GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Amid all of the developments and all the speculation, the Florida Gators and their outgoing head football coach still had a game to play this week. That's what made Will Muschamp so proud of what his team put on tape Saturday.
And a senior class very satisfied.
First, it was starting quarterback Treon Harris firing a pair of touchdown passes. Then, it was backup Jeff Driskel, the guy Harris replaced four weeks ago, coming off the bench to throw for three more scores and run for another. Yes, that was a passing game the Gators unleashed Saturday on Eastern Kentucky -- with two players eclipsing 100 yards receiving for the first time since Tim Tebow was chucking passes here -- and the end result was a 52-3 victory and satisfying swan song in The Swamp for a whole bunch of guys in orange and blue.
“The fun is winning games,” Muschamp said. “That's the bottom line.”
He didn't win enough to keep his job. UF announced last week that Muschamp, now 28-20 in his four seasons, would not return to coach a fifth in 2015. The news meant not only pressing on for the final two regular-season games, but also tightening the collective focus of a locker room full of players who still had plenty to play for.
Like qualifying for a bowl game, something the Gators (6-4) did not do a year ago for the first time since 1990 but accomplished by beating the Colonels (9-3) and checking off that required sixth victory.
“We wanted to go out and dominate them and win easily. We wanted to do impose our will on them. We did that,” senior linebacker Mike Taylor said. “We sent our coach out the right way. And us, as seniors, we left The Swamp with a victory, our heads held high and with a lot of smiles from a lot of people we made proud.”
Harris, the true freshman making his fourth start, had touchdown passes of 70 yards to senior Quinton Dunbar and 19 to sophomore Demarcus Robinson before giving way to Driskel, the fourth-year junior who promptly fired scoring tosses of 38 to Robinson, 29 to Dunbar and 28 to Mike McNeely -- all in the second half -- as the Gators erased a three-game losing streak at Florida Field.
When the numbers were tallied at the end, the Driskel-Harris two-headed QB had thrown for a 326 yards, with their five touchdowns equaling half of the 10 thrown in the nine games prior. The Gators (6-4) finished with 430 total yards, only 104 on the ground.
Robinson (4 catches, 137 yards, 2 TDs) and Dunbar (3 catches, 107 yards, 2 TDs) became the first UF receiving tandem to hit 100 yards in the same game since Tebow passed for a school-record 482 yards in his final UF game, a win over Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl.
Some Gators fans may wonder where that aerial potential had been over Muschamp's four seasons.
Just like some UF players may wonder about the decision regarding their coach.
“We don't have any control over what happened, but as players we really appreciate what Coach Muschamp has done for us and we love him as a coach and a person,” Driskel said. “It's tough, but at the end of the day we are happy that he came out of The Swamp with us.”
Muschamp will not coach the Gators in whatever bowl game comes calling -- those duties will fall to defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin on an interim basis -- but they will go to battle with him one more time when UF faces unbeaten and top-ranked Florida State, winners of 27 in a row, in their annual battle.
Several players were asked after the game if they recalled the last time the Seminoles lost a game.
Yes, it was a trick question.
“That was us, I believe,” senior offensive tackle Chaz Green said of Florida's 37-26 upset win in 2012 at Tallahassee, the signature win of Muschamp's tenure. “We got to make that happen again. I haven't watched them a lot this year and I know they're taking care of business. But, we'll be ready.”
They were ready for Eastern Kentucky, an FCS program out of the Ohio Valley Conference. The Colonels came armed with whatever means necessary to stay in the game. Give them credit for the nothing-to-lose mentality in trying a fake punt (that failed), an onsides kick (failed), a double-reverse (loss of four yards) and a fake field goal from the UF 11 (failed) -- all in the first half.
Said EKU coach Dean Hood: “It just felt like their defense was so good that we had to try to do some things to generate points.”
The Gators build a 10-0 lead behind a 48-yarder from Austin Hardin and 13-yard touchdown run by sophomore tailback Kelvin Taylor on the first two drives of the game.
The Colonels got on the board when Andrew Lloyd bombed a career-best 51-yard field goal to draw within seven points, at 10-3, but that margin lasted 22 seconds.
On first down from the UF 30 on the very next possession, Harris fired his 70-yarder to Dunbar, a play that kick-started 42 unanswered Florida points.
Harris only completed four of his 12 passing attempts, but for 164 yards and the two scores before giving way to Driskel, the former starter he replaced after six games. Driskel was sharp in finishing 9-for-11 for 164 yards and his three scores.
He also had a 1-yard scoring run in the third period, all part of that 42-point onslaught that buried the Colonels, capped the day's final touchdown, a toss to wide-open McNeely, the senior former walk-on who became the fake-field goal hero in the Georgia game.
What a way to go out for him. Not bad for his classmates, either. And nice one for the coach, though he hesitated to acknowledge it.
Of course, he did.
“It'll hit me when the season is over,” Muschamp said. “I've already switched gears to next week. That's just what we do.”
