Shutout win against Vanderbilt no surprise, far from encouraging
GAINESVILLE — The Vanderbilt Effect was evident on the scoreboard at the Swamp, reading 42-0 after Florida’s one-sided win on Saturday.
On the field, the Gators did not overwhelm the overmatched Commodores when it mattered or rebound from the Kentucky loss with the expected verve of a team facing upcoming dates with LSU and Georgia.
Coach Dan Mullen even needed to dig into his bag of tricks, calling a fake punt to keep alive the first series of the second half, to give the No. 20 Gators (4-2, 2-2 SEC) the boost needed to stroll past the SEC’s doormat.
“I love our team. I love the attitude of our team,” Mullen said. “We’ve got to do a better job coaching. It’s our job to kind of make sure that the intensity level every snap of the game is where it needs to be at.”
A 21-0 halftime lead was an illusion thanks to Vanderbilt missing two missed field goals and having a touchdown catch overturned on a questionable replay review. A 21-13 game would not have sat well the announced homecoming crowd of 86,258.
Mullen let his players know their first-half effort was not going to cut it. “I got after them,” he said. The fans who showed up on a glorious Gainesville day to support the Gators were not overjoyed either, having already had watched Anthony Richardson look more like a redshirt freshman than rising star and the defense struggle to contain Vanderbilt’s punchless attack.
They didn’t have Kaiir Elam (knee), an All-SEC cornerback last season, for the third game in a row, among others.
Richardson threw an interception on his first snap.
“All quarterbacks have a learning curve,” Mullen said. “That’s why there’s development that goes into it. I do think Anthony works his tail off, has a great approach in what he’s doing. He’s going to continue to improve.”
Meanwhile, starter Emory Jones tossed a career-high 4 touchdowns, including a 61-yard strike over the middle to tailback Dameon Pierce. Pierce’s score was his third vs. the Commodores and eighth of 2021, matching his total from the past two seasons.
Jones, whose 273 yards also were a career best, was surprised by his TD total.
“I looked up at the scoreboard one time and said I had four and thought it was wrong,” the 21-year-old said. “I really didn’t remember doing it. It’s exciting. But all the guys around me they definitely were the biggest part of that.”
The shutout by the Florida defense helped Jones’ cause.
“It definitely makes it easier for the offense, and Coach Mullen as he calls the plays,” Jones said. “We really can just go out there and run our offense.”
But the D’s goose egg also had some cracks.
Vanderbilt’s Joseph Bulovas finished with three missed field goals of 39, 41 and 33 yards.
The Commodores (2-4, 0-2) entered averaging SEC-low 4.42 yards per play, but gained 200 yards during the first half (6.1 yards per snap).
Mullen’s halftime assessment of his defense to SEC Network’s Taylor Davis? “Awful,” he said.
The Gators’ coach laughed off the exchange amid the afterglow of victory.
“I probably used some more words in the locker room, maybe,” Mullen said.
The Gators looked like a different defense during the second half, limiting Vanderbilt to just 87 yards.
“The halftime message was, ‘They don’t get nothing. At all. Stop them,’ ” defensive end Antwaun Powell said. “‘Get them to nothing, give them nothing.’ ”
Yet, Mullen also recognized his team lacked passion and pinpoint execution from the outset a week after a sloppy, frustrating loss at Kentucky.
Following his media obligations, Mullen and his staff planned to dig into the details immediately.
“Making sure that we have crossed every ‘T’, dotted every ‘I,’ our execution is exact ... [We’re] looking at it individually on every snap of the game,” he said. “Are we playing at the level we need to play at with the intensity we need to play at? I don’t know that we did that for the first half as a whole.”
Florida has to find some answers quickly and hit the ground running the next two games. A noon visit to LSU next Saturday is a pivotal game for two blue-blood programs amid lukewarm seasons.
Two weeks later, Florida squares off with Georgia which delivered Vanderbilt a 62-0 beatdown in Nashville and would love nothing more than to embarrass the rival Gators.
Despite the slow start Saturday, Florida’s players felt like the Gators took a step forward.
“It was definitely a jump-start to the next two games,” safety Rashad Torrence said. “I feel like as a team we came out with the mentality that we’re not going to let a game like Kentucky get to us again.”
Email Edgar Thompson at egthompson@orlandosentinel.