Florida’s offense overwhelms Georgia

by Gary Shelton on November 8, 2020

in general

Kyle Trask has had a big season for the Gators./STEVEN MUNCIE

Sunday, 4 a.m.

Time was, a great defense trumped a great offense.

But college football has changed. More and more, it's an offensive game. Which helps to explain the 42-28 beating the eighth-ranked Florida put on fifth-ranked Georgia Saturday in Jacksonville.

Despite falling behind 14-0 quickly, the Gators steamrolled the Bulldogs, and much of the difference was in the team's quarterbacks. Kyle Trask threw for a personal-best 474 yards and four scores. Georgia's Stetson Bennett threw for just 78.

Trask played the second half without star tight end Kyle Pitts, who was injured on a second-quarter hit.

"It was a big win for us," said Florida coach Dan Mullen. "Anytime you have a top-10 matchup, those are big games."

Mullen was asked if Trask should be considered for the heisman Trophy.

"We'll see," Mullen said. "He's having a great year, though."

Florida, now with a path to the SEC title game, hosts Arkansas and former team member Felipe Franks Saturday.

Memphis 34, USF 33: With 3:19 to go, USF was looking like an improved football team."

And they were not.

The Bulls, 1-6, lost again on Saturday afternoon, blowing a 13-point lead with 199 seconds to play. USF went ahead 33-10 late in the fourth quarter when Spencer Shrader kicked a 46-yards field goal with 4:36 to play.

But Memphis roared back to score on two Brady White touchdown passes, the final one a nine-yarder to Calvin Austin III with 1:03 to play.

For the game, White had 437 yards passing and four touchdowns.

“I’m obviously not happy with the result, the way that it ended, but I do have to say I’m really proud of our players, " said USF coach Jeff Scott. "I really felt like we played our best game for three-and-a-half quarters. For all the adversity that we’ve already had early in the year, these last two weeks were kind of a gut check for everybody in our locker room to figure out how we’re gonna finish these last four games. I couldn’t have been more proud of how our guys played the first three-and-a-half quarters.

"Obviously, we’re a little bit thin at a couple positions and our lack of depth kind of caught up with us there at the end. But our guys laid it on the line. (We) scored 27 points in the first half, which is the best we’ve done this year. Spencer Shrader had four field goals over 40 yards that could have been the difference right there. A lot of positives, but at the end of the day we just got out-executed in the fourth quarter. They had a lot to do with that. Their quarterback, a fifth-year senior, we knew it going in, a very talented young man.

"I think we just got tired at the end, couldn’t get to him and gave him too much time. You do that to a good quarterback like that, it’s gonna be difficult. Hey, this is a time of adversity. I wanted this win for our players so bad because of the uncommon way that they’ve responded to the start to our season… We’re gonna build off the positives that we saw today and we’ll learn from the issues there at the end. Hopefully, we’ll find ourselves in a similar situation and be able to finish it here in one of these last games.”

USF quarterback Noah Johnson threw for 217 yards and two touchdowns.

The Bulls have a road game next week in Houston at 3 p.m.

Pittsburgh 41, FSU 17: The first season of Mike Norvell at FSU will end with a losing record.

The Seminoles fell to 2-5 on the season with their latest loss to Pitt. FSU took a 14-3 lead early, then collapsed.

FSU quarterback Jordan Travis was injured during the game, and freshman Chubba Purdy finished.

"We got kind of overwhelmed by their defensive unit," Norvell said. "They did a good job with their pressure. We weren’t able to get anything going in the second half with the way they were attacking us.

“We missed too many tackles. A couple explosive plays that we can’t have. We have to continue to work consistently to be a better tackling team.”

Norvell said he still believes in his team.

“These kids, they’re believing. We just have to carry it over to consistency in the game. I believe in these guys. I believe in their development. I believe in where we’re going to go. We’re going to do this the right way. It’s got to be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

FSU plays against N.C. State on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

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