Week 8 Florida Gators Stock Report: Trask, DL up; Defense Down Yet Again

Who's stock is up, or down, after Florida's victory over Arkansas?

In an emotional game that saw Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback Feleipe Franks return to Gainesville, the No. 6 Florida Gators took care of business against the Sam Pittman-less Arkansas Razorbacks, hanging 63 points under the lights.

Florida controlled the game from the very start, even after Arkansas scored quickly on its first drive, thanks to a rare bad rep from cornerback Kaiir Elam and a perfect ball from Franks to receiver Mike Woods. Even with a quick answer by Arkansas, the Gators cruised into the half with a 35-14 lead and did not look back, scoring another four touchdowns in the final 30 minutes of the contest. 

Florida now looks ahead to the mighty Vanderbilt Commodores, but first, we take a look at who had a game to remember and who didn't last weekend. 

Up:

QB Kyle Trask

In all honesty, Trask played the best football of his life on Saturday. Like many, I was skeptical of just how far Trask could go within his development, but he has shattered every expectation I had for him coming into this year.

The redshirt senior had the same number of touchdowns as incompletions at six, which is outstanding considering he dropped back 30 times. Trask was not bothered by the different looks that Razorbacks defensive coordinator and interim head coach for the night, Barry Odom, threw at him, but rather picked one of the better passing defenses in the SEC apart. 

The Manvel (Tx.) native got it done in all kinds of ways with a mix of short, intermediate, and long throws throughout his relatively short night. For that fact, his stock has risen even further, putting himself at the top of all Heisman discussion. 

The Run Game

As I mentioned earlier, Arkansas is a very strong team in coverage, primarily due to their base nickel and dime packages, which put an extra defensive back on the field over a linebacker or defensive tackle.

The Razorbacks came out in a three-man front for much of the game, allowing Florida to gash them time and time again, finishing off the night with 208 rushing yards on 45 attempts and averaging 4.62 yards a rush.

Even while Trask was picking the defense apart, Florida head coach Dan Mullen and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson made an effort to stay balanced by keeping the ball on the ground as well, which is a significant step in the right direction.

Gators running back Dameon Pierce continued to show off just how much of a bruiser is, as he was not stopped behind the line of scrimmage all night despite having twelve carries. When Pierce touched the ball, he was consistently gaining four to five yards a carry on the odd Arkansas front. Running backs Nay'Quan Wright and Malik Davis also contributed in the run game, adding 50 yards and 37 yards, respectively. 

Defensive Line

With defensive lineman Kyree Campbell back into the rotation, the Gator defensive line has not missed a beat in the last three weeks.

Everyone is back at home in their natural positions and it shows as the Florida defensive front is stuffing the run and getting to the passer as well. The Florida pass rush picked on Franks, sacking him four times and hurrying him on three other attempts. The swarming Florida defense also added a marvelous eight tackles-for-loss to the box score.

It all starts up front which is why the numbers looked as impressive as they did, even though Arkansas' offensive line has struggled. 

Strongside defensive end Zachary Carter also found himself in the end zone after a 35-yard scoop and score, tallying Florida's first defensive touchdown on the year. Later, he was named the SEC's defensive lineman of the week.

Down:

Defense

Surprise, surprise, the defense is back in the down column. This is partially due to the fact the offense cannot do anything wrong, but there are glaring issues on Florida's defense that should be addressed immediately. 

To start, Florida must stop allowing big plays time and time again. On Arkansas' five scores on Saturday, three of those came from plays of 47, 82, and 83 yards, respectively. 

Yikes. 

These defensive lapses must stop as Florida is six games into the season, only a month or so away from potentially seeing Alabama in Atlanta. Although it may not impact the games right now, Florida must tighten up fast if they want to stop Steve Sarkisian's high-powered offense led by Heisman candidate QB Mac Jones. This problem has persisted throughout the year which causes serious concern moving forward. 

Tagging along with the big-play problems, there is still concern about certain personnel seeing the field over others. I'm not exactly sure why linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper does not see the field as much as he does, as he is a speed backer who can cover sideline to sideline, something that Florida lacks within its starting lineup. 

Dante Lang seeing the field at defensive end is not necessarily something Florida ought to do, especially considering the team has freshman Princely Umanmielen, who has been outstanding when he sees reps, and comes in following Lang on game days.

With each question mark, one commonality appears which is seniority. Simply put, Florida needs to play its best 11 and worry about everything else, later.