COLUMBIA, S.C. — The ball was sort of suspended there like low-hanging fruit and it seemed like it took an eternity for it to come down into the hands of the hungry defensive lineman. He picked it out of the South Carolina sky like it was a delicious morsel, a sight to behold for those who earn their keep in the dirt.
Florida’s Justin Trattou was just getting up off the grass after having been cutblocked when he spied the ball after it had been tipped by defensive back Markihe Anderson.
To Trattou, it seemed like it took a full five seconds to descend. ”The ball was right there in the air and I just grabbed it,” he said. What he did next not only changed the game in which he was playing, but may have changed the course of the 2009 college football — if not history.
He calls himself a “normal guy from New Jersey,” but there was nothing normal about the way he pulled the tipped pass down and motored 53 yards down the field in one of the biggest plays in Florida football history. Four plays later, Tim Tebow scored his 53rd rushing touchdown and the No. 1 Gators escaped with a 24-14 victory.
“It was huge,” Meyer said of the Trattou interception. “The whole field was tilting (toward South Carolina) … Then the field shifted back and momentum completely swung. You felt it in the stadium. And then that play by Trattou will go down in history as one of the great plays.”
Not only was the field tilting, but it looked like it might turn upside down on the heads of the Florida Gators. Frankly, it looked like Florida was on the way to being upset by a 16-point underdog, coached by Steve Spurrier, who won 122 games and the first national title for the Gators.
So Trattou’s play was gi-normous, right up there in significance with the field goal block by defensive end Jarvis Moss which beat Spurrier’s 2006 team and led to a national championship season.
Everybody calls Tim Tebow Superman, but what Trattou did Saturday in Williams-Brice Stadium was downright Herculean, helping the nation’s No. 1 team stay unbeaten, improving its SEC record to 8-0 and preserving its 20-game winning streak with the 10th victory of the season.
Put it this way: The last time somebody created this big of a turnaround was when Lee Iacocca took over a bankrupt Chrysler and made it profitable (for a while).
South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia had just converted a fourth-and-two with a nifty scramble for a first down at the Florida 29 late in the third quarter with the Gators hanging on to a thread-like 17-14 lead. For just a moment, it looked like Garcia might be beating the opposition with his feet instead of Tebow doing it.
“Normal Jersey Guy”? Nah, This is not ordinarily the way a defensive lineman thinks. Once he had the ball Trattou had the navigational instincts to find the proper route on the field, took it up the middle and then headed toward the sideline where he had the presence of mind to find a convoy of white uniforms. He kept on chugging and chugging until it appeared he might have a shot at the end zone, but just as the crossed the 30-yard line he lost his balance, tripping over one of his blockers, Jermaine Cunningham, and fell at the 26.
“When I got the ball,” said Trattou, “I saw all my guys blocking. I heard them calling out blocks. I knew they had my back as soon as I got the ball. I just took off and started following them.”
For just a tiny moment he had visions of making the end zone. As a high school player he once got down to the two-yard line with an interception before he was stopped.
“I thought I was going all the way” he said of his big play Saturday, “but I tripped up. Next time we’ll get it in the end zone. I could have probably scored, but I did the best I could.”
This set up the long-awaited knockout punch Meyer had been hoping for all night.
There is also the matter of the torn bicep muscle in Trattou’s left arm. Doctors expected him to miss four to six games. He missed only one – Mississippi State. At times this year after the injury, the pain for Trattou was so excruciating that he amazed trainers, doctors and his coach. He said he wasn’t going to have surgery and miss the season. “If it’s a matter of a little pain here and there,” he said. “it’s not going to keep me out.”
“One of the toughest guys I’ve ever seen,” said Meyer.
Tough and smart. He carried the football in his right arm down the right sideline — just like a receiver or running back — and even kept his left arm free to stiff-arm one of the Gamecock tacklers. As a speed rushing tackle in the Joker package, he’s built more like a tight end at 6-3, 265 pounds. That size did not deter Notre Dame from coming after him, however, but he eschewed the Irish in favor of Urban Meyer and the Gators. It was a good decision for everyone — so much so that Urban sees a long-term future for him as a coach someday. Maybe with him.
On a night when the offense was having problems putting the Gamecocks away and executing scoring drives – thanks to a pair of dropped passes and three missed field goals – it fell to the Jersey Guy from Ramsey and Don Bosco Prep to provide the spark. Tebow finished it off with a one-yard scoring run which tied former LSU running back Kevin Faulk for most career SEC touchdowns (53).
After a second and third quarter of struggles, the Gators came alive with the big play, but Meyer said it has gotten to a point where he almost “expects somebody to do something” dramatic.
Trattou agreed that big plays are imminent on this defense. “Every week somebody has to step up,” he said “It’s usually somebody different every week. And we’ve been doing that all year.”
It took a bit of a tongue-lashing by defensive coordinator Charlie Strong who told them they were “not playing Gator defense” and a conscious decision for them to play with more joy, but it all led to the turnaround.
“The defense in the first half — we weren’t playing like we should,” said Trattou. “In the second half we started having fun and when our defense is having fun that’s when we’re at our best.”
It suddenly got a lot more fun on the first play of the fourth quarter, when the tough guy from New Jersey came to Florida’s rescue.