Florida lost a key piece in the backfield on Saturday, and the Gators were forced to finish the game without sophomore running back Duke Clark.
Clark left in the second quarter against South Carolina with a visible limp and was later seen without his jersey and pads, wearing a walking boot on his left foot. That ended his day.
The running back injury came with Florida already trying to keep pace, and the Gators also dealt with uncertainty around linebacker Myles Graham. Graham was spotted warming up before the third quarter, then went back to the locker room with a trainer.
He was on the sideline for the defense’s first series, dressed out, which left the door open for a return. Graham eventually came back near the end of the third quarter, at a point when South Carolina had pushed the margin to 31-13.
Florida had to adjust on the fly without Clark. On the opening drive of the third quarter, Jadan Baugh and Evan Pryor handled the work out of the backfield. Baugh broke off his longest run of the afternoon, a 26-yarder, while Pryor’s first carry went for a three-yard loss.
Clark’s absence stings because of what he did just two weeks ago. He put together arguably the best game of his Florida career in the Gators’ 52-28 win over then-No.
4 Ole Miss, piling up 126 rushing yards. Last week at Missouri, though, both Clark and Baugh were mostly quiet in UF’s 28-point loss.
Clark did have a shot to score in the first quarter, but Aaron Philo didn’t see him on the play, and Florida settled for a field goal instead.
“We want Duke to have more carries. We want Jadan to have more carries.
We want to be able to run the football more efficiently than we did the other day,” UF offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said Tuesday. “But again, that's some of the way the game unfolded: us not being able to take advantage of opportunities in the first half that we had, and then you get behind and that's kind of the way it worked out.”
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