Weekly takeaways, trends and technicalities from the weekend’s action.

Mullen’s Gators hit another milestone in their ascent

Florida 44, Georgia 28. The first half of the Cocktail Party was the defining moment of the Dan Mullen era in Gainesville to date – statistically, strategically, symbolically, on every level Florida staked its claim as the new standard-bearer in the SEC East and a legitimate Playoff contender, all before halftime.

The numbers were impressive enough: 38 points on 408 total yards against the league’s most respected defense, the bulk of that number via the right arm of Kyle Trask, who took his emerging Heisman campaign to a new level by becoming the first SEC quarterback to throw for at least 4 touchdowns in 5 consecutive games. After a decade in quarterback purgatory, merely anointing Trask as the Gators’ best QB since Tebow is a vast understatement. He’s a cornerstone player in his own right and the whole country now knows it.

But he’s also the beneficiary of one of the best play-callers in the game, and Saturday was an exhibition Mullen can hang in his own personal Louvre. A run-first coach at heart, Mullen has seamlessly adapted his scheme to the strengths of both the pocket-bound Trask – probably the least mobile starter of Mullen’s D-I career, a significant departure from his past success with big, athletic types – and the array of surrounding skill talent, to head-spinning effect.

Against Georgia, Trask completed multiple passes to 9 targets, with the majority of his production coming on throws to running backs (10 catches for 212 yards) and tight ends (6 catches for 149 yards) rather than his wideouts (14 for 113), and consistently catching UGA linebackers out of position, in a 1-on-1 mismatch, or outright napping on a series of wheel routes out of the backfield that accounted for most of the Gators’ explosive plays.

If you had told Kirby Smart on Saturday morning that the other headliners in Florida’s passing game, Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney, would finish with a combined 9 catches for 99 yards, he’d very likely have taken it. But he could not possibly have bargained for the rest of the surrounding cast accounting for 375 yards on just shy of 18 per catch, or, by the looks of it, have given much thought to how Mullen might go about making that a reality.

If there were any lingering doubts about how Florida’s offensive awakening would hold up against a top-shelf defense, well, now there aren’t. Taken with its best pound-for-pound defensive effort of the season (see below), the afternoon played out like all successful coups: Swift, decisive, and, in retrospect, inevitable. In Mullen’s first 2 seasons the Gators quietly improved from 10 wins to 11 and cut their margin of defeat against Georgia from 19 points to 7. In Year 3, the breakthrough arrived right on schedule.

Speaking of schedules, Florida’s remaining slate offers a direct path to the SEC Championship Game against teams that are collectively 10 games below .500 (9-19) on the season. Barring a stunning twist – and an upset by fast-fading Tennessee or LSU at this point would certainly qualify – a Dec. 19 date with Alabama awaits with a de facto Playoff slot on the line. Unlike the last Florida teams that made it as far as Atlanta under Jim McElwain, this one looks like it stands considerably better than a snowball’s chance of making good.

It doesn’t matter how talented you backup linebackers are when you’re starting a walk-on at quarterback

What’s left to say about Georgia’s quarterback situation that hasn’t already been said? The weird, winding road that led the Bulldogs from Justin Fields as the face of the future to Stetson Bennett IV as the face of the present has been traced and retraced ad nauseam, to the point that it’s arguably become the defining narrative of the program over the past 3 years – the most talented roster in college football, held back by the most important position. It loomed large over last season, when the gap between Georgia’s low-octane passing game and the explosive, downfield attacks at Alabama and LSU grew too wide to ignore; it loomed over the offseason, when UGA prioritized finding a viable successor to Jake Fromm in the transfer portal. It loomed over the scoreless second half of the Bulldogs’ 41-24 loss at Alabama 3 weeks ago. But it has never loomed larger than it did on Saturday.

That’s not to let the defense off the hook, short-handed as it was in the absence of veteran starters Richard LeCounte III in the secondary and Jordan Davis on the line. This is a unit that’s now allowed 400+ yards and 4 TDs passing twice in its last 3 games, numbers no opposing QB had hit against Georgia in more than a decade. In the first half, the Bulldogs were frequently caught out of position, and even when they were in position, Florida’s receivers made the plays.

But even before the defense stanched the bleeding in the second half, it was clear enough that the QB situation had reached a point of no return. Georgia raced out to a quick, 14-0 lead on its first 2 offensive possessions; from there, its next 6 possessions yielded 5 punts, 4 3-and-outs, 2 first downs and an interception as Florida ripped off a 41-7 run.

(UGA’s only score in that span came on a pick-6 by the defense.) Bennett’s understudy, redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis, initially fared better, overseeing a 12-play, 80-yard TD drive on his first possession, capped by a 25-yard TD strike. But he went on to finish 2-for-9 for 4 yards with 2 sacks and 2 interceptions over the rest of the game, leaving no one under the impression that he’s the answer going forward. Together, Bennett and Mathis combined to go 9-for-29 for 112 yards (3.9 per attempt) with 3 INTs, a dismal afternoon on all fronts.

What is the answer? Bennett, the home-grown walk-on who waited patiently for his opportunity and appeared to seize it earlier this season, is a natural fan favorite, but as the year has worn on, his limitations have been more and more obvious with each passing week. (To be fair, one of those limitations on Saturday was a visibly sore throwing shoulder that he injured in the first quarter.) Mathis, who missed all of 2019 after undergoing brain surgery to remove a cyst, is also easy to root for, but is clearly a long-term project, at best. JT Daniels, the blue-chip transfer from USC, has yet to graduate from clipboard duty despite being medically cleared weeks ago, suggesting there’s more going on injury-wise than the team is letting on. At least, that’s the optimistic point of view – the alternative being that Daniels simply hasn’t lived up to hype in practice. True freshman Carson Beck‘s name hasn’t even entered the conversation.

Again, this is an issue years in the making, due to a very unique set of circumstances over which Smart had limited control. (Let’s skip another round of forensic analysis of the great Fromm/Fields debate; suffice to Smart did not show Fields the door.) He reversed his worst decision, promoting James Coley to offensive coordinator, by showing Coley the door after one season and bringing in veteran Todd Monken to install the kind of NFL-lite system that had achieved liftoff at Bama and LSU. With a Fields-sized hole on the depth chart last winter, he pursued Daniels and Jamie Newman on the transfer market specifically to fill it against the likes of Alabama and Florida, only to watch Newman opt out and Daniels languish on the practice squad. The results speak for themselves.

With the SEC title and Playoff bid now effectively out of reach, there’s less urgency over the coming weeks to bow to the realities of win-now mode. The remaining schedule is as forgiving as it gets in SEC play, lowering the cost of giving Mathis or Daniels (or Beck) a proper audition for the full-time job in 2021. Whoever remains from the current group will be joined next year by highly touted commit Brock Vandagriff, who at this point seems as likely a candidate to emerge as any of the potential holdovers. Vandagriff will be the 4th 5-star QB to sign on at Georgia in Smart’s tenure, following Daniels, Fields, and Jacob Eason – an inauspicious track record. Until the pipeline yields a bona fide, Heisman-caliber star, this conversation is going to continue to feel all too familiar.

Aggies a Playoff threat?

Texas A&M 48, South Carolina 3. On paper, this was about as close to a perfect performance by A&M as you could ask for: The Aggies finished with a near-identical split between rushing yards (264) and passing (266), outgained Carolina by more than a 3-to-1 margin overall and didn’t commit a turnover en route to their most lopsided SEC win since 2012. The 45-point margin marked the Gamecocks’ worst SEC loss since a 2008 beatdown vs. Tebow-era Florida.

In Carolina, predictably, the annual Will Muschamp Death Watch is well under way. In Texas, on the other hand, expectations are beginning to bloom. A&M has won 4 straight since its Oct. 3 debacle at Alabama and arguably played better in each game in that stretch. Kellen Mond is beginning to look like a senior with 40 career starts under his belt, the running game is showing renewed signs of life after a dismal 2019, and the defense just turned in its best performance of Jimbo Fisher‘s tenure. The schedule sets up nicely for A&M to be 8-1 going into the regular-season fi ale at Auburn.

It’s still too early to begin gaming out potential scenarios that might give the Aggies a plausible shot at cracking the Playoff field; a whole lot would have to go exactly right to open that door, including A&M actually managing to run the table over the month, at a point on the calendar when they’ve been notorious for crumbling in the past. But this team appears to be going in the opposite direction. If that’s still the case come December, they’re going to be squarely In the Conversation.

Superlatives

The best of the week.

1. Florida QB Kyle Trask. Trask is only the 3rd QB in the past 20 years to throw for 400 yards and 4 TDs against Georgia, joining Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett in 2009 and Alabama’s Mac Jones a couple of weeks ago. Trask had one killer mistake on the day serving up up a pick-6 late in the first quarter; from that point, the Gators scored on their next 6 possessions, including 4 touchdowns.

2. Georgia CB Eric Stokes. Stokes was the one respectable member of Georgia’s secondary, credited with 4 tackles, 2 passes broken up, and the pick-6 that briefly put Georgia up 21-14 early in the second quarter before the floodgates opened. Tranks had the good sense to avoid targeting Stokes downfield, allowing just 3 receptions with a long of 14 yards.

3. Texas A&M RBs Isaiah Spiller and Devon Achane. A&M’s thunder-and-lightning combo was central in the blowout win over South Carolina, combining for 196 yards and 1 TD rushing on 6.3 per carry plus 116 yards another TD receiving — that despite Spiller bowing out early in the second half with a minor injury. Achane, a true freshman, had just 8 touches coming in but logged 15 against the Gamecocks, including receptions covering 52 and 18 yards.

4. Arkansas DB Jalen Catalon. Catalon paced the Razorbacks in a come-from-behind, 24-13 win over Tennessee, finishing with 12 tackles and an interception in a stifling effort for the Arkansas D as a whole: The Vols finished with just 292 total yards, went 3-and-out 5 times and didn’t score after halftime.

5. Mississippi State DE Marquiss Spencer and LB Tyrus Wheat. Spencer and Wheat helped offset another dismal performance by the MSU offense against Vanderbilt, combining for 12 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, a couple of forced fumbles (both by Wheat), and an interception (Spencer) in a 24-17 win in Nashville. As a team, the Bulldogs were outgained by a staggering 274 yards, 478 to 204, but finished +5 in turnover margin to avoid a disastrous loss.

Honorable Mention: Vanderbilt RB Keyon Henry-Brooks, who racked up 212 scrimmage yards and a TD in the loss at Mississippi State. … Texas A&M Kellen Mond, who finished 16-for-26 passing for 224 yards and 4 TDs in the Aggies’ blowout win over South Carolina, tacking on another 34 yards and1 TD rushing… Arkansas QB Feleipe Franks, who continued his solid season by going 18-for-24 for 215 yards and 3 TDs in the Razorbacks’ win over Tennessee… Arkansas LB Bumper Pool, who was credited with a team-high 14 tackles, 2 TFLs and a QB hurry vs. the Vols. … Tennessee LB Henry To’o To’o:, who finished with 7 tackles, 2 TFLs and a QB hurry against Arkansas. … Georgia LBs Nakobe Dean and Monty Rice, who combined for 23 tackles, a TFL and a QB hurry against Florida. … And Florida DL Zach Carter, who came off the bench following a first-half suspension to record 5 QB hurries against Georgia and generally live in the Bulldogs’ backfield.
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The scoring system for players honored in Superlatives awards 8 points for the week’s top player, 6 for 2nd, 5 for 3rd, 4 for 4th, 3 for 5th, and 1 for honorable mention, because how honorable is it really if it doesn’t come with any points? The standings are updated weekly with the top 10 players for the season to date.