The Good
Florida 51, Ole Miss 35
Did you feel like you were watching the real Florida Gators play football again?
Dan Mullen continues to guide us away from a decade of darkness and appears to have the high-octane Gators in position to be a serious contender for the SEC title.
Kyle Trask and Kyle Pitts picked up where the left off, inspiring Albert the Alligator to show some respect with a name change on Twitter.
Just felt right! @ktrask9 @kylepitts__ @GatorsFB pic.twitter.com/Vx0yp7yHMR
— Albert (@AlbertGator) September 27, 2020
Trask finished 30/42 for 416 yards and six touchdowns in a shockingly good performance that harkened back to the Steve Spurrier era. Four of those touchdowns went to Pitts, who could not be contained.
The Gators rolled up 642 total yards of offense, which set a school record for the most yardage in a single SEC game.
Dan Mullen said he expects a nice bottle of wine on his desk after breaking one of the Head Ball Coach’s records for yards in an SEC game. Spurrier told me, “Tell coach to win an SEC championship and I’ll bring him two.”
— Pat Dooley (@pat_dooley) September 26, 2020
Trask spread the ball out to 11 different receivers and while Pitts stole the show, senior WR Kadarius Toney flashed several times as both a receiver and a runner. We’ve seen good moments from Toney before and know what he’s capable of, but we haven’t seen it at a high-level on a consistent basis. If Toney can stay healthy throughout this shortened season, his quickness and physicality give the Gators a weapon that will make this offense awfully difficult to face.
Running backs Dameon Pierce and Malik Davis made the most of their limited opportunities, racking up 103 combined rushing yards on 16 combined carries. Toney added another 55 yards on two carries, one of which went 50 yards.
I’m not ready to make any bold declarations about the offensive line. Ole Miss is not a top-tier unit up front and the Gators made their share of mistakes, however, when your offense goes for 642 total yards, you’re doing something right. Aaron Bloch of PFF posted a great clip of Florida center Brett Heggie absolutely dominating his man on this 11-yard run by Pierce.
https://twitter.com/PFF_Aaron/status/1309913374868860928?s=20
Like him or not, Lane Kiffin is one of the best offensive minds in college football. Kiffin is well-traveled, but after showing what he could do with Nick Saban’s offense in Tuscaloosa, fans and administrators have been willing to look past his rocky first stops as a head coach.
In the year before Kiffin was hired in Knoxville, the Vols finished next to last in the SEC in total offense. Kiffin improved that rank to sixth the following year. USC was ranked sixth in the Pac-10 in total offense the year before Kiffin arrived and he improved that rank to fourth in his first year. FAU was seventh in total offense the year before Kiffin and first upon Kiffin’s arrival in Boca Raton.
This is the first stop in which Kiffin has a ready-made offense for what he wants to do and he showed why Ole Miss will be a tough out in the SEC in the coming years.
Florida’s trip to The Grove would have been a lot tougher had the schedule not been adjusted and the Rebels had a half of the season under their belts. The UF defense and the Ole Miss offense made a few mistakes along the way, but for the most part, you have to credit the performance of the Rebels offense. QB Matt Corral was outstanding. He threw for 395 yards and 3 TDs while adding another 50 yards on the ground on 13 carries. WR Elijah Moore was responsible for 227 yards receiving on 10 catches. Kiffin and the Rebels put up 613 total yards.
I’m not trying to overhype Kiffin or excuse missed assignments by the defense, I am simply pointing out that Ole Miss will be one of the better offensive teams Florida will face in 2020 and there is absolutely no reason to panic.
If Carolina puts up 35 next week, let’s panic then.
Saturday was a classic Spurrier-era performance that should bring a smile to any Gator fan’s face. The balance of power is beginning to shift in the SEC East.
The Bad
Mike Leach, K.J. Costello, and the Air Raid make a statement in their SEC debut
K.J. Cosetello is baaad man!
Mike Leach’s pinned tweet on his Twitter profile simply reads, “Air Raid Offense Philosophy” above a quote from Sun Zhu (Art of War):
If he (the enemy) is superior in strength, evade him. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared; appear where you are not expected.
It’s a simple philosophy that has worked for Leach at each stop in his career.
We already knew the Air Raid worked in the SEC. Mike Leach built Tim Couch into the No. 1 pick in the 1999 NFL Draft during his stint as the offensive coordinator under Hal Mumme at Kentucky in 1998-1999.
But nobody saw this coming.
QB K.J. Costello joined forces with Leach in Starkville and many expected this to serve as a stop-gap while Leach transitions a primarily run-based team into an Air Raid offense.
Costello threw a pick six early in the second quarter after a slow start and from that point forward, he was on fire.
Leach waltzed into Death Valley with a transfer at quarterback and put up an SEC record 623 yards passing with five touchdowns en route to a 44-34 upset over No. 6 LSU. No big deal.
— Mike Leach (@Coach_Leach) September 27, 2020
When asked about the magnitude of the win over LSU, Leach replied (via Mississippi State postgame quotes):
Well, I think it was outstanding. I mean this one went down to the wire, so I was pretty locked into the game. And then, they wanted me to go to the media right away, so I did. In the meantime, the players were all excited and I don’t know if maybe it’s a ritual, it is a lot of places, but to go up to the fans and that sort of thing. I wasn’t acquainted with all of it, so after that, I kind of played it by ear. I just sort of followed along and if the other guy was doing something then I did it. Hopefully, we didn’t get me in trouble. Like my mom said, if somebody tells you to jump over a cliff, sometimes you can, you know?
— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) September 27, 2020
The UGAly
Georgia 37, Arkansas 10
Feleipe Franks was terrible, spectacular, and supremely average all in the same 60 minutes on Saturday afternoon…it’s good to know that while many things have changed this year, some stay the same.
Franks’ usual self was on full display for the world to see right out of the gate. Arkansas’ opening possession: three and out, 35-seconds featuring a tipped pass at the line in Franks’ first attempt and a third and long run that was well short of the first down marker.
The Hogs started their next drive on their own 9-yard and a pass interference penalty on third down handed Arkansas a new set of downs. Franks responded with a 28-yard completion into UGA territory before connecting on a 49-yard perfectly placed touchdown pass to Treylon Burks.
ARKANSAS 7, UGA 0
Franks would finish 19/36 for 200 yards, 1 TD, and 2 INTs, one of which would be returned for six in the second half.
The Georgia Bulldogs were terrible, spectacular, and supremely average all in the same 60 minutes on Saturday afternoon…it’s good to know that while many things have changed this year, some stay the same.
In fairness to Georgia’s ability to score, the Dawgs did get on the board in the second quarter thanks to a completely mismanaged trick play by the Razorbacks.
ARKANSAS 7, UGA 2
I wrote about UGA’s quarterback situation in Friday’s Nick’s Picks column:
Georgia comes into the game with an offense led by QB Justin Fields…wait, I meant Jamie Newman….wait, I meant J.T. Daniels, but I might have also meant D’Wan Mathis. I think it won’t be Stetson Bennett? Eh, what do I know? Kirby will have likely locked up three more five-star quarterbacks and lost two of them by kickoff.
I’m glad I hedged on Stetson Bennett’s playing status.
Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman’s opt-out and Southern Cal transfer J.T. Daniels’ health (not yet cleared from an ACL tear suffered last September) forced UGA head coach Kirby Smart to send out third-stringer D’Wan Mathis as the starter in the Dawgs’ season opener.
Mathis’ inexperience paired with Smart’s Muschampion-like proclivity to suffocate all things offense produced 177 yards to go with a single field goal in the first half against a defense which allowed an average of 36.8 ppg and 451.2 ypg in 2019.
The 6″6″ Mathis is a lanky quarterback with great mobility. He made some day one mistakes (a dropped snap and a miscommunication in the red zone that led to a pick), but he has the tools that would thrill any offensive-minded coach.
Instead, he plays for a school that made now Heisman candidate, Justin Fields, look like this:
It’s clear that UGA has weaved some kind of spell over the recruiting world, but at what point do these top-tier quarterbacks wake up and avoid Athens at all costs?
Mathis was pulled in the second quarter for original fourth-string quarterback, Stetson Bennett. The 5’11” redshirt junior is the ultimate Georgia quarterback for the Kirby Smart era in Athens since he transferred out of UGA after his freshman season, played at Jones County JC (in Mississippi) in 2018, and transferred back to UGA before 2019 to serve as Jake Fromm’s top backup.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Perhaps dogs are drawn to some kind of transfer scent?
Halfway into the second quarter, Smart decided to pull Mathis and put in Stetson, “We talked on the headphones and said we were struggling offensively,” Smart said via UGA Postgame Quotes, “We didn’t have a lot of rhythm and we felt like we needed to change some things up. I don’t know how many drives we were into with D’Wan [Mathis], it felt like five maybe six, I don’t know how many total it was before we went with Stetson [Bennett] but we just though he could give us some energy. There are some things he can do well. He’s different than D’Wan and more experience.”
Stetson did not make an immediate impact, but was able to manage a field goal drive at the end of the first half.
ARKANSAS 7, UGA 5
““Really sloppy first half,” Smart said after the game, ” I thought I was in an extra-inning baseball game because it went forever. We weren’t scoring points that’s for certain. We’ve got a long way to go to get where we need to go.”
How bad was it for the Georgia offense in the first half?
The second half played out more as expected. Bennett took charge the rest of the way and finished 20/29 with 211 yards and 2 TDs. Georgia ultimately covered the 26-point spread and forced three turnovers on the day, but there has to be some serious level of uneasiness with this performance if you are a UGA fan.
UGA 37, ARKANSAS 10
This isn’t an LSU situation where UGA had to replace a ton of talent. Ole Miss putting up 35 shows Florida has some work to do on defense, but the Rebels were one of the better offenses in the SEC in 2019. The Razorbacks were the 13th ranked offense and the 14th ranked defense in the SEC last season.
Are we to believe that a patchwork roster full transfers have bolstered Arkansas to a point where they will be competing with teams that are supposedly a part of the SEC elite?
J.T. Daniels is not a sure thing once he is cleared , Mathis struggled mightily in the little that we saw., and while Bennett proved serviceable against a bottom-dweller in the SEC, how do you like his odds against UGA’s next five opponents: Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Florida?
Since LSU is looking primed for a rebuild, I hope Coach O doesn’t mind if Florida borrows his words for a message to UGA on behalf of Gator Nation:
