KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It’s been a long reign, but Georgia is not the SEC East champion any longer.
Kyle Trask threw for 433 yards and four touchdowns, and No. 6 Florida beat Tennessee 31-19 on Saturday to clinch the division and a spot in the SEC championship game.
Georgia had won the last three SEC East titles in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Florida, which beat the Bulldogs 44-28 on Nov. 7, will play Alabama for the conference title on December 19 at 8 p.m. in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Gators reached the SEC championship game for the first time since 2016. The division title “shows where the program’s at,” coach Dan Mullen said.
Mac Jones passed for 385 yards and four touchdowns as No. 1 Alabama (9-0, 9-0 SEC) beat LSU 55-17.
Jones threw three of his touchdown passes to Louisiana native DeVonta Smith, who finished with eight catches for 231 yards.
Meanwhile, Florida’s Trask, a front-runner for the Heisman Trophy along with Jones, put together another impressive performance. He completed 35 of 49 passes without committing a turnover. He even had a 32-yard punt late in the game.
“It feels amazing,” Trask said of the division title. “You know that was one of our main goals at the beginning of this season, because in order to do all the, you know, the bigger things you first have to win the East. So that was our first main goal.”
Kyle Pitts had seven receptions for 128 yards, helping the Gators (8-1, No. 6 CFP) wrap up the SEC’s East Division.
The aerial performance by Trask and company took on added significance with Florida struggling to run the ball, finishing with just 21 yards on the ground.
Playing with a depleted roster, Tennessee (2-6) dropped its sixth consecutive game. The Vols were missing 16 players.
Freshman Harrison Bailey of Marietta High School got the start at quarterback. He completed 14 of 21 passes for 111 yards and a 15-yard touchdown to Eric Gray. He was sacked five times.
“Bailey held onto the ball too long some times,” Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “But that’s what a young guy will do.”
Trask has 38 TD passes this season, moving him into sixth place in SEC history for a single season, ahead of Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel and Tim Couch of Kentucky. He has the most TD passes through a team's first nine games.
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