A Stunning Win in a Stunning Season
Sunday, November 8, 2015 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The late-afternoon shadows had started to engulf Florida Field on Saturday when first-year Gators coach Jim McElwain faced one of the thorniest decisions of his first season.
The outcome was going to be one measured in lightness or darkness. There is no gray when you are playing for a division title.
The Florida offense, error-prone and lifeless for much of the day, had once again started with excellent field position and managed to drive to Vanderbilt's 25.
The Gators faced fourth-and-1 with 2 minutes, 27 seconds left. They trailed by a point to a Vanderbilt team that played like it had every intention to delay Florida's clinching of the SEC East for at least another week, perhaps longer.
McElwain had already opted to go for it three times on fourth down, failing each time.
“We're going to press the metal down and go score,'' he said. “When it works it's a great deal.”
This time McElwain chose the riskiest route imaginable.
He opted to call for kicker Austin Hardin, whose struggles this season have sounded alarms. Since Hardin made four field goals at FSU last season -- including a career-long 52-yarder -- he had made just 3 of 9, two of the misses coming in the loss at FSU when his right foot suddenly went cold.
Hardin was Florida's clear-cut best kicker in preseason camp, lost his job while injured to walk-on Jorge Powell, and when Powell suffered a season-ending knee injury at LSU, Hardin regained the job by default.
Still, the Gators held an open tryout two weeks ago that led to the addition of senior pre-dental student Neil MacInnes, whose first appearance resulted in a missed PAT after Kelvin Taylor's 3-yard touchdown run Saturday.
So with the game, the SEC East, a potential berth in the College Football Playoff all on the line, Hardin trotted out for a 43-yard attempt.
His teammates squirmed on the sidelines.
“I had a towel over my head,'' defensive end Alex McCalister said.
“Man, I was trying to watch it, then I didn't want to watch,'' linebacker Jarrad Davis said. “I was going back and forth from the sideline to the bench.”
Senior defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard passed as well, still troubled by a loss in high school when the kicker missed an extra-point in a loss.
“I heard the crowd's reaction and that's how I knew,'' Bullard said.
Hardin drilled the kick, prompting arguably the most unlikely words from longtime Gators play-by-play man Mick Hubert's mouth in a long time.
“Oh my! Hardin hammers it home!”
And just like that, on a day when it appeared the McElwain Magic might not be enough, the Gators somehow found a way to win.
“That was one of those tough ones to sit through,'' he said.
McElwain said the Gators stole one, which good teams often do on the road to a championship.
“He's probably going to arrest me for stealing,'' McElwain quipped, referring to his game-day bodyguard, Florida Highway Patrol trooper Calvin Long. “And I don't blame him. It's not like I'm excited about the performance.”
By the time the Gators reached the locker room and McElwain his postgame press conference, calmness had been restored. But immediately after the game, players and coaches and their families celebrated the program's first SEC East title since 2009.
Taylor and McCalister stood on the wall bordering the student section basking in the moment. McElwain hugged players and got a winning kiss from wife Karen. The crowd hung around longer than usual to share in the moment.
So much has happened in the six long years since Florida's last division title.
Tim Tebow graduated. Urban Meyer quit, then changed his mind, and then quit again before resurfacing at Ohio State and leading the Buckeyes to a national title last season. Will Muschamp returned to his roots, cleaned up the place but didn't win enough to stay around.
Offensive coordinators and quarterbacks shuffled through town like it was nothing more than a rest stop off Interstate 75. And just when the Gators looked like they had found their quarterback of the future, Will Grier was suspended for a year and Treon Harris took over.
Saturday was a day to celebrate the present and forget the recent past.
“It was something I haven't felt in awhile,'' defensive lineman Bryan Cox Jr. said. “I've never been close to anything this big and it feels really good.”
More than a half hour after the game, a group of McElwain's friends from Montana were still hanging out underneath the South end zone waiting on the man of the hour to exit the building.
They probably had to wait a while.
“I'm probably going to sit in the locker room for a while and just shake my head,'' McElwain said. “Wow, that was something else.”
It certainly was.
The same can be said for Florida's unexpected run of success in McElwain's first season.
The thumping of Ole Miss. The last-minute comeback against Tennessee. The defense dominating in wins over Kentucky, Missouri and Georgia. The upset bid that fell short at LSU.
And now a victory over Vanderbilt, Florida's first win when scoring less than 10 points since a 9-3 victory at Florida State in 1968 when McElwain was 6.
What's next?
“Karen and I will sit and smile and laugh a little bit,'' McElwain said. “And she'll say, 'quit thinking about South Carolina and enjoy this.' All I'll say, 'I can't, because that's how I'm built.' “
To be continued: the stunning story of Florida's 2015 season.
