Florida football: Gators run wild on Florida State Saturday night

Florida football threw the ball all over the place Saturday night against Florida State. Literally. The Gators secured a 10-win season by blasting their in-state rival.

A 23-point second quarter provided the distance Florida football needed to run roughshod over Florida State Saturday night in Gainesville.

The Gator offense toyed with the Seminole secondary to the tune of nearly 400 yards passing while the Florida football defense never really allowed Florida State to build any kind of momentum in a 40-17 blowout win.

It is the first time the Gators have beaten Miami and Florida State in the same season since 2008 and head coach Dan Mullen becomes the first coach in Florida football history to win 10 games in each of his first two seasons as head coach.

And, he did it on the back of Kyle Trask‘s arm passing to 10 different receivers as Florida State’s secondary had no answer for the Gators’ passing game.

Big credit to that passing game has to go to the oft-suspect Florida offensive line.

That line gave Trask and Emory Jones plenty of time in the pocket to pick out each of the 10 receivers who caught a pass against the Seminoles — Kadarius Toney, Freddie Swain, Van Jefferson, Kyle Pitts, Tyrie Cleveland, Lamical Perine, Josh Hammond, Lucas Krull, Trevon Grimes and Jacob Copeland.

Trask finished the game with more than 300 yards passing for the third time this season. His 343 yards were just shy of his all-time high (363 yards against Vanderbilt). He had a quarterback rating of 167.6 for the night.

Backup quarterback Emory Jones also got in on the action, going 5-for-6 for 47 yards and a touchdown.

Seniors Swain and Jefferson each caught two touchdowns in their final game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

For their part, the Florida football defense did give up more than 100 yards rushing to running back Cam Akers, but 50 of those yards were on a draw play that turned into a touchdown in the third quarter.

The defense also came up with eight sacks on Florida State quarterbacks — most of which coming on Seminole starting quarterback James Blackman.

Senior lineman Jonathan Greenard had three of those sacks while James Houston IV added 1.5 and Zachary Carter added a sack.

The Gators dominated from start to finish Saturday night, scoring on their first three possessions of the game. Trask hit Swain on two of the first three scores of the game as Dameon Pierce added the third on a 1-yard run early in the second quarter.

After Florida football scored 23 points in the second to hold a 30-7 halftime lead, they seemingly picked up where they left off after the break.

After Florida State got a field goal early, Jones took control and capped a long drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Jefferson.

In addition to their eight sacks, the Florida football defense help Blackman to just 150 yards passing on 14-for-23 passing. Ventrell Miller had eight total tackles, including one solo tackle for a loss.

The defense also held Florida State’s third-down conversion in check as the Seminoles went just 5-for14 on third down. But, the Seminoles did their fair share of shooting themselves in the foot as they were penalized 13 times for 97 yards.

Evan McPherson closed out the game with a 21-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to move the Gators to 10-2 overall.

Now, No. 8 Florida football will wait to find out what bowl game they will be invited to. Florida State, on the other hand, will likely start to ramp up their search for a head coach.