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With nearly three times as many yards in the air this season than on the ground, 200-yard rushing games are not the norm for this Florida offense.
The Gators have come close before, rushing for 196 yards at Ole Miss and 169 against Missouri, but had yet to hit that 200-yard mark so far this season. In every other game, UF had been held to under 100 rushing yards.
Against Arkansas, however, the ground game clicked for Florida. The staff found ways to exploit a Razorbacks’ defense that ranked second to last in the SEC against the run and finished with 208 yards.
“Coming in you didn’t know how they were gonna play us,” coach Dan Mullen said. “They played us in a lot of dime defense with three down linemen, two backers, six DBs in the game. I think they kind of came in with a mindset of stop the pass first. ‘We’re going to kind of drop everybody, make you really have to execute. Not give up explosive plays and keep it in front of us.'
“When we saw that was what they’re gonna do, we kind of transitioned to try a little bit more to establish the run because they’re giving you the run numbers advantage.”
Tailbacks Dameon Pierce (69 yards) and Nay’Quan Wright (50 yards) both had season-high rushing performances last Saturday, combining for 119 yards on 21 carries. Malik Davis added 37 yards and a 12-yard reception, which offensive coordinator Brian Johnson called the play of the game by quarterback Kyle Trask.
“He checked it down,” Johnson said of Trask, “and that’s a play that I really appreciate as his coach.”
Trask still threw for 385 yards and set the SEC record for most touchdowns across six games (28). By the time the second half rolled around, UF was already up by three touchdowns and had the opportunity to bring in backups and explore depth.
Dual-threat quarterback Emory Jones had his number called and added even more to Florida’s ground game, rushing for 37 yards and a touchdown on six carries.
“We knew that we needed to score in the second half, not just control the tempo of the game,” Mullen said. “They can hit a bunch of explosive plays and score in a hurry. We need to keep scoring offensively.”
“There’s other games where we’ve really changed the tempo of the game and maybe slowed it down with a big lead, play to play a little different field position. A lot of things depend on who your opponent is and what they’re doing.”
UF will look to surpass 200-plus rushing yards again Saturday at Vanderbilt, which has given up 185 rushing yards per game this season.
