October 31, 2020
Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
Trask Continues to Evoke Ghosts of Gators Past, Breaks SEC Record with 18th Touchdown
• Kyle Trask’s 18 touchdown passes through the first four games this season set an SEC record for the most passing touchdowns through the first four games of a season, according to the SEC Network.
• With four touchdown passes tonight, Trask became the first quarterback in school history to throw at least four touchdown passes in four consecutive games.
• Trask is the fourth Gators quarterback since the start of 1996 to throw three-plus passing touchdowns in four consecutive games.
o Danny Wuerffel had the longest streak during that span (seven games from Sept. 21-Nov. 9, 1996), followed by Rex Grossman (five games from Sept. 1-Oct. 6, 2001), and Doug Johnson (four games from Sept. 6-Oct. 4, 1997)
• Trask has three 300-yard passing games this year, tying Chris Leak (2004) and Rex Grossman (2002) for the most 300-yard games by a Gator against SEC teams in a season since the start of 2002.
o Grossman was the last one with more than three 300-yard outings against SEC teams in a season, as he eclipsed 300 yards in all eight league games in 2001.
• In his career, Trask has thrown for 300-plus yards in five games against SEC opponents, usurping Chris Leak for the fifth-most outings in school history.
o Rex Grossman (12), Danny Wuerffel (10), Shane Matthews (nine), and Doug Johnson (six) are the only Gators with more 300-yard games against SEC teams.
• Trask posted the seventh 300-yard passing game of his career, tying Johnson and Leak for the fourth-most 300-yard games in a Gators career [see Page 164 of the media guide for full listing].
• Trask has thrown for 200-plus yards in 12 consecutive games with 200-plus passing yards, extending the third-longest streak in school history.
o Shane Matthews holds the school record (17), while Rex Grossman is second with 13.
Toney Delivers Tricks and Treats in Spooky Halloween Outing
• Kadarius Toney’s six touchdown receptions this season are double his career scrimmage touchdowns total entering the 2020 season (three – two receiving, one rushing).
o Toney also eclipsed his previous season high for receiving yards (260 in 2018) in four games.
• Kyle Pitts (seven) and Toney (six) have already matched Florida’s two 2019 leaders in receiving touchdowns – Freddie Swain led the 2019 Gators with seven, while Van Jefferson had six.
o The Pitts-Toney and Swain-Jefferson duos are the only Gators tandems with at least six touchdown receptions in the same season since the start of 2009.
o Entering Saturday’s games, there were nine FBS players with at least six touchdown receptions. No FBS team featured two such players. Florida now has two in Toney and Pitts.
• Toney became the fourth Gators player under Mullen with three scrimmage touchdowns in a game, joining Pitts (four receiving at Ole Miss on Sept. 26), Emory Jones (three rushing against Vanderbilt on Nov. 9, 2019), and Lamical Perine (two rushing, one receiving in 2019 Orange Bowl).
o Toney and Chad Jackson are the only Gators since the start of 1996 with at least two receiving touchdowns and one rushing touchdown in a game. Jackson had four receiving touchdowns and a rushing touchdown against Wyoming back on Sept. 3, 2005.
o Entering Saturday’s games, no FBS player had two receiving touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in a game this season. Nine FBS players achieved the feat in 2019.
Gators Offense
• Florida scored 40 points for the 10th time under Dan Mullen, putting it two games behind its total of 40-point outings from the 2010-17 seasons (12 in 101 games played).
• In addition to having scored 35-plus points in each of its last six games, Florida has scored at least 35 points in four consecutive games against SEC teams for the first time since 2008.
o The six-game streak in 2008 began with a 38-7 win at Arkansas (Oct. 4) and finished with a 56-6 rout of South Carolina (Nov. 15). UF had three games of 50-plus points in that stretch.
• Florida posted its ninth game of 500-plus total yards in Mullen’s 30 games as head coach, matching its combined total from 101 games comprising the 2010-17 seasons.
o UF’s five 500-yard outings against SEC teams under Mullen also match its 2010-17 total.
o Florida has posted 500-plus total yards in four of its last seven games.
• The Gators have eclipsed 400 total yards in 15 of their last 21 games.
o Today is the 17th time the Gators amassed 400-plus total yards under Mullen. In the 62 games comprising the 2013-17 seasons, UF posted 400-plus total yards exactly 17 times.
• This is the 12th time UF reached 300 passing yards under Mullen, surpassing its total number of 300- yard outings in the 129 games comprising the 2008-17 seasons.
• Trevon Grimes’ touchdown reception in the fourth quarter made him the third Gators pass catcher with multiple touchdown receptions this season.
• Justin Shorter recorded his first collegiate touchdown reception in the third quarter.
• Dameon Pierce had a career-high 45 receiving yards.
Gators Defense
• Prior to Missouri’s final two drives – by which time Florida built a 41-10 lead – the Gators allowed just 172 total yards and had not ceded a touchdown to Missouri’s offense.
• Florida limited Missouri to three third down conversions on 15 attempts (20 percent).
o The last time Florida’s opponent finished with conversion rate of 20 percent or below on at least 15 third downs was last year’s rout of Vanderbilt. The Commodores finished that game with the same third down numbers as Missouri tonight.
• Brenton Cox Jr. came away with his first career fumble recovery.
• Florida finished the night with a pair of takeaways, running its total since the start of 2018 to 54.
Gators Special Teams
• Chris Howard made each of his first two career field goal attempts – a 28-yarder, and a 32-yarder.
Explosive Plays
• Malik Davis (from Trask): 30-yard reception, 1st quarter
• Kyle Pitts (from Trask): 32-yard reception, 1st quarter
• Dameon Pierce (from Trask): 34-yard reception, 1st quarter (followed Pitts’ 32-yard catch)
• Kemore Gamble (from Trask): 36-yard reception, 2nd quarter
• Jacob Copeland (from Trask): 36-yard reception, 2nd quarter
• Kadarius Toney (from Trask): 30-yard touchdown reception, 2nd quarter (first play after MU fumble)
• Kyle Trask: 26-yard rush, 3rd quarter
• Kyle Trash: 15-yard rush, 3rd quarter
• Kadarius Toney: 16-yard touchdown rush, 3rd quarter
• Jacob Copeland (from Trask): 31-yard reception, 4th quarter
• Iverson Clement: 12-yard rush, 4th quarter
• Iverson Clement: 17-yard rush, 4th quarter
Series Updates
• The Gators even their all-time record against Missouri, with the series now standing at 5-5.
• Florida improves to 3-2 against the Tigers in Gainesville.
• Florida has won five of the nine meetings with Missouri since 2012, when the latter joined the SEC.
• The Gators have allowed just one offensive touchdown (the 5-yard rush in the fourth quarter tonight) in their last two meetings with Missouri.
Other
• Florida has won 10 consecutive home games for the first time since a 10-game home winning streak which spanned the entire 2012 season and first three home games of the 2013 season.
• Florida Game Captains: Jeremiah Moon, Kyle Trask
• Missouri won the toss and elected to receive; Florida defended the north end zone
• Attendance: 12,049 (15,080 with the addition of 3,031 fan cutouts)
2020 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Dan Mullen, Florida Head Coach
No. 10 Florida 41, Missouri 17
October 31, 2020
On the incident prior to halftime…
“I think it starts there. I didn’t see it. I was watching the play down the field to see if there was pass interference on the player who made the catch. I got told they hit (Trask) late, and you know what, our guys are defending their quarterback. I think our guys started to do that, and I think, unfortunately
we ran a play where if that’s a late hit and there’s pushing and shoving and if it was going to be fourth down and we had to punt, or one of those situations, it’s one thing. But when the teams are leaving the field, you have both teams running off the field at the same time, so I didn’t see what was
going on. I didn’t see the late hit. I got told afterwards that our guys thought that was the case, but obviously it wasn’t from the officials’ point of view. Then we went out there trying to get our guys off of the field because it was getting testy. We have a big game next week. I think it kept growing and
growing, we were trying to push guys back and unfortunately it kind of… trying to get in the middle, get the officials to get in the middle, trying to get them to get in the middle, get us in the middle, get their team off, our team off. And when everyone is running to the locker room and it kind of keeps
spilling down that way. It’s a really unfortunate situation. It’s not something we condone, obviously, not something that you really want to see in the game at all. But I tell you this, I give our coaches, I give our players a lot of credit. I give coach (Eliah) Drinkwitz and I give the Missouri staff and their
players a lot of credit because of how that first half ended, it just shows the class of both teams to be able to come out in the second half and just play football. Zero of that carried over in the second half. Zero of that carried over postgame. Zero of that carried past that, and it just shows kind of the
great job by the players and coaches on both teams and their abilities. I don’t think either side would say ‘Hey, that is what we wanted to have happen.’ And neither side condones it. It’s an unfortunate situation that happened, but I think it shows the class of the programs to be able to come out and play the second half the way we did.”
On potential punishments following the incident in the game…
“My understanding is that the officials ejected two guys on our team, one guy on their team in the first half, so they miss this game, so they miss the rest of this game. My understanding from the officials is that that was the end of it, so those guys go out in the first half and miss the rest of this game, so you know, great learning. And the officials did give an unsportsmanlike conduct to everybody, every coach, every player on both teams as well. But being that there were no unsportsmanlike conducts in the second half, that wouldn’t carry over for either team for the next game.”
On if he feels like he was in the wrong coming onto the field…
“I was trying to get our players off the field, you know? Because I know we have a big game next week.”
On if he feels he may have escalated the incident before halftime…
“I was trying to get our players off the field to make sure we didn’t have issues and have a whole bunch of guys suspended. We’re already a paper-thin outfit right now.”
On Kyle Trask’s performance today and bouncing back from his interception…
“Yeah, I think he gets frustrated with that. I don’t get upset with the pick-six. He just got hit when he threw the ball. We were talking about getting it out of his hands a little bit quicker. I think he’ll tell ya, I don’t think we were as crisp as we expected, or we want to be. But when you don’t practice for two
weeks, you have a bunch of guys miss practice during the week, I think you’re going to be a little bit rusty coming out there and, you know, I think you saw that. But he’s a veteran guy and he doesn’t let
that bother him.”
