NASHVILLE, Tenn. — So, it turns out that Kyle Trask is not a four-touchdown-pass-per-game machine. 

He only had three Saturday. 

They were enough, however. Plenty, actually, along with what the rest of the sixth-ranked Florida Gators managed during their 38-17 victory over winless Vanderbilt at virtually empty Dudley Field. COVID-19 restrictions in the state of Tennessee limited stadium capacity, with only 1,147 on hand to see UF erase a couple early leads for the Commodores with a burst of 24 consecutive points bridging the halves, turning command to the visitors and sending the Gators (6-1, 6-1) to a fourth straight win, thus keeping them in firm control of their fate with regard to the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division title and berth in the league championship game. 

It wasn't overwhelming, not by a long shot. But it was effective as far as the ultimate goal. 

"Really kind of a ho-hum performance by us. That's the best way to put it," UF coach Dan Mullen said. "If we want to be a great team, we can't do that." 

With next-to-no fans and a combination of canned crowd noise and music providing an annoying and non-stop soundtrack, Trask completed 26 of his 35 attempts for 383 yards and a trio of scores, snapping his SEC record of six consecutive games with at least four TD passes. Wingback Kadarius Toney caught six balls for 107 yards and two touchdowns, tight end Kemore Gamble had six catches and two scores, with one from backup quarterback Emory Jones, while tailback Dameon Pierce rushed for 55 yards and a score. When it was over, Trask had become the first quarterback in SEC to throw at least 30 touchdowns in seven games and fallen one TD shy of the seven-game NCAA record, set in 2003 by Texas Tech's B.J. Symons. 
 
UF had nine players run the ball and nine players catch passes on the way to totaling 586 yards of offense, including 173 on the ground. That was enough to offset the 406 tallied by Vanderbilt (0-7), which got a 319-yard passing performance from freshman quarterback Ken Seals, whose receivers found holes in the UF secondary and ran through some arm tackles. 

"Obviously, there wasn't a lot of energy in the stadium, but I just think we have to do a better job of bringing energy within the team and making sure we're ready to play when that foot hits the ball," said Trask, who nonetheless found plenty of solace in ringing up another win with barely a hint of drama besides what played out early in the first half. "Obviously, we came out pretty flat and we want to start a lot faster than that, but at the end of the day we found a way to win and that's all that matters."

Mullen chalked up the ho and the hum partly to the lack of atmosphere, but also pointed to a week of practice that had some ho and some hum, as well. That said, the game-day routine was different, what with the Gators dressing at the team hotel, arriving at the ballpark barely an hour before kickoff and using the locker room in shifts.

Maybe that played into Florida's sluggish start, but it wasn't an overriding theme for the day. 

"I feel like it was good that we closed them out, but I think if we just need to come out with that same energy we do when we are playing well," said sophomore cornerback Kaiir Elam, whose fourth-quarter interception with 6:46 left and a 21-point lead settled the outcome. "I think they scored way too many points today, honestly." 

The Commodores, who were playing without injured rushing leader Keyon Henry-Brooks, sent a quick message they were here to play by taking the opening possession and rolling 75 yards (rather easily in fact) over 11 plays, facing only two third downs along the way. The second was a third-and-8 from the UF 16 and Seals, who went 5-for-5 on the drive, fired a touchdown pass to slanting wideout Chris Pierce Jr. (4 catches, 97 yards, 2 TDs), who beat Elam for the touchdown and 7-0 lead barely four minutes in. 

No problem. On UF's first possession, Trask hit completions of 13 and 15 yards to Toney, then 16 to Jacob Copeland, then made Vandy pay on a blitz by finding Toney for a 27-yard score that was aided by defensive back Jaylen Mahoney falling down in man coverage. It was 7-7 halfway through the period.

Seals was on it for Vandy's second take, too. He completed three of four passes, one a 24-yarder to Will Sheppard, but was curiously replaced by wildcat QB Mike Wright with a first down at the UF 12. The drive stalled there and a 25-yard Pierson Cooke field goal gave the home team a 10-7 lead with 2:25 to go in the first. 

"I thought there were some opportunities that we could have had and should have had," Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason said. "This ball game came down to what we didn't do."

Florida had a chance to take the lead late in the second, marching to a first down at the Vandy 20, but the drive stalled at the 15 and sophomore Evan McPherson matched Cooke's three with a field goal of his own, a 33-yarder, that knotted the game at 10 with 4:13 to go.

Then the game turned on UF's wave of two-dozen straight points. 

The Gators took their first lead on the next possession, despite a 47-yard punt that pinned them at the 15. Trask found Copeland for 17 yards on first down, then again for 11. Justin Shorter caught of couple balls for nine and 12 yards, to get UF into Vandy territory at the 34. That's where Trask dropped back and dropped in a 34-yard touchdown to Trevon Grimes, who went up between two defenders and cradled the ball, despite hitting the ground hard. An officials review confirmed the touchdown and 17-10 UF lead with only 49 seconds remaining in the half. 
 
Florida got the ball to start the second half and went right to work, with Mullen going into gamble mode barely 60 seconds in. After Trask went into a dive on a third-and-1 scramble, officials ruled his slide started before the line to gain. No matter. Mullen left his offense on the field — on fourth-and-1 from his own 34 — and Pierce rushed two yards to move the sticks. A 36-yard completion to Toney put UF at the Vandy 15 and Pierce rumbled into the end zone for the 24-10 at the 9:44 mark of the third period. 

"We felt comfortable with the call we would have in that situation and our ability to get it. It also gave us an opportunity to really separate us in the course of the game," Mullen said of the fourth-down decision. "It wasn't just the fourth down, but going out and getting the touchdown afterward. Finishing the drive. With the touchdown right before the half, that's a 14-point swing really without them threatening."

The Gators made it 24 straight points late in the third. A 46-yard Trask-to-Shorter completion had them in business deep in Commodores territory, with Trask finding tight end Gamble, subbing for standout tight end Kyle Pitts (concussion protocol), in the back of the end zone on third-and-goal from the 2, taking UF's margin to 31-10. 

Vanderbilt didn't shut it down, though. Seals hit Pierce on a slant and the Commodores' wideout ran through two UF defenders to a 58-yard touchdowns to draw within 31-17. 

When Toney fumbled on the next possession, after taking a 10-yard reception to the Vandy 22, the Commodores' bench really came alive. Even after a Kris Bogle sack put Vandy in a third-and-19 situation, Seals still manage to keep this unit moving — thanks to a 16-yard completion, followed by a 14-yarder to tight end Ben Breshahan on fourth-and-3 — managed to reach the UF 26. That's where the Gators stiffened with a couple big plays and forced a punt that pinned UF at it's 1, but kept the lead at 14 points.

"There were really enough plays out here in this ballgame to be made on offense on our part," Mason said. 
 
Not as long as Trask and friends kept making more, though. He needed one to get out of trouble. His play-action completion to Gamble on first down was good for 35 yards. Five plays later, Gamble caught a sideline pass from Jones and turned upfield to see nothing but green artificial turf. His 30-yard catch-and-run completed a five-play, 99-yard drive and pushed the Gators ahead 38-17 with 6:46 left. 

That would do it.

"It was good enough," Mullen said after scoring the most points at Vandy by a UF squad since 2010. "Does that mean we're playing to our standard? I don't know. That's something we have to judge when we go break it down and evaluate it, look at how our week was and how our preparation was. I'll put it this way, I have a smile on my face. I never take a win for granted. It's hard to win football games. I'm fired up. I was really proud of how our guys actually played. We stubbed our toe along the way, and we still come out with a 21-point victory with the game in hand basically the whole second half."