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No. 4 Florida will be back on the road Saturday for a noon kick against No. 21 Texas A&M, the first of two opponents added by the SEC to UF’s 2020 schedule.
The Gators were supposed to be at home for their third game of the season, playing host to Sun Belt Conference member South Alabama. Instead, quarterback Kyle Trask will lead his team onto Kyle Field.
“Nothing against South Alabama, but Texas A&M is probably a little bit better,” Florida coach Dan Mullen said. “It’s going to be a challenge. I think our guys are really excited about it, having the opportunity to play an all-SEC schedule and every week being a big-time game.”
The South Alabama game would have afforded Mullen an opportunity to play backups and several young players in the second half, but he almost had that chance last week. UF built a 38-14 lead on the Gamecocks, but allowed them to battle back and pull within two scores.
“Guys looking at the scoreboard and saying, ‘OK, 38-14, we got this one kind of in the bag. I know we’ve got to keep playing, but let’s go through the motions.’ You can’t do that,” Mullen said. “We kind of started a little bit slow defensively, got into a rhythm and jumped out big. And then instead of ‘let’s finish the game’, we just kind of cruised the finish line. And we gotta get that changed.”
South Carolina converted only six of 17 third-down attempts on Todd Grantham’s defense, including eight of 10 in the second half. His unit just couldn’t get off the field on fourth down, giving up five straight conversions before finally making a stop on fourth-and-goal in the final minute.
“We’re one stop away from being able to get some scout team guys in the game,” Grantham said. “You gotta have a mindset kind of like we’re in the NBA season right now and it’s game 7, you’ve gotta finish people off.
“We’ve gotta develop that attitude to understand the situation at hand. I thought we did a better job of finishing plays last week, so now we’ve gotta work on finishing drives and finishing the game the way we want to.”
Florida’s offense also struggled to finish drives in the second half against South Carolina, which would have put the game away. After building a four-score lead, Trask threw an interception in UF territory and then went three-and-out for the second time in the half.
“At that point and time of the game, it’s all about first downs and not going three-and-out,” offensive coordinator Brian Johnson said. “The only thing that can mess up a game like that is to go three-and-out or continuously turn the football over.
“Really disappointing to come out and particularly in those fourth quarters, going three-and-out, turning the ball over, and just letting them hang around. We gotta finish the game and play better.”
Trask and his receiving corps, led by tight end Kyle Pitts, could have another big day against the Aggies. They rank 10th in the SEC in passing defense after quarterback Mac Jones torched their secondary for a career-high 435 yards and four touchdowns in Alabama’s 52-24 win.
“They've been more banged up in the secondary,” Mullen said, “but they got really athletic guys and veteran linebackers. Defensively, hands down the best defensive front we've seen.
“A lot of people expect them to go compete for the SEC West championship, and you can see why on film that they are a legit football team. … It wasn't like Alabama was just driving up and down the field on them. They hit some explosives to kind of pull away.”
When Grantham served as Mullen’s defensive coordinator at Mississippi State in 2017, they faced Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond as a true freshman. He completed just eight of 26 pass attempts for 56 yards with no touchdowns, two interceptions and a 15.0 QBR in a 35-14 loss.
However, that was a year before Jimbo Fisher arrived in College Station.
“We played this quarterback when I was at Mississippi State. Just looking at the development of the quarterback and the way Jimbo has developed quarterbacks over the course of his career, you can see that they've really improved him from that standpoint,” Grantham said.
“He does a good job of taking the players he has and utilizing the personnel. He does have the ability to specialize the talented players and get those guys the ball. But really, the development of the quarterback is the No. 1 thing that I see that he kind of does a good job with.”
Gators linebacker Amari Burney has been watching Mond for a couple years and compared his running ability to former MSU quarterback Nick Fitzgerald. Burney believes Saturday will be the toughest test of the regular season for his defensive unit.
“This is the best offense we’re going to face all season,” he said. “[Mond] is going to try and run the ball. So we just have to keep him contained and make him be a quarterback. If we go out there and execute, I feel like we’re going to be pretty good.”
