was given an opportunity due to the regular season-ending foot injury to
Jeremiah Moon suffered last week in the loss against Georgia. Boy, did he capitalize on it. The 6-foot-2, 213-pounder came into the game with 11 tackles, just two unassisted, with one stop for loss in his nine games. Diabate finished with four tackles, three of them sacks.
STAGGERING STATISTIC: The plus-432 yards of total offense (including a 277-18 edge at halftime) jumped out of the box score, but the outcome also marked the worst shutout and largest margin of defeat against a SEC foe since the Gators beat Kentucky, 65-0, on Sept. 28, 1996, on the way to winning the program's first national championship.
UP NEXT: Florida (8-2, 5-2) is away from home for the fourth time in five games when it travels to play Missouri (5-3, 2-2), a team that has had its way (rather easily, in fact) with the Gators the last two seasons -- but also are a team that lost to Vandy last month. The Tigers, who are at home against Georgia later Saturday, have crushed the Gators by scores of 38-17 (in 2018 in Gainesville) and 45-16 (in 2017 at Columbia) in consecutive meetings and own a 4-3 advantage in the series since joining the SEC for the 2012 season.
