2021 Florida Football Postgame Notes
No. 1 Alabama 31, No. 11 Florida 29
September 18, 2021
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium – Gainesville, Fla.
Record Crowd Packs Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for First Florida-Alabama Showdown in Gainesville Since 2011 • Today’s official attendance was 90,887 – the fifth-largest crowd in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium history and the largest-ever crowd in head coach Dan Mullen’s tenure.
o This was Florida’s largest crowd since Nov. 28, 2015 vs. Florida State (90,916 – largest crowd in BHGS history).
• Top Crowds in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium History:
o Florida State | Nov. 28, 2015 | 90,916
o Florida State | Nov. 28, 2009 | 90,907
o Tennessee | Sept. 19, 2009 | 90,894
o Alabama | Oct. 1, 2011 | 90,888
o Alabama | Sept. 18, 2021 | 90,887
o South Carolina | Nov. 13, 2010 | 90,885
o South Carolina | Oct. 20, 2012 | 90,883
o Miami | Sept. 6, 2008 | 90,833
o LSU | Oct. 6, 2012 | 90,824
o Florida State | Nov. 26, 2011 | 90,798
o Tennessee | Sept. 17, 2011 | 90,744
• Today’s game was Florida’s first time hosting the AP No. 1 team since 2002 vs. Miami and Alabama’s first visit to Gainesville since 2011.
• Since Alabama’s Citrus Bowl victory over Michigan on Jan. 1, 2020, Florida is the only team to play the Crimson Tide closer than 15 points.
o The Gators did so in the 2020 SEC Championship game (46-52) and in tonight’s game (29- 31).
o During that span, Alabama has won its 15 other games by an average of 31.7 points while defeating the Gators by an average of four points.
Gators Offense
• With 246 rushing yards vs. Alabama, Florida’s 1,009 rushing yards through three games is its highest total through three games of a season in the last 40 years (since at least 1981).
o Previous best: 868 rush yards through three games in 2009
▪ Week 1 vs. Charleston Southern (369), Week 2 vs. Troy (291), Week 3 vs. Tennessee (208) o Through Week 2, Florida led the FBS in both total rushing yards (763) and rushing yards per game (381.5).
▪ The Gators are now averaging 336.3 rushing yards per game.
• Florida out-gained Alabama, 439-331. This is the first time Alabama has been outgained in terms of total yardage by an opponent since November 9, 2019 vs. LSU.
o LSU: 559 yards | Alabama: 541 yards
• Florida out-gained Alabama by a 108-yard margin, marking the most yards Alabama has been out-gained by in a single game since January 9, 2017 in the CFP National Championship game vs. Clemson (-135).
o Clemson: 511 yards | Alabama: 376 yards
• Florida’s 439 total yards were the most surrendered by Alabama since the Crimson Tide surrendered 462 yards of offense to Florida in the 2020 SEC Championship game on Dec. 19, 2020. o The last time a team not named Florida totaled more yards against Alabama was Oct. 10, 2020, when Ole Miss totaled 647 yards of offense against the Tide.
• With 439 yards vs. Alabama, Florida’s 1,658 total yards of offense are the team’s most through the first three games of a season since 2001.
o Florida opened up the 2001 season with 1,706 yards through three games.
▪ Week 1 vs. Marshall (541) | Week 2 vs. Louisiana Monroe (600) | Week 3 at Kentucky (565)
o Florida totaled 553 yards vs. FAU in Week 1 and 666 yards at USF in Week 2.
• Florida amassed 400-plus total yards for the 13th-consecutive game for the first time since at least 1981 – tied for the second-longest active streak in the nation.
o UF also has at least seven-straight 400-yard outings against SEC teams for the first time in school history — a streak now at ten games.
o Today’s game is the 28th time Florida amassed 400-plus total yards under Mullen – three more than 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 26 of their last 32 games.
• Florida begins the season with three-consecutive 200+ yard rushing games for the first time since 2009.
o This is just the third time in the last 40 seasons in which Florida has posted three-straight games of 200+ rushing yards to open the season (1995, 2009, 2021).
o This marks Florida’s 16th 200+ yard rushing game under Mullen.
• The Gators open the season with three-consecutive 100+ yard rushing games for the first time since 2018 (205 yards vs. Charleston Southern, 128 vs. Kentucky, 222 vs. Colorado State). o The Gators delivered their 32nd game of 100+ rushing yards under Mullen.
o Florida rushed for 100+ yards in all 13 games of the 2018 season.
• Florida’s 11-play, 99-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter was the longest touchdown drive against Alabama since Texas A&M put together a 99-yard drive against the Crimson Tide on Sept. 22, 2018.
• Florida quarterback Emory Jones eclipsed 1,000 career passing yards with his career-high 193-yard performance.
o Jones accomplished the feat in his third-career start and 27th career appearance. o Jones’ 17 completions and 27 pass attempts tied his career highs set in Week 1 vs. Florida Atlantic.
• Running back Nay’Quan Wright rushed for a career-high 58 yards on seven attempts and also registered a career-long rush of 30 yards.
• Tight end Kemore Gamble set new single-game career highs with five receptions – which paced all Gators in the game.
o Gamble finished with 32 yards and caught all five of his targets.
• Tight end Keon Zipperer set a new single-game career high with 51 receiving yards – which paced all Gators in the game.
o Zipperer also tied his career high of four receptions.
• Running back Dameon Pierce tied his career high with two rushing touchdowns.
Gators Defense
• With just 324 yards of total offense allowed, Florida held Alabama to its lowest total yardage in a single game since November, 10, 2018 vs. Mississippi State (305 yards).
o This marks Alabama’s fewest total yards in their last 34 games.
• In the second quarter, Florida forced three-consecutive Alabama punts on three-straight three and-outs.
o This was the first time the Crimson Tide was forced to punt on three-straight drives in their last 12 games. The last time Alabama punted on three-straight drives was on Oct. 17, 2020 vs. Georgia.
o This was the first time Alabama had three three-and-outs in a single game in the last two seasons.
o Florida closed out the first half by holding Alabama without a first down on four consecutive drives.
• Florida forced Alabama to punt four times in a single game for the first time since Nov. 28, 2020 vs. Auburn.
• Mohamoud Diabate surpassed 100 career tackles in the game, finishing with eight tackles including 0.5 tackles for loss.
o Diabate now has 106 career tackles.
• Entering the game ranked fourth in the SEC and tied-for-ninth nationally with nine sacks, the Gators recorded two sacks vs. Alabama to bring their season total to 11.
o Florida ranked tied-for-eighth in the FBS and second in the SEC with 34 sacks last season.
o Florida’s 129 sacks since Mullen’s debut 2018 season rank first in the SEC and third nationally – trailing only Clemson (149) and Pittsburgh (139).
• Tre’Vez Johnson set a single-game career-high with two pass breakups.
• Gervon Dexter recorded the first solo sack of his career and set a single-game career high with eight tackles.
o Dexter entered the game with 0.5 sacks in his career.
• Kaiir Elam tied his previous-career high with three pass breakups.
o Previous: 3, Texas A&M, Oct. 10, 2020
• Trey Dean tied his career high with eight tackles while also adding 0.5 tackles for loss. • Rashad Torrence tied his career high with eight tackles.
Florida Special Teams
• Chris Howard missed his first-career PAT attempt in the second quarter after being perfect through the first 20 PAT attempts of his career.
• Jeremy Crawshaw punted two times for a total of 94 yards, averaging 47 yards per punt. o Crawshaw had one 50+ yard punt and placed his other punt inside the 20-yard line.
Explosive Plays
• Malik Davis: 20-yard rush, first quarter
• Kemore Gamble (from Emory Jones): 21-yard reception, first quarter
• Emory Jones: 11-yard rush, first quarter
• Keon Zipperer (from Jones): 30-yard reception, second quarter
• Malik Davis: 26-yard touchdown rush, second quarter
• Rick Wells (from Jones): 26-yard reception, second quarter
• Malik Davis: 15-yard rush, third quarter
• Nay’Quan Wright (from Jones): 18-yard reception, third quarter
• Nay’Quan Wright: 30-yard rush, third quarter
• Nay’Quan Wright: 16-yard rush, third quarter
• Nay’Quan Wright: 11-yard rush, third quarter
• Xzavier Henderson (from Jones): 18-yard reception, third quarter
• Emory Jones: 14-yard rush, fourth quarter
• Trent Whittemore (from Jones): 17-yard reception, fourth quarter
• Dameon Pierce: 17-yard touchdown rush, fourth quarter
Series Updates
• Today’s game marked the 42nd all-time meeting between Florida and Alabama, including the 11th meeting in Gainesville and the Tide’s first visit to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium since 2011. • Florida falls to 14-28 all-time against Alabama including 0-2 under HC Dan Mullen. o Mullen falls to 0-11 against the Crimson Tide overall.
• The Gators are now 2-9 against Alabama in Gainesville.
• Florida has lost eight-straight games to Alabama dating back to 2009.
• Alabama has now won 32-straight games against SEC Eastern Division opponents.
Other
• UF has scored in 413-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.
• Florida has finished with fewer than 10 penalties in 35-consecutive games.
• Florida Game Captains: #6 Zachary Carter, #20 Malik Davis, #51 Ventrell Miller • Florida won the toss and deferred; Florida defended the south end zone.
• Attendance: 90,887 (fifth-largest in history of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium)
2021 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Dan Mullen, Florida Head Coach
No. 11 Florida 29, No. 1 Alabama 31
September 18, 2021
Opening statement…
“First off, awesome environment today. I want to thank Gator Nation. It was great to see The Swamp alive and it was an unbelievable atmosphere. The fans certainly did their part. The margin of error in this game was so small and Gator Nation definitely showed up today. I definitely thank them for what they did. That was a fun game to be a part of. You love these games. It’s been 10 years since you’ve had that game in The Swamp, and hopefully we play it more often. To be honest, I hope we play it again really soon later this season. I want that opportunity. But, it was great SEC football.”
On his main takeaway from this game…
“Well when we play big games, the margin for error is going to be so small. You look at the turnover margin – we had one and they had none. We gave up some first downs on penalties… pass interference calls, which were judgement calls that could go either way. But we gave up too many first downs, penalty-wise, to allow Alabama to keep their drives alive. A couple of errors early on weren’t good and a missed extra point. We had a missed assignment on the two-point play. You’re going to go back and watch the film and you are going to see a bunch of things to be honest with you. But, I like the attitude of this team, I like the effort this team has and I think it is going to be very exciting to see our response at practice this week. I never doubted the effort that our team was going to give and I never doubted the attitude our guys had. Our guys expected to win the game today coming into it. I know they are disappointed, but you play in championship-level games and the margin of error is going to be extremely small. We have to embrace that at practice this week. We have to come together as a team with the positive energy of eliminating every little error at practice within our preparation and have it show out in our performance against Tennessee next week.”
On how close he was to having Anthony Richardson play…
“When you have a hamstring, it’s not like a sprained ankle. When you look at injuries, there are injuries that are like, “Hey, he can go on it and it’s not going to get worse. He might not be 100 percent but he isn’t going to make it worse throughout the course of the game.’ Today, he wasn’t going to be 100 percent, but if he played, he could have definitely made it worse. So, that was one we talked about going into the game. We went to get an MRI yesterday and he was ahead of where we thought he would be, which was really positive for next week. He knew he was going to go in on back-up mode only to be a drop-back passer. Fortunately, Emory stayed healthy. I thought Emory really stepped up his game this week and I thought had a really good game. It will be great to, hopefully as the week goes, get Anthony back 100 percent as well.”
On why Florida is so much trouble for Alabama…
“One thing is when a lot of teams play Alabama, they sometimes don’t think they are going to win the game maybe. Our guys certainly expected to win the game and played that way. We did last year and we did this year. I think that was maybe a big part of it. They come to Florida and our guys are excited. Where we are headed as a program, I want a team that can compete for championships on a consistent basis. To do that, you are going to have to beat Alabama. Last year it was six points and this year it was two. Hopefully, we get one more shot at them and get an opportunity to compete for another championship as we move forward. That’s where we want to be in our program and that’s how our guys prepare and expect heading out onto the field.”
On what the defense can take away from this game moving forward…
“I thought Todd and his staff had a great scheme today and really did a good job putting guys out there in positions to make plays on the field. On the back end, we have a very young secondary going against a bunch of talented guys. I thought they really stepped up and played well. A couple of penalties here and there that were bang-bang plays. But I liked the aggressiveness and the confidence our guys played with.”
On what this game can do for Emory on his development and confidence… “For him, I think it gets him relaxed. In the first couple of games, you learn a lot. I haven’t called plays with Emory as the primary quarterback before and he hasn’t been out there on the field running the plays. When you’re the starter you have to come in and manage everything. There’s a lot on your plate. He was just relaxed and comfortable with everything happening out there on the field way more than he was the last two weeks. I think he’s getting into the flow with the game plan. I think you saw him being a much more comfortable guy out there today. Even his interception was a great read – he made the perfect read, but the ball caused a sail on him right as he got hit on the release. If you look over the first couple of weeks, I thought he did pretty well with some drastic errors. But, I can’t even think of a bad error he made today throughout the course of the game.”
2021 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Florida Student-Athletes
No. 11 Florida 29, No. 1 Alabama 31
September 18, 2021
#5 Emory Jones, Redshirt Junior, Quarterback
On what are some of the ways Florida is being underestimated…
“All together as a team. I feel like people didn’t think we would come out here and fight. We didn’t play our best game the first two games, and today we came out here and we still didn’t play our best game, but I think we showed that we have a lot of fight in this team. This game right here meant a lot to us even though we didn’t get the outcome we wanted. We got a lot of confidence from this game. I feel like we are just going to keep building from this game and keep being better.”
On what the energy was like in The Swamp…
“We knew this was going to be a big game and a big environment in The Swamp. It was going to be packed and rocking, and it gave us a lot of juice. We knew coming into the game that we needed the fans to help us out, and they showed up and did. They helped us out a lot.”
On being down early and never giving up…
“We just told everybody that we need to keep fighting. We knew coming in, there were going to be a lot of ups and downs in the game. We knew that if they ever got up like that, we would just going to keep fighting. We have always been a team that always keeps fighting no matter what the score is. I walked around and told everybody just keep going and keep trying to score. Eventually we put up some points.”
On what was Anthony Richardson saying throughout the game…
“He was helping me out the whole game. Every time I came to the sideline, I asked him if he saw anything that I didn’t, and he would just let me know and tell me what I could’ve done better. Talking with him after the game, he told me I played my butt off and I need to be proud of myself from this game. He had a lot of good energy on the sideline.”
On the first two games’ ups and downs and how he felt like he fixed them…
“In some ways, I improved. I still made a couple of mistakes out there that I wish I could get back and I missed a couple of throws that I don’t usually miss. Those are the types of things I am trying to eliminate every week. I am getting better, and I saw a lot of improvement. At this point, I am just trying to improve from this game, watch the film on it, and keep getting better every week.”
#0 Trey Dean, Senior, Safety
On how the crowd affected the Alabama offense and helped the defense… “Yes sir, most definitely. There is no place like The Swamp. We really appreciate our crowd each and every game and hope everyday will be like tonight.”
On what the defense can take away for the rest of the season…
“Coach Grantham will call the right plays and put us in the right position. We need to go out there and execute. We’re going to take this and continue to build on it. The ultimate goal is to win a national championship, but first is to win the East.”
On whether he felt they were right there and what it takes to make the next step… “Coach Mullen is a great coach. He’s going to continue to prepare us each and every game, every time we step on the field against whoever we play against. We need to go out there and execute. Our coach will put us in the right place to make the plays, so we need to go out there and make them.”
On the several pass interference calls against the secondary…
“At that point, you have to control what you can control. You have to go out there, and if they call it, play the next play. We’re going to correct the one’s we need to correct. We need to go out there and play to the best of our ability.”
On the improvement the defense has made from last season…
“Definitely improved. We’re going to continue to grow on it. This isn’t our last or first stepping stone. We’ll continue to grow on it and continue to be better to be the best defensive backfield in the country.”
On the locker room feel after the game…
“Tough loss, but we have to go back to the drawing board. We have to go out there and continue to build on things. Correct the things, we need to correct. On to the next game. We’ll see them again.”
#6 Nay’Quan Wright, Redshirt Sophomore, Running Back
On how Florida stacked up against the No. 1 team in the country…
“I feel like our program is going in the right direction, each week we come out and compete at a high level.”
On how Florida stuck to the game plan…
“Just trusting the coaches, the calls, the GA’s and the guys upstairs… We have to see what we can take advantage of and just keep trusting the coaches calls.”
On Emory Jones…
“To me, Emory wasn’t up and down. I’ve seen this guy work for two years in a row. I’ve seen the preparation and the time he has put into this game. Each week he is building and building and we are going in the right direction.”
On the offensive line…
“Our O-line played huge and we can’t do anything without our O-line. They played pretty huge and showed up for us. We took advantage of it and ran behind those big guys.”
On who’s trying to pick up the kickers…
“I reached out to him. I don’t know exactly which guys reached out to him, but we are a united team. I’m sure everyone is going to reach out to him if they haven’t already. That wasn’t on him, honestly, we just have to execute more.”
On the 99-yard drive…
“I thought we were going to get the stop on defense and I told the guys we are going to go 99 yards after we get the stop. But, we drove down and were able to get a touchdown.”
On Emory Jones’ attitude affecting the team…
“He’s the starting quarterback. He has to lead us and is one of the leaders on the team. Everyone on the offensive side knows he’s the leader, so we have to go out there and show the world what he can do. If he’s down, we are going to pick him up, and if we are down, he’s going to pick us up. He does a great job leading.”
On the run game…
“We did it the first two weeks. We are going to just continue to do it, whether it is against Bama, Tennessee, LSU, or whoever it is. We are going to continue to run the ball, it doesn’t matter who’s out there. We are just going to put the ball down and run the ball. We did it the past two weeks and we we’re really efficient, so we are just going to keep it going.”
2021 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Nick Saban, Alabama Head Coach
No. 11 Florida 29, No. 1 Alabama 31
September 18, 2021
Opening statement…
“Florida is a really good team. They had a great plan. Offensively against us, they took us out of a lot of things we wanted to do when they kept running the speed option. But I think the big thing to learn for our players is we continue to be able to maintain intensity throughout a game. When we got ahead 21-3, I think our players played absolutely great football. Then we go three plays and out, three times in a row on offense. Eventually, they score a touchdown and get the crowd back into the game. It was difficult after that. I think our players showed a lot of resiliency in the game. We made the plays we had to make on offense. We stopped the two-point conversion. We made the plays we had to make on offense to stay ahead in the game as well as take the air out of it at the end of the game. Tough place to play, but Bryce did a really good job of managing the crowd noise. There were some times where it gave us issues, but it was really more of a snap count issue than it was his doing. The center had a tough time hearing a couple of times and we snapped the ball late and got some penalties. All in all, I think there’s a lot to learn. I’m hopeful that our team can learn from this experience. Learn how to improve, learn how to get better. Kind of see where you are personally as a player, where we are collectively as a team, and what we need to do to get better individually. To improve and play with more consistency and maintain intensity as well as do the same thing as a team. There are a lot of good things for us to learn out there, but we started to reel a little bit on defense. I think we got tired in the second quarter. We played a lot of plays where we went three and-out three times in a row. We either have to play more players or have more opportunities. We had a difficult time stopping the run. They had 258 yards rushing. I don’t think we’ve had that for a long time. I thought their quarterback did a really good job of completing some passes when they needed to. We only had one turnover in the game, so there are a lot of things that we need to do better.”
On giving the ball to Brian Robinson in important moments…
“Robinson played a really good game. I thought he did a really good job in the game. He got banged up a little bit in the end. He bruised his ribs or something. I think he’ll be okay. I thought he played really well in the game. He’s a strong runner. I thought Jase played really well in the game, too. Those two guys both did a really outstanding job.”
On what concerns him most about today…
“What concerned me most was that we could not sustain our intensity, especially on defense. We had a lot of mental errors. They did a good job and they had a good plan. When you’re playing the option, everyone has got to be disciplined. Somebody has to get the quarterback, somebody has to get the pitch. Because we weren’t doing that correctly, I think we were afraid to do a lot of other things that we had planned in the game. We didn’t get off the field on third down either. We had several opportunities, especially in the fourth quarter, to get off the field on third down when we created long-yardage situations. When they went 99 yards for a touchdown, we got them backed up on the one-yard line and we got them to third down. We have to get off the field. Another situation, where it was third and 18, they completed a pass for 16 yards to go for it on fourth down and convert. We have to get off the field on third down. So, all in all, it was just our execution on defense and the fact that we didn’t get off the field on third down.”
On the issue with the game clock and how it impacted clock management… “It certainly did not help any. It’s nice to know if the clock is running or if the clock is not running. We had to tell the quarterback when the clock was running, so we were milking the clock, but the clock really wasn’t running so we were going off of the 40-second clock. It did complicate it a bit, but I think our players did a pretty good job of managing it. The one time we got it down to one second, I was running to call a timeout, but we got the play off. We just need to do a little better job in those situations. We need to get out of the huddle at 15, be ready to run the play at eight and snap it a three or four.”
On Bryce Young’s composure…
“I think Bryce did a really good job. I think he was very composed. It was a difficult circumstance and situation to play in. We clapped some, we went on silent some. I thought he managed the game really well. He made some really good decisions for the most part. We did a nice job on third down, which was really important in the game. He made some good reads and guys made some good catches. I thought offensively, other than those three three-and-outs in the second quarter, we did a good job of moving the football. We didn’t always score a touchdown, but I think when you control the tempo of the game on offense, and even when you move the ball and control the clock, keep the defense off the field. Those are important things when you are playing good teams.”
On Florida’s two-point conversion…
“We knew that they get in empty and they read the box. That’s how they scored on the fourth and the one or two touchdowns that they had before. We actually had a loaded box. If you have a loaded box, you throw it. On that one, we actually were playing split safety coverage, so we had to run read. Our guys just did a really good job up front of stopping the dive. He really rode the guy for a long time, so the runner couldn’t hit it. That was a good job by the defense, especially the guys up front.”
2021 Florida Football Postgame Quotes
Alabama Student-Athletes
No. 11 Florida 29, No. 1 Alabama 31
September 18, 2021
#9 Bryce Young, Sophomore, Quarterback
On the broken clock in the fourth quarter…
“That’s something we can’t control. That’s something that’s going to factor. We just had to manage. We knew the situation – they were keeping the time on the field when the clock wasn’t working. It’s just another piece of adversity.”
On the atmosphere of The Swamp…
“Crazy atmosphere. Those fans were really loud. We knew it was going to be a hostile environment coming in, and it lived up to it for sure. Fans were super loud and there was a lot we had to deal with. This is a really good team. We just played in a really tough environment. It was tough, but I’m super proud of us as a team.”
On Brian Robinson’s touchdown…
“Robinson has proved it countless times. Not just in games, but in practice and offseason. We have complete trust in our offensive line and to get the yards we need to. I have complete trust in all my backs really. It’s really a product of the work that not everyone sees on Saturdays. In the offseason and during the week that’s how you build the trust with the players and coaches.”
#9 Jordan Battle, Junior, Defensive Back
On what changed defensively as the game went on…
“The crowd was a key component. We came out strong, like in the past few games. We still have some things to learn. We have to learn how to finish, but overall, it was a great win.”
On what was going on when the Gators were getting yardage at will in the second half… “They were just making some great calls. They were running the ball very well. We weren’t filling the gaps like we needed to fill. The quarterback was scrambling a little bit. Just staying in our lanes in the future. Preventing the quarterback to run and stopping the run in the interior and exterior.”
On what it was like on the sideline watching the offense at the end of the game… “It was a great experience. The stadium was very loud. The commentator said it was the fifth largest crowd in The Swamp. It was a great experience in The Swamp. Hearing the crowd and the crowd noise for the offense. Great win overall.”
