Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Kyle Trask welcomed back beastly tight end Kyle Pitts in a big way Saturday, but it was another kid whose name starts with a "K" that ignited a slow-starting Florida football team. 

Kadarius Toney's 50-yard punt return late in the first half— executed with a shrewd element of deception —was the jolt the sixth-ranked Gators needed. The play gave UF just its second lead of the game, then Trask, Pitts and a defense that was challenged at halftime did the rest in a take-charge 34-10 victory over Kentucky at Spurrier/Florida Field. In claiming its fifth straight, Florida (7-1, 7-1) closed within one win of clinching the program's first Southeastern Conference East Division title since 2016. The Gators, who scored the game's last 27 points, can lock up a trip to Atlanta by winning one of their final two games, or if second-place Georgia falters in either of its two. 

Oh, and Florida also has its sights set on some objectives behind a league championship. 

"Sky is the limit," Trask said when asked of the team's ceiling. "We have huge goals for this team, and to do that we have to continue to get better every week." 

UF coach Dan Mullen acknowledged his team had accomplished nothing yet, but took some satisfaction in knowing, through eight games, the Gators maintain control of their destiny and have plenty of room to grow. 

"I don't think we've played a complete game yet — and I think complete games are hard to get," Mullen said. "We've got to continue to improve, continue to get better, and our job as coaches is to make sure we're coaching, teaching and motivating our guys to get better. Our guys' jobs [are] to show up every day and work as hard as they can, have a great positive attitude and push themselves to try to improve. They can't get bored with repetition; they got to try to get better every single day."
 
They were far from their best against the out-manned Wildcats (3-6, 3-6), who were missing 16 players due to injuries or COVID-19, but UF's marquee guys were certainly on point, starting with the one with the ball in his hands. 

Doing nothing to diminish his run at the Heisman Trophy, Trask completed 21 of 27 passes for 256 yards and three touchdowns, all to Pitts, who saw his first action since leaving the Nov. 7 win against Georgia in the first half after taking a helmet-to-helmet strike that put the 6-foot-6, 240-pounder into concussion protocol and opened a gash in his face. Pitts, though, seemed no worse for wear in catching five passes for 99 yards, including a 56-yard first-quarter touchdown, as Florida dominated the second half, despite totaling just 418 yards of total offense, more than 100 below its season average. 

"It was great to be back and playing with my brothers," Pitts said. 

His defensive brothers, also. They surrendered a first-quarter touchdown drive, and allowed Kentucky to control the ball for more than 23 of the 30 first-half minutes, then collected itself at intermission and responded by stonewalling the Wildcats to just 46 second-half yards, two first downs and no points, while forcing three turnovers. 

That defensive bounce-back came after ESPN cameras caught Mullen and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham engaged in a heated conversation while Kentucky's offense was dominating time of possession and thus keeping Trask and his playmakers on the sideline. Not long after that exchange, though, UF stopped UK on third-and-4 from the UF 5, forcing the Wildcats to settle for a 22-yard Matt Ruffolo field goal and 10-7 lead — finishing a 14-play, 87-yard drive — with 2:13 to play before halftime. 

Cooler heads prevailed.

"I think you get after it, just having the different discussions; competitive people," Mullen said when asked about his conversation with Grantham. "But look at the job that they did coming in at halftime, and looking at how Kentucky was trying to attack us. We came in and really kind of shut them down early. We were able to get a lead and that gets Kentucky out of their whole game plan of trying to really slow everything down and milk the clock."

But before they gathered to process what Kentucky was doing, Toney made the play of the game. 

 
After a UF three-and-out offensive possession, a Jacob Finn punt pinned UK at its 1. Three snaps later, Kentucky's Max Duffy, the 2019 Ray Guy Award winner as the nation's top punter, was standing in his end zone awaiting the ball on fourth-and-1 from his own 10. 

Duffy's punt traveled 40 yards. Florida had two return men set up around midfield. The UF return squad retreated to set up their wall on the left side of the field, where Xzavier Henderson — with a half-dozen Wildcats closing in — acted as though the ball was coming down to him. He even feigned getting under the ball, as well as a basket catch. 

Instead, the ball had traveled to the right side of the field, where Toney caught it with no one around him and sped cross-field and untouched 50 yards for the touchdown, UF's first kick return for a score this season, 14-10 halftime lead, all the momentum going into halftime, and due to get the football to start the third quarter. 

"Our guys up front did a great job holding it up to get the return going," Mullen said. "And then, KT, once he got in the open field, he's a dangerous guy with the ball in his hand." 

Trask, meanwhile, went right to work out of the locker room; a 12-yard completion to Toney, then 9 yards to Trevon Grimes, then 12 yards to Pitts had UF in business near midfield. Kentucky then did its part with three straight penalties — after having none in the first half — all of which were major infractions, including back-to-back face mask calls. The totality set up a first-and-goal at the 6, and Trask hit Pitts for their second scoring hookup to go ahead 21-10. 
 
Before the quarter was over, Evan McPherson booted the first of two second-half field goals, a 34-yarder, linebacker Mohamoud Diabate had an interception and 14-yard return deep in Kentucky territory, and Trask-to-Pitts showed up for the third time, the last on a 7-yard score, to take a 31-10 advantage into the final quarter against an opponent virtually incapable of coming back from that deep a deficit given its inability to throw the ball.

Or even get first downs. 

"It's losing football," Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said of his team's two second-half first downs. "It's not good enough, and you can't give yourself a chance to win games if you cannot get first downs."

After running 41 plays in the first half and holding the ball those 23-plus minutes, Kentucky had just 21 plays and less than 10 minutes with the ball in the second on the way to being outscored 20-0. UK quarterback Terry Wilson completed 10 of 18 passes for only 62 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He was replaced late by backup Joey Gatewood, whose lone attempt was picked off by freshman Tre'Vez Johnson, his first career pick, and one of three second-half interceptions. 

"We definitely started off the game kind of slow, but the second half we made our adjustments and we did what we had to do," said linebacker James Houston IV, who had a team-high eight tackles, including 2.5 for loss. "The defense came together as a unit and we basically just said that we had to get three-and-outs, we got to get off the field and give the offense the ball so we can start winning this game and start turning the corner."