GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Leave it to
Steve Spurrier to answer a challenge.
After the Florida Gators ushered in their 2020 season Saturday with an explosive 51-35 road win at Ole Miss that was reminiscent of the Head Ball Coach's days of big plays and stuffed statistics, UF coach
Dan Mullen suggested Spurrier get the current UF HBC a bottle of wine to toast the 642 yards of total offense and six touchdown passes for
Kyle Trask.
Spurrier did the minimum in meeting the request. Literally.
As in a
mini-bottle of chardonnay.
"It
is actually a bottle and it
is wine," Mullen said with though a chuckle during his Monday Zoom call with media. "I mean, he didn't miss a beat. He was in here this morning [and] first time I saw him he had a bottle of wine for me. I called him out and he brought it."
Any toast, even a ceremonial one, will have to come later. The Gators, of course, have no time to celebrate and plenty of work to do — Repeat: Plenty — especially on the defense side, where talks of toasts must include talks of getting toasted by an Ole Miss offense that rolled up 613 yards of offense, including a staggering 443 through the air. In a regular season of 10 consecutive Southeastern Conference games, some serious fixing needs to occur, and quickly, with third-ranked Florida (1-0, 1-0) hosting East Division rival South Carolina (0-1, 0-1) Saturday at noon in the home and COVID-scattered opener at Spurrier/Florida Field.
A few minutes after Mullen exited his media session, sophomore cornerback Kair Elam took his turn in the Zoom square and articulated how the UF defense — particularly, the secondary room — felt about what it put on the tape during their afternoon Oxford.
"We won the game, but defensively it felt like a loss to us. That's not the Gator standard," Elam said of a unit that, for now, ranks third from the bottom in the SEC in total defense (in front of only Ole Miss and reigning league/national champion LSU, which was bombed for 632 yards, all but nine passing, by Mississippi State). "We had some above-the-line plays and then we had a lot that were below the line. Defensively, this [next] game means a lot to us."
In addition to the Rebels' 443 aerial yards and five touchdowns, the Gators also got gashed for 170 yards on the ground. The Rebels averaged 7.9 yards per snap, though don't throw a lot of blame in the direction of
Ventrell Miller. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound redshirt junior was outstanding in posting 15 tackles, all but two of them solo, with a couple tackles-for-loss and a sack. Miller was awarded Monday with SEC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance.
After the game, Mullen said all the right things about cleaning up mistakes, but he also added some perspective. He mentioned how the Gators had done real, live tackling only twice — just two preseason scrimmages over the previous month— since playing in the Orange Bowl last Dec. 30, having lost all of spring drills and a bunch of offseason work. Then there was the element of unknown, what with new Rebels coach Lane Kiffin and his innovative, up-tempo offense. Give the other side some credit, too. Finally, roll in the first-quarter loss of senior safety
Shawn Davis, who with
Brad Stewart Jr. (healthy scratch) unavailable was replaced by true freshman
Rashad Torrence II. The back end of the secondary had to do some learning on the fly. And Ole Miss also was playing from behind the bulk of the game, hence the fat passing numbers, with throwing every down a necessity after the Rebels fell behind by three touchdowns early in the third quarter.
The confluence of events manifested themselves in a slew of big plays, especially deep in the secondary, with the Rebels completing passes of 28, 46, 45, 57, 51, 22, 33, 32 and 31 yards.
Elam, though, refused to blame any of the aforementioned factors for the breakdowns. In fact, he was ticked off about them.
Bet some defensive teammates were, as well.
"I'm not going to make any excuses. We didn't play up to par. I feel like it wasn't on the missing spring or anything like that. We didn't play up to par. A lot of our players and coaches feel the same way. I think it's just something we're going to have to improve on," Elam said. "Plays were made, and for us, we have to have short-term memory, but looking back on the film -- I'm not going to lie -- I was kind of pi—ed off. Not because of my own film, but I know our defense as a whole, and I know how hard we practice and how hard we work. For us to go as far as we can, that wasn't acceptable, and it's just something we have to improve on."
Sophomore cornerback Kair Elam in action against the Rebels. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
As for the other side of the ball, where do Trask and
Kyle Pitts go to improve?
All Trask did was completed 30 of his 42 attempts (71.4 percent) for 416 yards and the most TDs ever tossed in a SEC opener in league history. Pitts, the 6-foot-6, 240-pound man-child tight end and best NFL prospect on the team, caught eight balls for 170 yards and four touchdowns, the latter number falling one shy of his end zone trips all last season.
"There were a couple of throws I could have done something else with to move the ball, and a couple of drives we could have made better decisions," said Trask, who instantly threw himself into the early season Heisman Trophy conversation and has UF atop the conference's total offense chart after one week. "Other than that, I thought the whole team, as a unit, did a good job from start to finish and it was a great way to start the season."
Now, it's about building on that performance (offense) and correcting mistakes (defense), as the Gators turn their attention to former UF coach Will Muschamp and the Gamecocks, who opened their season with a 31-27 home loss to 16th-ranked Tennessee. The Gamecocks gave themselves a chance by forcing a punt in the final two minutes, but the ball bounced off a USC player's leg and was covered by the Volunteers with 1:25 to go.
Senior Shi Smith, who hauled in 10 passes for 140 yards and a touchdown in South Carolina's season-opening home loss to Tennessee, is a dangerous receiver and return man for the Gamecocks.
South Carolina is led by senior quarterback Colin Hill, who completed 25 of 39 against the Vols for 290 yards and a touchdown and interception each, with big-play senior wideout Shi Smith (10 catches, 140 yards, 1 TD) the most dangerous Gamecock on that side of the ball. USC tallied 379 yards of total offense, just 89 on the ground, with 55 from tailback Kevin Harris.
Tennessee gained 394 yards against the South Carolina defense, including 133 on the ground.
Given what transpired over the weekend, look for the Gamecocks to challenge the Florida secondary.
"I think there [were] a lot of teachable moments from Saturday," Mullen said. "I expect a much better defense. Normally at the beginning of the season, everybody is like, 'OK, the defenses are great and the offenses are going to take a little time to catch up.' I think now that you have eliminated spring ball — when you eliminate the amount of tackling that you have done at this time; you expand this long training camp with the limitations that we had in it — I think it's an advantage for the offense, really. So this is what you are seeing. I expect us to make a really big jump from Week 1 to Week 2 defensively with tackling, the effort, with running to the football, with communication and making sure we are fitting everything properly."
If so, it'll be worth a
mini-cabernet. At least.
