Florida Gators

The SEC league office has announced its top performers for Week 3:

SEC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Jeff Driskel, QB, Florida: Driskel completed 14 of 20 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 81 yards in Florida’s 37-20 win at Tennessee. He accounted for 300 of Florida’s 555 total offensive yards, the most for the Gators in an SEC game since 2001.

SEC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Kenronte Walker, S, Missouri: Walker made two plays at the goal line late in the game to preserve Missouri’s 24-20 win over Arizona State. With 3:36 left in the 4th quarter and on a 4th-and-goal for Arizona State at the MU 3-yard line, Walker deflected a Sun Devil pass to stop a potential ASU scoring drive. On its next defensive stand, with 1:58 left in the game, Walker intercepted a Sun Devil pass on a 3rd-and-9 play at the MU 20-yard line, and returned it 49 yards to seal the Tiger victory.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida running back Mike Gillislee has apparently completely recovered from the groin strain he suffered against Texas A&M in just a week.

Gillislee rushed for 115 yards on 18 carries in the Gators' 37-20 victory over Tennessee on Saturday, and UF coach Will Muschamp said Gillislee told him he felt better after the game than he did before. Gillislee, who leads the SEC in rushing (346 yards), was examined Sunday and will participate fully in practice today as the No. 14-ranked Gators (3-0, 2-0 SEC) begin preparations for Saturday's home game against Kentucky (1-2, 0-0).

"We'll see him work today, but based on the injury report that (trainer) Anthony (Pass) gave me yesterday, he's going to take every rep in practice," Muschamp said. "We think he's ready."

In other injury news:

• Muschamp said right tackle Chaz Green (ankle) is probable for Saturday. Muschamp said he held Green out against Tennessee but that Green could have played had the Gators been short-handed along the offensive line.
• Muschamp said defensive tackle Dominique Easley is day-to-day with swelling in his left knee. Easley went down late in the Gators' game against the Volunteers and Muschamp said after the game that Easley is fine.
• Linebacker Jelani Jenkins (hand) and defensive back Cody Riggs (foot) will miss a second consecutive game. Muschamp said last week both will be out a month.

Driskel gets award

Quarterback Jeff Driskel was named the SEC's Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against Tennessee. The sophomore threw for a career-high 219 yards (14-for-20) and rushed for a career-high 81 yards.

"It’s a great honor," Driskel said. "All kinds of great players out there putting all kinds of crazy numbers up. It’s cool to get that honor, but I wouldn’t have had any numbers like that if Frankie (Hammond) hadn’t taken a little hitch 75 yards or the offensive line creating holes all over the place."

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- No. 14 Florida returns to Florida Field for the first time since the season opener on Saturday against Kentucky. Here’s a look at the Wildcats:

KENTUCKY

Record: 1-2 (0-0 SEC)

Coach: Joker Phillips, third season (12-16)

Series record: Florida leads 44-17

Top players: QB Maxwell Smith (102-149-4, 966 yards, 8 TDs); WR La’Rod King (23 catches, 214 yards, 2 TDs); LB Avery Williamson (33 tackles, 1 INT); S Martavius Neloms (21 tackles, 2 forced fumbles)

Scouting the offense: Smith has had a solid start to the season and he has to put up good numbers because the Wildcats are going to have to win games with their offense. RB Raymond Sanders has carried the ball only 16 times in two games but has 153 yards (9.6 per carry). King and WR Aaron Boyd (18 catches, 168 yards) are UK's playmakers and are both averaging better than 9.0 yards per catch.

Scouting the defense: The Wildcats are really struggling here, giving up 399.3 total yards per game and 188.0 yards per game rushing. UK gave up more than 400 yards to its first two opponents (Louisville and Kent State). Only two teams (Arkansas and Ole Miss) have given up more touchdowns than the Wildcats (10).

Three keys to victory:

1. UF has beaten Kentucky 25 consecutive times and the Wildcats haven’t won a game in Gainesville since 1979. It’s the longest current winning streak in FBS by a team over a major opponent in an uninterrupted series. The streak isn’t a big deal for UF’s players, but it is for Kentucky’s. Does that become a distraction during the week?

2. Kentucky’s struggling defense needs to make some big plays. UF has scored more than 40 points 15 times during the winning streak, including six of the past seven years. The Gators ran for 405 yards last season against a more experienced defense than the one coming into the Swamp this year.

3. The one thing the Wildcats are doing moderately well on defense is rushing the passer. They have eight sacks in three games. Texas A&M and Tennessee were unable to rattle UF QB Jeff Driskel, but the Wildcats are going to have to do that to win for the first time at Florida Field since 1979.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Trey Burton had been relatively quiet this season -- that is until last Saturday.

The junior running back/tight end accounted for 129 yards of total offense and two touchdowns in Florida’s 37-20 victory over Tennessee. It was the most impact he’s had on a game since his six-touchdown game against Kentucky as a freshman in 2010.

While it’s unrealistic to expect Burton to have another game like the one he did against the Wildcats or like he did against the Vols, the Gators (3-0, 2-0 SEC) certainly need Burton to become a bigger part of the Gators’ offense the rest of the season.

"He’s a good player," UF coach Will Muschamp said. "He can do a lot of things."

The 6-foot-3, 228-pound Burton had touchdown runs of 14 and 80 yards out of the wildcat formation and also caught a 32-yard pass from Jeff Driskel to set up a field goal. Burton had just 1 yard on two carries and four catches for 28 yards in UF’s first two games.

His 14-yard TD run in the first quarter was his first touchdown since the Gators’ victory over Kentucky on Sept. 24, 2011.

Florida plays host to the Wildcats this week -- the Gators have won 25 consecutive games in the series -- and then has a bye week before playing LSU, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Georgia in October. Burton didn’t do much last October in the Gators’ gauntlet of Alabama, LSU, Auburn and Georgia: nine carries for 8 yards, eight catches for 51 yards.

If the Gators are going to fare better this October, they’re going to need to be better offensively. The offense is evolving as Driskel gets more and more comfortable, and having someone who is as experienced and smart as Burton helps. It’s also a benefit that he can line up pretty much everywhere on offense, which makes him a problem for defenses when it comes to game planning.

"He’s able to carry it and slip out of the backfield [as a receiver]," Muschamp said. "He’s a guy that’s hard for defensive coaches to count what he is. We said as a defensive staff when we played our offensive staff in the spring, 'What do you think about Trey Burton?' I have to ask [offensive coordinator] Brent [Pease], 'How are we going to use him today [so he can try and defend him in practice]?'

"They [opponents] don’t have that luxury."

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Florida coach Will Muschamp, who played at Georgia and worked as defensive coordinator at LSU and Auburn before replacing Urban Meyer as the Gators' coach, knows a thing or two about playing and coaching in the SEC.

And after the Gators went 7-6 in his first season as a head coach in 2011, Muschamp knew his program needed an attitude adjustment.

"I do know a little bit about this league," Muschamp said Saturday night. "You can't win in this league if you can't run the football."

Tell that to Tennessee.

The No. 18 Gators ran for 336 yards, including 250 in the second half, to run away with a 37-20 victory over the No. 23 Volunteers in front of a sold-out crowd of 102,455 fans at Neyland Stadium. It was Florida's eighth consecutive victory over the Volunteers and 16th in their last 21 meetings.

For Mark Schlabach's full column, click here.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Good thing the Knoxville Police Department put out that warning earlier in the week about fans rushing the field at Neyland Stadium.

The next time, somebody might want to instead put out a warning about expecting a different ending to a movie we’ve all seen over and over again for much of the last decade.

In this case, it’s eight years and counting.

That’s how many times Florida has beaten Tennessee in a row after the latest flop on Rocky Top, a 37-20 romp by the Gators on Saturday night that spoiled what the Vols had hoped would be their breakout party.

The buildup was as loud as Tennessee’s shade of orange.

ESPN’s “College GameDay” was in the house. The Vols were ranked nationally for the first time since the beginning of the 2008 season, and Tennessee defensive end Darrington Sentimore even went semi-Joe Namath on us earlier in the week when he said, “I think people want to wait and see how we do against Florida, but I’m here to tell them that we’re going to beat them.”

For a while, it looked like Sentimore might be a prophet and that the Vols would make the splash they were looking for on this big stage.

But a 20-13 Tennessee lead midway through the third quarter turned into one big Gator-chomping party. Florida reeled off 24 unanswered points to rudely remind the Vols of their place in this rivalry, which really hasn’t been much of a rivalry at all for a long time.

Since the SEC’s divisional split in 1992, Florida has won 16 of the 21 meetings between the schools.

“They’re front-runners. They talk a lot,” Florida running back Trey Burton said of the Vols. “As soon as we got up, their fans started leaving. It’s a big win for us.”

Indeed, the anticipated rush of the field became a rush of the aisles, as frustrated Tennessee fans scurried to the exits.

Afterward, the Vols’ coaches and players sounded equally frustrated. They talked about crumbling under the pressure, not responding to adversity, not making the proper checks on defense and being confused at times by what the Gators were doing on offense.

“Once you get in the heat of battle and once adversity hits, you’ve got to respond to adversity and not crunch under adversity, and that’s what we did,” Tennessee linebacker Herman Lathers lamented.

The Vols’ defense was torched for 555 total yards, including 336 rushing. Burton’s 80-yard touchdown run out of the Wildcat package tied the game at 20-20. Then came a three-play, 70-yard drive by the Gators with Jordan Reed catching a 23-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Driskel.

The Gators’ third touchdown in the decisive spree was Frankie Hammond gathering in a short toss when the Vols came on a corner blitz and then sprinting through the Tennessee secondary for a 75-yard touchdown.

“You can’t give up those in this league and expect to win the football game. You just can’t,” said Derek Dooley, who dropped to 0-11 against nationally ranked teams as Tennessee’s coach.

The truth is that the Vols didn’t do much of anything it takes to win in this league.

Getting gashed for 336 rushing yards is one thing. But the Vols looked slow in trying to recover when they were out of position, and there were more than a few orange-shirted players with their hands hanging for much of the fourth quarter.

“We’ve got to go to work on that and keep guys motivated for 60 minutes,” Tennessee cornerback Prentiss Waggner said.

It wasn’t all on the Tennessee defense, either.

The Vols melted on offense after Florida tied the game at 20-20. They managed just five total yards in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Tyler Bray, who threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first half, was 1-of-10 in the fourth quarter and wasn’t helped much by his two star receivers.

Cordarrelle Patterson couldn’t pull in a deep pass down the left sideline that might have been a touchdown, and Justin Hunter dropped one over the middle on the next possession that would have been a first down.

“It looked like we lost a little juice at the end, on both sides,” Dooley said. “When the ball broke out, it looked like we were lumbering on both sides.”

The Vols also seemed to panic in the play-calling department. They had 67 rushing yards at the half, but forgot about trying to run the football in the second half. In fact, after Florida tied the game at 20-20, Tennessee threw the ball on 11 of its next 13 plays.

“We weren’t responding well,” said Bray, whose intentional grounding penalty after the Vols snuffed out a Florida fake punt in the third quarter was when the game turned in the Gators’ favor.

“We knew that we were going to be the ones that stopped us. We just fell apart.”

Dooley did his best to emphasize that it was just one game. But this was more than just one game for the Vols, who get Akron at home next week before starting a grueling stretch that includes away games at No. 7 Georgia, Mississippi State and No. 9 South Carolina and a home game with No. 1 Alabama.

Nope, this was a chance for Tennessee to make some real noise with the rest of the country watching and serve notice that the Vols were at least on their way back.

The only thing they’re back to is the proverbial drawing board, and Dooley didn’t sound like he had a lot of answers.

“We felt like we were equipped to go toe-to-toe with them for four quarters,” Dooley said. “There’s no excuses. We didn’t get it done and give Florida the credit. They did what they needed to do. I don’t know what else to say.”

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The big play is back in Florida's offense, and it was one of the main reasons the Gators beat Tennessee 37-20 in Neyland Stadium on Saturday night.

The Gators had nine rushes or passes of at least 20 yards, which is one more than they had in their first two weeks combined. Three of them resulted in points: Trey Burton ran 80 yards for a touchdown, Frankie Hammond had a 75-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown, and Jordan Reed had a 23-yard touchdown catch.

In addition, Mike Gillislee had runs of 45 and 33 yards.

"You can't give up those plays in this league and expect to win the game," UT coach Derek Dooley said. "You just can't."

But the Vols did, and at critical times, too. The Gators were trailing 20-13 in the third quarter and had just failed on a fake punt to give the Vols the ball at the UF 47. Florida's defense forced a three-and-out, and the Gators got the ball back on their own 20. Burton took a wildcat snap, faked a jet sweep, and ran off right tackle, cut to the sideline, and out-raced UT's secondary into the end zone to tie the game.

"I knew he was fast but I didn’t know he had that kind of speed," UF QB Jeff Driskel said.

UF intercepted a Tyler Bray pass to stop UT's next drive, and Gillislee started the possession off with a 45-yard run. Two plays later, Driskel hit Reed for the go-ahead touchdown.

"It was very deflating," UT nose guard Daniel McCullers said. "When you do so good and then you lose a block and they run right past you (it's frustrating)."

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- So much for Mike Gillislee's bad groin.

Florida's senior running back rushed for 115 yards on 18 carries in the Gators' 37-20 victory over Tennessee at Neyland Stadium on Saturday night. Gillislee had strained his groin during UF's victory at Texas A&M last week, and while he did practice every day this past week, there were some question about how effective he would be.

But Gillislee showed no signs of the injury -- other than walking off the field with a slight limp after a run in the fourth quarter. He ripped off a 45-yard run and a 33-yard run in the second half and finished the night averaging 6.4 yards per carry.

"That's just Old Man River," UF coach Will Muschamp said. "He just keeps going."

Muschamp said on College GameDay that Gillislee was going to get 20 carries against the Vols. However, it looked for a moment that he was trying to mislead the Vols because freshman Matt Jones started the game. But that was only because Jones had practiced the reverse the Gators tried to run on their first play.

Gillislee was on the field for UF's second possession.

Gillislee continues to lead the SEC in rushing (346 yards) and he is averaging 6.2 yards per carry.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- No. 18 Florida came out of its 37-20 victory over No. 23 Tennessee relatively healthy.

DT Dominique Easley was helped off the field during the fourth quarter with what appeared to be a left knee injury. UF coach Will Muschamp said Easley "tweaked" his knee but wasn't seriously hurt.

"He’s fine," Muschamp said. "They (team medical personnel) already came to me and said he’s fine."

OT Chaz Green did not play because of an ankle injury. Muschamp said it was a game-time decision. Green has been bothered by the ankle for two weeks. He did not warm up with the first team on the field before the Texas A&M game, either. Kyle Kohene started in his place.

 

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Here are five things that stood out in Florida's 37-20 victory over Tennessee in front of 102,455 at Neyland Stadium on Saturday night.

1. Florida was able to win the game despite going just 3-for-13 on third down. That's what big plays will do for an offense. Florida had nine rushes or passes of at least 20 yards -- including an 80-yard touchdown run and a 75-yard touchdown pass.

2. Starting RT Chaz Green did not play because of an ankle sprain, but Kyle Koehne stepped in a did a pretty good job. The 6-foot-5, 311-pound redshirt junior has spent his entire career playing mostly guard but was able to hold his own against UT's edge rushers. He did commit one false-start penalty but helped the Gators rush for 336 yards and not give up a single sack.

3. Buck LB Lerentee McCray was very active for the second consecutive week. He had two tackles, intercepted one pass, and caused another interception with pressure on UT QB Tyler Bray.

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