Florida isn’t the same pass-heavy team they were a year ago with Kyle Trask and Kyle Pitts. In Saturday’s 25-14 win over Florida Atlantic, the new-look offense came out and ran up and down Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
The Gators amassed 400 yards rushing, breaking the team’s previous record of 369 yards on the ground in a season opener. Florida hasn’t produced that many rushing yards in a game since September of 2011. In fact, the Gators have only eclipsed that rushing total three times in the last 25 years.
Quarterback Anthony Richardson led the team with 160 yards on just seven carries, one of which was a 73-yard touchdown run. Starting running back Malik Davis joined Richardson in the 100-yard club with 104 over 14 carries.
It’s clear that the offense will lean more heavily on the run this year after seeing the team in action on Saturday. Davis doesn’t mind the extra responsibility, though.
“I’m definitely excited,” Davis said. “Because I’m a running back, but also because it opens up doors and opportunities for other guys. If teams know that we can run the ball a lot, it opens up plays for passes down the field.”
Gators coach Dan Mullen was reluctant to call his team a run-first team but acknowledged that the team’s strengths were on the ground against FAU.
“We’ve done it before,” Mullen said. “We are going to do what our guys do well, that’s what it is. Honestly, I would love to continue to be balanced. We ran it a bit more than we threw today, 46 runs and 35 passes, but some of those were scrambles too. I think you’re able to stay balanced, but our explosive plays came on the ground and so we got to look at that a little bit.
“Are we taking the shots down the field to be explosive in the pass game as well? We’re going to do what we’re going to do, if we need to lead the nation in rushing, we’ll do that. We are going to do what our guys do well.”
After Richardson’s emergence led to Florida putting up the most rushing yards so far in the Dan Mullen era, it’s safe to say that the thing the team does best right now is running the ball.
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