Tide Too Much for Gators in 29-15 Roll to SEC Title

Saturday, December 5

Atlanta, GA

4:00 PM

Florida Gators

10-3 , 7-1

Alabama

12-1 , 7-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Florida

Alabama

Tide Too Much for Gators in 29-15 Roll to SEC Title

Saturday, December 5, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry

Box Score

By: Chris Harry

ATLANTA — Heisman Trophy frontrunner Derrick Henry rushed 44 times for 189 yards while quarterback Jake Coker threw a pair of touchdowns Saturday as No. 2 Alabama defeated No. 18 and heavy-underdog Florida 29-15 in the 2015 Southeastern Conference Championship at the sold-out Georgia Dome.

The win gave the Crimson Tide (12-1) their 25th league title and left them an obvious choice for one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff field to be announced Sunday.

The Gators (10-3), denied their quest for a ninth conference crown, got a title-game record 85-yard punt return from freshman wideout Antonio Callaway and a way-too-little, way-too-late 46-yard touchdown pass from Treon Harris to C.J. Worton in losing for the second week in a row. UF managed just 180 yards of total offense and at one point netted minus-17 yards over nine possessions that spanned the second, third and fourth periods, as Alabama rolled to a 29-7 lead.

"Look, you have to play a whole game — offense, defense, special teams," Gators coach Jim McElwain said. "Our defense carried a lot of the burden, and yet, there was no quit in them. There's a lot to be learned from that."

Henry was named Most Valuable Player of the Game, with his workhorse effort coming a week after he carried 47 times for 271 yards and a couple TDs against rival Auburn. It pushed Henry, the junior from Yulee, Fla., to 1,985 yards for the season, eclipsing the league's single-season rushing record of 1,891 held for 34 years by Georgia icon Herschel Walker and left Henry just 15 yards shy of the rare 2,000-yard milestone.

Alabama became the first SEC program to win back-to-back titles since Tennessee in 1997-98.

"I'm very proud of this team," Tide coach Nick Saban said. "They wanted to do something special. And probably more than any other time I've ever coached, I wanted to see these guys succeed."

Coker hit wide receiver Ardarius Stewart for a 32-yard score in the third period and added a 9-yard touchdown to Richard Mullaney midway through the fourth, with Henry scored on a 2-yard run in between, as Alabama rolled up 27 unanswered points after falling behind 7-2 early in the second quarter.

The Harris-led UF offense actually outgained Alabama's unit 83-38 in the first quarter, but then did nothing (actually less) before the big pass to Worton. That score made for the UF offense's first TD in regulation since the third quarter of the Florida Atlantic game on Nov. 21.

"During the game you can't get frustrated, but you could see the frustration everybody had in their body language," Harris said.

Understandably so. Harris completed nine of 24 passes for 165 yards, the one touchdown and an interception. The Gators finished with 15 yards rushing, just 17 first downs, went 0-for-11 on third down and surrendered five sacks.

"We probably could have taken a few more shots, tried to stretch the field a little bit," McElwain said. "Protection was an issue against [Alabama's] front, which we kind of knew going in. But they competed their tails off."

Coker hit 18 of 28 attempts for 204 yards, the two TDs and was no interceptions. Alabama finished with 437 yards of offense, including 225 on the ground, and 25 first downs. The Tide ran 84 plays to the Gators' 45 and controlled the ball for 43 minutes, 28 seconds verus UF's 16:31.

UF fell behind 2-0 early when Alabama blocked a Johnny Townsend punt out of the end zone for a safety on the second possession of the game. Florida, though, had a special teams answer of its own when Callaway took off on his punt return to take a 7-2 lead and send the Gators faithful in the house into a frenzy.

The point-after was converted by Neil MacInnes, the walk-on dental student who won a student-body tryout during midseason amid UF's struggles to make a kick. Those struggles continued Saturday when Austin Hardin had a 40-yard field goal blocked, making him 5-for-14 for the season, with four blocked.

From there, though, it was a Tide wave.

A 28-yard field goal by Griffith drew Alabama to within 7-5. Bama regained the lead when Henry scored on his 2-yard touchdown after Coker made a gorgeous play fake into the line and hit freshman wideout Calvin Ridley for a 55-yard gain to the UF 3. To that point, the Florida defense had basically held Alabama in check. But on that play, Ridley was blanketed by safety Marcus Maye and cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III, but Ridley went up through the two defenders and came down with the catch, on a perfectly thrown ball from Coker.

Two plays later came Henry's 23rd rushing touchdown of the season with 2:26 remaining in the first half.

Alabama took the opening drive of the second half and went 65 yards in 12 plays, aided by a roughing-the-passer penalty against UF linebacker Jarrad Davis on a third-and-11 incompletion, and 13-yard pass from Coker to Stewart on fourth-and-2 from the Florida 38 before settling for Griffth's 30-yard field goal to push the lead to 15-7 at the 8:04 mark.

After yet another Florida three-and-out -- 10 of the Gators' first 12 possessions were three plays or less -- Coker threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Stewart on a third-and-4 play. Once again, Maye and Hargreaves were in excellent position in coverage. Once again, Bama's receiver (this time Stewart) knifed up through the two Gators and came down with the ball to take the lead to 22-7.

In the fourth period, the Tide went on a nine-play, 57-yard drive, with Coker hitting Mullaney in the end zone to make the score 29-7 with just under nine minutes left.

"It's very disappointing," UF junior linebacker Jarrad Davis said. "Experiencing this game is a positive thing. Now we know what it takes to get here and win this game. But it's hard to take this loss.

Florida's touchdown in the fourth quarter came on a three-play, 81-yard drive, with Harris completing passes of 17 yards to tight Jake McGee, 18 to slotback Valdez Showers, then the 46-yarder down the middle of the Tide secondary to Worton with just over five minutes remaining.

That play, Callaway's runback and the steadfast resolve of the defense were the day's highlights. Along with being back in the league's marquee event for the first time in six years.

"We're a program on the rise," McElwain said. "We'll have a good football team here -- a lot of them -- in the future."