GAINESVILLE —
Trey Burton felt just awful. He was upset that his bad throw cost teammate Omarius Hines a touchdown, so he didn't even wait for Hines to get back to the huddle before he apologized. He ran downfield and grabbed his arm.
"I totally messed him up," Burton said. "I told him I was sorry for that. ... If I wouldn't have thrown it short he would have scored a touchdown easily — untouched."
That was pretty much the only thing that went wrong for Burton on Saturday night — and it still resulted in a 42-yard gain. But even that couldn't tarnish the game the freshman from Venice had in Florida's 48-14 rout of Southeastern Conference foe Kentucky at Florida Field.
Burton scored six touchdowns — five rushing, one receiving — to break Tim Tebow's school record of five, which he set against South Carolina in 2007. Burton scored on runs of 11, 10, 9, 3 and 7 yards and also caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from John Brantley to become just the fourth player in Southeastern Conference history to score six or more touchdowns in a single game.
"Unbelievable performance," UF offensive coordinator Steve Addazio said. "... Just played phenomenal."
How phenomenal? Tebow didn't do it until his 10th game as a starter and his 24th career game. This was Burton's fourth game, and he had just nine touches in his career before Saturday.
Burton scored on all five of his carries and ran for 40 yards. He also caught five passes for 37 yards.
"I'm blessed," Burton said. "The Lord's blessed me, and I'm really thankful for it. The offensive line did an awesome job and my receivers blocked down the field real hard. We got called out this week and did an awesome job. [Emmanuel] Moody and [Jeff] Demps and [Mike] Gillislee made it easy for me because they got it all the way down there. All I had to do was run 5, 6 yards."
Burton has become UF's most versatile player, lining up at quarterback, fullback, running back, tight end and wide receiver. He's also the backup quarterback and would take over as the starter in case of an injury to Brantley.
That's a huge role considering Burton was an early enrollee who struggled during the first week of spring practice. He looked lost, had a hard time completing passes and wasn't adjusting to the speed of the college game.
But he gradually became more comfortable and put on a show in the spring game: 123 yards and two touchdowns rushing and 120 yards and one touchdown passing.
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