THE STORYLINE:
• Week 5 marks the first-ever meeting between Florida and Eastern Washington on the gridiron.
• The Gators have played 88 total games against FCS opponents, owning a 67-17-4 record (.784).
• Florida has won six-straight games vs. the FCS and is 21-1 against FCS opponents since 1981.
• Florida is 2-0 all-time against the Big Sky, with wins over Idaho (2018: 63-10) and Montana State (1988: 69-0)
• The Gators have outscored Big Sky opponents, 132-10, in the two prior meetings.
• Florida most-recently played an FCS opponent last season, defeating Samford, 70-52, on Nov. 13, 2021.
• In that game, Florida totaled 717 yards of offense, which ranks second in program history.
• The 122 combined points between Florida and Samford was the most in a UF football game in 108 years and the second-most in program history (including the most-ever in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium). QB Emory Jones finished with the most total yards (passing + rushing) by a Gator in program history (550), breaking Tim Tebow’s record of 533 yards set against Cincinnati in 2009.
• Florida has won 14-straight regular season non-conference games since the start of the 2018 season - the sixth-longest such streak in the country.
• In seven non-con games since 2021, UF ranks second in the P5 with 265.7 rushing YPG and 10th with 492.7 YPG.
• QB Anthony Richardson is coming off the best game of his career in Week 4, as he passed for 453 yards and two TDs while rushing for 62 yards and two TDs on the ground for a total of 515 yards and four TDs.
• Richardson’s five rushing TDs pace all SEC QBs, rank tied-for-second in the P5 and tied-for-third in the FBS.
• This is the first meeting between UF HC Billy Napier and EWU HC Aaron Best as head coaches.
• Florida ranks third in the SEC and 14th in the Power Five with 5.5 yards per carry, and 23rd in the P5 in rushing yards per game (194.3).
• UF opened the season with a 29-26 upset of No. 7 Utah, which tied for UF’s highest-ranked victory in a season opener in program history. Napier became the first UF HC to defeat a ranked team in his first game at the helm.
• Florida was one of two teams in the nation to face three opponents ranked in the AP Top 25 across the first-four weeks of the season (Texas Tech). UF was the only team to face three top-20 opponents through the first-four weeks.
• Florida boasts a 352-112-13 (.752) all-time record at The Swamp, holding the second-highest home winning percent- age in the nation since 1990 with a 171-33 (.838) record. The Gators have outscored opponents 7,679 to 3,284 in 204 games since 1990 inside The Swamp, putting the average outcome at 37.6 to 16.1 (21.5 points).
• Florida has scored in 427-consecutive games dating back to 1988 -- an NCAA record and 56 games longer than any other college football team in the history of the sport
