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Kyle Trask throws 4 TDs to Kyle Pitts as No. 5 Florida easily beats Ole Miss

The Kyle Trask to Kyle Pitts connection may be one of the most prolific combinations in 2020.

Trask threw six touchdown passes in No. 5 Florida’s 51-35 win over Ole Miss to open the season on Saturday. Four of those TDs went to Pitts, who had eight catches for 170 yards as Ole Miss struggled to contain him all day.

The game was the first for Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin in Oxford and, well, the defense is a work in progress. Ole Miss gave up over 650 yards of offense to the Gators as Florida punted just once.

Trask was 30-of-42 passing for 416 yards and didn’t throw an interception. And the Gators averaged over six yards a carry on the ground too. UF could do nearly anything it wanted against the Rebels.

Florida quarterback Kyle Trask (11) releases a pass during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Thomas Graning)
Florida quarterback Kyle Trask threw six touchdowns against Ole Miss. (AP Photo/Thomas Graning)

Lane Kiffin’s offense shows promise

Ole Miss has the potential to be one of the wildest college football teams in the country thanks to an offense that should be very good and a defense that, well, does not appear to be very good.

Kiffin started the game with QBs Matt Corral and John Rhys Plumlee both on the field at the same time before Corral ended up getting the majority of snaps at QB. Ole Miss racked up over 500 yards of offense and would have been able to keep pace with Florida if the defense could get a couple stops.

It could not, outside of that one punt and an interception thrown by Florida backup Emory Jones.

New defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin — the former Maryland head coach — took over a defense that gave up over 26 points per game in 2019 and brought back just five starters. Maybe it was a lack of spring practices and time on the field thanks to the pandemic, but the Ole Miss defense looked much like the unit that gave up 59 points to Alabama and 58 points to LSU in 2019.

Florida looks like a real contender

It’s hard to draw too many conclusions from the first week of the SEC season, especially given the circumstances that led to the conference’s late start to the season. But it was patently obvious on Saturday why Florida was picked as the top team in the SEC East in the preseason media poll earlier this week.

Trask looked like a quarterback who had taken a step forward after emerging as one of the better QBs in the SEC in 2019. And Pitts, the best tight end in the conference, was absolutely uncoverable.

The Florida defense won’t be giving up 35 points on a regular basis either. The East should come down to the first weekend of November in Jacksonville when Florida and Georgia meet. Will this be the first time since 2016 that Florida beats Georgia?

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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