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The potency of Florida's passing game was in question last week after a six-point second half in the win over Georgia.
The void left by tight end Kyle Pitts seemingly handcuffed the aerial attack, so his absence for the Arkansas game was concerning.
The Gators, however, proved they still have plenty of weapons worthy of making big-time plays against a very good Razorbacks' secondary.
Quarterback Kyle Trask hurled touchdown passes to five different receivers — including the first ones of 2020 for backup tight end Keon Zipperer and receivers Jacob Copeland and Xzavier Henderson — as the Gators stocked up 385 yards and seven touchdowns through the air in the 28-point blowout victory.
“Coming into the game they knew we were down Kyle Pitts, but you knew we were still going to run our offense," UF coach Dan Mullen said. “How they were playing us, to be honest, we thought they would come out with that kind of a softer zone that we can get our outside receivers to be a little bit bigger factor than in some other games.
“And they were. You look at Grimes with two touchdowns, Copeland with a touchdown, [Justin] Shorter with a touchdown. [Kadarius Toney] didn’t get one tonight, but they were kind of playing that zone and keeping everybody inside will take him away. Our outside guys went and made plays.”
With Pitts out and Toney — who still nabbed a career-high tying seven receptions — limited by Arkansas, Grimes stood out for Florida's offense. He grabbed a career-high six catches, scoring the team’s first two touchdowns of the game. The senior now has five touchdown catches this season, which ties the amount he had in 2018 (2) and 2019 (3) combined.
"Tre is just such an explosive receiver with very strong hands," Trask said. "Similar to Kyle Pitts and some 50/50 ability, he can go up there and snag any ball. I have complete trust in him and not only him, but the rest of our receiving corps."
Pitts is an important dynamic to UF's offense, nobody will argue against that. But with him sidelined another week, the Gators showed Saturday night that his production can be made up for by multiple guys.
“It’s awesome," Trask said, when asked about the number of options he has. “We’ve known this ever since fall camp about how many different weapons we have. Even when we had Pitts in there, a lot of people like to double team and try to shut him down and leave other guys one-on-one. This week everybody did a great job stepping up, beating their matchups and making plays on the ball.”
