South Carolina 40, Florida 17
November 6, 2021
Williams-Brice Stadium – Columbia, S.C.
Gators Offense
• With 340 total yards tonight, Florida’s 4,207 yards this season is its second-most through nine games in the last 20 seasons, trailing only the 2020 campaign (4,526).
o This is Florida’s eighth-highest total through nine games dating back to 1965.
o This is the 10th time since 1965 that Florida has eclipsed 4,000 total yards through nine games.
• With 82 rushing yards tonight, Florida’s 2,023 rushing yards this season is the team’s most through nine games since 2009 (2,166) and eighth-most dating back to 1965.
• Tonight’s game marked the first time in the 2021 season that Florida did not out-gain its opponent. • Florida posted its seventh-straight game of 300-plus total yards against South Carolina dating back to 2015.
• Quarterback Emory Jones recorded his fourth-career 200-yard passing game tonight (all in 2021). o Jones had two completions of 50-plus yards in the first quarter.
• Emory Jones completed a pass to nine-different receivers at South Carolina.
• Wide receiver Justin Shorter’s 52-yard reception from quarterback Emory Jones in the first quarter marked the longest reception of Shorter’s career.
o Previous career long: 46 yards (at Vanderbilt, Nov. 21, 2020)
• Wide receiver Marcus Burke recorded his first-career reception in his second-career game with a 61-yard catch from Jones in the first quarter tonight.
o Burke finished with two catches for 73 yards, trailing only Shorter (five catches for 92 yards) in receiving yards among all Gators in tonight’s game.
o Burke made his collegiate debut in Week 9 vs. Georgia.
Gators Defense
• Entering the game ranked tied-for-fifth in the SEC and tied-for-26th nationally with 2.75 sacks per game (22 sacks), the Gators recorded one sack vs. South Carolina to bring their season total to 23. o Florida’s 144 sacks since Mullen’s debut 2018 season rank first in the SEC and fouth nationally – trailing only Clemson (172), Pittsburgh (160) and Ohio State (149).
o Florida ranked tied-for-14th in the FBS and second in the SEC with 34 sacks last season. • Defensive lineman Zachary Carter tallied tackle-for-loss number 9.5 on the season tonight. o Carter entered the game ranking tied-for-fifth in the SEC with 8.5 TFLs.
• Linebacker Mohamoud Diabate recorded six tackles on South Carolina’s opening drive of the game, ultimately setting a new-career high with 12 tackles.
• Linebacker Brenton Cox set a career high with two pass breakups.
• Linebacker Jeremiah Moon recorded his second sack of the season and the eighth of his career.
Florida Special Teams
• Jeremy Crawshaw punted five times for an average of 43.8 yards including a long punt of 51 yards and two punts inside the 20-yard line.
• Kicker Chris Howard connected on his first field goal attempt since Week 3, making a 30-yarder in the first quarter to tie the game at 10-10.
• Malik Davis’ kick return of 25 yards in the second quarter marked Florida’s longest kick return of the season.
Explosive Plays
• Justin Shorter (from Emory Jones): 20-yard reception, first quarter
• Justin Shorter (from Jones): 52-yard reception, first quarter
• Marcus Burke (from Jones): 61-yard reception, first quarter
• Emory Jones: 10-yard rush, first quarter
• Ja’Quavion Fraziars (from Jones): 16-yard reception, third quarter
• Emory Jones: 10-yard rush, third quarter
• Keon Zipperer (from Jones): 21-yard reception, third quarter
• Emory Jones: 14-yard rush, fourth quarter
• Dameon Pierce: 23-yard rush, fourth quarter
Series Updates
• Today’s game represented the 42nd all-time meeting between Florida and South Carolina including the 21st time the two programs have faced off in Columbia.
• With today’s loss, Florida falls to 29-10-3 against South Carolina including 3-1 under head coach Dan Mullen.
o Mullen is now 4-3 vs. South Carolina overall in his head coaching career.
• Florida is still 24-7 against South Carolina dating back through 1964.
• Florida falls to 12-8-1 against South Carolina in Columbia.
• Mullen is now 2-1 against first-year head coaches this season.
o Mullen defeated Tennessee’s Josh Heupel and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea in 2021. • In three games vs. South Carolina under Mullen, UF has outscored USC, 128-122, while out-gaining USC, 1,570 yards to 1,561 yards.
• Florida has now posted seven-straight games of 300-plus total yards against South Carolina dating back to 2015.
Other
• UF has 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 364- straight contests.
• Florida has finished with fewer than 10 penalties in 40 of its last 41 games.
• Florida Game Captains: #6 Zachary Carter, #20 Malik Davis
• South Carolina won the toss and deferred; South Carolina defended the north end zone. • Attendance: 70,131
2021 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Dan Mullen, Florida Head Coach
South Carolina 40, Florida 17
November 6, 2021
Opening statement…
“Give them a lot of credit. They played well, made some plays, made a lot of plays. They were able to run the ball and control the tempo of the game and capitalize on mistakes that we made. I’m disappointed in what we did and we’ve got to work and find a way to get better.”
On the team’s performance…
“Yeah, that’s a tough one. I know [every one of our guys] had a great attitude this week and worked, and the desire of our guys and the attitude that they bring. We’ve got to create some positive momentum for the guys on the team. For those guys, we as coaches have got to improve and help them get better.”
On how hard the team played…
“You know, I certainly don’t think that we gave up. I give our guys credit. They battled. They faced a lot of adversity and continued to battle. We faced all kinds of adversities this week. Those guys continued to battle.”
On the adversities…
“We had anywhere from 20-30 guys missing from practice every day this week. I give some guys credit. Emory Jones tested positive for the flu this morning, we had several guys not even come out onto to the field, onto the bus. I don’t want to make an excuse for those guys, but I want to give our guys credit for battling, with facing that adversity. We had a bunch of guys dealing with sickness. We had to fly some guys up separately from the team, keep everybody separated. Those guys still went out. Even though there was a large number of guys that missed practice, we had quite a few… Our training staff tried to do a good job today of IV-ing guys and trying to get them ready to be able to go out and perform. I think our guys compete and they’re going to work, they’re going to fight, and they’re going to give everything they have. We as coaches have to do a better job to put them in the positions, for the effort they give, to put them in position to be successful.”
On his feelings of the outcome…
“I didn’t see it coming. I’m obviously really disappointed. You give them credit. Their guys played really well, made plays that were there to be made. I’ve coached a long time so I don’t know that stuff is stunning really ever to me. Obviously, wasn’t seeing the game play out this way. So, very disappointed. I know the players are very disappointed.”
On the run game…
“We fell behind a little bit. We were moving the ball, we had some explosive plays there. I think part of that for them was putting everybody at the line of scrimmage and that’s where we were able to hit some explosive plays early on in the game, throwing the ball down the field. We’ve got to be better at the line of scrimmage and up front, offensively and defensively on the line, we’ve got to play better.”
On staff changes…
“I’m not going to get into any of that stuff right now of what we are going to do. We are going to evaluate where we are at and look. We’ve got a game. We head back to The Swamp next Saturday. We haven’t played there in a really long time, five-to-six weeks. So, the opportunity to get home is going to be great and I think our guys will be excited to get back home and we’ve got to try to get this fixed as coaches.”
On the run defense…
“Something we’ve got to look at. Maybe just schematically some things going on, some missed tackles. We’ve got to be better and more physical right at the line of scrimmage and the point of attack with our defensive front.”
On Pierce’s involvement…
“With some of the stuff we do there’s different options that go on in each play. Even if your calling run plays, but if they have nine, eight guys standing on the line of scrimmage, the quarterback read is going to tell him to throw some and we’ve got to take some shots downfield. I think you guys know we roll the backs through. Obviously, we wanted to come in and run the ball. That was going to be something we wanted to do. Early on, they had everybody at the line of scrimmage, and you saw that we were able to take some shots down the field. The other times we just got to execute better up front. We had some guys miss some time this week up front, but we still got to execute much better at the line of scrimmage.”
On the team’s performance over the last few weeks…
“We got to make sure we got the right guys in the right position to make plays. We got to continue to build confidence with the guys right there. It’s not one little thing. You look throughout the season, there’s a lot of little things that have gone wrong. We’re not doing things that you play winning football at. We’re not playing great at the line of scrimmage. We’re turning the football over. Those are two huge things. Special teams, we’ve got to get better at special teams within the kicking game. If you look at that, we’re not doing the things you need to do to play winning football. We did that early in the season, but you can’t not control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. You’re turning the ball over in other situations. That’s not a recipe for success.”
On foreseeing the team’s struggles…
“No. There’s been a bunch throughout the year. You don’t foresee anything. You don’t foresee all the turnovers we’ve had. Some of those issues and some inconsistencies in which we’ve performed with. You don’t really foresee that stuff.”
On players that didn’t travel going live on social media during the game…
“I don’t know. I was coaching the game, so I wasn’t watching social media.”
On the team responding to his message of energy, excitement and focus…
“Yeah, our players are competitors. They want to win. There are guys that really want to win and have a great attitude. They want to work hard to go be successful.”
On not singing with the band the last two games…
“We’re on the road right now. That’s on me. To be honest with you, I didn’t know we had our band here today. We’ll sing with the band next week in The Swamp.”
