Junior tailback Lamical Perine rushed for a career-high 121 yards and caught four passes for another 93 yards receiving in helping pace a UF offense that tallied a season-best 576 yards of total offense. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Gators Storm From 18 Down at Vandy for Fifth Straight Win
Saturday, October 13, 2018 | Football, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The start was error-filled, the middle was ugly, but the ending Saturday was oh-so-satisfying for the surging Florida football team.
The 14th-ranked Gators staked host Vanderbilt to an 18-point first-half lead, then methodically cut into the margin with a run of four straight scores and 24 unanswered points on the way to a 37-27 victory and fifth straight win that equaled the largest road comeback in UF football history.
Junior tailback Lamical Perine tallied career highs of 121 yards rushing and 93 receiving and was the big-hitter for an offense that cranked out a season-best 576 total yards, 31 first downs, 12 of 19 third-down conversions to go with three of three fourth-down conversions. Sophomore quarterback Feleipe Franks had his finest game as a Gator, hitting 19 of 29 attempts for a career-high 284 yards and junior running back Jordan Scarlett ran for 113 yards, including 48 for the go-ahead touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to give UF its first lead of the game. The big offensive numbers allowed the Gators to overcome a season-worst three turnovers.
Along the way, the two coaching staffs — led by their two head coaches — engaged in an unflattering verbal back and forth while Vanderbilt's medical team was tending to an injured player near the Florida sidelines, a development that led to the ejection of two UF linebackers.
The incident (and its fallout) sparked a fire up and down the UF bench.
"They got our coach all riled up," Perine said. "And that got us all riled up."
Added Scarlett: "We had made a lot of mistakes early in the game, and mistakes happen in football. It's how you fight through adversity and how you respond [that matters], and I think we responded really well."
Tailback Jordan Scarlett gets an end-zone lift after his 48-yard, go-ahead touchdown run on the first play of the fourth period. The Gators, who came from 18 points down, never trailed again. (Photos: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
The win was just the beginning of what became an even bigger day for the Gators (6-1, 4-1), who on the return flight from the Music City learned that No. 2 and previously unbeaten Georgia lost at LSU, throwing UF into a tie with UGA atop the Southeastern Conference East Division standings, with idle Kentucky a half-game back. Florida and Georgia both are off next week in advance of their Oct. 27 annual rivalry clash at Jacksonville.
It's October in college football. Anything can happen.
And pretty much did at Vanderbilt Stadium.
"This team is learning a lot of different ways to win games," Mullen said of a club that already has two more wins than it totaled last season. "In [this] game, we didn't really follow our plan to win. We have won some games following the 'Plan to Win' exactly. We have won games making big explosive plays, we've won with a drag out, back-and-forth brawl. We came in [this time] and didn't follow the 'Plan to Win.' "
The Gators certainly made it tougher on the themselves from the start.
After the UF defense forced a Vandy three-and-out on the opening possession, the Gators got first downs on their first three snaps, and along with a 3-yard keeper on fourth-and-1 by Franks, had a second-and-1 at the Commodores' 5 and all the momentum out of the tunnel. But Franks' second-down pass was tipped at the line and intercepted at the 2 by Vandy defensive back Joejuan Williams.
Tailback Ke'Shawn Vaughn, who would later leave the game with an undisclosed injury, got the Commodores out of the hole with a 43-yard run on first down. Quarterback Kyle Shurmur (18 of 36, 229 yards, 2 TDs, 1 interception) twice hit wideout Kalija Lipscomb for 15-yard completions, then zipped a scoring throw to tight end Jared Pinkney on third-and-goal from the 1 to take a 7-0 lead at 6:23 of the opening period. The drive was a nine-play, 98-yard gut punch that marked just the second time this season the UF defense surrendered points after the offense had committed a turnover.
But not the only time of the game.
The Gators cut into the deficit on their next possession by going 70 yards in a season-high 16 plays, bouncing back from a second-and-18 situation and also converting a fourth-and-1, but had to settle for a 21-yard Evan McPherson field goal after having a first-and-goal at the Vandy 7. Perine was the workhorse on the drive, accounting for 45 yards on nine touches, to make the score 7-3.
It stayed that way for 15 seconds.
On Vanderbilt's next snap, Shurmur dumped a screen pass to Vaughn, who turned and saw nothing but wide-open real estate in front of him. With a head of open-field steam, Vaughn cut through the secondary and went 75 yards for a touchdown to put the Commodores up 14-3.
A couple possessions later, UF appeared on the verge of cutting into that lead, thanks to a 33-yard punt return by Freddie Swain to the Vandy 38. The Gators reached the 24, but after a holding penalty came to the line for a second-and-20 that instantly became a second-and-disaster. Franks tried to run off the left side, but fumbled the ball, which bounced backward, a lot, thanks to several attempts by the Commodores to pick it up. A Vandy defender fell on it 37 yards later at the UF 28.
After two penalties against the Gators (first an offsides, followed by an unsportsmanlike conduct on linebacker Vosean Joseph), backup tailback Jamauri Wakefield blasted up the gut of the UF defense for a 7-yard touchdown that put the Gators in a 21-3 ditch with 6:42 to go in the first half.
"They made plays early," UF junior linebacker David Reese said. "Then we made our adjustments."
The outcome was no longer in doubt when Gators defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson made this interception in the game's final seconds, part of a UF defensive effort that limited the Commodores to just two field goals after halftime.
The Gators, specifically the coaches (take a bow, defensive coordinator Todd Grantham), have been doing that remarkably well the last few weeks.
"The team learned from our one loss this year," Mullen said in reference to the 27-16 home setback against Kentucky on Sept. 8. "When you get frustrated, we will get you coached up. Don't try to cowboy and do your own thing. We're going to make some adjustments, scheme some things up and make sure we are getting everyone in the right position. Some of it is just lack of execution. Don't go overboard trying to make a special play. Just execute cleaner, play a little bit harder, with a little bit more strain, and a little bit cleaner execution."
The Florida offense didn't shoot itself the next time it had the ball. Instead, the Gators went 75 yards in 12 plays, with a couple third-down conversions along the way, and Perine scored on a 7-yard run at the 2:30 mark to draw UF within 21-10.
Shortly thereafter, bedlam broke out.
A targeting call against Florida's James Houston IV on a punt return left Vanderbilt's Dare Odeyingbo helmetless and down on the field. As the Vandy trainers, along with Mason, tended to the player on the far side of the field, Mason got into a shouting match with someone on the Florida bench, with both Mullen and Grantham seen in heated verbal exchanges with the Vandy head coach.
Vanderbilt's players began running across the field, only to be halted by Mason and members of his staff. Ditto the Florida bench.
"We had a player down and their player said something directed at me and I said something back. That's what started it," Mason said later. "At the end of the day, we need to do our job of keeping the game safe and getting everyone out of there. I have respect for Dan. He respects the process and so do I. Football is an emotional game. If you don't play with emotion, what are you doing?"
When order was restored (sort of), officials ejected Houston for targeting and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were assessed on both benches. Because Joseph already had the earlier conduct call, he was ejected for the second, team-wide penalty, per NCAA rule. Joseph wasn't involved in the near-melee, but it didn't matter.
Once play resumed, the Gators started at their 15 with 1:47 to go before halftime. The clock was approaching 20 seconds when UF snapped a third-and-6 from the 29. Franks tossed a swing pass to the left flat that Perine took 63 yards down to the Vanderbilt 8 with seven seconds left, allowing McPherson to kick his second field goal, a 25-yarder, as the first half clock expired, to pull the Gators within 21-13.
Van Jefferson is off and running with his 38-yard touchdown reception that drew the Gators within a point in the third quarter.
Those 10 consecutive, relatively quiet points gave way to some more inspired action after the intermission.
Mullen and UF responded to a missed Ryley Guay field goal that would have pushed the Commodores back in front by two possessions. They did so by going to the ol' bag of tricks that had served the Gators so well the last two weeks. Still down by eight, Florida looked to have a dead possession on fourth-and-3 from its own 45 until Tommy Townsend ran for 18 yards out of punt formation, sprinting straight through the Vandy coverage for a first down.
"We'd been working on that play at practice and it's all about getting the right look," Townsend said. "We got the right look."
Two plays later, Franks hit wideout Van Jefferson for a 38-yard catch-and-run TD that made the score 21-20 with 5:23 to go in the third quarter.
Florida took its first lead of the game on its next possession and on the first play of fourth quarter. After starting at his own 5, Franks hit tight end Moral Stephens for a huge 26-yard completion on third-and-7 and faced a third-and-3 at the Vandy 48 when the third quarter ended. On the first snap of the fourth, Scarlett took an inside handoff, then broke untouched toward the right sideline and to the house for the touchdown and 27-21 lead.
UF wideout Freddie Swain goes airborne to clear a Vanderbilt defender and score on a 7-yard touchdown reception midway through the four quarter.
UF never trailed after that, but tried to.
A fumble by freshmen tailback Dameon Pierce, Florida's third turnover of the game, was recovered by Vandy at the UF 28, but netted only a 42-yard field by Guay, thanks to a defensive three-and-out. The Gators' newfound six-point lead, though, was trimmed in half. Florida hit right back with a nine-play, 75-yard drive that Franks finished with a 7-yard scoring toss to Freddie Swain for a 10-point edge, 34-24, with less than nine minutes remaining.
"It just shows the resilience that these guys have around me," Franks said. "We were down at halftime and you always just have to come back and keep fighting and play the next play."
The Commodores drove to another Guay field goal, a 53-yarder with 3:55 left to make it a seven-point game, but those points were canceled out by McPherson's third field goal of the game, a 43-yarder with 37 seconds left, to remove any doubt of the outcome.
The comeback equaled the 18-point road win on Sept. 27, 2003, when the Gators also trailed 21-3 and rolled back for a 24-21 win and the largest deficit overcome away from home in the UF football history.
As the final seconds ticked off, Mullen and Mason met at midfield and spoke during a lengthy hug-out that seemed to dismiss any notion of leftover bad blood.
UF coach Dan Mullen shares an embrace and a moment with Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason about two hours after the two were involved in a heated verbal exchange.
"We're not going to get into that publicly at all," Mullen said afterward. "Derek's a really close friend of mine and I think we both have to make sure, on our sideline, we're cleaner in that situation. I'm sure he probably thinks the same thing, But there's nothing carrying over from my end."
Nor should there be. The Gators have now set themselves up for some potentially high-stakes football down the stretch.
