Five takeaways from Florida's victory over Tennessee to clinch the SEC East

1. Florida needs to find a way to open up the offense to make up for the lack of a running game. The running game was almost non-existent against Tennessee and they will not be able to get away with that against Alabama in the SEC Championship.

Early in Dan Mullen’s tenure at Florida, he utilized the quick screens out to the wide receivers as an extension of the running game and you haven’t seen it as much this year. If the Gators are going to be able to compete against the Crimson Tide, they have to find some balance. I think the quick screens and RPOs (run pass options) are a good way to keep a defense off balance as well as stretch out an opponent’s defense.

2. After struggling earlier in the year, Brenton Cox is starting to find his footing as a pass rusher. Cox has been able to get to the quarterback much more consistently in recent weeks and seems to have a little more fire off the edge. It looks like his confidence is growing as the year goes on and the Gators defense is benefitting from it. He’s bending the corner really well and making opposing teams chip him with running backs or tight ends.

Teams have to know where he is at all times, but he needs to start playing more disciplined. He was flagged for two roughing the passer penalties and an unsportsmanlike conduct that if UF was in a tight game against a better opponent could have really hurt them.

3. Kadarius Toney is next to impossible to cover one-on-one out of the slot. He torched Tennessee’s defenders all day on the little pivot route, which the announcers said should be called the “Toney Route” because he was doing so well.

Kadarius has been the Gators' most improved player by far and you can see it in his route running. He does such a good job of setting up defenders to cut back in on the crossing routes even when the defensive back has inside leverage. He has made himself a lot of money this year and become one of the nation's hardest players to guard.

4. There have been a few games this year where Kyle Pitts had a slow start, but later in the game, he proves he can get his catches just about any time he wants.

Early on tonight, it looked like it was going to be the Kadarius Toney show because the Vols were rolling a safety over top of Pitts to try and take him out of the game, but late in the first half and in the second, Pitts exploded.

I said last week I thought Pitts was the biggest mismatch in the country and he showed exactly that again this week by going for 128 yards off seven catches, leaving him only 20 yards short of setting the all-time school record for receiving yards by a tight end.

5. Enough is enough! Jean Delance needs to never touch the field in a Gator uniform again. I am genuinely curious just how many times he has to get beat before the coaching staff will finally decide to bench him because it is baffling to me how he still remains on the field.

Delance alone has allowed more quarterback pressures than the rest of the Florida offensive line combined. Quite honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten Kyle Trask hurt yet. I don’t know who the answer is to replace him; it could be redshirt freshman Michael Tarquin, who has seen some action this year, but whoever it is can’t be any worse than what we have seen from Delance.

At some point, you have to get your largest offensive liability off the field, right?

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