GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- No. 10 Florida remained perfect on Saturday, after a relentless effort from the Gators defense.
Todd Grantham's men set the tone early in front of over 90,000 fans in the 24-13 win over Auburn. The group held the Tigers to two field goals after the Florida offense fumbled the ball away three times in the first quarter.
Auburn only managed 92 yards of total yards in the first half.
"Great job on defense," said Gators head coach Dan Mullen. "11 guys running to the ball. I thought we’ve obviously improved on our tackling from the beginning of the season a whole bunch. The other thing I thought we did a really good job being physical at the line of scrimmage."
The Florida defense held one of the best rushing offenses in the country to just 124 yards, while forcing Auburn to go three-and-out six times. .
Tigers quarterback Bo Nix went 11-of-27 for 145 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions on Saturday - and those picks came on big moments for the Gators.
“I felt like when the game started, we got to him, like, Greenard was getting to the backfield so fast, so he was just grounding the ball," said safety Shawn Davis. "So, I feel like we started out pretty fast on defense.”
Davis picked up his third pick of the season in the second quarter - two plays after Florida fumbled the ball on offense.
“I’d seen that the receiver was going vertical, he didn’t really sell it much, but I knew he was going for a route” says Davis on the interception during the second quarter. “He wasn’t going to block. So I just like stayed home and the quarterback just threw it anyway.”
The next one came when Auburn was gaining some momentum, moving the ball well down the field. Florida dug deep and forced Nix to throw straight to Donovan Stiner in the endzone.
“I think he was trying to throw it to the guy our corner was on, who was kinda behind me," said Stiner. "I think he just missed me so he didn’t see me right there...He definitely didn’t see me.”
Marco Wilson would add one more pick in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
A handful of Gators made plays against the Tigers to come out on top with a big win. Linebacker David Reese II led the team with 13 tackles and linebacker James Houston recorded his first sack of the season, meanwhile Jon Greenard continued to wreck havoc up front, recording three quarterback hurries in the win.
The UF defense will now turn its sights towards another tough opponent, an undefeated LSU. The Gators will head into into Baton Rouge to take on an undefeated the Tigers under the lights at Tiger Stadium in what will be another top ten match up in back-to-back weeks for Florida.
"We're going to turn on that film on Monday and go watch LSU and know we've got to head to Death Valley and say, 'If we want to be there, go do it.' It's up to the guys in this room,” explained Mullen on facing LSU. “When we get in here on Monday morning, the guys in this room will make that decision if we want to be there or not. If this year's team is going to be the team that's ready for us to be there."
"We just have to prepare and work hard in practice," added Davis about the tough stretch coming up. "We got to get better and take steps every time in practice. So every week we just can't stay on the same stuff. We got to keep going up the steps just to win. That’s something we got to do.”
**Gators Territory's Jacquie Franciulli contributed to this report**
