Florida 31, Tennessee 19

THE QUICK SLANT
No. 6 FLORIDA 31, TENNESSEE 19

WHAT HAPPENED: Quarterback Kyle Trask padded his Heisman Trophy resumé, passing for 433 yards and four touchdowns Saturday, but more importantly the sixth-ranked Gators clinched a spot in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game for the first time in four seasons by beating the Volunteers at Neyland Stadium. Trask, the fifth-year senior, basically put the game away by working for a pair of long touchdown drives (80 yards and 75 yards) bridging the first and second half to open a 17-point lead against an offensively challenged Tennessee team. Trask went on to complete 35 of 49 throws, with TDs of 4, 2, 17 and 12 yards to pull within one of 1996 Heisman winner Danny Wuerffel for the most touchdown passes in a single UF season (39). The Gators got an early field goal from sophomore Evan McPherson, then surrendered a 96-yard scoring drive to freshman quarterback Harrison Bailey, making his first career start, and trailed 7-3 until Trask found his rhythm. He was five of six for 64 yards, hitting senior wideout Trevon Grimes for his first of two touchdown catches, to start a run of 28 straight points that put the Gators in command. Trask found senior wingback Kadarius Toney with 33 seconds to go in the first half, then Grimes again just 1:29 into the second to open a 24-7 lead. He added a fourth TD to sophomore Jacob Copeland early in the fourth quarter to make it 31-7. UF finished with 452 yards of offense, with only 21 on the ground. UT had 334 yards for the game and eventually replaced Bailey, who went 14 of 21 for 111 yards and a score, with sophomore J.T. Shrout (12 of 21, 121 yards, 1 TD), who threw a scoring pass with 27 seconds to go. The loss was the Vols' sixth straight, with all of them by double digits.

UF linebacker **Ventrell Miller** (51) and linebacker **Brenton Cox Jr.** combined for a sack of UT quarterback **Harrison Bailey** during Saturday's action in Knoxville. (Photo: **Tim Casey**/UAA Communications)

WHAT IT MEANS: The Gators are headed to the conference championship game for the first time since 2016, but they don't have the 2020 SEC East Division all to themselves. Not yet, anyway. Georgia can still claim a share of the division title with a win next week and a loss by UF in its regular-season finale. That's a conversation for another time (one Florida's coaches, players and fans rather not have, of course), but in the interim all the team's goals (and dreams) appear to be alive. The Gators have won six in a row and put themselves in position for a shot at the College Football Playoff.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Got to go with Kyle again. And Kyle. That would be Trask and Kyle Pitts, the remarkable UF tight end, of course, who hooked up for seven receptions for 128 yards. On defense, junior linebacker Ventrell Miller had an excellent game, finishing with 12 tackles, including two for loss, with a sack and a pass breakup.

STAGGERING STATISTIC: No one is going to mistake this Florida team for one that is particularly good at running the ball (or likes to), but at halftime the Gators had one yard rushing against the No. 9 defense in the SEC at stopping the run. Part of that bad number was the two sacks Trask took (just the ninth and 10th of the season), but the Vols were surrendering 161.1 yards per game on the ground coming. Florida had 19 yards on 17 attempts, with Copeland gaining 17 on his only carry of the game on an end-around. The UF tailback stats looked like this: Dameon Pierce 5 carries, 5 yards; Nay'Quan Wright 4 carries, 2 yards; Malik Davis 2 carries, zero yards.

UP NEXT: Florida (8-1, 8-1) is back in "The Swamp" to wrap the regular season against struggling LSU (3-4, 3-4), which was a 30-point underdog at home against No. 1 Alabama later Saturday night and trailed the top-ranked Crimson Tide 45-14 at halftime. The Gators can make their SEC East crown all their own on their home field with a victory, something the program has not done since clinching the East against Vanderbilt in 2015.

Gators Calendar

Players Mentioned

Jacob Copeland

Malik Davis

Trevon Grimes

Evan McPherson

Ventrell Miller

Dameon Pierce

Kyle Pitts

Kadarius Toney

Kyle Trask

Nay'Quan Wright

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