2021 Florida Football Postgame Notes
No. 1 Georgia 34, Florida 7
October 30, 2021
TIAA Bank Field – Jacksonville, Fla.
Gators Offense
• Florida’s 355 total yards today is the highest total any team has racked up against Georgia this
season and the most against the Bulldogs overall since Mississippi State totaled 358 yards on Nov.
21, 2020.
o Florida out-gained Georgia today by one yard, 355 yards to 354 yards.
o Florida’s 355 total yards surpassed Georgia’s average of 208.3 yards allowed per game
heading into today.
o The Gators also out-passed the Bulldogs for the second-straight meeting, 194 yards to 161
yards.
This is the third-most pass yards surrendered by Georgia this season.
• Florida’s 161 rush yards are the most against Georgia in the last three seasons.
o This is the most rushing yards the Bulldogs have allowed since Texas rushed for 178 yards
against Georgia on Jan. 1, 2019.
o This is also Florida’s most rushing yards against Georgia since rushing for 170 yards against
the Bulldogs in 2018.
• With today’s performance, Florida has now out-gained their opponent in all-eight games so far this
season.
• With 161 rushing yards, Florida is the first team to rush for 100-plus yards against Georgia in their last-six games and just the second team to do so in Georgia’s last 13 games dating back to last season.
o Florida’s 161 rush yards more than doubles Georgia’s average rush yards allowed (63.6)
entering today’s game.
o Florida has now rushed for 100-plus yards in every game this season, the first time since
2018 the Gators opened the season with eight games of 100-plus rushing yards.
• With 355 total yards today, Florida’s 3,872 yards this season is its second-most through eight games
in the last 20 seasons, trailing only the 2020 campaign (4,074).
o This is Florida’s seventh-highest total through eight games dating back to 1965.
• With 161 rushing yards today, Florida’s 1,941 total rush yards this season is its most since 2009 (2,018) and second-most dating back through 1990.
o This is Florida’s sixth-highest rushing total through eight games dating back to 1965.
• Quarterback Emory Jones surpassed 2,000 career passing yards in the game, throwing for 112
yards while completing 10 of 14 passes.
o Jones finished with a 138.6 quarterback rating.
• Through the first quarter of play, Florida out-gained Georgia, 66 yards to 61 yards.
• Running back Dameon Pierce had three runs of 10-plus yards against Georgia in today’s game.
• After receiving his first-career start, quarterback Anthony Richardson logged a career-high 20 pass
attempts.
• Running back Malik Davis recorded his first-career pass attempt.
Gators Defense
• Safety Rashad Torrence II became the first Gator to record two interceptions in one game since
Donovan Stiner accomplished the feat on Nov. 9, 2019 vs. Vanderbilt.
o The interceptions marked the first two of Torrence II’s career.
o Torrence II also registered his first-career fumble recovery in today’s game.
o Torrence II picked off Georgia’s Stetson Bennett in the second and fourth quarters and
recovered the third-quarter fumble forced by Jeremiah Moon.
• Moon’s forced fumble marked the first of his career.
o Moon also tied his career high in tackled with seven.
• Entering the game ranked tied-for-sixth in the SEC and tied-for-22nd nationally with 21 sacks, the
Gators recorded one sack vs. Georgia to bring their season total to 22.
o Florida’s 143 sacks since Mullen’s debut 2018 season rank first in the SEC and third
nationally – trailing only Clemson (164) and Pittsburgh (151).
o Florida ranked tied-for-14th in the FBS and second in the SEC with 34 sacks last season.
• With three takeaways vs. Georgia, Florida’s defense has now produced 74 turnovers since Mullen’s
debut in 2018, which ranks third in the SEC and tied-for-16th in the FBS.
Florida Special Teams
• Jeremy Crawshaw punted three times for an average of 44.3 yards including a long punt of 55
yards.
• Jace Christmann failed to connect on field goals of 46 yards (first quarter) and 23 yards (third
quarter).
Explosive Plays
• Kemore Gamble (from Anthony Richardson): 18-yard reception, first quarter
• Dameon Pierce: 19-yard rush, first quarter
• Jacob Copeland (from Richardson): 16-yard reception, second quarter
• Nay’Quan Wright: 13-yard rush, second quarter
• Dameon Pierce: 18-yard rush, third quarter
• Keon Zipperer (from Emory Jones): 21-yard reception, third quarter
• Dameon Pierce: 11-yard rush, fourth quarter
• Emory Jones: 11-yard rush, fourth quarter
• Justin Shorter (from Jones): 18-yard reception, fourth quarter
• Justin Shorter (from Jones): 16-yard reception, fourth quarter
• Ja’Markis Weston (from Jones): 15-yard reception, fourth quarter
Series Updates
• Today’s game represented the 99th all-time meeting between Florida and Georgia including the
89th time the two programs have faced off in Jacksonville.
• With today’s loss, Florida falls to 44-53-2 against Georgia including 1-3 under head coach Dan Mullen.
o Florida is still 22-10 against Georgia dating back through 1990.
• Florida falls to 41-47-1 against Georgia in Jacksonville.
• Mullen falls to 2-5 against Georgia in his career and 1-4 against Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.
• In four games vs. Georgia under Mullen, UF has out-gained UGA, 1,479 yards to 1,458 yards (+21.0,
5.25 YPG).
• Georgia has not totaled 500-plus yards vs. Florida since at least 1996.
Other
• UF has now scored in 419-consecutive games — which is an NCAA record.
o The Gators broke Michigan’s record of 365-consecutive games (1984-2014) against LSU on
Oct. 7, 2017.
o The next-closest active streak belongs to TCU, as the Horned Frogs have scored in 362-
straight contests.
• Florida has finished with fewer than 10 penalties in 39 of its last 40 games.
• Florida Game Captains: #6 Zachary Carter, #20 Malik Davis
• Florida won the toss and deferred; Florida defended the south end zone.
• Attendance: 76,141
2021 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Dan Mullen, Florida Head Coach
No. 1 Georgia 34, Florida 7
October 30, 2021
Opening statement…
“Obviously, a tough game for us against a very good football team. I give them a lot of credit. They
have very talented players and they play with great effort. They take advantage of opportunities.
They play really good team football and you have to give them a lot of credit. Looking at us right
now, we’re not where we want to be. I’m certainly not where I want to be and our players certainly
are not where they want to be at this point of the season. It’s a mindset right now that we have to go
change. Football is a great team sport, the ultimate team sport. As the head coach, the mindset of
the team falls on me… Where we’re at, the attitude, the approach and everything falls on me.
Obviously, I know we’re two-thirds of the way through the season right now. I’m certainly not pleased
with where we are and I know our players are not pleased with where we are. I know Gator Nation is
not pleased with where we are with the standards and expectations within this program. But, in this
final third of the season, that’s on me to get this fixed. The approach I take and mindset that we play
with, that’s on me to get fixed and I certainly plan on doing that – on changing where we’re at right
now with us, creating some positive energy and some confidence for us, and the expectations to
feed off of each other. I’m going to work and make sure I get that right.”
On the fans who are feeling the program isn’t going on the right trajectory…
“Here’s the deal – as you start slipping and the rope is slipping, you go on a little rope pull. It really
pertains to everything… It pertains to individual games. At times we play really well, and then the
rope slips and we kind of let a lot of it go. Against good teams, you can’t do that. Offense, defense –
The entire team has to grasp on [the rope]. There are going to be ebbs and flows in the course of
each game. As the rope slips throughout your hands, you can either let it drop, which isn’t the answer
and won’t fix anything. Then, you’re going to feel that burn and you’re not going to squeeze as tight
because of that burn, and that’s not going to fix anything. Or, you can just grab on tight, you hold
on, you dig your heels in and you start pulling in the other direction. But a negative attitude or
dropping the rope doesn’t fix anything. Grasping the rope does, holding on tight does, and
squeezing as it’s burning does. I will say something about me – I don’t drop the rope. I’m not going to even let you rip it out of my hands. You can drag me around by my face if you want, but I’m going
to squeeze it and I’m not going to let any inch of that rope go… And I know our players won’t either.
For Gator Nation, we have one-third of the season left. Listen, this is not where I want to be right now. At 4-4, this is not where they want to be. But we still have one-third of this season left and we’ll see what we define ourselves by at the end of this season.”
On Dameon Pierce and his carry total throughout the game…
“We roll guys through with different things that are happening. Obviously, there are different scenarios throughout the game. I thought Dameon ran the ball pretty hard today. Because of our injuries, we played some two tailback sets. We had to play multiple backs in the game, which changed things up because of the some of the injuries. I thought he ran the ball hard.”
On Anthony Richardson starting and how he played today…
“We have a lot of things he still has to grow and develop on. He has a great work ethic, I think he’s an
extremely talented young man, and I think he does put in the effort and he does put in the time in
learning the offenses, the defenses and making the reads. Obviously, when you’re playing a great
defense like Georgia has, you give them credit for having really good defensive guys. Overall,
Anthony did some things really well and he made a couple of errors as well. But, that’s something
we’ll coach him up on and get him better at.”
On his decision to go with Anthony Richardson over Emory Jones for the start…
“When we were playing against LSU, I thought he had such a hot hand and played really well in the
second half of that game. Both of our guys split reps evenly at practice. Both guys were ready to
play, but I kind of kept sticking to where we were when we finished the last game. Today, we’re
going to go with Anthony right here and Emory be ready. I think Anthony did some really good things out there on the field, with a couple of mistakes here and there. Unfortunately, a couple of them were big mistakes for us. Emory though, you want to see the character he has – He doesn’t flinch. When we said we were going to go with Anthony right here, his response was, ‘Whatever it takes to help the team win, I’m all in and I’ll be ready. Coach, you just point to me and I’ll be ready to go.’ He came in and I thought he played really well, also.”
2021 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Florida Student-Athletes
No. 1 Georgia 34, Florida 7
October 30, 2021
22 Rashad Torrence II, Sophomore, Safety
On team goals for the next month…
“Just keep playing football, one. I know it’s a lot of outside and even maybe some inside heads, but
we as a team are going to keep playing football. As many games that you’ll give us, that’s the
games we are going to play.”
On confidence in Anthony Richardson…
“We are very confident in him. We are very confident in any quarterback we put behind center.
People make mistakes, everybody makes mistakes, so I feel like a couple mistakes shouldn’t define a
player.”
On his thought process during his interception in the endzone…
“As I got the pick, I know I didn’t get it in the endzone. I knew if I got tackled in the endzone, that
would be two points for the other team. So, my first instinct was to get it out of the endzone. That’s
what I did.”
On building in a positive way…
“At this point, we can’t separate as a team. We’ve got to all come together and not throw this
season away. We still have games to play, so there’s no need for anybody at all to think that the
season is over with.”
On the mindset of this team…
“I feel like we have a good mindset. There are a lot of outside distractions, but inside that locker
room, there is a great mindset within the players and coaches. It’s just a matter of executing on
Saturdays.”
On his three turnovers…
“I credit those three turnovers to the whole 11 people on the field, all 11 players on the field at the
time. I wasn’t able to make that pick without certain pressures, certain covers. We’re just building off
of that. Whether I get three or a D-linemen gets three, the defense got three at the end of the day.”
27 Dameon Pierce, Senior, Running Back
On being a leader…
“That’s a question that I got to ask myself: What can I do? At this point of the season, it’s
disappointing. We have more losses than we want to have. As a leader and a senior guy on this
team, I just have to keep guys up and keep guys encouraged.”
On Anthony Richardson…
“He’s not an experienced player yet. Experienced players know that with the game of football
comes good days, bad days, and even horrible days, especially at that quarterback position. With
the type of person Anthony is, the type of athlete he is, and the way he approaches things, I’m pretty
sure that this really won’t affect him. Is he disappointed? Yes. Did it not go how he wanted it to?
Maybe not. It probably didn’t go how he planned it to. Anthony is a smart kid. He’s a strong kid,
mentally. I think this game is going to be a great learning point for him. He’s going to learn from all the mistakes he made. He’s going to understand the game that much more. This is only going to help him as a player in the future.”
On Georgia’s defense…
“I felt like we shot ourselves in the foot too many times to overcome. We really gave it to the defense,
honestly. Hats off to them. They are a great team. We already knew that coming in. We had the
perfect game plan, but we just didn’t execute on our end.”
2021 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Kirby Smart, Georgia Head Coach
No. 1 Georgia 34, Florida 7
October 30, 2021
On today’s game and the win against Florida …
“There was great excitement, great energy. Our fans really impacted the game. They helped us get
them for a few offsides. The turnovers were the difference in the game. We had a few, too, but theirs
were in their territory, and that was probably the biggest difference in the game.”
On how well the running backs played today …
“They ran really tough. We are trying to get Kenny (McIntosh) back all the way healthy, but Zamir
(White) and James (Cook) took it over. They did a really good job with really physical runs. We did a
good job upfront running the counter, and I am really proud of the way those guys played.”
On Stetson Bennett and his resiliency …
“He does a really good job on some plays, and then you are holding your breath when he holds the
ball. He has to make good decisions down the field. We can’t give the ball away. When it is not there
– we are pretty good on the next down, so let’s play for the next down and not worry about that
play. Making good decisions can be helpful with that. His legs and mobility were a big part of the
game plan and he made two really good plays with his feet.”
On Georgia’s defense and the sequence right before the half …
“That changed the game. That momentum right before the half was just huge. It is what our guys do
– they are havoc guys that cause problems, frustrate the quarterback, and try to find different ways
to affect the quarterback. Those turnovers are so big.”
