GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida offense, starring the 'Kyle to Kyle Show," showed up Saturday for the 2020 home and Southeastern Conference opener at Spurrier/Florida Field.
For three quarters, that is.
That turned out to be enough, however, as the South Carolina Gamecocks, after displaying some moxie in making a game of what loomed as a blowout, basically ran the clock out on themselves in the fourth quarter, allowing the third-ranked Gators to get out of the "Swamp" with a 38-24 victory before a scattered and socially distanced crowd of 15,120.
Fifth-year senior quarterback Kyle Trask threw for 268 yards and four touchdowns, including a pair to junior tight end and man-child Kyle Pitts, to help UF (2-0, 2-0) build a 24-point second-half lead before USC (0-2, 0-2) threatened to make a game of things with a statistically lopsided final period.
"We've got to get a lot better," Florida coach Dan Mullen said. "We certainly have to get a lot better with how we finished the game. Offensively, [we] should have finished the game much sooner."
When Trask hit senior wingback Kadarius Toney for a 57-yard touchdown with 4:44 to play in the third period, the Gators were rolling, up 38-14. A snapshot of the stat sheet at the time would have shown UF with 336 yards to South Carolina's 169.
Senior all-purpose back Kadarius Toney(1) is off and running on his 57-yard third-quarter touchdown reception that put the Gators up 38-14. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
From there, however, the Gamecocks outgained the Gators 160-12 in total offense — and outscored them 10-0, with a chance for more — only to bleed the clock so methodically on their final drive that it would have taken something fluky to ruin the home team's afternoon.
"Our defense actually played very well," Trask said after he completed 21 of his 29 attempts to take his season completion rate to nearly 72 percent, but also had a pair of turnovers (a fumble in the first half; interception in the second) that led to USC points. "I think that we put [the defense] in a lot of tough spots, giving them the ball and things like that. I think that's just what Coach Mullen's saying. We've just got to play cleaner."
A 45-yard field goal by South Carolina's Parker White made the score 38-17 with just 28 seconds left in the third period. On the ensuing UF series, however, Trask tried to force a throw in the right flat to Toney on third down and the ball was intercepted by diving cornerback Israel Mukuamu for Trask's first pick of the season.
The Gamecocks went 39 yards in 11 plays, including two fourth-down conversions, and quarterback Collin Hill, the graduate transfer from Colorado State, hit tailback Kevin Harris for a 9-yard touchdown to close the score to 38-24 with 10:21 to go.
Plenty of time.
Especially after the Gators went three-and-out and punted, giving South Carolina the ball at its own 22 with 8:11 remaining in a two-possession game.
The Gamecocks, though, proceeded to log 18 plays, gaining 74 yards over the next 7:23 — without using either of their two remaining timeouts — and ultimately were stopped on downs at the Florida 4-yard line with 48 seconds to play.
USC coach Will Muschamp was asked about his team's deliberate pace at a time when a sense of urgency was needed.
"It wasn't a deliberate pace. We were trying to get first downs," Muschamp said. "They were playing more coverage and staying on top of us. We weren't able to get explosive plays down the field; we were taking what they were giving us. We still had a minute to play in the game with two timeouts and an onside kick, we could go score and win the game. There were a lot of plays strung together, but no explosive ones because they were playing coverage. Did we want more time on the clock? Yes. But at the end of the day we have to take what they were giving us, and that's what we were doing."
The Gators ended the game by taking three knees and thus remained tied, alongside Tennessee (with Georgia playing later Saturday), atop the SEC East Division standings.
"Coach Mullen told us we got to finish, we got to finish our game," said UF tailback Dameon Pierce, who had 51 of his team's 95 rushing yards, including a 2-yard touchdown in the opening period. "But at the end of the day, we came out with a win. We couldn't ask for nothing else."
The Gamecocks met little resistance on the game's opening drive, marching 75 yards in 12 plays and facing just one third down along the way. That played ended with a 22-yard completion from Hill to Xavier Legette and put the Gamecocks in UF territory. Harris (22 carries, 100 yards) had consecutive runs of 11, 8, 4 and 6 yards before eventually scoring on a 1-yard run just shy of seven minutes into the game.
The Gators answered, though, with an identical 75-yard drive that took eight plays, with the big hits a 17-yard completion to Trevon Grimes and 20-yarder to Pitts. Pierce had five carries for 27 yards along the way, including a 2-yard run off left side to score untouched and make it 7-7 at the 3:45 mark of the opening period.
UF senior free safety Shawn Davis breaks up a pass intended for South Carolina wideout Shi Smith. (Photo: Evan Lepak/UAA Communications)
The UF defense got a three-and-out on USC's second possession, with Trask and his mates responding like so: five plays, 69 yards in just 2:31. Pitts had a 20-yard reception, redshirt freshman wide receiver Trent Whittemore had a sensational leaping grab for a 21-yard gain, then Pitts capped things with an 14-yard scoring reception, his fifth of the season to match his total for all of last season. The TD came with six seconds to go in the first quarter and pushed UF in front 14-7, with Trask 7-for-7 for 109 yards on the first two drives.
The Gators got a second straight three-and-out, followed by a 26-yard punt return by Toney (6 catches, 86 yards, 1 TD), but Trask gave the ball right back on a first-down quarterback keeper that he fumbled away for his first turnover of the season. The Gamecocks ran the ball right at the Gators, with Harris and Deshaun Fenwick racking up all the yards on a 48-yard drive on the ground, save the final four, which came on Hill's quick-hitting swing pass to Shi Smith (12 catches, 85 yards) that knotted the score at 14 each at the 9:31 mark.
"We can play so much better," UF sophomore cornerback Kair Elam said.
Florida took the lead back, but settled for a 26-yard Evan McPherson field goal after squandering a first-and-goal from the South Carolina 7 with a couple incomplete passes bracketed a 1-yard loss on a running play. McPherson's boot made it 17-14 at 3:30 before halftime.
With another stand by the defense, the Gators got the ball back after a short punt just 23 seconds later and took advantage. Trask negated a holding penalty on center Brett Heggie with a 19-yard run to the USC 30. He then hit Jacob Copeland for 15 yards to the 4, then fired to Pitts on a slant from the slot to make it 24-14 with 1:22 left and wrap the first-half scoring.
The first three-and-out of the season for the Gators greeted them in the second half, but the Gamecocks did the home team a favor, and did so after a 21-yard completion from Hill to Smith on third-and-5 had the visitors at the UF 46. Then came a holding call on South Carolina, followed by a false start. On first-and-25, Hill's wide-left pitch to Fenwick was muffed and UF linebacker Ventrell Miller covered the ball at the USC 37.
"Definitely, it was good to flip field position and give the ball back to the offense," Miller said of the defense's lone forced turnover of the game.
The Gators needed four plays, not including a defensive pass interference against defensive back John Dixon, to make it 31-14, with Trask finding Whittemore, the Gainesville product, with a 4-yard touchdown to stretch the lead.
Before the third quarter ended, Trask hit Toney for the 57-yard score, with the connection coming just seven yards upfield and Toney doing the rest by outrunning and running through the USC secondary on the way to making it 38-14.
From there, a blowout appeared certain, especially after the next drive. South Carolina reach Florida territory and faced a fourth-and-2 at the 28, but Muschamp, down by 24 with just over a quarter left, opted to kick a field goal. Parker White's 45-yarder made it a 21-point lead for the Gators heading into the fourth quarter.
Muschamp's strategy, though, worked. Kind of. It gave the Gamecocks a chance, especially with Trask staying aggressive by firing four straight passes. The fourth turned into Mukuamu's interception and led to a 39-yard, 11-play drive, including two fourth-down conversions, with Hill tossing a 9-yard score to Harris to close the score to 38-24.
UF junior linebacker Andrew Chatfield says hello to USC quarterback Collin Hill. (Photo: Evan Lepak/UAA Communications)
The game turned to a turtle's pace from there, as Florida gained just nine yards on 10 plays in the fourth quarter, compared to South Carolina's 99 on 29 plays.
"Maybe some teams might use that and try to keep us off the field," Pitts said of the Gamecocks slow-played fourth quarter. "But I think that's just a test for us to make sure we score when we do get on the field."
But, as Trask, pointed out, "If we're not not the field we can't score."
That's true. The offense did enough through three quarters to withstand a poor fourth. Last week at Ole Miss, where the Gators gained 642 yards and scored 51 points, that wasn't the case. The formula was a little different time time.
And that's OK, as long as corrections are on the horizon.
"We won by two touchdowns. We made the plays we needed to. [But] every little detail of the game concerns me," Mullen said. "Offense going three-and-out concerns me. That's really bad defense. Our offense is extremely responsible for playing defense, and twice we [gave] them the ball at midfield [on turnovers), and in the fourth quarter we come out with two three-and-outs. So that's really bad defense played by the offense."
Last week, there was some bad defense actually played by the defense. What will it be next week?
