2021 Florida Football Postgame Notes
No. 13 Florida 35, Florida Atlantic 14
September 4, 2021
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium – Gainesville, Fla.
Richardson and Davis’ 100+ Yard Rushing Nights Highlights Historic Game on the Ground • Florida’s 400 yards rushing in tonight’s win is the most in a season opener in program history, breaking the previous record of 369 rushing yards vs. Charleston Southern in 2009. o Tonight also marks Florida’s most rushing yards in a single game under head coach Dan Mullen (2018-present) and the most in a single game since 9/24/11 vs. Kentucky.
o Florida totaled the third-most rushing yards in a single game dating back to at least 1996. ▪ The Gators rushed for 418 yards vs. Georgia on 11/01/14 and for 405 yards vs. Kentucky on 9/24/11.
• Quarterback Anthony Richardson (160 yards on seven carries) and running back Malik Davis (104 yards on 14 carries) both rushed for 100+ yards in the win.
o Tonight marks the second time in program history the Gators have had two 100-yard rushers with one of the two being a quarterback. The only prior instance was the 1/8/09 national championship victory vs. Oklahoma, which saw Percy Harvin (122) and Tim Tebow (109) both eclipse the century mark.
o The Gators had multiple 100-yard rushers for the first time since 11/10/18 vs. South Carolina when Jordan Scarlett (159) and La’Mical Perine (107) both did so. Scarlett and Perine both hit 100 yards in the same game twice during the 2018 campaign, also reaching the mark 10/13/18 at Vanderbilt.
• Richardson became the first Florida quarterback to rush for 100 yards since Jeff Driskel rushed for 177 yards, including a 70-yard touchdown, on 10/13/12 at Vanderbilt.
o Jones becomes the third Florida quarterback since 1996 to post a 100-yard rushing game, joining Tim Tebow (five times) and Jeff Driskel (once).
• Richardson’s 73-yard touchdown rush is the longest rush by a Florida quarterback since Trey Burton ripped off an 80-yard run vs. Tennessee in 2012.
• Richardson and Davis both became the first Gators players to rush for over 100 yards in a season opener since Mack Brown in 2013 (24-6 win vs. Toledo on Aug. 31).
o Davis registered the second 100-yard rushing game of his career.
• Richardson’s 160 yards on the ground represented a new career high, topping his previous career best of 42 yards (Cotton Bowl vs. Oklahoma, 12/30/20).
• Florida’s 8.7 yards per carry (400 yards on 46 rush attempts) is the team’s highest mark in a single game since averaging 9.3 YPC (331 yards on 35 rush attempts) vs. Vanderbilt on 10/13/12. o The Gators 8.7 YPC is the program’s sixth-highest mark dating back to at least 1996.
Gators Offense
• Florida scored 30+ points for the 27th time in 39 games under Mullen, including scoring 30+ in 14 of the team’s last 15 games.
• Tonight is the 26th time Florida amassed 400-plus total yards under Mullen, topping the program’s total of 25 400-yard outings from the 88 games comprising the 2011-17 seasons.
o The Gators have eclipsed 400 total yards in 24 of their last 30 games.
o Florida now has 11-consecutive games of 400-plus total yards for the first time since at least 1981.
• Florida posted its 15th game of 500-plus total yards in Dan Mullen’s 39 games as head coach, topping the team’s combined total of 14 such games from the 115 games comprising the 2009-17 seasons.
• Tonight marked Florida’s 30th 100+ yard rushing game and 14th 200+ yard rushing game under Mullen.
o The Gators totaled 300+ yards rushing for just the second time under Mullen.
▪ Previous: 367 vs. South Carolina on 11/10/18
• Florida wide receiver Rick Wells recorded his first-career touchdown with a 9-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Emory Jones in the first quarter.
• In addition to setting a new-career high with 160 rushing yards in tonight’s game, Anthony Richardson set a new single-game career high with 40 passing yards (previous best: 27 vs. Oklahoma on 12/30/20).
• Davis eclipsed 200 career carries and 1,000 career rushing yards in tonight’s game. • Running back Dameon Pierce caught a career-high five passes.
• Wide receiver Ja’Markis Weston set new career highs in receptions (three), receiving yards (44) and longest reception (36 yards).
Gators Defense
• Florida’s 10 points allowed is the team’s second-fewest total in a game dating back to November of 2019.
o The Gators allowed fewer points just once last season, beating Kentucky at home by a score of 34-10 on 11/28/20.
• After ranking tied-for-eighth in the FBS and second in the SEC with 34 sacks last season, the Gators got to the quarterback six times against FAU – tying the team high from the 2020 season. o Florida’s 126 sacks since Mullen’s debut 2018 season rank first in the SEC and third nationally – trailing only Clemson (148) and Pittsburgh (134).
• The Gators recorded two fumble recoveries against FAU raised Florida’s total to 67 takeaways since 2018, which rank tied-ninth nationally and third in the SEC.
• Zachary Carter set a career high with three sacks in tonight’s game.
o Carter is the first Gator with three sacks in a single game since Jonathan Greenard accomplished the feat on 11/30/19 vs. Florida State.
▪ Mohamoud Diabate also had a three-sack game in 2019 (11/9/19 vs. Vanderbilt). o Carter’s first-quarter sack that resulted in a forced fumble gave him double-digit sacks for his career. He now has 12.5 career sacks and 20.5 tackles for loss.
• Linebacker Ventrell Miller paced the Gators with seven tackles after leading the team with 88 tackles in 2020.
• The Gators defense did not surrender a drive of more than 57 yards in the first half. o The Florida defense forced an FAU punt on the Owls’ opening drive of the game, followed by a forced fumble on FAU’s second drive and a pair of turnover-on-downs on their third and fourth drives.
• Florida held Florida Atlantic scoreless until the 4:27 mark in the 4th quarter.
• Gervon Dexter’s pair of fumble recoveries marked the first two of his career.
• Mordecai McDaniel set a new career high with six tackles.
• Eight players recorded their first career tackles as a Gator: Jason Marshall Jr., Donovan McMillon, Daquan Newkirk, Jadarrius Perkins, Tyrone Truesdale, Antonio Valentino, Desmond Watson and Rick Wells.
o Marshall Jr., McMillion, Watson and Wells all registered the first tackles of their careers. • Three players tied their career bests for tackles in a game: Tre’Vez Johnson (five), Dante Zanders (two) and Lloyd Summerall III (one).
• Graduate-transfer additions Valentino (Penn State) and Newkirk (Auburn) both made their Gator debuts, starting at nose tackle and defensive tackle, respectively.
Florida Special Teams
• Chris Howard remains perfect in 16 PAT tries over the course of his Florida career.
Season/Home Opener Superlatives
• Florida has now won 32-consecutive home openers dating back to 1990 – the longest such streak in the nation.
o Oklahoma State is second with an active 27-game home-winning streak.
• The Gators have won four-straight season openers and are 31-1 in season openers dating back to 1990.
o UF lost to Michigan in Arlington, Tex. to open the 2017 campaign.
• Florida tracks records for season openers dating back to 1982. The Gators eclipsed the following season opener superlatives today:
o Team Rushing Yards: 400 (previous high was 369 vs. Charleston Southern in 2009)
▪ Last year, Florida broke its previous record for passing yards in a season opener with 446 vs. Ole Miss, meaning the Gators have broken the record for most rushing yards and most passing yards in a season opener over the last two seasons under Mullen.
Explosive Plays
• Malik Davis: 31-yard rush, 1st quarter
• Emory Jones: 23-yard rush, 1st quarter
• Malik Davis: 17-yard rush, 1st quarter
• Demarkcus Bowman: 15-yard rush, 1st quarter
• Anthony Richardson: 20-yard rush, 1st quarter
• Malik Davis: 21-yard rush, 2nd quarter
• Emory Jones: 10-yard rush, 2nd quarter
• Emory Jones: 10-yard rush, 3rd quarter
• Emory Jones: 13-yard rush, 3rd quarter
• Xzavier Henderson: 33-yard punt return, 3rd quarter
• Anthony Richardson: 26-yard rush, 4th quarter
• Ja’Markis Weston (from Richardson): 36-yard reception, 4th quarter
• Anthony Richardson: 73-yard rush, 4th quarter
• Anthony Richardson: 22-yard rush, 4th quarter
• Anthony Richardson: 11-yard rush, 4th quarter
Series Updates
• Florida improves to 4-0 all-time against Florida Atlantic and 1-0 against the Owls under HC Dan Mullen.
o Previous Matchups → 2015: W, 20-14 [OT] | 2011: W, 41-3 | 2007: W, 59-20).
o All four victories over FAU have come in Gainesville.
• Mullen improves to 2-0 against Willie Taggart-coached teams.
o Mullen won the previous meeting, 41-14 in 2018, when Taggart was the head coach at Florida State.
• The Gators have now outscored FAU by a 155-51 margin while out-gaining the Owls, 1,774 yards to 1,173 yards, over the course of the four meetings between the two teams.
Other
• UF has scored in 411-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.
• UF has finished with fewer than 10 penalties in 33-consecutive games.
o Dating back to the start of 2019, UF has been charged with five or fewer penalties in 15 of their 25 games, including nine of the last 14.
• Florida Game Captains: #20 Malik Davis, #51 Ventrell Miller, #6 Zachary Carter
• FAU won the toss and deferred to the second half; Florida defended the north end zone.
• Attendance: 86, 840
