Florida’s offense is wrecked, but it’s not because of Kelvin Taylor.
The former Glades Day School standout continued his strong freshman season for the Gators on Saturday. However, his performance wasn’t enough to prevent a reeling Florida team from dropping its sixth straight game with a 26-20 loss to Georgia Southern at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
“Where do you start?” coach Will Muschamp said of his team’s problems on offense. “It’s a combination of things, and it’s just hard right now. As many moving parts as we’ve had, it’s difficult.”
Taylor has been one of those moving parts, becoming the focal point of the Gators’ offense after numerous injuries stripped the unit of key playmakers early in the season. He carried the ball 22 times for 92 yards despite facing a Georgia Southern defense focused on stopping the run.
With little threat of a passing game — redshirt freshman Skyler Mornhinweg completed 14 of 25 passes for 122 yards and a pair of touchdowns in his second career start, but entered the fourth quarter with just 14 passing yards — the Gators (4-7) relied on the ground game to establish any semblance of an offensive attack.
Early in the game, the strategy appeared sound. Going against a Georgia Southern defense that has struggled even against FCS opponents, Taylor helped Florida march down the field on its opening possession.
Taylor took a direct snap on the fifth play from scrimmage and raced for a career-long 33-yard run to move the Gators into scoring position. He finished the drive with eight carries for 54 yards, and Francisco Velez connected on a 27-yard field goal to stake Florida to an early 3-0 lead.
But the immediate success was short-lived. Florida averaged fewer than 11 yards per possession on its next seven drives, which helped Georgia Southern (7-4) take a 20-10 lead into the fourth quarter.
With UF trailing by six points in the waning seconds, the Gators’ final drive, much like their season as a whole, came up painfully short. Mornhinweg missed on a pass near the goal line on fourth down, which set off a jubilant celebration from Georgia Southern’s sideline in an otherwise silent stadium.
“We’ve been hit with so much adversity this year, but it’s not an excuse for losing to these people,” UF right guard Jon Halapio said. “We just didn’t play very well at all today.”
Taylor has been one of the few bright spots for the Gators in a season full of adversity.
He began the season third on Florida’s depth chart at running back and was seldom-used during the first five games. Despite his slow start, he is inching closer to joining rare company.
Taylor has 483 rushing yards this season — 44 fewer than Mack Brown for most on the team. If he were to finish the season with more rushing yards than Brown, who gained 44 yards on 11 carries Saturday, he would be the first true freshman to lead Florida in rushing in a season since his father, Fred Taylor, accomplished the feat in 1994.
More importantly for the Gators, Taylor continues to inspire confidence for the coming seasons.
“You’ve got to be able to change the scoreboard, and we just struggled scoring points offensively,” Muschamp said. “It’s been a week-in, week-out occurrence, and it’s my job to get it fixed. We will get it fixed.”
