There is no such thing as an ugly SEC win

If you were expecting a football Van Gogh at The Swamp Saturday night, then you were certainly disappointed. Florida’s 38-14 win over the Tennessee Vols was anything but a masterpiece, but it should be noted that there is no such thing as an ugly win in the Southeastern Conference. Aesthetically pleasing wins count just the same as the ones like the 11th-ranked Gators (3-1, 1-1 SEC) scored over the unranked Vols (2-2, 0-1 SEC).

Perhaps this was just one of those unexplainable days that seem to pop up every football season. Fourth-ranked Iowa was pushed to the limit by the same Colorado State team that lost to Vanderbilt, the same Vanderbilt team that No. 2 Georgia crushed, 62-0. Third-ranked Oklahoma barely got past unranked West Virginia. Texas A&M, ranked fifth and considered a legitimate challenger to No. 1 Alabama in the SEC West, lost to Arkansas. Ninth-ranked Clemson, which hasn’t lost two regular season games since 2014, dropped to 2-2 with a double overtime loss to unranked North Carolina State.

On a day when the upset bug was spreading like a virus, you count your blessings that you score a win even if it was so chock full of physical mistakes and mental errors that Dan Mullen might be tempted to burn the film once he and his staff have had a chance to go through it frame-by-frame. The good news is that even though the Gators gave up 423 yards – the first game this season in which they’ve allowed an opponent that kind of production – they kept the Vols out of the end zone after allowing a 75-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter in which the Florida secondary looked dazed and confused. When you give up scoring passes of 47 and 75 yards, seven running plays of 10 or more yards, 141 yards after contact in the passing game and then hold your opponent scoreless in the final 40 minutes of the game either you’re very fortunate or your defense made just enough adjustments.

“You look in the first half, we had a couple of missed tackles, which allowed them to keep the drive alive, and then that one touchdown was a missed tackle,” Mullen said. “And then, you know, we had a blown coverage – in your man coverage, cover your man. You know, it's not like we're being real complex with at all. And just kind of had a missed assignment there, but I think you saw what Todd (Grantham) and his guys are able to do.

“You know, the adjustments they made at halftime, for us to come in and pitch the shutout in the second half and really since you know, they didn't, they hit whatever it was, a 75-yard-long coverage bomb and they don't score again. So I think Todd and his staff did an amazing job tonight.”

Offensively, the Gators endured their second straight week of a slow start. It wasn’t as bad as Alabama when they trailed, 21-3, but the 10-7 lead after one quarter was anything but sharp. Mullen couldn’t be pleased with a scoring drive that ended with a 47-yard Jace Christmann field goal that gave the Gators a 10-7 lead with 1:07 left. UF had to settle for a field goal because the Gators committed consecutive penalties – a false start followed by a delay of game – for the first time this year and that was followed by an incomplete pass when Emory Jones misfired over the middle when Rick Wells was wide open.

Then came the second quarter. Whatever switches needed to be flipped, Jones and Mullen found and flipped them because after 24 minutes of barely better than mediocre, Jones went beast mode. It was like that against Alabama last week when the Crimson Tide had his number early on only to see him figure out how to attack and destroy.

In the first quarter, Jones was 6-36 yards rushing and a pedestrian 5-7 for 39 yards passing. The Vols were loading up the box, practically daring him to throw, but once he got into a rhythm they didn’t have answers. From the second quarter onward, Jones was 16-20 passing for 170 yards and two touchdowns; 9-111 rushing to become the first Florida quarterback since Tim Tebow in 2009 to post a 200 passing/100 rushing game. Jones was 21-27 passing for 209 yards and 15-144 rushing and this was against a Southeastern Conference opponent. Tebow’s threw for 215 and ran for 102 against Florida International in 2009, his third and final 200/100 game. Jones is the only other quarterback in Florida history to go 200/100.

“You look at what he had, 15 carries, that's probably a little much but I think a bunch were like scrambles too and improvising,” Mullen said. “I don't know if we called many direct quarterback runs in the game tonight. So I think he had some runs and scrambles and reads, some explosive plays.”

It was on a 5-play, 59-yard scoring drive that put the Gators ahead for good at 17-14 with 4:15 left in the half when Jones really got it going. Nay’Quan Wright did the damage on the ground with three carries for 28 yards including the go-ahead score from 23 yards out, but Jones had two quality throws. The first was a 6-yarder to Wells on a third-and-5 that kept the drive alive. The second was a back-shoulder throw to Xzavier Henderson good for 20 yards to the UT 28.

He also had a big throw later in the half to convert a fourth-and-2, 17 yards to Jacob Copeland, who had the ball wrestled away at the UT 15, Florida’s only turnover of the game.

Whatever Mullen said to the Gators at halftime lit a fire under them. They played better on both sides of the football, not mistake-free mind you, but well enough to take total control of the game and turn what promised to be white knuckles at the intermission into a three-touchdown victory.

“In the first half, I thought couple mistakes here and there, we went in and challenged guys at halftime,” Mullen said. “Wasn't big challenge. It was a challenge if we want to be a great team we've got to play great every snap. We've got to execute, have attention to detail, do every small thing the right way. I thought the second half for the most part we really did that. We came out and played really well in the second half."

It was indeed a crisper offensive performance thanks, in large part, to Jones once again showing the kind of growth you expect of a Mullen-coached quarterback. The defense was gouged a few times in the running game for 10-plus yards, but the secondary did a better job and the pass rush took its toll.

The Gators established themselves immediately after halftime with a 6-play, 78-yard drive in which they dusted off a double pass that hadn’t been used since Kadarius Toney threw for the game-winning touchdown at Mississippi State in 2018. Following three consecutive completions by Jones – a 33-yarder to Justin Shorter, a 13-yarder to Kemore Gamble, and a 4-yarder to Copeland – Jones threw what appeared to be a screen on the left side to Trent Whittemore. That sucked in the UT defense which was caught flatfooted when Whittemore, a former high school quarterback at Gainesville Buchholz, fired to Gamble wide open in the end zone.

Florida’s next scoring drive was all about Jones, who ran three times for 43 yards and completed both his passes, a 13-yarder to Wells to start the drive and a 9-yarder for a touchdown to end it with 2:04 left in the third quarter to make it 31-14.

The final scoring drive required 12 plays to go 80 yards, consuming 6:20 off the clock. Malik Davis ran four times for 24 yards and caught a 10-yard pass from Jones on the drive and Dameon Pierce ran three times for 29 yards. Davis got the TD on a 9-yard run with 1:02 remaining.

Again, this was not an aesthetically pleasing game, but the Gators did avoid the upset and they did overcome whatever hangover they had from the emotionally draining loss to Alabama last week. There were too many mistakes, but the positives of scoring a win in a letdown type situation completely outweigh the negatives. Plus, it was a game in which Mullen got to rest Anthony Richardson a second straight week.

Mullen admitted post game that Richardson could have played but the hamstring was “a bit tight” so the decision was made to hold him out another week. That actually works quite well because Kentucky won't have a chance to get a real handle on his tendencies. The Wildcats already know from what they’ve seen the last two games that they have their hands full with Emory Jones. They can only guess with Richardson.

So, chalk it for what it was – a Southeastern Conference win – and don’t lose sight of the fact that there is no such thing as an ugly SEC win. There might be SEC wins that involve fewer mistakes, both the physical and mental kind, but any win in the SEC is a good one.

The Gators finish the September portion of their schedule 3-1, which is where most experts had them when the season began although none of the experts thought the Gators could hang with Alabama. This isn’t a bad place to be, particularly with a quarterback who is making huge growth strides and a defense that could be quite good if it ever finds some consistency.

As seasons go, you measure by progress not by masterpieces -- Florida has yet to play a masterpiece of a game -- but in all four games so far, there has been progress and there is something to be said about that.