The chilly 60-degree temperature and an opening-drive fumble by Florida created a scene Saturday in the Swamp eerily similar to the last four weeks for the Gators.
Florida’s first two drives against the Vanderbilt Commodores ended in a fumble near the goal line and a missed 49-yard Caleb Sturgis field goal. Then the sun came out in the Swamp and Florida’s offense erupted for a 17-0 halftime lead en route to a 26-21 victory.
Florida fought off a second-half comeback in which the Commodores outscored Florida by nine points. Handling adversity is no secret for Florida, head coach Will Muschamp said.
“That is what they have been all year. I told them a long time ago and I said it: Adversity creates division or it unifies you,” Muschamp said. “They continue to fight. These guys have pulled together. You couldn’t walk on our practice field and see on Monday or Tuesday of this week – if we ever opened it – and see a team and know a difference if we were 5-4 or we were 9-0 by the way they compete on the practice field.”
Saturday’s homecoming win was a tale of two halves offensively for Florida.
The Gators notched the first points on the scoreboard when backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett used his 6-foot-3 frame to score on a 1-yard sneak with 8:39 left in the second quarter. On the ensuing Florida drive, a 5-yard Jeff Demps touchdown run capped off a seven-play, 60-yard drive.
Florida’s offense gained 280 yards of total offense in the first half.
The next two quarters featured a Florida offense that was outgained by Vanderbilt 130 yards to 258 yards.
Starting quarterback John Brantley said the Gators wanted to start out the second half fast, but the offense stalled.
This is a concern, Muschamp said, but the blame should not fall squarely on the offense.
“I think as much as anything, we need to get some stops defensively,” Muschamp said. “You affect each other (offense and defense), whether we think we do or not. We all want to say when it is a low-scoring game that the defense played real good and the offense didn’t. Well, no, you complement each other in every game. We had some critical times in the game where we could have made some stops on defense and we didn’t.”
Vanderbilt’s second-half resurgence was in large part due to starting quarterback Jordan Rodgers’ ability to find open receivers outside the pocket.
Down 20-7 on 4th and 12 at Florida’s 35-yard line, Rodgers scrambled out of a possible Jaye Howard sack and threw a 17-yard pass to wide receiver Jordan Matthews for a first down.
Rodgers scored six plays later on a quarterback draw from eight yards out to put Vanderbilt six points down.
Gators linebacker Jon Bostic said Rodgers’ running ability broke the defense’s containment.
“They started doing some different things,” Bostic said. “[Rodgers] is a good runner. That was our mentality all week—to stop the quarterback runs. Towards the end of the game, he was scrambling a lot buying some time for his receivers to get open downfield.”
Rodgers, only a sophomore starting his third career game, finished with 297 yards passing and two touchdowns.
Florida’s Brantley held his own against the younger brother of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Brantley completed passes to eight players, which he said was huge to be able to run an efficient offense.
“It tells defenses that we don’t like to focus on one receiver,” Brantley said. “Like I have said all season, I trust all of our receivers no matter what happens. They just went out there, ran the right routes, blocked great in the run game and just opened up everything for us.”
For the Gators, Saturday’s win against Vanderbilt moved the Gators to 5-4, just one win away from qualifying for a bowl game.
The mood in the locker room was ecstatic. Players were jumping around and singing, Gators defensive end Earl Okine said.
After four straight losses, Florida knew it had to find a way to end the streak, Bostic said.
“We have been through some tough times these last four weeks,” Bostic said. “We had to come out and knew we had to get a win today. It wasn’t the prettiest, but we came out with the ‘W’”.