Former UF quarterback Danny Wuerffel celebrates after the Gators beat Florida State to win the 1996 national championship. (File photo)
Gators' Top 10 Individual Performances in Bowl Games
Friday, December 30, 2016 | Football
Share:
Florida faces Iowa on Monday in the Outback Bowl, the school's 43rd all-time bowl game.
By: Mike Huguenin, Special to FloridaGators.com
Editor's Note: This story appears in the latest issue of Two Bits, the official magazine of Florida Athletics.
*****
Florida's appearance in the Outback Bowl on Monday is the Gators' 43rd postseason game ever.
There certainly have been some memorable bowl games – the Sugar Bowl win over hated rival Florida State for the school's first national title after the 1996 season, the wins in the BCS national championship games following the 2006 and '08 seasons, the win in the 1992 Gator Bowl in heavy fog that obscured the field for some fans, the manhandling of unbeaten West Virginia in the Sugar Bowl after the 1993 season, the 1980 Tangerine Bowl victory that put the capper on an 8-4 season following the 0-10-1 campaign in 1979.
Well, there also have been some memorable individual performances by Gators in the previous 42 bowls.
Here are the 10 best:
*****
10. QB REX GROSSMAN
The game: Orange Bowl following 2001 season. The skinny: Steve Spurrier's first game as Florida coach in 1990 featured a noteworthy performance from his quarterback – Shane Matthews was 20 of 29 for 332 yards and a touchdown in a 50-7 demolition of Oklahoma State. Spurrier's final game as Florida's coach also featured a noteworthy performance from a quarterback – Grossman, who did not start because of a violation of team rules, came off the bench in relief of Brock Berlin to torch Maryland's defense in a 56-23 demolition of the Terps. Grossman was 20 of 28 for 248 yards and three touchdowns. He tossed scoring passes to Taylor Jacobs, Jabar Gaffney and Carlos Perez. The Gators rolled up 659 yards against the ACC champs.
*****
9. DE PRESTON KENDRICK
The game: Sugar Bowl following 1974 season. The skinny: Nebraska beat the Gators 13-10 in a game remembered for Tony Green's "how-can-that-not-be-a-touchdown?" run more than anything else. That's too bad, in a way, because Kendrick had the best game of his life. Kendrick, a former walk-on from Miami who was the younger brother of ex-Gators fullback Vince Kendrick, had 12 tackles – including eight solo stops – and two interceptions in the loss in his final game as a Gator. In all, Florida had four picks of future NFL first-rounder David Humm. Kendrick was an All-SEC selection that season and was a third-round choice in the 1975 draft by San Francisco.
*****
8. RB LARRY SMITH
The game: Orange Bowl following 1966 season. The skinny: Quarterback Steve Spurrier had won the Heisman, but Smith, a sophomore from Tampa, stole the show in the 27-12 win over Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets scored first, but the Gators took control when Smith sprinted 94 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter for a 14-6 lead; it's tied for the fourth-longest run in college bowl history. Smith finished with 187 yards on 23 carries and was the game's MVP. The touchdown run forever will live in Gator lore because, as the story goes, Smith's pants began to slip down during the run. But that wasn't necessarily the case. From floridagators.com: "My pants never came off. My hip pads slipped a little bit, but my pants did not. It was more of an illusion."
*****
7. RB FRED TAYLOR
The game: Citrus Bowl following 1997 season. The skinny: Taylor was a standout player throughout his Gators career, and he finished his Florida career in grand style. In the 1997 regular-season finale against FSU, Taylor had the best game of his college career – 22 carries for 164 yards and four touchdowns, including a 1-yard game-winning plunge with 48 seconds left in the 32-29 upset. He then had 43 carries for 234 yards in a 21-6 Citrus Bowl win over Penn State. Though he did not score, Taylor provided the bulk of UF's offense (the Gators had 397 total yards). Taylor and the Gators outrushed the Nittany Lions 254-47. His 43 carries are a single-game school record and the second-most in a bowl in college history (the record is 46 by Tulsa's Ron Jackson in the 1991 Freedom Bowl). Taylor's yardage total is second in school history to Emmitt Smith's 316 against New Mexico in 1989. It is one of just seven 200-yard games in school history.
*****
6. DE DERRICK HARVEY
The game: BCS national championship game following 2006 season. The skinny: Florida wasn't given much of a chance to beat unbeaten Ohio State in the national title game, but Harvey and his defensive teammates scoffed at that sentiment. Florida's defense was dominating, stifling, tremendous, incredible, suffocating – any positive adjective you can think of. The high-flying Buckeyes, quarterbacked by Heisman winner Troy Smith, managed just 82 total yards as the Gators rolled to a 41-14 rout. Harvey had four tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery; the fumble recovery came at the end of the second quarter and set up a Gators touchdown with just 23 seconds left in the first half that put the final nail in Ohio State's coffin. Smith was sacked five times in all and finished the night with minus-29 rushing yards on 10 carries.
*****
Percy Harvin saved one of his best games for last when the Gators beat Oklahoma to win the 2008 national title. (File photo)
5. WR PERCY HARVIN
The game: BCS national championship game following 2008 season. The skinny: Harvin had missed the SEC Championship Game, where the No. 2 Gators upset top-ranked Alabama, and his health was an issue leading up to the title game against Oklahoma. To OU's chagrin, he played – and played extremely well. He had 14 touches from scrimmage and did most of his damage as a runner, with 122 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries. His biggest play – and one of the biggest in a game filled with big plays by the Gators – was a 52-yard run in the fourth quarter that led to the field goal that gave UF the lead for good. On first down from UF's 22 right after the Sooners had tied it at 14, Harvin motioned into the backfield, took a handoff from Tim Tebow, followed pulling guard Carl Johnson into the line, then broke free on the play that turned the momentum to Florida's favor for good. Harvin also had five receptions for 49 yards in the 24-14 victory.
*****
4. QB STEVE SPURRIER
The game: Sugar Bowl following 1965 season. The skinny: The school record for passing yards in a bowl game before this Sugar Bowl was 79 yards by Tommy Shannon in the 1962 Gator Bowl. To say Spurrier crushed it is to put it mildly: He threw for 352 yards and two touchdowns and also scored on the ground in a 20-18 loss to Missouri. Spurrier led a furious fourth-quarter rally that fell short. Mizzou led 20-0 going into the fourth quarter, and coach Ray Graves decided to go for two after the Gators' first score, a 22-yard pass from Spurrier to Jack Harper. The try failed. Florida again went for two after the next touchdown, a 2-yard run by Spurrier. That failed, too, meaning that when the Gators scored again, a 21-yard pass from Spurrier to Charlie Casey, Graves had no choice but to go for two again. Alas, that try failed, too. Spurrier's performance was such that he was named the game's MVP even though he was on the losing side. His 352 yards stood as the UF bowl record until Shane Matthews threw for 370 – also in a losing cause in a Sugar Bowl – against Notre Dame following the 1991 season. And while bowl stats weren't used in compiling official NCAA figures until 2002, Spurrier's 352 yards was the third-highest single-game total in school history when he took over as coach in 1990.
*****
3. LB MIKE KELLEY
The game: Gator Bowl following 1969 season.
The skinny: While the aforementioned Kendrick and Harvey had noteworthy performances, what Kelley did against SEC champ Tennessee is one of the best single-game defensive performances in school history. A case can be made that the only better game turned in by a defender is Wilbur Marshall's tour de force against USC in 1982. Kelley had 17 tackles, a sack, an interception, a fumble recovery and a return of a blocked punt for a touchdown as the Gators upset the Vols 14-13 in Graves' final game as coach. Kelley's return of a punt blocked by Steve Tannen, one of the best corners in school history, provided the Gators' first touchdown. The interception had come earlier in the first quarter and ended the Vols' first drive of the game at the Gators' 9. Three days after the game, Vols coach Doug Dickey – a Gainesville native who had quarterbacked the Gators in their first bowl game (1953 Gator against Tulsa) – took over for Graves as coach.
*****
2. QB TIM TEBOW
The game: Sugar Bowl following 2009 season. The skinny: The Gators were the defending national champions and had spent the season atop the polls before losing to No. 2 Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Tebow made sure the '09 Gators would go out in style, though: He led Florida to a 51-24 evisceration of unbeaten Cincinnati, going 31 of 35 for a school-record 482 yards and three touchdowns; he also scored on a 4-yard run. Tebow and the Gators led 30-3 at halftime. All three touchdown passes came in the first half – 7-yarders to Aaron Hernandez and Deonte Thompson and an 80-yarder to Riley Cooper. Almost half – 16 of 31 – of his completions went to Cooper and Hernandez, who combined for 292 receiving yards. Florida piled up 659 total yards. Of Florida's top-10 single-game passing performances, Tebow's is the only one that came in a game not coached by Spurrier.
*****
1. QB DANNY WUERFFEL
The game: Sugar Bowl following 1996 season. The skinny: To numerous Gator fans, the 52-20 hammering of Florida State for the national title is the most memorable game in school history. Well, one of the most memorable players in Gator history had one of his best games in leading Florida to the rout – and the school's first national championship. Every Gator fan knows the back story: Top-ranked Florida fell 24-21 at FSU in the regular-season finale, and it looked as if all national title hopes were lost. But a confluence of events that started with Florida's 45-30 win over Alabama in the SEC Championship Game – Wuerffel threw six touchdown passes against a Tide defense that had allowed just five all season – meant that both teams knew the national title was at stake when the Sugar Bowl kicked off. Wuerffel simply picked up where he left off in Atlanta: Operating out of the shotgun formation for most of the game, Wuerffel threw for 306 yards and three TDs and also scored on a 16-yard run in guiding the Gators to the win. All three of his touchdown passes went to Ike Hilliard, including an electrifying stop-and-pop 31-yarder late in the second quarter. Hilliard hauled in the pass, then suddenly stopped at FSU's 13; as two Seminoles defenders ran into each other, Hilliard reversed field and strolled into the end zone. The first Wuerffel-to-Hilliard touchdown pass gave UF a 7-0 lead. The second was the 31-yarder that made it 24-10. The final one was an 8-yarder with 5:43 left in the third quarter that made it 31-20. Wuerffel's scoring run came with 13 seconds left in the third period for a 38-20 lead that ended any lingering doubt about the outcome.
-- Mike Huguenin is the managing editor of gridironnow.com, a SEC-centric college football website.
The skinny: Steve Spurrier's first game as Florida coach in 1990 featured a noteworthy performance from his quarterback – Shane Matthews was 20 of 29 for 332 yards and a touchdown in a 50-7 demolition of Oklahoma State. Spurrier's final game as Florida's coach also featured a noteworthy performance from a quarterback – Grossman, who did not start because of a violation of team rules, came off the bench in relief of Brock Berlin to torch Maryland's defense in a 56-23 demolition of the Terps. Grossman was 20 of 28 for 248 yards and three touchdowns. He tossed scoring passes to Taylor Jacobs, Jabar Gaffney and Carlos Perez. The Gators rolled up 659 yards against the ACC champs.
