Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media on Tuesday to recap the No. 8 Gators win over the Missouri Tigers, preview the upcoming rivalry game with the Georgia Bulldogs and give an update on the starters that missed Saturday's win. As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full *UPDATE: Mullen mentions the COVID-19 numbers below. The school released the updated numbers later Tuesday afternoon. There are no positives at all yet in the month of November. This means all of the positives from the outbreak have recovered and there have been no new positives in the times since. Test are administered on Sunday with results returned later Monday or early Tuesday. COVID NUMBER THIS WEEK, HOW DOES THAT AFFECT TEAM? EXPECT SOME OF THOSE GUYS BACK FOR HUGE GAME? "You know, well we certainly hope. I have no idea what we're going to have because we haven't gotten today's results. You have to get Thursday's results. But I hope we have better numbers this week than we had last week." HOW BIG OF A GAME IS THIS, WITH EVERYONE ELSE HAVING THREE LOSSES. ESSENTIALLY EAST DIVISION TITLE GAME? "Yeah, you know, it doesn't clinch it or seal anything, but I mean it's certainly whoever wins this game, certainly is putting themselves in the driver's seat to get to Atlanta. You're two games up on this team and you're really two games up on everybody else in the league at that point. So it makes it a big game. But you know, it's always been a big game for a long time." NO VADER TODAY? "It's not Halloween." YOU WAKE UP WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD? "No. You've got to have fun. Like I said, one of the things -- like I told everybody and one of the reasons to do it -- my son thought it was really cool and funny. But I think one of the things people miss out on in the coaching profession is you miss a lot of things with the family, unfortunately. I'm sure in every profession, I don't want to downplay other things. You know? You're sitting there, you're either practicing on Thanksgiving Day. You're spending Christmas and New Year's in hotels. Thanksgiving is always midseason and you're always practicing. So I've always been somebody that for our staff is let them be parents, let them be parents. We've, unfortunately, we had a night game on Halloween. So usually we'd take that night off to let the coaches be with their families so you can be a parent and as they grow up they don't resent the fact that their dad was a coach." YOU'RE A FUN DAD "I try." IN SUMMER YOU SAID YOU WEREN'T QUITE SURE THIS TEAM HAD CHAMPIONSHIP MAKEUP, HADN'T SEEN THAT KIND OF EDGE IN THIS TEAM THAT YOU WANT. GIVEN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, NO CROWDS, UNCERTAINTY, HAVE YOU TAKEN ROLE IN SETTING AN EDGE FOR TEAM? "You know, I don't know. It's such a different year. I'd love to be a championship team this year. I would love this year for us to go on and win the East, win the SEC Championship, win a national championship. I hope I never have anybody having to call me and saying, 'OK, when we have to shut down the world, how do we win a championship when that happens?' I hope this is just a one-time deal, because I think it's very unique, different situation from those. I thought coming into the season we had the potential to be a championship team. I thought there were certain things I wanted to see us grow on. I think we talked about it, then you never got to see it through spring. We never got to see if we could develop all those things. But to be honest with you, I think that to be a championship team this year it's going to take something a little different than it would in most other years. And if we're able to do that I hope I don't ever have to replicate it the exact same way because we don't have to deal with what we are all going through again.” Recent antics a way to fire up team? “I don’t know. Ask them to see if it does. You know, we’re working to try to get them to play at a high level, to be sound, play at a high level, to play up to the Gators standard we expect them to play. That’s something you’d have to ask the players to see what their thoughts are.” Heightened sense of urgency to beat Georgia? “No. I think every year it’s an independent deal. Two years ago we didn’t beat Missouri, I don’t think that changed this year’s deal, playing them. So I just think it’s usually a big game because it usually has some championships implications in it. Whether we won or lost last year has no effect on this year’s game.” Edge Kyle Trask gives you? “It helps. He’s playing at high level. He’s does a great job managing our offense. He’s doing a great job distributing the ball to playmakers, limiting mistakes and shows great leadership within the team. You need all those things from your quarterback if you’re going to have the opportunity to be a championship team. So I think he brings a lot of that stuff to the table. We’re really lucky we have him.” In face of national criticism, any regrets about role in fight? “You know what, we made our statement about that we’re onto Georgia, to be honest with you.” Georgia defense impressions? “The talent level they have front to back. And I don’t want to say it’s just players, I think Kirby, they have a great defensive scheme. They have answers to the questions. He knows it inside and out. They do a good job of putting their guys in great position to make plays, and they’re not afraid to tweak. They’re different this year than last year. But he knows his defense has a great system to put players into position to make plays. They play hard, and then they have talent at every level of the defense. They can put big guys in the game to stop the run; they can put pass rushers in the game to get pressure; they can cover and play man coverage; they can try to confuse you with looks and a lot of different zones; they mix it up a lot. They’re a very, very good defensive football team and it’s not one thing that makes them a great football team, it’s every layer of it that makes them a really good defensive football team.” Travel changes due to COVID outbreak? “Well, you know what, one of the things I think you have with this game, and we tweaked things last week with our travel routine even with Friday and Saturday. We’re going to try to continue those. We to spend special attention to who’s on what bus going up there. I think, you know, I can’t the map of the Sawgrass Marriott, but I know it very well. The space we have there, we’re able to space out for meals, for walk-throughs, for team meetings we’ll have a little more space. Also the locker room, you’re going to have a normal size locker room, not like a closet like you have on some of the road games. So I think all of those things kind of ease some of the pressure of dealing with our travel issues and our travel plans. I think this sets up to be a little easier being a road game.” Bus up day off considered? “You could but I don’t think it does much for you that way. The facility you’re going to stay in is not going to be a bad facility to stay in.” How does this week change with no football activity on Tuesday? “We had to do a lot more, you know, Sunday became a Monday. Monday was a Tuesday. Today (Tuesday) is a Sunday. Tomorrow is a Wednesday. I’ll let you figure that one out. I think the benefit is we had a bye, I guess when we were locked away, COVID lock away, we had the opportunity to get a jump start because we knew this was going to be upon us. After today it’s a regular week. We knew the Sunday-Monday was going to be tricky.” Do you guys double up busses? Extra busses this year? “Yeah. I think we’re five, usually, we’re three (busses). But that, John Clark does all of that. He’s got everybody, seats, whose where, we have assigned seating at every meal now. If we have a team meal it’s assigned seating. He’s working on all of that, who’s with who.” Did you do that at A&M or is that new since then? “No that’s something new that we did. We felt that we’re spaced out enough, spaced out tables, now we’ve gone to assigned seats. We’ve got assigned planes, assigned busses, but we thought if in a meal, we’re in a big room, that we’d be ok. I don’t know that that became a factor at all but that was, it was just another thing we could control. We decided to control it.” These are the kinds of games that can help your program, propel it, right? “Yeah, obviously our goal is to win a championship. The winner of this game is going to be in the driver’s seat to be that SEC East Champion. It certainly does that.” Worry about keeping guys level knowing the energy and importance of this one?” “I felt we’ve had two good practices so far on Sunday and Monday. They know. Our guys like playing in big games. I think they’re excited to go play in a big game.” What does it take to be more consistent defensively? “I think the one thing, they did a great job holding them to 10 points last week, seven of them were given up by the offense. The touchdown, I think, came late in the game. I think we did a really good job, I thought. I think 11 guys running to the ball as hard as they can, I think if you look at that game, the thing I saw different was the defensive staff did a good job of making some tweaks in the scheme to put guys in position. Some of it was to put guys in position. Some of it was our limit of numbers of players that we had, being so short-handed defensively. Some of that was almost forced upon us for the personnel that we had available in that game. I think when you watch the difference between that and the first three games you see a distinct drop in missed tackles. You see a massive improvement of 11 guys running extremely hard to the football. Those are things that we can control. Those are things that I think I was worried about when you say coming into the season because you missed so much football time. Then in training camp, I’ll say this a little bit too, I think this year has been different. When you started training camp there were guys going out to practice every day wondering if we were playing. We weren’t even sure who we were playing, what we’re doing, how’s it going to work, are we going to make it to the season? You didn’t have spring practice. Your training camp is a completely unorthodox training camp. I think there were a lot of guys that weren’t to the level that they needed to be to be ready to play. I think we looked more like a Florida defense Saturday night. That’s just taken this extended period of time for us to get to that at this point of the season to look that way. You say what about the offense? What about this? Well, we’ve got a fifth-year senior quarterback with some talented wide receivers. You know? They’re throwing and catching and doing skill work all the time. The big difference between our ability to throw and catch at a high level and 11 guys running to the football with a nasty disposition when they get there. There are a little different personalities in those things. I think it’s just taken a little bit to get there and hopefully now you see us play at that level the rest of the season.” Can you put into context what it means to have players in better position on D against Mizzou? “One of the things you’re looking at is you’ve got young new faces out there. You don’t have scrimmages. You have a limited training camp, limited scrimmages, you’re still trying to learn what guys do well. You know? And so what we’re trying to do defensively is say, ‘OK, we think this guy can do this really well. We think we can play this coverage. We think we can rush this guy out of this position.’ And then you’re into games, and they don’t do it as well as you think, but they do other things really well. And so it’s just kind of learning the team and tweaking to that. Offensively, I know every year, ‘Hey, do we want to be more invested in the run game or the pass game?’ Ideally we go into the season wanting to be 5-050. Usually it sways one way or the other as the season goes, and we’re not afraid to do that, of being able to do that. Same thing defensively, is we think this is what our guys are going to do really well, and you get into games, you realize this guy struggles doing this in a game situation, but he’s better than we thought he would be in other ways. We’ve got to put those guys in that position to do the right thing.” Complete game the other night against Mizzou? How build on that? “I think it was closer to a complete game. I don’t know that it was. I don’t know what a complete game to me would be. Like score on every play, and they get minus-five yards every play. Maybe that would be perfect of everything. I thought it was. You look, 1, defensively we played at a much, much higher level. I thought, special teams, one of the things that you deal with, when you get into the special teams part of the game, if you look, we had a lot of guys in place. You’re looking at the special teams. Ok, Evan didn’t play, so Howard had to come in and he did a good job. But if you go top to bottom on special teams, there were a lot of new faces out there playing. A lot of different faces covering kicks, covering punts, on the punt return team, kickoff return team. I think what gets caught up on special teams —everyone uses special teams as the snapper, the punter, the kicker and the returner. OK? That’s 1/11th of each deal. There’s a lot of other guys out there on the field. So I was really happy to see a lot of – we had a lot of guys that got the opportunity to go make plays and be on special teams and get their first action even on special teams. Those guys did pretty good. It was – that’s a hard one. We need to get much better there, though. We need to get a lot better. Hopefully we get some guys back with special teams that help a lot and increase that depth where you are looking at special teams. You go into training camps sometimes, there sometimes this year we’ve had…You start training camp, there’s a fourth stringer playing special teams from where our training camp depth chart was at certain positions. “Then offensively, we started slow. One thing, we’ve got to be cautious of offensively is, you know, I mean, we punted three times in that game. We’ve punted three times the whole season. I’d love to say hey, ‘We’re going to score on 80 percent of our possessions this year. That’s probably a little unrealistic. It’d be a heck of deal. I wouldn’t be sad. But we set a very high standard, right? I think someone said Kyle Trask set an SEC touchdown record. We’ve done that all in conference only games. A lot of times some of those records can get a little skewed in who your opponent is Week 1 or Week 2. Those are all conference games. We’ve been very efficient offensively. But we can’t get caught up into maybe that’s normal. When you say we struggled a little bit on Saturday, maybe we played a little bit more normally on Saturday and not to an extremely high level that we’ve been in. Obviously it’ll be a big challenge this week playing such a great defense.” Kadarius Toney? “I think, one, the playmakers were out there. It was a big deal when you look at game management, it’s 7-6 and we haven’t given up a point on defense and we’re losing 7-6. We got the ball and we’re driving down in the first half. You’re looking to score on that drive. Kadarius makes a great play, makes two guys miss and probably breaks two or three tackles, goes and scores. Your immediate thought is to look at the clock. We have timeouts, we’re kicking off, I’m immediately on with Todd and say we want to get two for one because we get the ball to start the second half. What you don’t want to do is let them go down and score and then it’s an equal possession. Our discussion immediately got onto what we’re doing and how we’re going to try to get into position and how we’re going to use the timeouts to try to get and steal one more possession at the end of the first half. We had just taken a 13-7 lead. Defense comes out on third down and makes a huge play to get the turnover and now we have the ball in the red zone and we take a shot on the first play. Kadarius runs a great route, Kyle throws a great pass, does a great job reading the coverage. They doubled Kyle Pitts and Tre Grimes on the play, both got double teamed and left Kadarius one on one, and Kyle was able to find him. And we get a quick score. Immediately, I’m back on Todd again. I said we might have scored too quick again, but let’s not give up a score here and let’s try to get the ball back one more time and maybe we can get in theory a three for one. You want to get that last possession of the half when you know you’re starting with the ball in the second half. We did get the ball back. Unfortunately, we had great field position. A young guy gets a penalty on the punt return, which knocks us back. We gained some yards. They get a penalty and we the opportunity to throw the ball in the end zone at the end of the first half and try to get that one more score. Obviously, then you want to come out in the second half and get that quick score. It’s very disheartening for a team to score to score twice in a row without you running an offensive play. It kind of really sways the course of games.” Toney has upped his game? “Oh, yeah, he’s done a great job. He’s done a great job. We know he’s a playmaker, but he’s really worked on become an every-down player. To me, the thing I get most pleased with is I think I always seen it: you put the ball in his hand and watching him make people miss or breaking tackles is one thing. The thing I’ve been most pleased with is is his route-running and his ability to take that talent and his quickness and his escape-ability and put that into route-running context and be a great route runner.” New talents in the secondary? “I think it was really good. You look at this game: one, we’re able to get a little bit more pressure on the quarterback. Two, you look at Missouri and the success they’ve had is when they’re on schedule. The strength of their team has been up front, their offensive line, and being able to knock people back and run the ball and playing in front of the chains instead of behind the chains, if you will. And we got them behind the chains and that’s not the strength of what they were as a team, and we were able to take advantage of it.” Anticipation for the return of four starters who missed Mizzou game? “I’m not going to get into every detail of when everybody’s coming back or who’s what. I don’t do it to be evasive, you know what I mean? With the COVID, if you guys know me, usually I give you the injury report every week and this and that. But when you’re dealing with just injuries, that’s one thing. The COVID, you’re talking about medical records for kids and this stuff. It’s kind of become a weird deal of how everybody does it. I kind of let them. If they announce it, they announce it. If they don’t, they don’t. More than me announcing it all. That way. So, I’m not elusive that way. I’m not trying to be, or evasive with that. We certainly hope to have a lot more guys available this week than last week if you will. You guys seem to find that out on your own anyway. Maybe our guys tell you. I don’t mind that. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I just don’t want to be the one reporting medical records on kids when it comes to the viruses and the illness more than the high-ankle sprain type of deal. The second part of the question, is anytime – one of the things that’s great, if you ever watch us, I love to play a lot of guys. We love to roll guys through. Keeps them fresh, not just during a game but during the course of a season. And then it also builds depth and talent. I think, so one of the things by having guys out, forcing other guys to play more plays, it creates depth within your team. Now you feel more comfortable with more guys playing. I think everybody looked and everyone freaked out like, what’s wrong with Kyle Pitts? He didn’t play in the last series of that first half against Texas A&M. I said, well because he wasn’t supposed to play that series. We only got the ball, I think, three times in the first half or four times. Then, you look at this game. Kemore Gamble came in and had a great catch. Keon Zipperer’s come in and done a nice job and had a nice catch. We’re getting those guys in. One, it keeps Kyle fresh and healthy, and two, it gets those guys experience and creates depth. The same thing is going on secondary-wise. We had a bunch of guys out in the secondary, so we had to play a bunch of young guys. Well now as more guys come back, what it’s done is create depth and allow us to rotate guys more, which then keeps you healthier and fresher during the course of a game and the season.” What have you seen of Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett and do you prepare for possibility of two quarterbacks? “We always have to prepare for multiple quarterbacks, you know, I mean of what’s going on. Not that you prepare for it, you know what’s going on and what the other guy might bring to the table and their strengths. I’m sure people, as they prepare for us, look and say, ‘OK, Kyle Trask brings this to the table. Emory Jones brings this to the table.’ How do we deal with that situation of who’s in the game? But I think with him, I think one thing, and you know, he’s been playing. I don’t know their situation. I haven’t watched all their other quarterbacks to know what they’re doing. I think he does a nice job of managing the game. You look at what they do, they’re a running back-based offense. If you’re going to judge, look at our team, you’re going to say, ‘hey, we’re a quarterback-, skill-position-based offense.’ They’re a running back-based offense, so they want to get the ball to their running back. I mean, their third-leading receiver is a running back. They have two receivers with 10 or more catches and a running back with 10 or more catches is all they have with where the ball goes. So, the majority of touches are going to their backs. I think he does probably a really good job of getting them in the right place, checking them into the right place, managing the game through that, distributing the ball, getting the ball to the running backs the way they want to. And, I think people get on him, they played some really good defenses. I think Kentucky’s got a very good defense, Alabama’s got a good defense. But he’s still able, had led them and put up a whole lot of points. He was down – his top receiver didn’t play last week. And the playmaker, the [George] Pickens kid, I don’t think he played last week. So, you know, you take kind of that deal, you take one of your playmaking wideouts out of the game, that can affect the quarterback play as well. But, you know, I think he does a good job. He’s accurate with the ball. He can make the different throws and get the ball where it needs to be. If you look at his numbers and his efficiency rating this year, they’re not bad for the type of offense they run.” Rely on last year's game as a reference point? "Well you do some. We have a lot of new faces out there. We have four of those wide receivers for us playing in the NFL right now. We have a tailback playing in the NFL right now. So, some of the matchups are a little bit different this year for us. But it is, I'll be honest with you. You watch, we've done this. We're going to run our offense and they're going to run their defense. We're not coming up and throwing everything out and running a whole new offense that we haven't run. We're going to run our offense this week. And I can't imagine them coming up there and saying, 'Hey, we have this defense that has been one of the top defenses in the country right now and we're going to scrap all of that and start new to try to create it.' So the matchups are the matchups and you're going to try to get some beneficial ones. The guys that played in that game last year that are back are a year older and hopefully a little bit better for us. I'm sure they feel the same about their guys as well. And then there's different guys. Unfortunately I think they've had to deal with some injuries. We've had to deal with kind of a depleted roster because of varying circumstances. But I think that's the hard part when you get to the matchups. Their guys are going to do what they do and we're going to do what we do." What do you relish about coaching against Kirby? "It's fun. You relish ... this is a competitive game. You're here, we want to be a championship football team and whoever wins this game is going to have the inside track towards being there. And that's what you're competing for in this game, is that opportunity to put yourself in the driver's seat to go out and win a championship. Those are the opportunities you want to be in, is competing for championships as the season goes on." Toney's route-running unconventional? "I don't know unconventional. I think it's just the discipline of him being able to do that. He's such a quick change-of-direction guy. So his ability to change direction on a route, set you up one way and then go a different way, I think that's what you want. You look at routes and you try to coach routes, you talk about the top end of routes and releases of routes, your ability to get in and out of breaks. And he's so quick that he's able to do that at a high level, and he's really worked to do that at a much higher level. So that's one of the things that's made him I think even such a better player this year." Campbell missing the first three games? "It's tough. You're a guy, especially a guy that's a senior and you're not out there on the field playing, I mean, it's hard. Like I said, we've had a lot of guys miss games for various reasons and it's never easy on any of them because any competitor wants to be out there on the field competing, playing and helping the team win. So I think that's really hard, but I knew he was really excited to be out there and get back on the field and start making plays again."

Florida Gators Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham met with local media on Tuesday to discuss the No. 8 Gators defense finally evolving into it's best self, how the return of Kyree Campbell slid guys into natural positions, his best wishes for Georgia's Richard LeCounte and the showdown with the Georgia Bulldogs offense. As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full. Defensive performance vs. Mizzou encouraging? “I think the biggest thing is, and it goes back to what I said last week, you’ve got to establish your physical presence in the game by being able to limit their ability to run the ball. That does that. I really think that came about because of our ability to have certain guys available, and by having those guys available it gave us flexibility to play guys in some natural positions. Really the guys did a good job of playing physical and then executing the game plan, and that allowed them to make plays. The credit needs to go to the players and the ability to have some guys available that gave us the flexibility to play guys where they need to be playing. When you talk about guys back in their natural position, is Kyree Campbell an example? "(Kyree) was in there, and by having Kyree back it allowed Brenton to move back a little bit. It gave us the ability to play Brenton as a  true outside ‘backer as opposed to a defensive end. We played with bigger-body guys and that physical presence allowed us to be pretty stout against the run.” On Richard LeCounte: “The first thing I’d like to do is offer my thoughts and prayers to Richard LeCounte, the safety. In his situation I certainly want to wish him a speedy recovery. Being a defensive coach, you watch teams in the offseason and you watch crossover games being in the SEC, and you kinda notice certain guys. And he’s a guy that you certainly notice when you watch tape. He plays the game the right way and he’s certainly an excellent player. You hate to see that happen to anyone. We want to wish him a speedy recovery and we look forward to watching him play soon and getting back to being able to be in the National Football League. I’m really appreciative of the way he plays.” Run-stopping importance vs. Georgia: “That is very true for a lot of the teams you play in the SEC. Sometimes the numbers may be a little different, but you have to have the ability to stop the run and make teams one-dimensional. And then as you do that you’re going to create third-down situations and you’ve got to win those. So we understand that we’ve got to be able to stop the run and find ways to win the situations that come up in the game — whether it’s red-zone, third downs, two-minute or whatever happens.” Ever faced a team where stopping the run wasn't top priority? “Sometimes if a team is a heavy-pass team you’ve got to give a little in the run game to take away the explosive plays. So then you work to minimize the run and kinda live with some 5- or 6-yarders, knowing that you’re giving that up to take away something else. I think the biggest thing is when you stop the run and you say that most teams that are heavy runs are going to have explosive shots down the field to the wideouts and therefore you’ve got to protect the middle of the field and make some plays outside one-on-one, so those will be some opportunities that we'll have to make also in the game." Did something within the defense come together during the layoff? "it always goes back to, who's available, and how do you get your best 11 players on the field. So you kind of take that and build your game plan around that. And, you know, we took the guys that were available in the last game and we're able to, you know, move some guys around to give us some physical presence and do those things. Now in saying that, now, I do believe that not having the ability to have spring practice and those things obviously you can evaluate some things that way. But at the end of the day, it really got back to having the availability of guys, to allow us to play our guys where they need, play." How would you defend Kadarius Toney? "That's a good question. Um, you know, he's a talented player, I mean he, you know, I would say double him but the problem is I've seen when he's gotten doubled, he's made plays too so that's a good question. Just, uh, maybe get to the quarterback or get to whoever's got the ball before they give it to him." "It's a hard deal because, I mean, he, he demands double teams, you know, to try to you know to keep him at bay. But you say that when he gets, you know, the ball in his hands still made more than one guy miss so he's a problem and you know I'm certainly glad that I don't have to go execute that question." How special is Kadarius Toney? "I mean, he's elite as far as his cutting ability his ability to make guys miss. I think the biggest thing that I see is, is coach Gonzales has done a really good job of developing him as a complete wideout. I mean if you look at where he was say year one that we came here, and the things that he did to where the routes he can run now and the things he can do as a complete receiver, it changes how you can play the guy. Like sometimes when you have a guy like that there's only certain things he can do, which, you know you can kind of play with those routes, but as you expand that knowledge or expand his development, it creates a broader or harder issue in trying to cover the guy or double the guy. And I think that's the biggest thing that I see with him is his development as a wide receiver has been really good." What changes did Todd Monken bring to Georgia's offense this year? "Yeah, well first of all, um, I think that the running game to a certain point, as they, as far as the style of ones that they run, you do see some more stacks and bunches, and some over routes and shots off the play-action passes that they can create issues for you. You know ways to get their playmakers the ball in space. When you start looking at four and 10 and seven, those guys. So, I think that when you look at game one until now, I think he’s done a really good job of trying to get their playmakers the ball in space, trying to create one-on-one matchups in the pass game while still being functional and physical in the run game with what they’re doing and they try to really work some of their motion in their run game to try to remove your edge player, your force player and those kind of things. I think that he’s tweaked it a little bit to where those guys can be really functional.” Do you see ways that you can slow down Georgia’s rushing attack and make them one-dimensional? “I think the biggest thing when you talk about stopping the run is your ability to set the edge of the defense, build a wall inside, don’t give them seams, don’t create displacements and then make sure you’re always coming downhill and fitting your gaps. I think that’s the biggest thing that you’ve got to look for is your ability to set the edge of the defense because they do got some talented running backs. Their offensive line’s a veteran group. If you look, four out of the five guys were there last year. They can get you at the point of attack. So, we’ve got to understand formationally what’s happening and then be able to set the edge and build a wall inside, get the ‘backers to going downhill.” What shifts will you have to make without Zachary Carter for the first half? “We’ll just take the guys that are available and play with them. There won’t be any whole-sail changes or anything like that. We’ll continue to play the guys that played in the last game.” Do you feel any added pressure having lost this game the first two years that you’ve been here? “I kind of approach it like I approach every game. Obviously, it is a big game because it’s a conference game, it is Georgia. You understand that. We do a lot of preparation all season as well as this week to play to our best. I don’t have any more pressure on me this week than any other week because I’ve got a pretty high standard of myself and how I want us to play. From that standpoint, it’s all the same, but we do understand that it’s an important game.” What have you learned about how to best use your players? “Well, I think I answered that earlier. No. 1, when you’re able to add a bigger guy that was available, so that gave us the flexibility to move some guys around. The game plan really didn’t change relative to week one to now for the most part, OK. Guys did a great job of understanding the game plan and executing the game plan. The guys that played up front played with an edge, played with a physical presence and were able to stop the run. Anytime you play with a physical presence, you have a chance to hold people to a low number in the run game.” 3-of-15 on third down, which young guys in the secondary contributed? "Yeah, I mean when you talk about it, first of all, I thought Brad Stewart was excellent. You know, he's a guy that has gotten better every week he's played. Rashad Torrence, it kind of goes back to now it was a good thing he played in the Ole Miss game, because he ended up having to play in this game, and he did an excellent job. Look at Tre'Vez [Johnson] came in as a true freshman, understood his leverages, where he needed to be, was really good. You know, when you look at Elam, Elam's a guy that's been a veteran guy for us, you see him taking ownership. And then Jaydon, you know, Jaydon has played for us. You know, he stepped up and executed. And I think the biggest thing there is, the guys did a really good job of understanding the game plan, understanding leverages, understanding exactly where they need to be, and went out and executed the call. And then when their opportunities came to make plays, they did a good job in the backend. And then the other thing with that was we were able to get some pressure with the pass rush, to maybe not necessarily say sack the quarterback, but force some quicker throws that made him a little more inaccurate, throw the ball behind or not where it quite needed to be. So it kind of all works hand in hand, your ability to get pressure on the quarterback and then your ability to have the tight coverage. So they kind of did a good job of working together to execute and get off the field." Who was bringing pressure primarily? "Yeah I think when you looked at that, I mean, obviously Brenton Cox was a guy that was pretty steady. Jeremiah Moon, Zach [Carter] inside, you know, TJ Slaton had a sack in the game which was good, you want to be able to push the pocket. So, those were probably the main guys but as a general rule, I thought our rush was good." You had an edge this time around, something you've been looking for. How did that play in terms of your pride and players being more inspired? "Number one, I'm probably more critical of myself and have more, you know, expectations out of myself than anyone here or anyone out there. So, I expect us to play a certain way. Our players put a lot of work into the performance that they play, and they expect us to have a certain standard. That standard wasn't being met the first few games for whatever reasons. The guys did a good job of taking coaching, understanding what we have to do, and buying into what we were doing. And they did that and we went out and executed, and were able to play to our ability." What is it going to be like for Brenton Cox going back to play UGA with what he’s been through? “You know we talked about that and at the end of the day he’s a guy we’re obviously very happy to have in our program. He’s doing well academically. He’s on track to be able to get his degree from here. He hasn’t played a lot of football and sat out last year basically and didn’t get a spring practice. So, he’s a guy that has developed every week as we went along. It’s a great opportunity for him to be here. What he and I talked about is, ‘you just got to understand that things always happen for a reason and this is the situation you are in. The most important thing is as you play with your effort and your intention and all of that, there’s a certain amount of focus. You have to be able to finish and do your job. You can’t be reckless in your approach. There’s a fine line in being aggressive and physical and not reckless.’ We’ve talked about that when he first got here and I certainly expect him to be a guy that plays to his ability and executes the things he needs to do to be successful.” Back end was tight, what about the performance. “Well, I think that any time you face a team where they play a few gadgets and shots in the game and there weren’t many explosive plays in the game from that standpoint. Anytime you can be hard to run on and not give up explosive plays you are going to have a chance to hold people to a low number and get off the field and do the things you gotta do to beat a good team. So, I thought we did that.” When at full strength in the secondary, will some of the young guys play more or maybe push to start? “I think at the end of the day we’re going to play the best players depending on how they practice and perform. That won’t change. We’ve always been that way. When guys make plays and shown the ability to make plays I think they’ve earned the right to play and have that. So we’ll address that as we go and as we need to.”

Florida Gators Offensive Coordinator Brian Johnson met with local media on Tuesday. He recapped the No. 8 Gators initial redzone issues against the Missouri Tigers, the eventual firepower with Kadarius Toney and what it will take to the defeat the Georgia Bulldogs stout defense. As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full. Curious what dictates not being able to run successfully in the red zone like the other night?  “Yeah,  we’ve got to be better in our red-zone production. Could have called that a couple of times. They were kind of playing the pass early on. So we tried to switch in the second half and got one (can’t hear).. …  and Kadarius had the long run. It was kind of adjusted to what they were doing within the course of the game plan. They had switched up a little bit in the red zone and we were able to make the adjustment on the fly. You’d like to see us get touchdowns on those first two red-zone possessions. We talk so much about the ability to score touchdowns down there is critical if you want to be great offensively. We weren’t able to get that done early in the game, but made a nice adjustment and guys made plays in the second half when we got back down there.” Lamar Traskson had a big game?  “He did. He did a great job. He was everything we needed him to be in terms of his decision making, his willingness to go get first downs. He prepares and he played well. Honestly, we didn’t get off to as clean of a start as we would have liked, but we settled in and started making  some plays and got things rolling.” You were a freshman in ‘04 with Alex Smith, then you coached Dak in 14-15. Is Kyle playing at that level?  “Yeah, he’s playing really, really well. He’s been fairly clean through the first four games. He works his tail off in terms of preparing for the game plan, understanding the looks he’s going to see. He has a very natural feel for the game and understanding coverages, understanding how we’re putting it all together and plays with great anticipation, kind of sees stuff happen before it happens. He’s playing at an extremely high level right now. The challenge is to make sure we’re consistent each and every week and continue to play at a high level.” Is it at that level where you think he deserves to be in the Heisman conversation?  “You know I think obviously that’ll be up for debate but he’s playing as good as anyone right now in college football.” Qualities that maybe he has that those two guys had? I know he’s not quite the runner, but what does he have that Alex and Dak did have?  “Yeah, I think just his overall understanding of how to get ready to play in a game, of really breaking it down and for understanding what you’re getting, understanding leverages of defenses, understanding how teams are trying to take away what you want to do. And then being able to get to a second, third, fourth or fifth read in progression.” I know you don’t like comparisons. I know he’s not Brian Johnson ‘08.  “Not many people are.” On how much it helped Kyle Trask to get equal repetitions in the past, to be in the position he's in now "I think it's absolutely huge how we train the quarterback position in terms of making sure that guys are getting reps in practice. You know, I tell those guys all the time, 'this is the one sport where you practice more than you play,' and I think it's very, very important that guys get a great feel and a great understanding of how to become a great practice player, and have it translate to the game. So, for all three of those guys, when we first got here - the first two years we were here -, between Emory (Jones) Feleipe (Franks) and Kyle (Trask), through that first spring ball, fall camp, the season, second spring ball, fall camp, the season, they were all pretty much even reps in terms of practice reps. Now, obviously Feleipe had played the games, so he had those game reps and the game experience. But, you know, for us, it was really no surprise that Kyle went in and played well because he's always performed really well in practice." On if Kyle Trask is like a gym rat because he's always finding ways to throw the ball around "Yeah, well I think even during the quarantine, he threw it with (Florida Gators softball CF) Jade (Caraway), with his girlfriend Jade, so, yes he loves football. You know, he's a fantastic young man, he's very, very diligent about his preparation, he wants to be a great football player, he has an unbelievable desire, and he's very self-motivated, and I think that's a great quality to have, not only in football but in life, in general. So, Kyle's one of those people, he's going to be successful, regardless of what he does." On facing an elite defense like Georiga, and if players are taught to expect tighter windows, etc, difficulty?  "Yeah, definitely, I think you try to put a plan in place to give your guys a chance to be successful. But, the reality of it is when you play a defense that's full of great players, you know, you're gonna have to make plays. Whether it's breaking tackles, you know, I think the biggest thing is obviously making contested catches, and straining to finish blocks. Because when you play a team that has great players on both sides, it's gonna come down to those details, and this is obviously a huge game and our guys are excited to go out there and get a chance to compete." Have you noticed anything about this rivalry that's different from schools that you've played for or coached? "Yeah, I think just the uniqueness of it, of being in Jacksonville there's something that's obviously a little bit different than some of the rivalries that I've been a part of whether it was Utah-BYU or Mississippi State-Ole Miss. But you know rivalries in college football, and it's definitely a great game to be a part of. We're looking forward to getting to Jacksonville on Saturday.  How good is this Georgia defense? Yeah, they're extremely talented, they're well-coached, they're disciplined. They don't make a lot of mistakes. And like I said earlier, it's going to be about strain and finish blocks, making contested catches, breaking tackles. You know, I think those guys do a fantastic job of having the scheme organized and putting their players in position to be successful. And they have great players as well, so it'll definitely be fun to get out there and compete and a good matchup.  Have you voted? Early, I did it like two weeks ago, so it's good. How does their defense change with injuries? Yeah, I think, you know, look. LeCounte is one of the best defensive players in all of America. Instincts that he plays with, the plays that he makes, he has a great understanding of their schemes. He's played, I think he's a three-year starter, maybe a four-year starter. But he's played a ton of football, and he does a great job. Really, really hoping the best for him. Obviously, you don't want to see anyone get into an accident like that. But they recruit well, so it's not like they won't have anybody that's not talented come out there and go play, so I don't know if it - it won't change the scheme much. I think they're going to do what they do defensively. It'll just be somebody that's younger, and they're probably not as much experienced.  When someone is having a night like KT did, can you give it to "the hot hand" for receivers like you can for running backs? "For sure. I think it's a fine line between, like I always say, we always have certain stuff where we're trying to force the ball into his hands, but the majority of the time it was predicated on the coverage that we were given and the ball's coming his way. So, I think that's the uniqueness of our offense is that we have the ability with all five skill positions that those guys can make a direct impact with the ball in their hands. So, guys kind of made plays all over the field, whether it was Pitts or Kadarius or Cope had a couple big plays and Grimes had some big plays. So,you know, we have some guys that can do some damage once you get the ball in their hands. But yes, if a guy is going off and you have a matchup, I think the one thing you can do is just try to continue to exploit that until the defense stops it. Dan said Georgia defense has answers to questions; is it just about finding the right questions to throw at them? "Yeah, for sure. I think it's a chess match going back and forth. Trying to find, you know, what the best matchup is, how you can exploit certain looks that they provide and I'm sure it's the same, same thing on their end so, you know, like I said they have an excellent system and they recruit great players to go play in that system so you know I think the biggest thing is us going out there and playing at an extremely high level and doing what we do to go win the game.” Each team and season have their own identity but you’ve faced Kirby three years in a row now. What is it about his system that makes it tough on offenses? "I think the biggest thing is you know like is you know with the—you got to make body on body catches and you got to find a way to get first downs. You know first downs are critical. You can't have the, you know, the administrative jump off side penalties and get into first and 15, second and 15. And then you got to, you got to make big plays in long run situations, though, so it's not a, you know, very, very—they're very well coached so it's not like a lot of bust and stuff on defense, where you get guys just screaming free. So you got to find a way to create different matchups and use it to your advantage.” You’ve played in a Holy War, Battle of Brothers, so as a player what goes through your mind in a rivalry week and how do you handle the emotions this week and then funnel that into Saturday? "You know, it's great question. I think for, and a place like here is really unique. It’s the most unique place I've been to in terms of rivalry because you know it feels like you play so many rivalry games throughout the course of the year so you know it's very interesting. Everybody knows that Florida Georgia is a very big game. And you got a chance to put yourself in a position to be, to win the SEC East and get to Atlanta so guys have to be ready to go play, but not, you know they don't have to try to do too much. Put a great plan in for them, go out there and play competent, play fast and let their ability to take over.” What about for you as a player, when you played in those games? "Um, you know as a player, not, not too much I mean because we're so ingrained in our routine in terms of, you know, your preparation getting ready for the week. And then, quite honestly once the ball is kicked off all that stuff goes out the window anyway and you’re focused on what you need to do to go make plays and win the football game so you know from a preparation standpoint, not much change.” Dan said you wanna win the SEC East, the SEC and National Championship. Does it feel like that road has always gone through Jacksonville? "For sure, um, you know you've got two great teams playing against each other. And, you know, it's definitely gonna be a 15 round heavyweight fight, and we got to be, got to be ready to go out there and play, to our standard each and every snap.” Florida’s offense has really struggled against Georgia past couple of years against Georgia. What has gone wrong and what has changed to not let it happen again this year? "I think the big thing is staying on the field, obviously, you gotta be on the field to score points. You got to get first downs. All right, keep the chains moving and once you get down in the red zone you got to make contested type plays in the red zone to come away with seven and not kick field goals. So, you know, we have some great players on offense, and they have great players on defense so we got to do a great job of putting our guys at positions so they can go and make plays on a consistent basis.”

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: There was a time and not all that long ago when Georgia was Florida’s personal whipping boy. Steve Spurrier beat Georgia 11 out of 12 times. Ron Zook was two out of three. Urban Meyer was five for six, but since Meyer departed after the 2010 season the Gators have fallen on hard times. Will Muschamp beat Georgia (his alma mater) only once in 2014. Two weeks later he was fired after losing to South Carolina. Jim McElwain beat Georgia twice (2015-16) but the Gators have lost the last three, two with Dan Mullen at the helm. Since 2011, Georgia has the sixth best record in all of college football at 94-29. Florida is tied for 30th at 73-41. Georgia has won the SEC East the last three years and won the SEC championship and played for the national championship in 2017. The Gators have endured a 4-7 record in McElwain’s exit year of 2017 and while they went 21-5 in Mullen’s first two years on the job, they still haven’t regained the top spot in the SEC East. The perception is that Georgia will win a national championship sometime in the next two or three years. Kirby Smart keeps bringing in these highly regarded recruiting classes that rank right up there with Alabama and Ohio State so it’s assumed that it’s only a matter of when, not if, Georgia takes home the big trophy. Perceptions have a way of changing, however. At the time when Steve Spurrier became Florida’s football coach in 1990, Georgia basically owned the Gators. In the 20 years prior to Spurrier landing the Florida job, Georgia held a 15-5 advantage. Once Spurrier had beaten Georgia three straight, Georgia fans came to Jacksonville every year expecting to lose. They thought they turned the corner when they beat Florida in 1997, but Spurrier closed out his Florida coaching career by winning the last four Georgia games. Ron Zook probably would have beaten Georgia all three years except he was fired on the Monday prior to the Georgia game in 2004. Even with that adversity, Florida still could have won the game (31-24 loss). Meyer was 5-1, losing only in 2007. So here the Gators are, 10 years since Meyer beat Georgia in overtime, 34-31, in his last Florida-Georgia game, and the Gators are struggling to change the perceptions. As long as Georgia keeps beating UF on the field, Georgia will beat the Gators on the recruiting trail as well. For Florida to become a consistent challenger for SEC and national championships, Mullen and the Gators have to start recruiting at the same level as Alabama and Georgia. Until they do, the perception is the Gators might be good, but not good enough. That is why this season’s game with Georgia is so critical. From a pure talent perspective, the perception is Georgia is superior at nearly every position except quarterback (Kyle Trask), tight end (Kyle Pitts) and slot receiver (Kadarius Toney). Those three will be going against a Georgia defense that is injury-depleted so there won’t be a more opportune time for the Gators to score a win and change perceptions. A Florida win Saturday won’t completely change the perception that Georgia’s program is superior. It’s going to take beating Georgia on a consistent basis for that to happen, but it has to start somewhere and this year is as good as any. RUMBLING, STUMBLING, BUMBLING IN THE SEC Some numbers that matter in the SEC #2 ALABAMA (6-0): While all eyes are on Mac Jones who has elbowed his way into the Heisman conversation by throwing for 2,196 yards (12.4 per attempt) and 16 touchdowns in the first six games, running back Najee Harris is making a case to go in the first round of the NFL Draft. He’s carried 124 times for 714 yards (5.76 per carry), which leads the SEC and ranks seventh nationally. He’s scored 14 rushing touchdowns, most in the country. He also has caught 20 passes for 183 yards. As a team, Alabama is averaging 47.2 points and 555.2 yards per game. ARKANSAS (2-3): Arkansas fans will tell you what a difference a quarterback makes. A year ago, five different Arkansas quarterbacks combined to threw 14 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions in 12 games while averaging a pathetic 5.7 yards per attempt. Enter Feleipe Franks, who transferred in from Florida. Through five games, Franks has completed 105-159 passes for 1,213 yards with 11 touchdown passes and just three interceptions. Franks is averaging 7.6 yards per attempt. #24 AUBURN (4-2): Wide receiver Anthony Schwartz is billed as the fastest man in college football (10.15 100 meters) yet the Tigers have problems getting him the football downfield. He did catch a 91-yard touchdown pass from Bo Nix against LSU but his other three catches netted only 123 yards. For the season Schwartz has caught 38 passes for a very pedestrian 11.11 yards per carry and just two touchdowns. #5 GEORGIA (4-1): Since their 24-point first half outburst against Alabama, Georgia has scored all of 14 points in the last six quarters. Some of that has to do with the ineptitude of quarterback Stetson Bennett IV, who has thrown five of his six interceptions over that period. In the las six quarters, Bennett is 15-28 for 223 yards with zero touchdown passes. KENTUCKY (2-4): Kentucky is finding it more and more difficult to get its running game going against eight in the box, which is what the Wildcats are going to keep seeing until they prove they can throw the ball down the field. Currently, quarterbacks Terry Wilson and Joey Gatewood are averaging 5.4 yards per pass attempt, lowest in the SEC. Kentucky’s 118.5 yards per game ranks 97th nationally out of 103 teams that have played a game so far. Since their loss to Ole Miss in game two, the Wildcats have passed for a combined 321 yards in the last four games. To put that in perspective, Florida’s Kyle Trask threw for 345 yards in the Gators 41-17 win over Missouri. LSU (2-3): LSU fans are up in arms with coordinator Bo Pelini’s defense or lack of. Through five games the Tigers are giving up 33.6 points, 143.4 rushing yards and 335.2 passing yards per game. In the three losses, the Tigers have given up 1,329 yards (443 per game), 10.98 yards per attempt and 12 touchdowns. The 143.4 rushing yards allowed per game is a bit deceiving when you consider Mississippi State ran for only nine yards on 16 attempts in the first game of the season. MISSISSIPPI STATE (1-4): Mississippi State’s offense is certainly sputtering (only four touchdowns in the previous four games) but the defense is holding up fairly well despite an offense that can’t sustain drives. MSU is allowing just 336.2 yards per game (21st nationally) and that number is inflated by the 499 Alabama put up last week. Mississippi State is averaging only 348.8 yards per game offensively, which ranks 82nd nationally. MISSOURI (2-3): Despite the 10-game schedule, linebacker Nick Bolton has a legitimate shot at a second straight 100-tackle season. Bolton, who registered 107 tackles in 12 games last season, has 53 through five games in 2020. OLE MISS (2-4): Wide receiver Elijah Moore is on his way to a record setting season even if it’s only for 10 games. With four games to go, Moore has caught 61 passes (10.1 per game) for 829 yards (13.59 per catch) and six touchdowns. The Ole Miss offense is averaging 541 yards and 38 points per game. Ole Miss averages 215.67 yards rushing and 325.3 passing. SOUTH CAROLINA (2-3): The Gamecocks have a budding star in sophomore running back Kevin Harris (93-535 rushing for eight touchdowns). Harris has gone over the 100-yard mark three times with a season best 171 against Vanderbilt. Now if the Gamecocks could only develop a consistent passing game to take the heat off him. TENNESSEE (2-3): Things weren’t supposed to be this bad for the Tennessee offense. With an O-line touted before the season as perhaps best in the SEC and quarterback Jarrett Guarantano working with coordinator Jim Chaney for a second year, the Vols were supposed to be explosive and efficient, none of which has happened so far. Tennessee through five games is averaging 323.8 yards per game, which ranks 88thnationally and 12th in the SEC. Guarantano is averaging only 6.8 yards per pass attempt and has thrown for only six touchdown passes with three picks in five games. #7 TEXAS A&M (4-1): Kellen Mond, who is off to the best start of his career with 1,244 yards and 12 TDPs, continues to take over the record book at Texas A&M. He’s thrown for 8,623 yards and 64 touchdowns, passing Jerrod Johnson and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel in both categories as the all-time leader in school history. VANDERBILT (0-4): The Commodores are one of the worst offensive teams in the country (297.8 yards and 11.8 points per game), but they do have a bright spot in true freshman quarterback Ken Seals. Seals is 79-118 passing (66.9%) for 755 yards with five touchdown passes and six interceptions. His numbers would probably be better if Vandy had some semblance of a running game. The Commodores average just 109 yards per game and 2.95 per carry. TACKLE FOOTBALL PLAYED SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN THE SEC Will 6th-ranked Cincinnati (5-0) cash the College Football Playoff party if the Bearcats finish the season unbeaten? No Group of Five team has ever made the playoff although UCF fans would collectively groan if Cincy made it in with a 11-0 record when the Knights were snubbed in 2017 when they were 13-0 after winning the American Championship. Cincinnati’s biggest obstacle will probably be UCF on November 21 in Orlando. Cincinnati ranks 7th nationally in scoring defense (12 points per game) and 15th in total defense (306.2 yards per game). UCF’s offense averages 45 points and a staggering 652.5 yards per game. The Mid-American Conference (MAC) gets its season started Wednesday night when all 12 teams spring into action. To qualify for a division championship in a seven-game abbreviated schedule, teams must only play three games. The betting line for Saturday night’s #1 Clemson at #4 Notre Dame game has moved a little bit. After starting Sunday night with Clemson favored by seven the line dropped to 5.5 on Monday. Michigan is a shaky 3.5-point favorite to knock off 13th-ranked Indiana on the road Saturday. If the 23rd-ranked Wolverines lose, how big an uproar will there be to fire Jim Harbaugh at the end of the season? PITHY THOUGHTS ON A TUESDAY: Tom Brady threw for 279 yards and two touchdowns Monday night to lead the Tampa Bay Bucs to a 25-23 win over the New York Giants. The Bucs are now 6-2 while Brady’s former team, the New England Patriots, are 2-5. How much do you figure Bill Belichick is missing Brady these days? … And speaking of Belichick, he told a Boston radio audience Monday that the Patriots “have less to work with” this year. Really? … They play the Masters in Augusta next week. I’m glad they’ll play it, but it is going to seem really weird playing in November instead of April.

Take a moment. Look past the obvious of the halftime melee at midfield when it seemed the Missouri Tigers and Florida Gators were about to engage in the kind of brawl that would have made The Four Horsemen from the NWA days proud. The visuals are bad. Both teams pushing and shoving. A few attempted punches although it must be noted the players on both teams did have the good sense to keep their helmets on. An all-out brawl seemed inevitable as coaches from both teams tried to get into the middle to separate the warring factions. For a few moments, it seemed not even the coaches were going to be able to stop this from escalating into the kind of ugly incident that would be a black eye on both programs and their coaches not to mention the entire Southeastern Conference. We tend to forget sometimes that this is a violent game played by huge men who spend untold hours in weight rooms. On game days, their emotions are tightly wound and ready to uncoil. One wrong gesture, one wrong word … and in the case of what happened Saturday, Missouri’s Trajan Jeffcoat launched himself and landed a shoulder just under the chin of Florida quarterback Kyle Trask. The hit was a full second after Trask had launched a Hail Mary pass into the end zone on the very last play of the first half and it should have resulted in no worse than a personal foul but no flag was tossed. Not that a flag would have prevented what happened next. Trask walked away from the hit, fortunately uninjured, but teammates including those on the sideline rushed to the defense their leader. From the sideline, head ball coach Dan Mullen was seen sprinting onto the field where he potentially put himself in harm’s way. Chaos reigned and could have easily escalated beyond the shouting, the shoving, the pushing and a few flailing fists, none of which did any damage. The potential was there for a brawl like we haven’t seen at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, but the slugfest that could have been was brought under control although not without three players (one from Mizzou, two from Florida) being ejected and the officiating crew issuing a collective unsportsmanlike conduct to both teams, which meant any player who was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct in the second half would have been ejected. The near brawl is visually obvious, readily viewable by anyone with a computer or a smart phone. There are three things, however, that aren’t quite as the optics would indicate: (1) This team has Kyle Trask’s back; (2) this team knows Dan Mullen has their back; and (3) perhaps most important, this team found a rallying point that led to a dominant second half on both sides of the ball. Anyone who doubts the impact Kyle Trask has on this team needs only to watch the video replay of the near brawl. Offense, defense, special teams … they all rushed the field. Most of them didn’t get near all the pushing, shoving and acts of bravado, but it was a show of force. If your memory serves you well, you can recall a show of force by Georgia in Jacksonville in 2007 following a touchdown in the first quarter. The entire Georgia bench rushed the field to celebrate. Mark Richt acted like it was an unscripted moment – no one who was there will ever believe that lame excuse – but the effect was to fire up the Georgia crowd and team while demoralizing the Gators. It worked. An inspired Georgia team won the game, 42-30. A week prior to the incident, Georgia fans were in near open rebellion, calling for Richt to be fired. When Georgia did that October day in 2007 wasn’t lost on Urban Meyer and the Gators. A year later Florida had its own show of force in a 49-10 win over Georgia that was part of the Gators’ run to the 2008 national championship. Meyer spent a year reminding the Gators what happened in the 2007 Georgia game. When the time came to take the field in Jacksonville paybacks were hell. The Gators stomped the Bulldogs on the field and in the final minute, just to remind Georgia that he has a very long memory, Meyer called two time outs. It had taken a year, but Georgia’s show of force moment of 2007 was a bonding moment for the Gators who spent a year waiting for their opportunity to deliver their payback message. Florida’s show of force against Missouri Saturday night perhaps didn’t demoralize the Tigers but it certainly brought the Gators together in a way we haven’t seen this season. This was a moment when there was a chain reaction of emotions in the minds of every player wearing those beautiful blue throwback jerseys and helmets. The Gators bonded together as one team with one purpose. In games one through three, the Gators seemed to be disjointed and unemotional, almost as if they were running on talent fumes. Talent will get you only so far in college football. Perhaps no other sport relies so heavily on emotion and if there is no emotional switch to deliver a charge of electricity through an entire team you have problems. The Gators found their emotional mojo Saturday night. That show of support also had the effect of an overload of adrenaline and testosterone rushing through Trask. Watch that first Florida drive of the second half, the one in which Trask does a reasonable Tim Tebow impersonation by taking off for a 26-yard gain and following that up with a 15-yard burst up the middle on fourth and one. The Gators scored on that drive to go up 27-7. The body language on the Missouri sideline told you this game was over and there would be no miracle comeback. On the Florida sideline, the body language was like that of a school of piranhas ready to move in for the kill. Then there was Mullen. Some might suggest that he did what any coach should do, which is run onto the field and do his best to separate his team, but go back to the 2007 incident. If you watch the replay you’ll see Mark Richt and his staff grinning. The 2007 incident was staged and scripted. What Mullen did was instinctive and it sent a message to his team. That was his quarterback who could have been seriously injured by Jeffcoat’s late hit. That was his team that was ready to go toe-to-toe with Mizzou to let them know you don’t do that to our leader, not in our house. The Dan Mullen in the middle of that fray had the look of a coach willing to take on anyone and everyone to defend his guys. In describing what happened post game in an interview with Taylor Davis of the SEC Network Mullen said, “That’s their guy” in describing why his team had rushed the field to protect Trask. Don’t think for a second the Gators didn’t also notice how quickly Mullen ran onto the field to put himself in the middle of a chaotic scene that could have spiraled out of control. When kids know their coach has their back, they’ll take a bullet for him and that’s the message the Gators had for Mullen in the second half. Florida had played well but not great defensively in the first half. Offensively, they showed some rust from the layoff that included a 10-day hiatus from practice. It was a half of peaks and valleys when it seemed to be a two steps forward and one step backward affair. Then came the second half when we saw was the Florida team we’ve been hoping to see since the season began so awkwardly with the scheduling changes, the limited capacity to normally filled stadiums, daily testing for Covid-19 that led to a host of players going into quarantine, the postponement of the LSU game until December 12 and the reshuffling of the schedule so that Missouri would come to Gainesville October 31. There was a fire in the belly that has been missing. Prior to the second half Saturday, you got the sense that the offense was on its own, the defense was on its own and special teams were doing whatever it is special teams do while they wait their moment to get on the field. All that changed in the second half when the Gators looked better than they had all season in every aspect of the game. In the second half, they looked like the team that was expected all along. Trask found receivers. He threw for four touchdown passes for a fourth straight game, bringing to 18 his TDPs through the first four games, which is an SEC record. Kadarius Toney made people look silly whether it was catching the football (4-60, 2 TDs) or running it (3-24, 1 TD). Kyle Pitts did what he does, which is either catch passes for nice gains (5-81) or command such attention that others find themselves wide open. We saw proof of life from receivers Trevon Grimes (3-31, 1 TD) and Jacob Copeland (2-67). The offensive line didn’t give up a sack and opened the holes for a running game that netted 169 yards (4.8 per carry), the best total of the season. Over on the defensive side, Mizzou finished with a misleading 248 yards. Misleading because the Tigers had a 63-yard drive for a field goal and a 75-yard drive for their only offensive touchdown against a unit of mostly freshmen. Lest we forget, the Gators were without 14 players against Missouri including three starters in the secondary, which makes the defensive effort even more remarkable. Missouri averaged only 5.2 yards per pass attempt and 1.7 yards per rush. That’s 206 passing yards and 42 rushing yards allowed. Heading into the game the Gators were giving up 495 yards per game (331 through the air, 164 on the ground). Brenton Cox Jr. finally had the game we’ve been waiting for. He was a force off the edge with three quarterback hurries, a 15-yard tackle for loss when he stayed home to thwart a reverse and he recovered a fumble. Jeremiah Moon, on the other side of Cox, had his best game of the season. Kyree Campbell, playing his first game of the season, and Tedarrell Slaton were beasts in the middle of the D-line. The secondary had some first half hiccups but in the second half they locked down on the Mizzou receivers until late in the game when it was time to put the kids in to finish things out. This was Florida’s first complete game of the season and it came at a time when the Gators needed it in the worst way. Being shut down for two weeks due to the virus on the heels of such a disappointing loss to Texas A&M sowed seeds of doubt that quite frankly heightened in the days leading up to Missouri. Those are seeds of doubt that very well might have continued if not for a second half when there was no doubt the Gators had put it all together. We tend to forget just how much emotions play into football. Take another trip back down memory lane to the 2008 run to the national championship. That couldn’t have happened if not for Tim Tebow’s emotional promise after the loss to Ole Miss. Florida came together as a team, then blew out eight straight opponents. In the SEC Championship Game, the Gators dominated the fourth quarter to hand Alabama its first loss of the season. In the national championship game, once again the Gators dominated in the second half while holding to 14 points an Oklahoma team that had scored 60 or more points five consecutive games. None of that would have happened without a fusion of emotions and attitudes that began with the Tebow promise. Sometimes an emotional moment serves the purpose of grabbing a team by the lapels and shaking them. What we saw Saturday night had just that affect. The players had Trask’s back. Mullen had the team’s back. The team went from playing rusty to playing focused and with intent. Missouri didn’t know what hit them. The real test of the ugly incident against Missouri will be next Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville when the Gators take on 5th-ranked Georgia. The trick for Mullen and his assistants will be to use the emotional outburst of the Missouri game to their advantage, keeping the Gators high but not too high while maintaining their focus and togetherness. The team we saw in the second half against Missouri is one that is completely capable of taking on Georgia and walking away with a signature win that could propel UF to the SEC East title. The optics Saturday were not good but look beyond the obvious. What happened at midfield against Missouri at the end of the first half could prove to be a turning point of the season.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: Funny how quickly perceptions can change. Just a week ago when the Florida Gators were slammed with the Covid-19 virus and Dan Mullen was unsure how many of his key personnel would even be able to play against Missouri, the perception was the annual Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville would be a fairly easy win for Georgia. That was before 5th-ranked Georgia (4-1) got a most uninspiring 14-3 win over Kentucky while suffering a slew of injuries and before the Gators, minus 14 players including three in the secondary and kicker Evan McPherson, put the kibosh on Missouri, 41-17. While Georgia struggled offensively, Florida not only kicked off the rust from inactivity with its offense but found its defense. Now, suddenly, there are doubts about Georgia. The offense was shut out in the second half of that 41-24 blowout loss to Alabama, a game in which perceptions about the invincibility of the Georgia defense were put to rest. Against Kentucky, Georgia struggled to find any offensive consistency. The defense looked good, but it was Kentucky, one of the worst offenses in the entire country so it’s not like the Poodles were challenged. As for the Gators, they found their offensive rhythm in the second quarter against Missouri and then poured it on in the second half. Kyle Trask threw four touchdown passes, his fourth consecutive game with at least four TDPs, which is an SEC record. Missouri was so intent on keeping Kyle Pitts from having a big game that it seemed they forgot all about Kadarius Toney. Big mistake there. The Gators threw it well and they ran better than they have all year. We’ve come to expect that kind of productivity from the offense. It’s the defense that put it all together which is surprising considering the number of starters and backups who were unavailable on that side of the ball. The Gators held Missouri to 248 yards and only 42 on the ground. That’s important because Georgia has issues in the passing game and has to rely on running the football. The game plan will be simple: Stuff the run and put all the pressure on Stetson Bennett IV. A week ago, Georgia probably would have opened up as a 10-12 point favorite. As of Sunday night, Georgia was a shaky 4.5-point favorite. Perceptions have changed. There is every good reason to believe Florida can put a halt to Georgia’s run of three straight SEC East championships. ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 POLL (1) Clemson 7-0; (2) Alabama 6-0; (3) Ohio State 2-0; (4) Notre Dame 6-0; (5) Georgia 4-1; (6) Cincinnati 5-0; (7) Texas A&M 4-1; (8) FLORIDA 3-1; (9) BYU 7-0; (10) Wisconsin 1-0; (11) Miami 5-1; (12) Oregon 0-0; (13) Indiana 2-0; (14) Oklahoma State 4-1; (15) Coastal Carolina 6-0; (16) Marshall 5-0; (17) Iowa State 4-2; (18) SMU 6-1; (19) Oklahoma 4-2; (20) Southern Cal 0-0; (21) Boise State 2-0; (22) Texas 4-2; (23) Michigan 1-1; (24) 4-2; (25) Liberty 6-0 COACHES TOP 25 POLL (1) Clemson 7-0; (2) Alabama 6-0; (3) Ohio State 2-0; (4) Notre Dame 6-0; (5) Georgia 4-1; (6) Cincinnati 5-0; (7) Texas A&M 4-1; (8) FLORIDA 3-1; (9) BYU 7-0; (10) Miami 5-1; (11) Wisconsin 1-0; (12) Oklahoma State 4-1; (13) Indiana 2-0; (14) Oregon 0-0; (15) Marshall 5-0; (16) Coastal Carolina 6-0; (17) Iowa State 4-2; (18) SMU 6-1; (19) Oklahoma 4-2; (20) Southern Cal 0-0; (21) Auburn 4-2; (22) Army 6-1; (23) Boise State 2-0; (24) North Carolina 4-2; (25) Michigan 1-1 RUMBLING, STUMBLING, BUMBLING IN THE SEC #2 ALABAMA (6-0): Devonta Smith torched Mississippi State for 11 catches, 203 yards and four touchdowns and in doing so, tied Chris Doering and Amari Cooper for the most touchdown receptions (31) in Southeastern Conference history. For the season, Smith has 56 catches for 759 yards and eight touchdowns Next week: Open date ARKANSAS (2-3): Although the Razorbacks lost to Texas A&M, 42-31, they had their best offensive game of the season, rushing for 222 yards and passing for 239 while averaging 6.23 yards per snap. Quarterback Feleipe Franks had a solid outing, throwing for 239 yards and three touchdowns without an interception while running for 91 yards on 16 carries. Next week: vs. Tennessee (2-3) AUBURN (4-2): Was Auburn’s 48-11 win over LSU a case of the offense finally figuring out what coordinator Chad Morris wants them to do or that LSU is just that bad? Quarterback Bo Nix, who had his struggles in the first five games, had his best game of the season, hitting 18-24 passes for 300 yards and three touchdowns while running for 81 yards on 11 carries. Auburn’s 506 yards and 48 points represented the best offensive game of the season for the Tigers. Next week: Open date #5 GEORGIA (4-1): Georgia has numerous injuries it will have to deal with this week including wide receiver George Pickens, running back Kenny McIntosh and defensive linemen Julian Rochester and Jordan Davis, but the injury that is the most concerning is safety Richard LeCounte, who suffered several non-life threatening injuries in a motor vehicle accident after the team returned to Athens Saturday night. As of Saturday night, LeCounte will not require surgery but is expected to miss several weeks. Next week: vs. #8 FLORIDA (3-1) in Jacksonville KENTUCKY (2-4): The Wildcats rank dead last in the SEC in total offense, which is difficult when you consider Vanderbilt plays in the league. Nationally the Wildcats rank 92nd out of 103 teams that have strapped on a jock and helmet this year. The UK folks were hoping that Joey Gatewood taking over at QB would open up the offense, but against Georgia he averaged just 3.6 yards per pass attempt. You don’t win SEC football games with that kind of pathetic production in the passing game. The problem at UK might not be the QB, however. It might very well be the play caller, offensive coordinator Eddie Gran. Twitter was alive Sunday with calls for Gran to find gainful employment someplace else. Next week: Open date LSU (2-3): A week ago the SEC Network announcing crew anointed freshman QB TJ Finley as THE guy and suggested Myles Brennan put his name in the NCAA transfer portal. How silly and it just goes to show that the announcers for the SEC Network are hired by ESPN, which insists of having Beth Mowins do the play-by-play of college football games. Finley looked like a lost ball in the tall weeds against Auburn, his second straight start for the injured Brennan. Fortunately for LSU Brennan has a week to heal and get ready for Alabama. Meanwhile, there is that teensy problem with the LSU defense, which made Bo Nix look like the second coming of Joe Montana. LSU is going to struggle to finish 5-5. Next week: Open date MISSISSIPPI STATE (1-4): The Bulldogs’ 41-0 loss to Alabama marked the first time a Mike Leach-coached team has ever been shut out. Since scoring 44 points and six touchdowns in their season opening win over LSU, Mississippi State has scored only four touchdowns and 30 points in the subsequent four games. Their next game against Vanderbilt might be the final game they have a shot at winning this season. Next week: vs. Vanderbilt (0-4) MISSOURI (2-3): A week after Mizzou pounded the ball between the tackles against Kentucky for 220 yards on 62 carries, the Tigers managed just 42 against Florida on 23 attempts. Not only did the Gators stuff Mizzou’s running game, they forced the passing game to dink and dunk away, averaging a mere 5.2 yards per attempt. Next week: Open date OLE MISS (2-4): In their 54-21 win over Vanderbilt, the Rebels got record-setting performances from quarterback Matt Corral and wide receiver Elijah Moore. Corral (31-34 passing for 412 yards) broke Eli Manning’s school record with six touchdown passes. Moore, who caught 14 passes for three touchdowns, broke A.J. Brown’s single game receiving yards record with 238. Next week: Open date SOUTH CAROLINA (2-3): Will the Gamecocks stick with largely immobile Collin Hill at QB or make the move to sophomore Ryan Hilinski, who was last year’s starter as a true freshman? Hill is averaging a very pedestrian 6.9 yards per pass attempt and has thrown only five touchdown passes. He’s been sacked an SEC worst 16 times. Next week: vs. #7 Texas A&M (4-1) TENNESSEE (2-3): The Vols had the week off but that isn’t going to solve any problems. The quarterback is still Jarrett Guarantano, who gets dazed and confused every time he sees a zone defense. He will see plenty of that this week in Fayette Nam. Just ask Matt Corral of Ole Miss how much he loved reading the disguised coverage packages dreamed up by Barry Odom. Next week: at Arkansas (2-3) #7 TEXAS A&M (4-1): The schedule looks favorable for the Aggies to finish 9-1, but they always find a way to blow a game they should have no problems winning. That could be this week when they go to South Carolina, which has a habit of playing substantially better at home than on the road. Next week: at South Carolina (2-3) VANDERBILT (0-4): Vanderbilt had its best offensive game of the season and still lost by 33 points to Ole Miss. The Commodores had 421 yards (319 passing) and scored three touchdowns, both season highs. That output allowed Vandy to move past Kentucky in both the SEC and national rankings. The Commodores are now 13th in the SEC in total offense, 91st in the nation, averaging 297.8 yards per game. The Commodores rank 101st (out of 103 teams) in scoring at 11.8 per game. Next week: at Mississippi State (1-5) TACKLE FOOTBALL PLAYED SOMEWHERE BESIDE THE SEC Wisconsin didn’t play because of the Covid-19 virus and its game against Purdon’t is all but certain to be cancelled, too. Both the first and second team quarterbacks are under quarantine for two more weeks. Amazingly, the AP hd Wisconsin #10 and the Coaches had the Badgers #11. Paul Finebaum on Jim Harbaugh, whose seat is feeling the warmth after his 24.5-point favorite Michigan Wolverines took it on the chin from their country cousins Michigan State: “This is who Jim Harbaugh is. He gets paid $8 million per year. We all act like he’s Nick Saban, but he’s not. He’s a slightly better than average college coach. Anyone who claims he’s an elite coach, that’s just not true at all.” And what do you really think, Paul? Now that Oklahoma State has suffered its first loss of the season (to Texas) there isn’t a single unbeaten team remaining in the Big 12 (Minus Two) Conference. Given the league has never won a College Football Playoff game, not having an unbeaten could keep the league from sending a team to this year’s playoff. The Pac-12 will kick off its season this week. I’m sure all of you have been waiting with bated breath for that to happen. Clemson, which holds a 2-point lead over #2 Alabama in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll, will be without Trevor Lawrence when the Tigers visit 4th-ranked Notre Dame. That means the Tigers will be going for a second straight game with true freshman D.J. Uiagelelei, who led Clemson from 18 points down to a 34-28 win over Boston College, throwing for 342 yards and two touchdowns and running for 25 more and a TD. Clemson is a 7-point favorite to win in South Bend. SOME PITHY THOUGHTS FOR A MONDAY: Former Gator Brian Gay birdied the 18th hole, then nailed a 12-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff to beat Wyndham Clark for the Bermuda Championship on Sunday. Gay finished the tournament at -15 for the fifth win of his PGA career. He picked up a check for $720,000 for winning. If you go up and down the leaderboard there are a lot of people you’ve never heard of. Needless to say, the guys who regularly make the big bucks on tour are getting ready for the Masters instead of playing for a paltry $720,000 first place prize … Billy Tubbs died. He won 609 college basketball games at Lamar, Oklahoma and TCU. His 1988 Oklahoma team lost to Kansas and Danny Manning in the NCAA Championship Game. I remember him for this quote: “This year we plan to run and shoot. Next season we hope to run and score” … Cam Newton needs to chat with his financial advisor and agent to make sure he’s got plenty of money socked away for the future because his days as an NFL quarterback seem numbered. Sunday he fumbled the ball away at the Buffalo 14 yard line with 31 seconds to go as the New England Patriots fell to the Bills 24-21 … Giancarlo Stanton could opt out of his New York Yankees contract, but why? He’s owed $218 million in guaranteed money in a deal that doesn’t expire until 2028. That’s nice work if you can get it.

GAINESVILLE, FL – The only thing missing was someone turning into a werewolf. And had Dan Mullen’s spat with Eliah Drinkwitz been resolved a second later, we might have seen that happen. If Saturday night’s game was a cast iron cauldron, its ingredients would include 15 members of Florida’s roster missing, a sideline-clearing brawl, three touchdowns for Kadarius Toney, four touchdown passes for Kyle Trask and a Florida defense that needs to stay in its Halloween costume for the rest of the year. And by the end of four quarters, all of the oddities brewed together for a 41-17 victory for the No. 10-ranked Florida Gators. As announced prior to kickoff, the Gators were to be without 15 players – one of which was junior place kicker Evan McPherson. In his place, senior Chris Howard would earn his first start of his four-year career – all without ever attempting a field goal for the Gators. And as fate would have it, the Gators would call on Howard to cap off their opening drive. After marching 72 yards down the field, Howard would line up for a 28-yard field goal before splitting the uprights to help the Gators strike first. “I’ve been waiting for four years now,” Howard said of getting his first start. “I was overwhelmed with joy.” Howard would have an opportunity to post 11 points in his debut, with six coming off of field goals and five coming from PATs. “He did a great job, but we have a lot of confidence in him,” Mullen said of Howard. “You have such a great deal with Evan [McPherson], but to have a guy come in and play like him, I’m really proud of his performance.” The Gators offense would require five drives before finding the end zone against Missouri. But once Florida broke the plain the first time, it had no trouble. With under two minutes to play in the second quarter, Kyle Trask found Kadarius Toney on an 18-yard passing touchdown. Thirty-three seconds later, after Missouri’s Tyler Badie fumbled the football at the Tiger 30 yard line, Trask found Toney once again for a touchdown – this one coming from 30 yards out. “One of the things that’s so impressive with him is you know, I think everyone’s used to, watch a playmaker… put the ball in his hand and something crazy is gonna happen,” Mullen said of Toney. “He plays within the scheme, he sets up runs, he sets up blocks. And then he can make special things happen and make you miss great tackles as well.” Carrying a 20-7 lead into the half, in true Dan Mullen fashion, the Gators’ offense took one more shot down field as time expired in the first half. Following the pass, Missouri’s Trajan Jeffcoat administered a late (and malicious looking) hit to Trask, yet all yellow flags seemed to have been residing comfortably in the pockets of the officials. In defense of its quarterback, Florida’s offensive line was quick to engage with the Tigers’ defense. And Dan Mullen wasted no time in joining the scrum. “We were out there trying to get our guys off the field ‘cause it was getting testy,” Mullen said following the win. “Really unfortunate situation. It’s not something we condone, obviously. It’s not something that you really want to see in the game at all.” Getting lost in the center of over 100 Division I football players, Mullen eventually made his way to the outskirts of the brawl, where he and Missouri’s Eliah Drinkwitz continued to go toe to toe before being separated by assistants and authorities. Sure to get the last laugh, before making his way to the locker room, Mullen stood at the tunnel flailing his arms, enticing a rambunctious home crowd. “I mean, I talked about let’s create an exciting environment in The Swamp, with the crowd,” Mullen said. “And I love hearing them be loud and I love hearing them cheer so I was just trying to get them to continue to stick with the game and continue to cheer… and I did that the whole game too.” Once both teams returned to the field, every player on both rosters would have been nabbed with an unsportsmanlike penalty. Meanwhile, Zachary Carter and Antwaun Powell were both ejected for fighting, but should be available in the first half of next week’s game against Georgia. Rightfully juiced, the Gators would come out of the locker room .38 hot and continue to keep their foot on the gas pedal. On the opening drive of the third quarter, Kadarus Toney would cap off an eight-play, 75-yard drive with a 16-yard rushing touchdown, his third of the night. Meanwhile, the Florida defense would allow just 1-yard on the next two Missouri drives. Those two defensive stands in the third quarter represented a small sample size of a much improved defensive unit. “Our defense did an unbelievable job allowing the offense to continue to put pressure on Missouri and eventually pull away,” Mullen said. In Saturday’s win, Todd Grantham’s defense, albeit missing three starters, allowed the Tigers to have just 40 rushing yards. Missouri quarterback Connor Bazelak wasn’t shy about picking on the depleted Gator secondary early, the Gators eventually made proper adjustments and gave up a total of 208 yards through the air. Seniors Brad Stewart and Jeremiah Moon led the defensive stat sheet for the Gators with six tackles a piece, while sophomore Brenton Cox Jr. also had himself a night with five tackles and three quarterback hurries. Offensively, Kyle Trask posted his fourth consecutive four-touchdown pass game, becoming the first quarterback in school history to do so. Trask also broke the league record for most touchdowns thrown through the first four games. He finished 21-for-36 for 345 yards and four TDs. Transfer receiver Justin Shorter earned his first touchdown in the Orange and Blue with a two-yard reception in the third quarter, while Trevon Grimes also added a score with an 18-yard scoring reception in the fourth. With a 41-point performance, the Gators have scored at least 38 points in each of their four games. Meanwhile, the Florida defense posted a season low in terms of points allowed. Mullen, who instead of turning into a werewolf, donned a Darth Vader costume in his postgame meeting with the media, won’t have a week off to prepare for the Georgia Bulldogs. Instead, the Gators (3-1) will get right back to work and hope for a full week of practice following Saturday night’s madness.

GAINESVILLE, FL -- Dan Mullen might be the next SEC coach lobbying for pennies after the SEC takes a look at what ensued just before halftime during Florida's game against the Missouri Tigers on Saturday night. In the final play before the half, the officials seemingly swallowed their whistles after Missouri's Trajan Jeffcoat administered a late hit (and a candidate for targeting) against Florida quarterback Kyle Trask. Mullen, who had already given officials an earful on multiple occasions throughout the night, had seen enough. As had Florida's sideline. In a train wreck-like sight (you can't help but watch), both teams met at the 25-yard line in a sideline-clearing brawl. In the middle of it all? Dan Mullen. While Florida's Zachary Carter and Antwaun Powell, in addition to Missouri's Tre Williams were ejected for fighting, every player on the field was dished a unsportsmanlike penalty. Before all was said and done, Dan Mullen and Eliah Drinkwitz had met nose to nose and were eventually separated by assistants and authorities. The second half of the Gators Halloween slate is bound to be good given the recent drama. GatorBait has reached out to the SEC for confirmation as to if Carter and Powell will have to sit out the first half of next week's game against Georgia.

GAINESVILLE, FL – If Florida Gators’ defensive coordinator Todd Grantham didn’t have his hands full before Saturday nights’ game against Missouri, he certainly will come the Gators’ first defensive outing against the Tigers. As initially reported by Gators Territory’s Zach Alboverdi, the Florida defense will be without three starters from the secondary. Cornerback Marco Wilson, in addition to safeties Shawn Davis and Donovan Stiner, will all be unavailable for Saturday night’s game. In the absence of Davis, freshman Rashaad Torrence II is expected to make his first start. Meanwhile, junior Trey Dean III and sophomore Jaydon Hill are expected to replace Stiner and Wilson, respectively. Further reports indicate that the Gators will be missing a total of eight defensive backs against the Connor Bazelak-led Missouri offense. Bazelak, a redshirt freshman, has thrown for over 200 yards in the Tigers’ last three games – including a 406-yard and four touchdown pass performance against LSU on Oct. 10. Alboverdi later confirmed that Florida placekicker Evan McPherson will also miss the Halloween slate against Missouri. Redshirt junior Chris Howard, who has never kicked a collegiate field goal, will take over kicking duties for McPherson. Running list of Gators unavailable against Missouri: Marco Wilson (R-Jr., CB) Shawn Davis (Sr., FS) Donovan Stiner (Sr., SS) Evan McPherson (Jr., PK) Avery Helm (Fr., DB) Chester Kimbrough (So., DB) Quincy Lenton (R-Sr., DB) Mordecai McDaniel (Fr., DB) C.J. McWilliams (R-Sr., DB) Lacedrick Brunson (R-Jr., LB) Jaelin Humphries (So., DL) T.J. Moore (R-Jr., OL) Austin Perry (R-Jr., ATH) Ethan White (So., OL) Ethan Pouncey (Fr., DB)

The real story of Carlos Alvarez may have died a natural death in the archives, except for a documentary by a fellow Cuban-American. As The Swamp opens back up and Florida footballers resume this fractured season of Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines and Pieces on the Ground*, we are left wondering where we last were, what we were doing and who these guys are playing for Dan Mullen. (*Sorry about the old James Taylor lyrics – they just seemed to fit). Now that they’re finally back, will there be any electricity, or will the high energy have been drained in The Swamp? Will they sizzle or fizzle in this once boisterous arena that rocked the heart and soul with a full house, but is now reduced by over 70,000. How will this team push restart and find the inspiration to fill its tank? My suggestion is that they go backwards before going forward. That is to say, embracing the spirits that abide in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, sort of like “Waking Up The Echoes” of Notre Dame Stadium. But instead of invoking the names of The Four Horsemen (Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden), give us Spurrier and Wuerffel and Tebow – and Carlos Alvarez. Some of you Gator fans still may not know that last name, or perhaps even realize the powerful story of Alvarez, who was the topic this week of the ESPN documentary: The All-American Cuban Comet. Or, maybe you’ve heard of Carlos, but only from the dusty tomb of ancient records. You know – the old guy whose records for career receptions (176) Andre Caldwell broke it in 2007 -- but in 53 games instead of 31. That Cuban guy whose induction into the College Football Hall of Fame was most likely delayed because of his controversial stands on certain issues, like being lied to by his coaches about leaving the team to move upstairs to an office job. The real story of Carlos Alvarez may have almost died a natural death in the archives, except for the brilliant documentary of fellow Cuban-American Gaspar Gonzalez waking up that echo of a 50-year-old story which was possibly nearing an expiration date. Were it not for that masterful piece and recovering of some vintage footage by producer Gonzalez on the SEC Network, the tale of the 10-year-old boy who came to America with his family on a boat in 1950 could have almost faded into oblivion? Carlos Americanized himself through learning a new game called football. His brave father who fled Cuba and, once reaching Key West from Havana, had said to his family, “We’re not going back, so learn to be an American.” Carlos didn’t just learn football, he excelled at it. If you watched All-American Cuban Comet, maybe you were among those hearing the full story for the first time. Like Augie Greiner Jr., son of the former Gator basketball player and Ocala businessman whose orange and blue blood ran deep. Augie Jr. was raised on Gator lore and had heard of Carlos but only in a football context. He watched the documentary Tuesday night and became aware of the backstory, comparing Alvarez to a giant American icon and pioneer. “Just watched the program on Carlos Alvarez,” Greiner texted me. “It was REALLY GOOD. I have to say, I knew about all his football exploits but I had no idea how much he meant to the Cuban American community. He is like their Jackie Robinson. Very cool.” That’s when it occurred me just how long a half-century really is. And why old stories and old farts fade into semi-invisibility. It reminded me of my youth when people kept talking about ghosts like Dale Van Sickle – or for that matter, The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame – and I thought to myself, “Who cares about all those old farts?” And then I became one. Lee McGriff will never forget Carlos Alvarez. The former Gator coach, All-SEC receiver and coach for UF, NFL player and current color analyst for the IMG Gator Radio Network readily confesses: “He was my hero!” It was the summer of 1969 that the diminutive McGriff, only 5-9, 163, found himself working out alongside several Gator players as a high-schooler – including Carlos and quarterback John Reaves, who were about to burst on the scene. They let him take reps, catch passes from Reaves and it was heady stuff. McGriff was a junior looking to find his position, but because of his size didn’t know where he fit. It was Alvarez’s work ethic was that inspired him to get into football and become an All-SEC receiver. “As a young guy, I dreamed of being a wide receiver because that's a place I figured out, since I wasn’t going to be a great big guy, that I might could play,” said McGriff, whose son Travis followed in his footsteps as an All-SEC receiver and member of the 1996 national champions. “And so in a very formative time, as I went into my junior year in high school, there's Carlos Alvarez. Carlos was tough. He was smart. He trained like a Spartan.” And he became a legend and a legacy that has been passed down through the seasons. For many of us, the joy Carlos Alvarez brought to the game and shared with everyone is what stirred our souls. And even his celebrations made joyful noise. He will tell you that it’s a gladness thing from his culture to celebrate the Cuban way. There were those choice cameo moments, none greater than Reaves to Alvarez, 70 yards, touchdown, vs. pre-season No. 1 Houston, on John’s first pass as a Gator, Alvarez’s first touch. Leaving the partisans among the 55,000 at Florida Field – long before it was ever The Swamp – aghast in a Butch Cassidy-Sundance Kid moment … “Who are those guys???” It was the signature echo for the pre-Steve Spurrier-Florida Field era. And it brought great joy to the downtrodden Gator Nation, who only the previous season had watched Georgia beat the bejabbers out of their Gators, 51-0, as a few hard core fans sat in the rain to observe the massacre. Carlos, himself, is a sucker for joy. When fellow Cuban-American Randy Arozarena of the Rays fell down rounding third and got up, escaping a hot-box run-down and diving to home plate, joyfully tapping it for the winning run in Game 4 of the World Series, Carlos came out of his chair. “What was really fun, if you love sports in any way, is seeing the joy when he fell and then scored in the ninth inning and was just tapping home plate,” Alvarez recalled gleefully. “It was pure joy. It was a lovely, lovely moment! That’s what this is all about. I could watch any sport to see that kind of joy. He was totally lost in the moment right there.” In what we storytellers call perfect symmetry, Carlos took us back to a time when another young Cuban athlete celebrated the moment by shimmying up a flagpole on a late November night in the Orange Bowl and beaming a smile that lit up like the Moon Over Miami. While pumping his fist, down below his Gator teammates and the remnants of the one-time proud SuperSophs splish-splashed in the pool where Flipper once resided, all in full football gear except for helmets. Meanwhile, Alvarez surveyed the site of his final football game from his flagpole perch. Incredibly, Carlos had no recollection of being up there – like Arozarena, lost in the tapping – and had to be reminded by the director’s grainy film. The reason Gaspar had that film was that I was there that night in the Orange Bowl, wrote about it and told him. “I just had had no recollection of that,” he said. A moment of joy maybe, but also the requiem for a broken dream. This was more emancipation than stunt. One has to grasp the full measure of despair which gripped these young players who had fallen from Camelot to Catastrophe in the past two years. Those SuperSophs from the autumn of 1969 who posted a school best 9-1-1 season with a bowl victory over SEC Champion Tennessee had endured back-to-back winters of discontent and disappointment. Alvarez suffered a debilitating knee injury in 1970 and could only play, not practice, after being stuck with a big needle to drain it. For the next two seasons Dickey’s teams would go 11-11. In one tiny piece of pseudo-retribution, they were helping their beloved quarterback, John Reaves, break the NCAA career passing yardage record held by Jim Plunkett. It was only one short pass completion of 14 yards away. The problem was that Miami stood in the way. Even though the Hurricanes trailed 45-8, they made no attempt for a comeback, opting for clock-killing runs. After consulting with Coach Doug Dickey on the sideline, they agreed to let the Hurricanes score so Reaves could get the ball back and break the record. Dickey did so reluctantly. Except when the ball was snapped, all the Gator defenders fell to the ground as quarterback John Hornibrook walked uncontested into the end zone. Not good optics in the New York Times photo the next day. But worth it. Finally, once the ball was retrieved, Reaves flung a long-enough pass to his gimp-legged and almost crippled receiver for his 176th and final reception. The record of 7,581 yards only stood for a few seasons but that night it was the emotional equivalent of a gold medal for a comeback story. Now that Carlos has seen himself on that flagpole, yeah, that was a moment of joy to be revered. A lovely moment.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: If the late Al Davis – the one who was sane before he and his mind had a parting of the ways – were still alive and giving the pregame pep talk to the 10th-ranked Florida Gators Saturday he would conclude his remarks by saying, “Just win, Baby!” Just win. That’s all that is important for the Gators this week. They’ve been idle the last couple of weekends, missed 10 days of practice along the way and it’s anybody’s guess how many of the typical two-deep on both sides of the ball will be able to play when Missouri (2-2) comes to town. Just win. Whether it’s a blowout (Gators are favored by 12.5), a down to the wire white knuckler or just a sloppy game that makes you think the game of football was set back to the leather helmets era the only important thing is for Florida to come away with a win. Win and they figure to stay even with Georgia in the loss column in the SEC East standings. Win and the stage is set for a game that could well decide the SEC East title next weekend in Jacksonville when Florida and Georgia tee it up So it doesn’t really matter how the Gators win Saturday, only that they win. Win and they have a week to practice, work out some kinks and get ready for the game they’ve been pointing to since last year. Beat Missouri and then Georgia the following week and the Gators would hold what effectively is a two-game advantage on the Poodles, meaning the. Gators would have to lose twice since they own the tiebreaker over Georgia. The Sayer Says Sooth: Florida’s defense has to stop Missouri from running the football and controlling the clock. When the Gators have the ball, they need to run the ball effectively to keep Mizzou from staying eight deep the whole ball game. This is a game that requires the Gators to get some defensive stops and for Kyle Trask to not only to make good reads but stay patient. If Missouri is dropping eight every play, Trask will have to pick and choose his spots and avoid trying to force the ball into coverage. Trask and Kyle Pitts will be the difference. FLORIDA 35, Missouri 25 SOOTHSAYING IN THE SEC Mississippi State at #2 Alabama (5-0): The excitement that gripped Starkville after that first week shootout win over LSU has been replaced with the anxiety that the only remaining game that Mississippi State might win is against Vanderbilt. The way players are opting out, you’d think MSU is in the midst of a Covid-19 outbreak, but they’re leaving because Mike Leach has urged those who aren’t completely with him to seek gainful playing time elsewhere. That’s not exactly what you want the week you travel to Alabama. While Mississippi State is nosediving, Alabama’s rocket seems to be just getting ready for the second stage to fire. Even without Jaylen Waddle, this is the SEC’s most explosive offense and there might not be a comparable offense anywhere in the country. Mac Jones (1,905 passing yards, 13 yards per pass attempt, 12 TDPs) is heaving it around the ball yard like an All-American and Najee Harris (595 rushing yards, 14 TDs) is playing better than any running back in the country. And don’t forget about Devonta Smith, John Metchie III and Slade Bolden. They will spend much of their time running free as banshees in the MSU secondary Saturday. The Sayer Says Sooth: Alabama is favored by 30.5 points, which might seem like a lot except the Alabama offense has a gear that no one else in the country seems to have. Mississippi State has quarterback issues, not what you need when you know you need to score about seven touchdowns to even have a chance to win. Alabama 56, Mississippi State 14 #5 Georgia (3-1) at Kentucky (2-3): Welcome to the SEC as a starting QB Joey Gatewood. Not only will you get the start for Kentucky, but you get to face the SEC’s top rated defense. It’s a daunting task for Gatewood but the alternative is sore-wristed Terry Wilson, who can’t throw very well even with a healthy wrist, or true freshman Beau Allen. Gatewood’s job is (a) don’t turn the ball over, (b) make enough downfield throws to loosen up the Georgia defense and (c) run the option well enough to open up the UK running game. Kentucky has to throw it better than it has (122 yards per game average) but it can’t win unless the running game is effective. Georgia’s defensive plan is quite simple. Load up the box and dare Gatewood to throw something other than a two-inch pass. The Sayer Says Sooth: The way Kentucky was playing before laying an ostrich-sized egg at Missouri gave the Big Blue Nation hope that the Wildcats could go toe-to-toe with Georgia. The way they played against Mizzou has them asking how long until basketball season begins? Georgia is a 17-point favorite. Kentucky will have to play with its hair on fire to cover the spread. Win? It might take a miracle of parting the Red Sea proportions unless Gatewood can throw the ball down the field. Georgia 33, Kentucky 10 Arkansas (2-2) at #8 Texas A&M (3-1): Even though the Aggies are 12-point favorites, this game seems to be heading in one of two directions – either a Texas A&M blowout or Arkansas scoring a white knuckles win. Although the Aggies are 3-1, they really don’t have an impressive win. Sure, they beat Florida but that had more to do with the Florida defense doing their best AWOL act than the Aggies playing brilliantly. Against Alabama, the Aggies were really bad. Now that’s not to say Arkansas is playing at the same level as Alabama, but the Razorbacks are better than you think. Barry Odom is the kind of coordinator who can dial up a defense capable of creating multiple brain farts by opposing QBs and Kellen Mond’s career has been checkered with several brain fart games. Critical for the Hogs’ chances to win is Feleipe Franks playing steady and turnover free. If he does that, Arkansas could score another unexpected win. The Sayer Says Sooth: Arkansas is the feel good story in the SEC this year and Feleipe Franks is its poster child. The Aggies have the personnel to blow the doors off the Razorbacks, but they haven’t really shown that capability so far. To win Saturday, Arkansas has to make this a back alley knife fight and hope an artery avoids slashing. The thought here is that it’s going to be close. Texas A&M 23, Arkansas 17 LSU (2-2) at Auburn (3-2): Auburn is 3-2 and could just as easily be 1-4. The Auburn fan base is well aware of this and that has everything to do why Saturday’s game with LSU is an absolute, positive must win game for Gus Malzahn. To say Auburn fans aren’t enamored with The Gus Bus is the understatement of the century. For Auburn to score a win over LSU, Bo Nix has to play even better than he did last week against Ole Miss. LSU, meanwhile, is 2-2 but while Gus Malzahn’s seat is blowtorch hot, LSU fans are perfectly content with Coach O. They’re well aware that 32 players from that national championship team last year are gone, 16 of them to the NFL. They’re also aware that LSU is playing a whole bunch of kids, one of whom is freshman TJ Finley, who lit up South Carolina in his first ever college football start last week. If LSU loses, the fans will blame it on having to play a kid at QB instead of Myles Brennan. If Gus Malzahn loses, Auburn fans will be starting Go Fund Me pages to raise the $14 million it will take to buy him out. The Sayer Says Sooth: Auburn is a 3-point home dog which means LSU would be a 10-point favorite if this game were played in Baton Rouge. Neither team has played very good defense this year but Auburn’s has been better and coordinator Kevin Steele can come up with some exotic looks to daze and confuse Finley. It will be up to the LSU folks to keep it simple enough that Finley isn’t fazed. LSU 30, Auburn 24 Ole Miss (1-4) at Vanderbilt (0-3): This has the look of Vandy’s only chance to win a football game this year but to accomplish that the Commodores will have to win a shootout. Ole Miss will score plenty of points, but the Rebels have problems stopping people. Vandy has problems getting first downs, but this is the Ole Miss defense we’re talking about so the Commodores are hoping they can score some touchdowns. What a concept when you consider Vandy is averaging one (count ‘em) touchdowns per game. Ole Miss might be in the process of shifting its offense on the fly to a run-first attack because Matt Corral has been completing too many passes to the other team lately. Whether it’s bombs away in the passing game or pound away in the running game, Ole Miss has better speed and skill people than Vandy has defenders. The Rebels are 16.5-point favorites. The Sayer Says Sooth: Ole Miss fans are still perturbed with an officiating gaffe that might have cost the Rebels a win last week against Auburn. They’ll get over it this week when they take on Vandy, which is making a run at an oh-fer season. The Ole Miss defense will look vastly improved, but that’s only because the Vanderbilt offense redefines ineptitude. The only way the Ole Miss offense will look bad is if Matt Corral is completing passes to the bad guys. Corral will do well and so will the Ole Miss running game. Ole Miss 41, Vanderbilt 17 TACKLE FOOTBALL OUTSIDE THE SEC Trevor Lawrence has tested positive for Covid-19 so he will miss the first start of his Clemson career Saturday against Boston College. Due to the ACC’s virus protocols, Lawrence has to quarantine for 10 days before he can practice again so there is a very real chance he misses the November 7 game at Notre Dame. Also in jeopardy is Lawrence’s Heisman Trophy campaign. With him missing this game and perhaps Notre Dame, it opens the door for Ohio State’s Justin Fields and Alabama’s Mac Jones to step into the frontrunner position. They won’t be playing tackle football at Wisconsin this week and maybe not next week either. Wisconsin’s roadie to Nebraska has already been cancelled and there is a rather good chance next week’s game with Purdon’t will also get the axe since six more Wisconsin players have tested positive. That makes 12 players and six coaches, one of whom is HBC Paul Chryst. The players include both starting QB Graham Mertz and his backup. Under Big Ten Covid-19 protocols, Mertz, the backup QB and the other 10 players who have tested positive will not be able to play for 21 days. The Big Ten’s issues with the virus are currently restricted to Wisconsin but what happens if there are outbreaks at other schools? How will the Big Ten (Plus Four) deal with that since there is no wiggle room? Probably not very well when you think about what the league has done since August. First, the Big Ten (Plus Four) rushed to be the first to cancel the fall football season, fully expecting everyone to follow its lead. The Pac-12 did, but the Pac-12 is led by Larry Scott, who took his commissioner lessons by air mail and the mail was late. The Mountain West canceled and so did the MAC, but the SEC, ACC, Big 12 (Minus Two) American, Conference USA, Fun Belt and some independents elected to play on. When it became obvious the play on leagues were having plenty of fun, the Big Ten (Plus Four) elected to uncancel its season. While patting itself on the back, commish Kevin Warren and the league presidents forgot to add at least one week for makeup games. THE FRIDAY PITHY COMMENTS: The Jacksonville Jaguars might win the rights to the top NFL Draft pick – probably Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields – without going in the tank. QB Gardner Minshew has multiple fractures in the thumb of his throwing hand as well as a strained ligament. His replacement will be Mike Glennon whose career has never gotten out of the tank … With a rather nice contribution from Mookie Betts, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the World Series champs. The Boston Red Sox, who traded Betts to the Dodgers, finished dead last in the AL East. Only three teams in all of baseball were worse than the Red Sox … If you plan on watching golf on TV this weekend, don’t expect to see many pros you recognize at the Bermuda Championship. The first round leader (-8) is someone called Peter Malnati who won a PGA tournament back in 2015. Who would have thought it?

Malik Davis used a chair as his quarterback. Kyle Trask drafted his girlfriend as a receiver. And James Houston set up garbage cans as offensive opponents. These were just a few of the ways players for the No. 10 Florida Gators kept in shape physically and mentally during an unexpected two week break while the program dealt with an outbreak of COVID-19 cases. “We did as much as we could at home, any type of workouts we could within our home,” explains running back Malik Davis. “Just putting the bed to the side and running plays in the house just so you get mental reps…grabbing a chair, using that as my quarterback and just reading off plays and running them from each side.” The backyard reps and in home workouts that ignored every warning from every mother ever not to play ball in the house was a necessary adjustment for the Gators. During the 10-14 day quarantine period after more than 30 players tested positive for COVID-19, position groups weren’t allowed to congregate. Every football activity, i.e. meeting and film study, had to be done virtually. In person practice was cancelled until this week. In normal times, even during an offseason when the facility might be closed, players can still gather together on the practice field or get into the indoor field and go over reps and plays. But stuck in quarantine, they found new ways. That commitment is what makes linebacker James Houston IV believe the Gators will return to the field ready to face the Missouri Tigers on Saturday. “What you do in your off time,” Houston asked of his teammates. “What you did for those two weeks? Were you in the house, sitting on the couch, eating chips and watching TV, or were you working on your craft and getting better and improving every day. There’s a quote I live by: you’re either getting better or worse. I don’t like worse, so I chose to get better. “You just got to kind of be creative. I set up pads, I put chairs in the way, I had little balls on top of garbage cans to try to help work my hands. It’s a lot you have to be creative if you’re really interested in your craft and want to get better, you’re going to find a way.” Still, it made it all the more sweeter when the majority of players and coaches were able to return to the practice field this week. After two weeks of being “cooped up,” Trask felt a palpable energy as the Gators reconvened to prepare for a Homecoming date with Missouri. “It was really exciting…we’ve got all this energy built up just to get out there and just have a practice with our teammates. There was a lot of energy in the air and it was very exciting. Finally get back, pretty exciting.” There’s the elephant in the room however…or the Aggie, for lack of a better term. Florida is coming off a shocking loss. A 41-38 stunner against the Texas A&M Aggies, a heartbreaking defeat due to a made field goal as time expired. For the past two weeks, the Gators have been forced to sit at home, sequestered off from each other, and contemplate how they—a decent pick for the College Football Playoff field—squandered away an incredible offensive performance and lost a game in which they were favored by a score. For two weeks, they didn’t have an opportunity to put the game behind them or make up for the loss or give anyone a reason to think it was a fluke. "I think it's just how you look at it,” offers Trask however, on the two week bye coming after a loss. “Obviously it's frustrating after a loss. You want to get back out there and get a victory. But on the other hand it gives you time to reflect on what you did wrong and what you can do better going into your next game. That's what we did, like I said, we treated it like a bye week after obviously watching the film from A&M, picking apart what we could get better on and just trying to improve from there on out.” On defense, that will be greatly helped with the return of defensive lineman Kyree Campbell. After missing the first three games, the interior lineman appeared on the depth chart this week and on Monday he tweeted, “It’s good to be back.” Says Houston of Campbell’s return, “He’s a two-year starter and almost the core of the defense. We definitely depended on him. We definitely were waiting and wanting him back as soon as possible. It should be interesting to see him in there next game.” With Campbell back at defensive tackle, Zach Carter—who bulked up and had been playing at the spot—should be able to move back outside to his more natural position at defensive end. Whatever will happen on what has been a porous defense though must come together quickly. The Gators finished their four day re-acclimation period after quarantine and were able to fit in a shortened week of practice, but one with at least a few days of full drills and reps. Now the second half of their season kicks off. It’ll be seven straight weeks of games—eight if it includes the SEC Championship on December 19—and a grind. That’s the part Kyle Trask says he and the Florida Gators are looking forward to most. “I kind of like it honestly. There’s no bye week, so you’re in a straight grind, your routine every single week. So I mean, like I said, I like it because there’s going to be no times where we kind of step away. We’re going to be having our foot on the gas pedal every single week, which I think is going to make us play at our highest level and just continue to take that next step each and every week.” That next step begins this Saturday against Missouri and continues next week THE showdown: Georgia. The two divisional games can save a season and a reputation for the Florida Gators. Now with a primetime kickoff set for Saturday night against the Tigers, Dan Mullen’s squad has an opportunity to remind everyone they’re still in the Top 10 for a reason and they were picked to win the SEC East for a reason. But doing so, explains Davis, will mean not trying to make up for two weeks of bad press then no press. Instead the best way to bounce back is stay the course. "We've just got to come out there and play our game. You know, we don't have to come out there and do anything spectacular. We practice every day, we know what to do. We just need to go out there and execute the plan.” Adds Houston, "SEC East, it’s going to be a matchup. It’s an SEC schedule the whole year so we’ve got to come to play every game. Every game, we’re putting on film our resume. We’re showing what we got. We’re proving to the college football people, everybody around the country what the Florida Gators and what we’re coming with. "Yeah, these next two games, I know everybody on the team is probably itching to play, itching to hit, itching to do everything and prove themselves because we just came off a loss. We’re itching to prove ourselves that we’re still the same Florida Gators. We’re coming for the National Championship. We’re coming for the SEC championship.”