2022 Florida Football Postgame Notes
Vanderbilt 31, Florida 24
November 19, 2022
FirstBank Stadium – Nashville, Tenn.
Gators Offense
● The Gators eclipsed 400 yards for the sixth time this season including the fifth time in the last eight
games.
o Florida amassed 400-plus total yards for the 23rd time in its last 34 games including 36 of the
last 53 contests.
● This is the 25th time Florida has reached 300 passing yards in the team’s last 62 games and the third
time to accomplish the feat this season.
● The Gators have out-gained their opponents in 18 of the last 24 games dating back to last season
(South Carolina, UCF, USF, Missouri, LSU, Georgia).
● QB Anthony Richardson tied his career high with three touchdown passes (second time in career)
while passing the 400-yard and 300-yard passing thresholds for the second time in his career.
o Richardson passed for 200-plus yards for the fifth time in his career.
● Of Richardson’s 33-career touchdowns (21 passing, 12 rushing), he has:
o Seven scores of 70-plus yards, 12 scores of 40-plus yards, and 14 scores of 25-plus yards.
o Three TD rushes of 70-plus yards, four TD rushes of 60 yards, and five TD rushes of 45 yards.
o Four 70-plus-yard TD passes, seven 40-yard TD passes, eight 30-yard TD passes, and nine 25-
yard TD passes.
● Richardson went 135 attempts without an interception before Vanderbilt’s pick in the third quarter.
● Over the last five games, Richardson has thrown nine touchdowns and one interception, while
rushing for four touchdowns on the ground (13 total TDs, one turnover).
● Richardson surpassed 2,000 passing yards on the season.
● WR Ricky Pearsall has hauled in a pass in 26-consecutive games.
● Florida did not allow a sack in Week 12 and has allowed only 12 sacks in 2022, which is tied for
22nd-fewest in the FBS (fourth in the SEC).
● WR Daejon Reynolds’ 165 yards receiving was the most by a Gator since Jacob Copeland went for
175 yards at USF on Sept. 11, 2021 – and the fourth-most receiving yards by a UF WR across the last-
eight seasons.
o Reynolds caught a 74-yard touchdown pass from Richardson in the fourth quarter, marking
Reynolds’ first-career touchdown as well as the longest catch of his career.
o Reynolds also set career highs in receptions (eight) and receiving yards (165).
● Reynolds and WR Justin Shorter (eight catches, 106 yards) both went for 100 yards receiving.
● RB Montrell Johnson Jr. caught his first-career receiving touchdown (on top of 21 career rushing
touchdowns).
o Johnson Jr. and Reynolds became the eighth and ninth different Gators to catch a
touchdown this season.
● WR Marcus Burke made his first-career start.
● After being held without a touchdown in the first half, Florida opened the second half with an 11-
play, 75-yard touchdown drive spanning 4:43 on the opening drive of the third quarter.
● Florida saw its streak of 12-straight 100-yard rushing games end.
Gators Defense
● Florida has opened the season with 11-straight games with a takeaway following the first-quarter
fumble recovery at Vanderbilt, marking the Gators’ longest streak since having 15-straight games
with a takeaway from Oct. 18, 2014 to Oct. 21, 2015 (last-seven games of 2014 + first-eight games
of 2015).
o The Gators have produced multiple turnovers in seven games this season after recording
two at Vanderbilt (Jaydon Hill fumble recovery, Jason Marshall Jr. interception).
o Florida’s 21 takeaways rank first in the SEC and t-ninth in the FBS.
● With two takeaways vs. Vanderbilt, Florida’s defense has now produced 99 turnovers since 2018,
which ranks t-first in the SEC and tied-for-19th in the FBS.
● Since 1996, the Gators are third nationally in interceptions with 409 and lead the SEC in that
category.
o Florida is tied for third in the SEC with 10 interceptions this season.
● Florida held its opponent to under 300 total yards of offense for the third time this season.
o This is the seventh time since the start of the 2021 season that the Gators have held an
opponent to 300 yards or fewer.
● Florida held its opponent to under 200 passing yards for the fourth time in its last 12 matchups.
o This is the 11th time since the start of the 2021 season that the Gators have allowed 200 or
fewer passing yards in a game.
● The Gators recorded one sack in today’s game.
o Since the start of last season, Florida has out-sacked its opponents by a plus-30 margin.
o Florida’s 175 sacks since 2018 season ranks second in the SEC and seventh nationally –
trailing only Pittsburgh (220), Clemson (217), Alabama (200), Miami (183), Ohio State (178),
and Oklahoma State (176).
o Florida ranked tied-for-14th in the FBS and second in the SEC with 34 sacks last season.
● DB Jason Marshall Jr. gave Florida its second takeaway of the game with a fourth-quarter
interception – his first of the season and the second of his career.
● LB Amari Burney tied his career high with 10 tackles (four solo) while adding 1.5 TFL and one pass
breakup.
● LB Ventrell Miller forced a fumble on Vanderbilt’s second drive – marking his second forced fumble
of the season.
o Miller is Florida’s fourth player (Burney, Princely Umanmielen, Antwaun Powell-Ryland Jr.) to
total at least two forced fumbles in 2022 – the last time Florida had four players with two-
plus forced fumbles was in 2014.
o CB Jaydon Hill recorded his first-career fumble recovery on the play.
o The takeaway was Florida’s 20th of the season (at least one in each game).
● Miller tied his season high with a team-leading 11 tackles (three solo) while adding 0.5 TFL and one
forced fumble.
● Powell-Ryland Jr. registered six tackles (three solo) and 1.0 TFL
o He posted his fourth-straight game with at least 0.5 TFL.
● Hill teamed up with DL Chris McClellan in the third quarter for Florida’s first sack – marking the first of
Hill’s career.
● S Kamari Wilson logged 0.5 TFL to move his freshman campaign total to 1.0 TFL.
o Wilson also recorded his first pass breakup of the season.
● DL Justus Boone totaled three tackles (one solo) and one quarterback hurry.
● Florida forced a three-and-out on Vanderbilt’s first drive of the game and a takeaway on the
Commodores’ second.
● The Gators held the Commodores to 30 passing yards in the first half.
Florida Special Teams
● P Jeremy Crawshaw punted three times for an average of 46.3 yards, including a long punt of 58
yards, one 50-plus yard punt and three kicks inside the opposing 20-yard line.
o Crawshaw has punted for 50-plus yards for 29 of 82 career punts.
● K Adam Mihalek finished 2-for-2 on field goal attempts.
o Mihalek connected on a 26-yard attempt in the first quarter and one a 44-yard attempt in
the second.
o Mihalek is 12-for-18 on field goals this season (66.7%).
▪ Two were blocked.
Explosive Plays (12)
● Ricky Pearsall (from Anthony Richardson): 27-yard reception, first quarter
● Daejon Reynolds (from Anthony Richardson): 31-yard reception, first quarter
● Montrell Johnson Jr.: 15-yard rush, second quarter
● Daejon Reynolds (from Anthony Richardson): 15-yard reception, third quarter
● Justin Shorter (from Anthony Richardson): 28-yard reception, third quarter
● Daejon Reynolds (from Anthony Richardson): 17-yard reception, fourth quarter
● Daejon Reynolds (from Anthony Richardson): 74-yard TD reception, fourth quarter
● Justin Shorter (from Anthony Richardson): 18-yard reception, fourth quarter
● Anthony Richardson: 15-yard rush, fourth quarter
● Trevor Etienne (from Anthony Richardson): 26-yard reception, fourth quarter
● Daejon Reynolds (from Anthony Richardson): 16-yard TD reception, fourth quarter
● Thai Chiaokhiao-Bowman (from Anthony Richardson): 34-yard reception, fourth quarter
Series Updates
● Tonight’s game represented the 56th all-time meeting between Florida and Vanderbilt including the
29th matchup in Nashville.
● With tonight’s loss, Florida falls to 43-11-2 (.786) vs. Vanderbilt and 20-8-1 (.707) on the road.
● The Gators snapped an eight-game winning streak against the Commodores and are now 30-2
(.936) in 32 meetings since 1989.
● Vanderbilt snapped Florida’s 15-game win streak in Nashville that dated back through 1992 (30-year
span).
• HC Billy Napier fell to VU HC Clark Lea in their first meeting as head coaches.
Other
● UF has scored in 434-consecutive games — which is an NCAA record and 56 games longer than
any other college football team in history.
o The Gators broke Michigan’s record of 365-consecutive games (1984-2014) against LSU on
Oct. 7, 2017.
● Florida has finished with fewer than 10 penalties in 50 of its last 55 games.
● Florida Game Captains: #58 Austin Barber, #1 Ricky Pearsall, #52 Antwaun Powell-Ryland Jr., #22
Rashad Torrence II
● Florida won the toss and deferred; Florida defended the south end zone.
● Attendance: 30,136
2022 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Billy Napier, Florida Head Coach
Vanderbilt 31, Florida 24
November 19, 2022
Opening statement…
“No question, a ton of missed opportunities out there today. You know, this is a simple game. I think
our group knows what winning football looks like. We did not play winning football today. You think
about the opportunities and the mistakes within the game. A couple of red zone opportunities early,
made us kick field goals. We got six to show for some of that momentum we had early. Really made
two turnovers in the game that led to 14 points. And then we had way too many penalties in the
game. A handful of penalties that resulted in first downs on third down, in particular in the first half.
And then, you got to give Vanderbilt some credit. They did some things today well. There was a lot of
Florida beating Florida out there today, you know, and that’s my job, is to have the players ready to
play. We did not do that today. But I think our group understands what happened out there today
and ultimately, not enough to win. It’s that simple. I think a lot of the things that we’ve been doing,
we weren’t able to do today. At times, we played well on defense. But we didn’t work together
today as a team. So, I think there’s an opportunity here for this group to respond the right way.
Ultimately, when you go through challenges, you make mistakes, it gives you an opportunity to
respond, to show your character. I think this is going to be an opportunity for this group to stick
together. They worked extremely hard to become a team. And certainly, these experiences give you
an opportunity to show that. To show that character, to show that togetherness. And we’ve got an
opportunity to go play again this year. But, we’ll take a good look at the film.”
On what can be attributed to the penalties…
“I think some of the penalties are technical, but I also think that we lost our composure at times today.
I think we retaliated one time. We played a little bit beyond the whistle one time. But I do think there
are some technical penalties there, that are bang-bang. Not necessarily undisciplined penalties,
outside of those two that I mentioned. I think those are decision-making in the moment. They’re
technical things that we can do better. But we’ll look at those and certainly evaluate them.”
On what Vanderbilt did defensively to thwart the run game…
“I’ll be able to tell you more when we get to the film, but ultimately, they did a good job to fit the
runs. They played inside-out. They forced us to throw it to the perimeter at times. They made Anthony
hand the ball off at times. There were a lot of different things that contributed to that. But, I’ll be able
to give you more information the next time I talk to you.”
On the impact of losing multiple players to injury during the game…
“Yeah, we were without a few guys. I think Ricky [Pearsall] was pretty early. Marcus Burke was pretty
early. We went into the game without a couple receivers. But, that has nothing to do with what
happened today. A lot of those guys that played in the game played well at times. We did get a few
guys banged up, obviously. We’ll give you more of an update on those guys later in the week.”
On the muffed punt that turned into a touchdown…
“It’s a product of losing two players, and then you’ve got your third out there. Nobody wants to do
their job for the team more than Jason Marshall. He made an in-game decision there that, he made
a mistake in the game. Which, like a lot of players on our team, made mistakes. The great thing is, he
responded as a competitor. He made a great play late in the game. But that was a technical
decision there. We need to coach him better. That’s specifically something that we talked about
going into the game there, that he could potentially have to run out there. But Jason will learn from
that and he showed some resiliency today. Made a huge play in the game there at the end to
create a turnover.”
On what the loss does to the team’s momentum…
“Well, it’s a setback. There’s no question about it. Problems are often opportunities in disguise. I think
it’s a little bit of a reality check to some degree, that we got to do these things. We got to take care
of the ball. We got to eliminate the penalties. We have to rush the ball effectively. We exposed some
of our depth issues. There’s lots of things that this can teach us. Ultimately, that’s what’s important
here – that we learn from the experience. Again, I think our group is well-versed on what winning
football looks like. We did not do what is required to win today.”
2022 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Florida Student-Athletes
Vanderbilt 31, Florida 24
November 19, 2022
2 Amari Burney, Senior, Linebacker
On whether this loss was especially difficult…
“I mean, it’s very difficult when you lose the game. We play football. Nobody loves to lose. We love to
win, but it’s very difficult just knowing that we didn’t play our best ball today.”
On his holding penalty…
“I really didn’t know they called it on me. It is what it is. Penalties like that, that we can get off the
field on third down. We can’t keep making them.”
On losing Ventrell Miller after a targeting penalty…
“We put [Derek] Wingo in the game and Wingo didn’t miss a beat out there. Ventrell was still on the
sideline coaching. Still telling Wingo what to do, what [he] sees. Just not having him on the field, but
he was still in the mix.”
On what the message was from the leaders on the team after the game…
“Just that we know why we lost. That wasn’t our best ball. And that we have to put this aside
tomorrow and come out next week to try to win the game…”
15 Anthony Richardson, Sophomore, Quarterback
On losing receivers Ricky Pearsall and Marcus Burke to injury…
“It’s definitely tough to lose those guys. Those guys know they want to play, know they want to
contribute to the team. Try to execute for us and help us win. It’s part of football. Other guys have to
step in and do their job. Have to take it with a grain of salt.”
On what Vanderbilt did to contain his running game…
“That’s a great job by them. Their ends played great seven-technique. Kept me in the box. Just got to
try to contain me, they did contain me, they got to open up a lane for the running backs. We just got
to take advantage of it and execute.”
On how he felt he played today…
“We lost, so I could have done a number of things better. Made some better reads, better checks for
us. Or even been a better leader. Just got to work, that’s all.”
On what the offensive mindset was in the fourth quarter…
“Just move the ball quick and execute. That was the game plan throughout the whole game. That
was a big moment in the game, starting the fourth, so try to take advantage of that and execute.”
