Florida football: Gators rebound, blast past Vanderbilt

Florida football moved at a Gators’ Pace in the first half but reversed the course in the second en route to a thrashing of Vanderbilt Saturday.

It might have been been a slow first half for Florida football, but the Gators made up for it in the second.

After the defense held Vanderbilt to another three-and-out, quarterback Kyle Trask connected with Trevon Grimes on the Gators’ first play from scrimmage for a 66-yard touchdown, putting the Gators up 21-0.

It was pretty much cruise control from there on as No. 10 Florida football manhandled the Commodores, 56-0 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Saturday afternoon.

While there were big plays for the Gators on offense, it was the Florida football defense that stole the show.

In the first half, the Gators held Vanderbilt to just 18 yards of total offense. Commodores’ third-string quarterback Deuce Wallace was sacked four times in the first half and was sacked again on Vanderbilt’s first drive in the second half.

In case you missed it, here is Grimes’ touchdown catch:

Florida football needed just two more plays to add to the lead. Trask first hit Tyree Cleveland for 36 yards and completed the 2-play drive with a 15-yard touchdown strike to tight end Kyle Pitts, giving Florida a 28-0 lead in the third quarter.

The Florida football defense got theirs by way of true freshman Mohamoud Diabate’s third sack of the game — sixth overall for Florida in the game at that point — which caused a fumble that Jonathan Greenard scooped up and ran back 80 yards for a touchdown, putting the Gators up 35-0.

Even backup quarterback Emory Jones got into the action, capping a 5-play, 79-yard drive with a 13-yard touchdown to put Florida up 42-0.

In the third quarter, Florida scored 28 points on just nine plays. Those nine plays covered 216 yards — not counting the fumble recovery of 80 yards. That’s an average of 24 yards per play for Florida football.

For his efforts, Trask had 363 yards on 25-for-37 passing with three passing and one rushing touchdown. He did have two interceptions, but it was the best performance for a Florida football quarterback since 2010 when Tim Tebow threw for 482 yards against Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl.

Emory Jones added his third rushing touchdown with under two minutes in the game.

Florida football struggled to start the game, going three and out on their first possession of the game.

After the defense held the Commodores to just two yards and forced them to punt, the Gators began clicking on their second possession.

Trask hit Pitts, Jacob Copeland and had rushes from Kadarius Toney and Lamical Perine to drive the ball from the 11 to Vanderbilt’s 25 until Trask made his first mistake of the game.

A pass over the middle intended for Pitts was picked off by Tae Daley at the Vandy 12-yard-line, ending the strong drive for Florida football in the first quarter.

Diabate earned the Gators some redemption by sacking Deuce Wallace 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage to halt Vanderbilt on third down for the second straight drive.

One thing Dan Mullen did more of in the first quarter was to utilize Jones at quarterback.

Jones came in as Florida football marched into Vanderbilt territory on the first drive and pushed them to the Vanderbilt 30 on the third drive before giving way to Trask on third down — which Trask converted with a quarterback sneak.

On the first play of the second quarter, facing fourth and goal, Trask completed a flip pass to Perine from 1 yard out for a touchdown to put Florida football up 7-0.

The pass came after Trask appeared to be stepped on by lineman Richard Gouraige, but heck, we’ll take it as it marked the first time Florida held a lead in the first half in three games.

It also capped a 15-play, 82-yard play as the Gators ate 5 minutes, 18 seconds off the clock.

On the Commodores’ subsequent possession, the Florida football defense sacked Wallace then, to plays later, Donovan Stiner picked up his third interception of the year and put the Gators at the Vanderbilt 22. It was also the first turnover for Florida football since their win over Auburn

Trask made Vanderbilt pay for the error after he ran in for a touchdown from nine yards out untouched.

Florida tried to add more points in before halftime, but Trask tried to find Van Jefferson in the end zone, but Daley picked off Trask as Jefferson was tied up with Cam Watkins in the end zone.

But, it was the defense that owned the show in the first half, holding the Commodores to just 18 yards of total offense and sacking Wallace three times — twice by Diabate.

While Florida football had 277 yards of total offense in the first half, they only had 14 points.

Now, Florida football prepares to travel to Columbia, Missouri to face the Tigers next Saturday afternoon.