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Published Oct 3, 2020
Notebook: Pitts ties UF record, turnovers bother Trask, fans bring 'juice'
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Zach Abolverdi  •  1standTenFlorida
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@ZachAbolverdi

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Another game, another school record for Kyle Pitts.

After making four touchdown catches in the season opener, tying a single-game record, Pitts hauled in two more scores in Florida’s 38-24 win Saturday over South Carolina.

That put him up to 12 TDs as a Gator, which tied the UF record for career touchdowns by a tight end. He’s now one score shy of the single-season school record (seven) and has already topped his TD total from last season (five).

“I start by giving it to God,” Pitts said. “Just all the preparation and then allowing me to go out there and play my game. Having mismatches and scoring, it’s kind of crazy. At the same time, I just embrace it and let the game come to me.”

Pitts finished with four catches for 57 yards, surpassing his total from last year’s matchup against the Gamecocks (season-low 29 yards in SEC play). His first two receptions both went for 20 yards, and then he hauled in touchdown passes from 13 yards and 4 yards out.

All of his production came before the break.

“I wouldn’t say they shut me down in the second half,” Pitts said. “I would say that other people participated in the offense. And then they did a couple of things where they tried to bump me in certain routes, which led to some other people getting open.”

South Carolina did “nothing” to take him out of the game, according to Florida coach Dan Mullen. He attributed Pitts’ second-half absence to a lack of execution and rhythm on offense.

“I just think we didn’t execute very cleanly,” Mullen said. “I don’t think we got into a very good rhythm in the second half at all offensively. A lot of that is going to be on me, play calling.

“I don’t think we had a very good rhythm in the second half with the three-and-outs, the turnovers, terrible. They did the same thing in the second half as the first half. We just didn’t execute very well.”

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Trask bothered by turnovers

Kyle Trask’s numbers Saturday also had some historical significance.

He threw four touchdown passes in a game for the third time in his career, the most by a Florida quarterback since Chris Leak (2003-06). His 268 yards on 21-of-29 passing put him at 684 yards, the highest total since Rex Grossman opened his 2001 season with 706 in UF’s first two games.

“It’s just a major boost for all of us,” Pitts said of Trask’s play. “With him being the core of the offense, once he’s fired up and getting into the emotion, that makes the rest of us fired up.”

Following the win, however, Trask was more focused on his two turnovers than four scores. He lost a fumble in the second quarter and threw a pick in the fourth, both of which resulted in South Carolina touchdowns.

“We had a certain look that we wanted to run,” Trask said of the pick, “KT happened to slip and I thought he could get back up. It was just one of those fluke deals that we need to clean up. Me personally, I can’t put the ball on the ground.

“We can’t give the ball to the other team. With the capability and potential of our offense, the playmakers that we have, we expect to score every single time we have the ball. And we should have scored every time we have the ball.”

Despite the turnovers, Trask still made plenty of plays through the air — as well as a 19-yard run — and completed passes to nine different players. Mullen credited him for finding the right matchups and not force-feeding the ball to one guy, such as Pitts.

“I think Kyle does a good job,” he said. “He made a couple critical errors today turning the ball over twice. Bad mistakes, to be honest with you. But he took what they gave us.

“We're able to spread the ball around to a bunch of different receivers, so I think that was a real positive. Scoring some points with matchups that we had out there on the field, we did a pretty good job with it."

Fans bring ‘juice’

With an announced attendance of 15,120 (17,504 including fan cutouts), the Gators extended their winning streak in home openers to a nation-leading 31 games.

It was a new atmosphere for players and coaches, but they thanked Florida fans for still bringing energy to the stadium.

“It’s always a great feeling to be in The Swamp,” linebacker Ventrell Miller said. “I know, 15,000 fans, but the fans still brought the juice and it felt good to be in front of the home field.”

The Ole Miss game was described as “oddly quiet” by center Brett Heggie last week, but cornerback Kaiir Elam hasn’t been bothered by the smaller crowds.

“Was it strange? No,” Elam said Saturday. “In high school I played in front of probably like 500 people, so 15,000, 90,000, it's all a large amount of crowd to me.”

Mullen has talked to his players about “bringing their own juice” to every game because of the reduced attendance, but admits they fed off the fans Saturday and encouraged them to sell out the next home matchup Oct. 17 against LSU.

“I thought they brought it,” Mullen said of the fans. “I thought it was critical for us. Home-field advantage this year is going to be defined more than it has been in the past. Every Gator fan that comes and cheers and supports the team, they just don’t make it loud for the opposing team, which is what they normally do, I think they did a great job cheering on our team and giving them energy.

“Hopefully the people that came got to experience a little bit of normalcy in their life. They’re spending an October Saturday here at the Swamp cheering on the Gators. There were a lot of cutouts there, too. Saw a lot of smiles on their faces the whole game. That was a nice touch, pretty cool. Great to be back out there, great to be playing at home, playing here at the Swamp. Glad people came out and got to see us play and gave us as much of an advantage as they could.”