GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After a nine-game drought, the Florida offense clicked in a big way Saturday. And suddenly, Atlanta doesn’t seem so far away.
It clicked on the moment that QB Luke Del Rio hit WR Antonio Callaway for a 78-yard touchdown strike. While many previous Callaway scores can be credited to the blazing fast wideout outrunning everyone else after the catch, Del Rio’s arm deserves the credit for this score.
In postgame, Del Rio said he was worried about the throw. It felt the same as an attempted bomb to Callaway in Week 1, a play that just missed. That opening play set the tone for the Gators’ underwhelming 24-7 win over UMass.
On Saturday, it hit. Once again, the tone was set. And this time, the tone was set for a 45-7 route produced by 564 yards of total offense. It was just the second time the Gators topped 500 yards in their past 26 games.
As Callaway crossed the goal line, The Swamp exploded. It was one of the most exciting plays the Florida crowd has seen in a while, perhaps since the Oct. 3, 2015 win over Ole Miss.
After that Ole Miss game, Florida went to Missouri and grinded out a win. It was the final game of the Will Grier era, and the Florida offense was noticeably less potent with Treon Harris at quarterback.
The common perception around Gainesville was that the 2016 offense would be better because anyone should be a step up from Harris. Del Rio certainly qualifies as “anyone.”
It wasn’t until Saturday, however, that Del Rio and the Gators demonstrated that the team can actually be productive, and exciting, on offense. They can be fun to watch. They have the weapons to take deep shots.
The Gators looked like a completely different team from the one that faced UMass. So what took them an extra week to show up?
“I think that’s a question for the players,” coach Jim McElwain said when asked about the difference in execution between Weeks 1 and 2.
One big difference for Del Rio and the passing attack was the Gators’ strong performance in the ground game. In the first half alone Florida ran for more yards against Kentucky (124) than it did in the whole game against UMass (107).
“You have to make the defense respect the run game,” Del Rio said. “And when they have to respect the run game, it makes it a lot easier to open up those throws like that with the play-action game.”
While Jordan Scarlett looked head and shoulders above the rest of the running backs in Week 1, it was a true committee effort in Week 2. Four Florida ball-carriers combined for 238 yards on 46 carries. Freshman Lamical Perine led the way with 17 carries for 106 yards, an impressive bounce-back from fumbling his only carry in Week 1.
With help from the running backs, Del Rio turned in one of the best stat lines by a Florida quarterback against an SEC opponent in years (19-of-32, 320 yards, 4 TD, INT). It was the first 300-yard performance for a Gators quarterback in any game since 2013 (Tyler Murphy’s 305 yards vs. Vanderbilt), and the most against an SEC opponent since 2004 (Chris Leak’s 322 yards vs. Arkansas).
There will always be the question of whether the Florida offense is that good, or the Kentucky defense is that bad.
For now, however, Del Rio and the Gators have plenty of reasons, about 564 of them, to be confident moving forward.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
