It was déjà vu all over again.
It’ll have the Tennessee Volunteers and their fans feeling sick and it sent the Florida Gators and their fans into a frenzy with a 26-20 win.
It was “Train right open, big Ben In.”
For three quarters the Gators and Vols were deadlocked in one of the worst played football games Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Then the fourth quarter happened.
C.J. Henderson picked off the first pass of the quarter and returned it for a touchdown. That’s the freshman’s second pick six in as many games, becoming the first Gators player to do that since 1996. Tennessee’s next drive lasted seven plays and kept Florida’s defense on the field for 3:26 before Tennessee missed a field goal.
Florida freshman running back Malik Davis found a hole and took off. The Tampa product cut left and then up the field 72 yards but Justin Martin caught Davis from behind and punched the ball out. It rolled through the endzone, changing the scored from a potential 20-3 lead back to 13-3 and then 13-10 after Tennessee turned the fumble into a touchdown. Florida answered with its first offensive touchdown of the season, and first in eight quarters. The teams went back and forth but Tennessee ultimately tied the game with at 20 with just 50 seconds left.
Franks found tight end C’yontai Lewis for a three-yard pick up and Lewis got out of bounds. Franks scrambled for six and the Gators kind of just stood around as precious seconds ticked off the clock.
Five seconds, then six, the stands grew restless, center T.J. McCoy looked frantically at his sideline gesturing for them to call a timeout. They never did.
“I thought Feleipe got the first down where it was marked and I wanted to save (the timeout), in case we needed to get the field goal on, on an alert down situation,” Jim McElwain said. “I was kind of surprised there we didn’t get a measure.”
Mark Thompson subbed in and picked up the first down to stop the clock. That’s when the play call came in, but with a tie game McElwain was just thinking about getting into field goal range for Eddy Pineiro.
“The play was designed to get us into field goal range,” Powell said. “I guess Feleipe was thinking something different.”
Jonathan Kongbo shot off the line and right around Jawaan Taylor, Franks saw the pressure stepped up in the pocket and rolled to his right.
Seven seconds left.
He ran up to his 35-yard line, making sure not to cross it and watched as Tennessee’s defensive backs did the unthinkable.
They lost track of Florida’s best receiver, Tyrie Cleveland.
With Cleveland streaking down the field, Franks pulled up, wound up and heaved one up for Cleveland. The ball left his hand with four ticks left on the clock and found its home in Tyrie Cleveland’s hands with 0:00 on the clock.
The 63-yard touchdown equaled the Will Grier-Antonio Callaway connection. With Grier gone and Callaway spending more time suspended than actually playing football maybe this is a sign of a new life for the Gators.
Franks to Cleveland.