Hail Florida Hail
Fansided

Florida football: 3 overreactions from Saturday’s win over Vandy

By Matthew Clark

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 09: Donovan Stiner #13 of the Florida Gators makes an interception against Kalija Lipscomb #16 of the Vanderbilt Commodores during the game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on November 09, 2019 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 09: Donovan Stiner #13 of the Florida Gators makes an interception against Kalija Lipscomb #16 of the Vanderbilt Commodores during the game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on November 09, 2019 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 3
Next

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of Florida football completely dismantling Vanderbilt Saturday, but not so fast (yes, I stole that from Corso).

Getting excited about Florida football wasn’t too hard, especially in the second half of its 56-0 pasting of Vanderbilt Saturday.

But, don’t go get your tickets to the SEC championship game because there were still a lot of issues in this game the Gators have to overcome.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a good win. Florida football needed to rebound after the tough rivalry loss to Georgia the week before.

Plus, they needed some momentum heading into this weekend’s game at Columbia, Missouri, where no one likes to play — in some cases, not even Missouri.

By the way, just to put things in scope, it is in the 20s with a chance for snow in Columbia today. In Gainesville? Well, it’s 79 and sunny today, but pesky rain later in the week.

I just thought I would drop that in for no really good reason.

Nonetheless, here are three overreactions from Saturday’s win by Florida football and whether you should buy into them or sell them.

1. The rushing game is back for Florida

The evidence: As a team, the Gators rushed for 150 yards on 29 carries and got four touchdowns.

That’s an average of 5.2 yards per game — arguably one of their best performances of the season.

Interestingly enough, the joystick-like maneuvering of Kadarius Toney helped earn him a team-high 39 yards on just two carries — including the 26-yard gain I just referenced.

Even quarterback Kyle Trask found positive yardage, picking up a net 25 yards on seven carries — it’s been rare because Trask just now learned he had feet he could use on offense.

Emory Jones added 34 yards and three touchdowns for his efforts.

So, you would think this could be the turning point that gets the rushing game for Florida football back on its feet (yup, poor pun).

Buy or sell: Yeah, you have to sell this.

The fact that the Gators spread the ball around isn’t indicative of anything outside of the fact that Vanderbilt’s defense is terrible.

Lamical Perine managed just 13 net yards on four carries and no one has more than Trask’s seven carries for the game.

So, while Toney was exciting to see the two times he touched the ball, the running game for Florida football is far from being back.

Home/Florida Gators Football