Graphic: Kelly Streeter/UAA Communications
Catching Up With ... Arden Czyzewski
Wednesday, September 20, 2017 | Football, Chris Harry
Kicker was the hero of the last game the Gators won at the gun -- 28 years ago.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Arden Czyzewski was planted on his couch early Saturday night when the pass left Feleipe Franks' right hand and sailed high and in the direction of Tyrie Cleveland.
"Oh my gosh," he said Tuesday. "The game itself, there wasn't much to it ... but what a finish. Has to be one of the greatest in Florida history."
That's exactly why Czyzewski's cell phone rang that day. You see, Franks-to-Cleveland marked the first regulation "walk-off" win by a Florida football team in nearly 28 years, a run of 353 games. It was on Oct. 7, 1989 in Baton Rouge, La., that Czyzewski, who walked into Tiger Stadium that night as UF's backup field-goal kicker, was sent onto the field with one second remaining in a tie game between the Gators and LSU Tigers.
Czyzewski, a third-year sophomore with one measly field goal and a wobbly extra point on his career resume, stepped up and snuck a 41-yarder just inside the left upright to give Florida a dramatic 16-13 victory that was as memorable as it was bittersweet.
"It was a crazy time around there," Czyzewski said. "We all just wanted to play football, but there was always something coming up."
Was there ever. The next day, UF fired Coach Galen Hall amid a scandalous NCAA investigation that ultimately led to a house-cleaning in the football offices (including Interim Coach Gary Darnell), and, ultimately, brought Steve Spurrier back to his alma mater.
Czyzewski was not just a witness but a front-line participant to one of the greatest metamorphoses in college football history. At the time of that LSU kick, the Gators were viewed as an outlaw athletic program. At the time of his last kick, they were one of the most formidable football powerhouses in all the land.
Oh, and in his final season, Florida won the first Southeastern Conference football championship in school history.
"In the locker room after that [LSU] game, it was just very emotional. Coach Hall was crying," Czyzewski said. "The next morning, we were up for our regeneration run, everything was fine, and when we came back for our 4 o'clock meeting there were no coaches there. Five o'clock. Six o'clock. Seven. Still no coaches. Then something came on the television about it. That's how we found out."
That bizarre night on the Louisiana bayou would be the highlight of the 1989 season for both the Gators and Czyzewski. UF won its next two games to go 6-1 and jump to No. 20, but then came word of the suspension of several football players, including starting quarterback Kyle Morris (and a little-known QB named Shane Matthews), which continued the run of bad news. The Gators lost four of their last five games, including a 34-7 drubbing by Washington in the Freedom Bowl.
Along the way, Czyzewski suffered a freak injury when he blew out his knee playing catch on the bad-beyond-belief Florida Field turf.
From there, things got better.
"Yeah, much better," said Czyzewski, now 48 and affable as ever. "When Coach Spurrier came in he brought us stability, brought us encouragement and confidence. We all bought into the system in a hurry. No coach or player on that [1990] team had done anything wrong and when the NCAA hit us with probation that was the last bit of motivation we needed, as if we needed any, to run the table in '91 and win that first official one."
THE ARDEN CZYZEWSKI FILE
UF YEARS: 1987-91
POSITION: Placekicker and punter
HOMETOWN: Tampa
SINCE: Not long after graduating in 1992 with a degree in Tourism, Event and Recreation Management, Czyzewski married his college sweetheart, Maria Galloni, also a star athlete for the Gators as a six-time Southeastern Conference high-jump champion and three-time All-American. She was also a member of the 1992 NCAA Indoor championship squad, still the only UF women's track team ever to claim a national title. Czyzewski and his wife have two children — son Logan (21) and daughter Ava (16) — and lived in Boston for 14 years before returning to their home state and settling in Windemere, Fla., where he's the senior athlete marketing manager for Puma (as in Rickie Fowler).
IN HIS WORDS: On the famous game-winner at LSU: "One of the best things I did as a kicker, I would visualize everything. And during the time before that kick, I went back to the 50-yard line and I stared up at the goal post [which was 60 yards away]. When they blew the whistle, I walked up to my spot, which from [41] yards looked like an extra point. And I made it."
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* Kyle Morris
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