Fitting end for Muschamp & Gators

Tallahassee — The Will Muschamp era came to a familiarly bitter end Saturday night in Tallahassee Florida as the Florida Gators (6-5, 4-4 SEC) fell to the No. 3 Florida State Seminoles (12-0, 8-0 ACC) 24-19 at Doak Campbell Stadium.

The opportunities were there. The Florida Gators defense shot out of the gate forcing the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston to throw two interceptions in his first five pass attempts. Despite being able to start their first two drives on the Florida State 39 and 48, respectively, the Gators were only able to manage a pair of Austin Hardin field goals.

Hardin connected on a third field goal on Florida’s third offensive possession but the 9-0 lead felt hollow. The Gators had been given an early Christmas gift and rather than opening it, fumbled and broke it.

“We’ve had our opportunities,” Muschamp said. “You look at two other games where we had the game in hand and had our opportunities to get it done and we didn’t get it done. It falls on my shoulders, and that’s why they’re going to be looking for a new coach.”

With a 9-0 lead, the Gators defense once again came up huge early in the game when Brian Poole made an athletic play on a Winston pass for the quarterback’s third interception of the first quarter. It is the only time that a FBS quarterback has thrown three interceptions in the first quarter of a game all season.

Treon Harris took a snap from the shotgun and fired a bullet to tight end Tevin Westbrook. The converted defensive end who had a drop at the end of the game against LSU that would have given the Gators a lead, couldn’t handle the pass. The ball ricocheted off of Westbrook’s hands and hung in the air for what seemed like actual minutes before coming down comfortably into the grasp of Terrance Smith. The linebacker took off down Florida State’s sideline untouched for 90 yards into the end zone.

“He’s had some opportunities to make some catches. In that situation, catch the ball. That’s really the message: catch the ball,” Muschamp said. “We put you on scholarship at Florida. Catch it.”

Will Muschamp, Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, Florida
Will Muschamp talks after his final game as the head coach of the Florida Gators. / Gator Country photo by David Bowie

The Gators still had a two-point lead after the Roberto Aguayo extra point but it didn’t feel like it.

This felt familiar. Like Groundhog Day from Tuscaloosa where the Tide did everything they could to keep the Gators’ in the game with turnovers. Similarly, the Gators didn’t take advantage of it when they played the Tide in September and they couldn’t two months later.

Muschamp knew that field goals weren’t going to beat the Noles. A champion, Florida State would not go out like that, they would make Florida beat them. “You’ve got to get seven points in those situations, especially against a team like that, especially as explosive as they are.”

The Gators gave up 21-straight points after opening up their initial nine-point lead. Following the pick six, the Gators allowed a 12 play, 93-yard scoring drive that ended with a Nick O’Leary touchdown catch. The scoring drive was the longest that Florida had given up all season and was followed by an equally devastating eight play, 83-yard touchdown drive, again punctuated by O’Leary.

Florida would come back when Cason Beatty fumbled a punt, setting the orange and blue up at the Florida State 15. Harris found Clay Burton — a senior — for the tight end’s first touchdown catch of his career.

Now down just five at the break, admit it, you thought there was a chance.

You had watched all season long, as the Noles would let teams get out ahead of them only to come back in win in dramatic fashion. Still, with the knowledge of an entire season and four years of the Muschamp era, you allowed hope and optimism to creep up from your gut and into your head.

The Gators were going to do this thing.

Hardin kicked another field goal, his fourth of the night and the Gators trailed Florida State by just two. It was the first time the Gators had kicked four field goals in a game since September 17, 2011 at Tennessee.

This is real. This is happening.

Florida’s defense clamped down, suffocating Winston and the Florida State passing game.

“Three points in the second half,” Mike Taylor said of the defensive performance. “They had 17 points on us total. The offense gave up a touchdown. I feel we played well.”

Hardin would get an opportunity to kick his fifth field twice. A converted attempt would have been the first time Florida had connected on five field goals in a game since 1980.

But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Hardin would miss a 52-yard field goal with eight seconds left in the third quarter and a 42-yard try with 9:42 left in the game.

The Will Muschamp era came to an end when the Gators couldn’t complete seven consecutive passing attempts in a row on the final drive (the drive was extended because of a pass interference).

The last pass, Treon Harris’ 32nd of the evening was high and behind Demarcus Robinson. The athletic receiver was able to get his hands on it but the ball bounced off, harmlessly tumbling to the sod named after Bobby Bowden.

A fitting end to the Muschamp era. A dropped pass will be the last play that the Florida Gators run with Muschamp as head coach and his final game was just as disappointing as so many others have been.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC

3 COMMENTS

  1. The defense did their part in this game. Played hard the whole game. The offense lacks leadership which continues to hurt this team, though I was glad to see Kelvin Taylor call out Pittman during the game. KT showed urgency and accountability at that moment which was great. We need some big linemen and a QB to do the same. These two holding calls by NFL boy were killers. So was the tip by our TE that led to a 14 point swing. Abosolute killers for a mundane offense.

  2. Fitting end indeed…what perhaps made this season so frustrating was watching potential victories slip away. Bad efforts, poor play calls, idiotic penalties and overall offensive inconsistency. But, hitting other teams players pout of bounds? Really? Those guys should publicly apologize. It hurts the university. And, IMHO colors the program as ‘dirty’, which is the last thing we need. It’s not like it isn’t hard enough as it is…”Yeah, them Gators, not only is they poor losers but kind of cheap-shot thugs.” THAT is inexcusable only acceptable/forgettable with an apology. The difference in close close games can be a penalty or two. The overall effort was great. The “D” was outstanding. Even on offense they were slinging it around. NEEDED: please call the Gator athletic department if you are an offensive playmaker we need you! Go Gators.

  3. The out of bounds penalties are inexcusable, but let’s look to the genesis. You have a Gerald Willis who could have gone to any school in the nation – and All American recruit who had the size and speed to play in the SEC immediately. Yet he like so many other athletes on our team, Lane, Brantley, etc., etc., etc., were so grossly underutilized. Willis was clearly frustrated. He was wondering what could have been had he committed to his home state LSU or some other program which would have found a way to get such an incredible talent on the field.

    This has been an era of wasted talent dating back to the Meyer’s run. We struggle now to get elite talent to commit here under the circumstances that we have dealt with (losing records in the SEC) ,and when we do get talent here we don’t play the individuals that we were fortunate to get who would have played extensively with other programs.