Drew Lock saw Kam Scott the whole way.
The Missouri quarterback eyed his receiver as he beat UF’s freshman corner Trey Dean III on a deep post early in the third quarter. Lock led Scott perfectly, and the freshman wideout strolled into the end zone.
A lopsided first half that favored the Tigers carried into the second half as they defeated No. 13 Florida in The Swamp on homecoming weekend 38-17 for their first SEC win. The Gators (6-3, 4-3 SEC) struggled to get pressure on Lock, and he punished their young secondary. Poor play from Feleipe Franks stifled the offense, and redshirt sophomore Kyle Trask entered in the third quarter to try to dig his team out of 25-point hole.
“We were behind, and I wanted to try and do something different,” UF coach Dan Mullen said. “What we were doing wasn’t working, right, and the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and hoping it works.”
UF’s only lead came when it got the game’s opening points on a 32-yard Evan McPherson field goal. The Tigers (5-4, 1-4 SEC) dominated from there.
Missouri moved the ball smoothly on the day’s first touchdown drive in the first quarter. Lock got the offense flowing with a third-and-6 pass from the Tigers’ 28 to tight end Albert Okwuegbunam for 10 yards. It was the second of Missouri’s 11 third-down conversions on 18 attempts.
Lock dissected Florida’s defense for 22 yards on his next three passes, and the march was capped off by a 27-yard scoring scamper from Larry Rountree III.
The senior passer kept his stark-white uniform clean, only going down once in the backfield on a sack credited to Chauncey Gardner-Johnson when Lock was forced out of bounds. He was never hurried.
Two three-and-outs on subsequent Gators possessions allowed Missouri to set up from the UF 43 early in the second quarter. Tailback Tyler Badie bounced an 18-yard run on first down, then Lock connected with an uncovered Okwuegmunam for 22 yards to put the Tigers up by two scores.
The Missouri quarterback starred, but the running game gave him more than enough help, averaging 7.4 yards per carry in the half. Lock shined to the tune of 15-for-21 passing for 126 yards and a touchdown and the Missouri backs rumbled for 148 yards and two end-zone visits in the first half. Franks and his offense struggled mightily.
The starting UF signal caller only completed consecutive attempts once, and they netted five yards. He went 9-for-22 for 84 yards before leaving the contest.
A large chunk of those yards came on a 29-yard back-shoulder throw to Kadarius Toney. The play came late in the first half and put UF on the Tigers’ 12. Franks used his legs to cover the remaining yardage and gave the Gators a little bit of life, making it a 21-10 deficit heading into the locker room.
But it was more of the same in the second half.
The Missouri offense scored on its first two drives of the half, instating a four-score advantage.
Lock darted the 41-yard touchdown to Kam Scott, then followed it up with a four-yard score to Emanuel Hall, where again, Dean was beaten.
“People talk about when you’re growing up have your blanket, your little blanket,” Lock said about Hall, who returned from injury to lead the Tigers in receiving. “It was like I was sleeping, and I was freezing for four weeks, but the little blanket came back and made some plays again.”
Lock cruised to the win. Ending a prolific day with 171.6 quarterback rating and an impressive stat line: 24-for-32 passing, 250 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
After two drives where Franks failed to lead UF past the first down marker in the second half, Trask entered the game and showed tremendous poise and effort.
His first drive was a 13-play, 75 yard march to the end zone where he went 5-for-8 with 59 yards and concluded with a seven-yard touchdown to Josh Hammond.
“(He) checked it for me to run a slant, and he put the ball in a good place for me to make a play," Hammond said.
Trask made a couple more nice throws, including a 45-yard toss to Toney. But he couldn’t marshal another visit to the scoring paint, finishing 10-for-18 for 126 yards.
“This is when you gotta buckle down and the toughness comes through,” Mullen said. “Most important, everybody in that locker room, hopefully, gotta play for each other, play for the Gators, play for our team. I’d be really disappointed if people dont wanna play for themselves.”
Follow Mark Stine on Twitter @mstinejr or contact him at mstine@alligator.org.
Quarterback Kyle Trask entered the Missouri game with five minutes to go in the third quarter. He finished 10-for-18 for 126 yards and a touchdown in Florida's 38-17 loss.
