Notes & quotes from Florida’s 37-34 loss to LSU

Courtesy of University Athletic Association

LSU 37, No. 6 Florida 34
December 12, 2020
Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium

Trask Breaks Single-Season Gators Record for Passing Touchdowns

• Kyle Trask’s second touchdown pass tonight – a 9-yarder via a screen pass to Kadarius Toney with 3:11 left in the third quarter – was his 40th of the year and broke the single-season school record set by Danny Wuerffel in 1996.
  • Note: Wuerffel’s three touchdown passes from the 1997 Sugar Bowl are not included in his total, because bowl statistics were not counted for records until the 2002 season.
  • The record-tying touchdown was a 19-yarder to Jacob Copeland in the second quarter.
• Trask’s second touchdown pass tonight also tied him with Kentucky’s Andre Woodson for fourth on the SEC single-season record list.
  • Joe Burrow, LSU, 2019 – 60 (15 games)
  • Drew Lock, Missouri, 2017 – 44 (13 games)
  • Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama, 2018 – 43 (15 games)
  • Kyle Trask, Florida, 2020 – 40 (10 games)
  • Andre Woodson, Kentucky, 2007 – 40 (13 games)
  • Danny Wuerffel, Florida, 1996 – 39 (12 games)
• Trask’s second touchdown pass tonight also made him the fifth player in FBS history to throw 40-plus touchdown passes through the first 10 games of a season.
  • David Klingler, Houston, 1990 – 47 [had 573 attempts / 57.3 per game]
  • B.J. Symons, Texas Tech, 2003 – 44 [had 557 attempts / 55.7 per game]
  • Colt Brennan, Hawaii, 2006 – 43 [had 380 attempts / 38.0 per game]
  • Andre Ware, Houston, 1989 – 41 [had 526 attempts / 52.6 per game]
  • Kyle Trask, Florida, 2020 – 40 [has 369 attempts / 36.9 per game]
  • Anthony Gordon, Washington State, 2019; Derek Carr, Fresno State, 2013; Jim McMahon, BYU, 1980; Dennis Shaw, San Diego State, 1969 – 39
• Trask is now responsible for 42 touchdowns this season, which ranks tied for second on the school’s single-season record list.
  • 55 (32 passing, 23 rushing) – Tim Tebow, 2007
  • 42 (40 passing, 2 rushing) – Kyle Trask, 2020
  • 42 (30 passing, 12 rushing) – Tim Tebow, 2008
• With 474 passing yards tonight, Trask has 3,717 on the year and moved up to second on the program’s single-season record list, only trailing Rex Grossman’s record of 3,896 from 2001.
• Trask’s 474 passing yards tonight also tied the career high he set against Georgia – which ranks second in Gators history, only behind Tim Tebow’s 482-yard outing in the 2010 Sugar Bowl.
• Trask is the fourth SEC quarterback since 1996 and the eighth FBS quarterback since the start of 2018 with four games of 400-plus passing yards in the same season.
  • Trask and UCF’s Dillon Gabriel are the only FBS players with four such games this year.
  • The other SEC players to accomplish the feat since 1996 had four 400-yard games apiece: Joe Burrow, LSU, 2019; Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M, 2013, Tim Couch, Kentucky, 1998.
  • Trask is the only quarterback in UF history with at least three 400-yard outings in a season.
• Trask and Wuerffel are the only quarterbacks in Gators history with four 400-yard games in a career.
• Trask’s eighth 300-yard passing game this year moves him within two 300-yard outings of Rex Grossman’s single-season school record (10 in 2001).
• Trask threw for 300-plus yards against an SEC opponent for the 10th time in his career, tying Danny Wuerffel (1993-96) for the second-highest total in school history.
  • Grossman (2000-02) holds the school record with 12 such games against SEC teams.
• Trask logged the 12th 300-yard passing game of his career, adding to the fourth-highest total in school history. Wuerffel’s 14 outings of 300 yards are the third-highest total.
• Trask has thrown for 200-plus yards in 18 consecutive games, passing Shane Matthews’ 17-game streak (last five games of 1990, all 11 in 1991, 1992 opener) for the longest run in school history.
• Trask’s streak of pass attempts without an interception ended at 181 attempts and was the second-longest streak in school history, only behind Tim Tebow’s run of 203 from 2007 through 2008.
  • Trask’s last interception was a pick-six against Georgia (12:17 mark of the second quarter).
  • Trask threw multiple interceptions for only the second time in his career (both last year – Tennessee and Vanderbilt).
• Trask’s 259 completions this season are tied with Rex Grossman (2001) for third on the program’s single-season record list. Grossman also holds the record (287 in 2002), while Shane Matthews ranks second (275 in 1992).

Kadarius Toney Turns in Career Game on Senior Night

• Kadarius Toney finished with 249 all-purpose yards (182 receiving, 56 rushing, 11 punt return).
• Toney’s career-high 182 receiving yards left him five shy of the No. 10 spot on Florida’s single-game school record list, which is currently held by Wes Chandler (187 against North Carolina in 1976).
• Toney’s three 100-yard receiving games this year are the most by a Gator in a single season since Antonio Callaway logged three in 2015.
• Toney’s nine receptions were also a career high.
• Toney and Kyle Pitts are the fifth Gators duo in school history to both have at least nine receiving touchdowns for the season.
  • 2001 – Jabar Gaffney (13), Reche Caldwell (10)
  • 1998 – Travis McGriff (10), Travis Taylor (nine)
  • 1996 – Reidel Anthony (18), Ike Hilliard (10), Jacquez Green (nine)
  • 1995 – Chris Doering (17), Ike Hilliard (15)

Gators Offense

• Jacob Copeland’s touchdown catch tonight was his third of the season, giving Florida six different pass catchers with at least three receiving touchdowns in a season for the first time since 2008.
  • Copeland also logged the first 100-yard receiving game of his career (123 receiving yards), and his five receptions tied the career high he set at Vanderbilt earlier this season.
• Florida’s 609 total yards were its second-highest total of the season (642 at Ole Miss).
• Florida has eight consecutive games of 400-plus total yards for the first time since at least 1981. It is also the first time since at least 1981 Florida has such a streak against SEC teams.
• Florida has nine games of 400-plus total yards in a season for the 12th time since 1990 and first time since 2008, when it logged 10 such outings.
  • Seasons with Nine – 1991, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2007, 2020
  • Seasons with 10 – 1994, 1995, 2004, 2008
  • Seasons with 11 – 1996, 2001
• Florida has six games of 500-plus total yards against SEC opponents in the same season, tying a school record previously established by the 1995 Gators.
• Florida posted its 13th game of 500-plus total yards in Mullen’s 36 games as head coach, one shy of its combined total from the 115 games comprising the 2009-17 seasons (nine).
  • UF’s nine 500-yard games against SEC foes under Mullen are two more than it had from 2008-17.
  • Florida has posted 500-plus total yards in eight of its last 14 games.
• The Gators’ nine games of 400-plus total yards against SEC opponents this year add to the school-record total they established last week (note: the SEC expanded to an eight-game league schedule in 1992).
  • The only Gators teams since 1981 with seven 400-yard outings against SEC teams in the same season were 2004, 2001, 1996, 1995, and 1994.
• Today is the 23rd time the Gators amassed 400-plus total yards under Mullen, three more 400-yard outings than they had in the 75 games comprising the 2012-17 seasons.
  • The Gators have eclipsed 400 total yards in 21 of their last 27 games.
• UF has five 400-yard passing games in a season for the third time in school history (seven in 2001; five in 1998).
• This is the fifth season in Gators history with nine 300-yard passing games – 2001 (12 games), 1996 (10 games), 1998 (nine), 1995 (nine).
  • Florida’s nine games of 300-plus passing yards against SEC teams breaks a single-season school record previously held by the 2001 Gators (all eight league games).
    • Note: the SEC expanded to an eight-game league schedule and added the SEC Championship Game in 1992.
• Florida has eight consecutive 300-yard passing games for the first time since a 14-game streak that began with the 2001 Sugar Bowl, spanned the entire 2001 season, and ended the week after the 2002 season-opening rout of UAB.
  • UF has not had another streak longer than six games since at least the start of 1981.
• This is the 18th time UF reached 300 passing yards under Mullen, equaling its total of 300-yard outings from the 168 games comprising its 2005-17 seasons.
• The Gators have 50 offensive touchdowns for a third consecutive season. Prior to Mullen’s arrival, the last time the Gators had at least 45 offensive touchdowns in a season was 2009.
  • UF logged four consecutive seasons of 50-plus offensive touchdowns from 2006-09.
• Florida eclipsed 400 points in the first 10 games of a season for the ninth time in school history.
  • Previously: 2008, 2007, 2001, 2000, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993

Florida Special Teams

• Evan McPherson entered game ranked second among all FBS kickers with 50 attempts since the start of 2018 (86.8 percent / 46 of 53), but his career percentage slipped to 85.7 after a 2-of-3 performance tonight.
  • McPherson still holds the field goal percentage school record (requiring a minimum of 50 attempts), as he is 48 of 56 (85.7 percent) for his career. Jeff Chandler, who went 67 of 80 (83.8 percent) from 1997-2001, remains in second.
• McPherson entered the game with a single-season school record of four made field goals of 50- plus yards.

Explosive Plays

• Kadarius Toney (from Trask): 44-yard reception, 1st quarter
• Malik Davis: 24-yard rush, 1st quarter
• Malik Davis: 39-yard rush, 2nd quarter
• Kadarius Toney: 26-yard rush, 2nd quarter
• Trevon Grimes (from Trask): 50-yard reception, 2nd quarter
• Kadarius Toney (from Trask): 22-yard reception 2nd quarter
• Kadarius Toney (from Trask): 49-yard reception, 3rd quarter
• Jacob Copeland (from Trask): 40-yard reception, 3rd quarter
• Malik Davis (from Trask): 20-yard reception, 3rd quarter
• Kadarius Toney: 31-yard rush, 4th quarter
• Jacob Copeland (from Trask): 30-yard reception, 4th quarter

Series Updates

• Florida’s all-time record against LSU falls to 33-31-3, and its record against the Tigers in Gainesville falls to 16-14-3.
• The Gators have lost three of the last five meetings in the series and are 1-2 under Mullen.

Other

• Florida’s loss snapped a 12-game home winning streak.
• Tonight marked the 14th Gators game played in Gainesville in December, one of only three after Dec. 7, and their first December home game since Dec. 1, 2001 – a 34-32 loss to No. 5 Tennessee.
  • The other two games played in Gainesville after Dec. 7 were the 1973 Tangerine Bowl on Dec. 22 (a 16-7 loss to Miami [Ohio]) and a 20-12 loss to Temple on Dec. 31, 1938.
  • Twelve of the December home games in Gainesville were played prior to 1990.
    • One was played in 1983 and 1989, five were played between 1972-78, and the other five were played prior to 1962.
  • Florida is now 4-10 in December games in Gainesville.
• Florida Game Captain: Marco Wilson
• LSU won the toss and deferred to the second half; LSU defended the north end zone
• Attendance: 16,610

2020 Florida Football Postgame Quotes

Dan Mullen, Florida Head Coach

Opening Statement…

“I want to thank everybody. Our fans – it was a much different season this year in The Swamp. I thank all our fans for everything they did this year. Showing out and supporting this team, trying to create as much as of an environment that we were able to create today. The energy they created, and I thought they did a good job. As we saw earlier today, our thoughts and prayers are with Keyontae (Johnson) and his family and everything he’s going through right now. When you see that with everybody in your basketball program, really the whole Gator family, that shows there is a lot more than just games out there in life, so our prayers are with him and his family.”

On losing tonight’s finale after all they’ve accomplished this season…

“Well, it is what it is. We got to play next week. What we can control is playing for an SEC Championship and we’re doing that next week so tonight’s game is what it is and we got to get prepared for next week’s championship game.”

On the team’s overall performance…

“Obviously, you just look at all the things we did – you can’t win doing what we did tonight. No matter what is going on. No matter who you’re playing. We lose the turnover battle. We turn it over three times, minus-three turnover ratio. We don’t score touchdowns in the red zone. We can’t make key stops when we need to defensively. And we lose the special teams part of the game. It’s not a very complicated deal. Give our guys credit. They kept battling, kept fighting. I thought our guys played hard. Give them (LSU) credit. They seemed to make the plays they needed to make to win, and we kind of made every play you needed to make to lose.”

On defensive adjustments that need to be made…

“You look at it on the night, we made some good stops. We just did some things you can’t do. We have a missed assignment to give up an easy touchdown. We got the stop at the end to win the game pretty much and we get a personal foul. A stop at the end of the game and we’re going to have the opportunity to go win it. We just got to keep working. We got to get better. We got to make better decisions out there on the field and just keep playing harder.”

On electing to kick a field goal rather than take a shot at the end zone…
“That’s something we practice all the time. I give the offensive guys credit to get us to that spot in that situation. Our goal is to get the ball to the 40- to 45-yard line because you didn’t have much time. We got it well within Evan’s (McPherson) range, so we expect that to be a pretty consistent field goal for him. We had an easier one than they did, and we just missed it.”

On Kyle Pitts being unavailable today…

“He was injured, didn’t practice all week. Didn’t practice one day and went out there and was going to try and warm up. He really wanted to play, but not practicing and not being 100 percent, we just didn’t think it was the right thing to put him on the field.”

2020 Florida Football Postgame Quotes

Florida Student-Athletes

#11 Kyle Trask, Redshirt Senior, Quarterback

On takeaways from this game…

“We started probably one of the – probably one of the worst starts that we’ve ever had to a football game, and when you turn the ball over that many times, it’s hard to win games. I thought we fought really hard in the second half and gave our team a chance. LSU played a great, tough game. Give them credit, but obviously it’s not the result we wanted. I think if we obviously play a clean first half then we’re looking at a different result.”

On next week’s game…

“Alabama is a great team. At the end of the day, we’re going to treat it like any other game. I think this might be somewhat of a wakeup call, or it could be a good thing to happen right before playing them, just to make sure that we’re completely locked in, making sure that we’re doing all the little things right.”

On the turnovers…

“Just a couple bad decisions, really, on my part. I take full responsibility for everything. I just have to play cleaner. That’s pretty much it.”

On the locker room postgame…

“I mean, it’s obviously quiet and mellow and whatnot. Coach (Mullen) just told us the things that are pretty obvious to everybody. You can’t win games turning the ball over like that. We still have a chance to win a SEC Championship, which I think that we have a great chance to do if we play clean football.”

On hope going into next week…

“Well, I think we have had some really high highs this season and some really low lows. A lot of it is just the little things. I think we can play with anybody in the country if we’re playing at our best. We’ve got some of the most talented people in America on this Florida Gator football team, so if we just put together a great game plan and execute it, then we can play with anybody.”

#30 Amari Burney, Junior, Linebacker

On how turnovers pressure the defense …

“It really don’t put pressure on the defense. The defense needs to go out there and make turnovers. If they get one, then we gotta get two and we didn’t do that tonight.”

On the taste it leaves in their mouth…

“The goal from the start of the season is to win the SEC Championship and we have the opportunity to do that next week.”

On being disappointed with the result…

“Any time we lose, we’re always disappointed. We’re not looking past this. We had to come out there, and we weren’t looking past this game. We wanted to come out there and win, and we lost. Now we have to go back to the drawing board so we don’t lose next week.”

On the mood in the locker room…

“The mood in the locker room after every loss, you have people mad that we lost, people trying to bring people together. Everybody on the team, not just one person, but everybody was in there, picking people’s heads up, telling them that we have to go back and get better. Every week.”

On the defensive performance…

“We gotta have more three-and-outs… we go out there and we do what we’re supposed to do, and then some drives we let it go on too long. We have to get off the field more.”