Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jacob Tilghman had something he wanted to tell his dad. But if he did, Terry Tilghman had to keep it to himself.

"Don't tell anyone,'' Jacob told Terry at Florida's team hotel Friday night.

A former offensive lineman at East Carolina who is a member of the school's All-Time Offensive Team along with former NFL quarterback Jeff Blake and running back David Garrard, Terry Tilghman is no stranger to the ultra-competitive world of college football. Once he finished playing, Tilghman embarked on a 20-year college coaching career that began at his alma mater and later made stops at the University of North Alabama, Kent State and Stetson.

He retired from coaching when Jacob was a senior at Daytona Beach Mainland High to enter private business. Nowadays, he stays close to the game through Jacob, a fifth-year senior and the Gators' starting long snapper.

Just a few days after Jacob called his parents after practice to tell them UF head coach Dan Mullen had announced to the team that he was being placed on scholarship, Jacob told Terry of an important play he was going to be involved in the next night against Miami. When the Gators lined up to punt for the first time, they planned to fake it if they got the right look from Miami's formation.

The ex-coach in Terry bubbled to the surface.

"In the first game of the season, on your very first snap as the starter, against Miami on national TV, a sellout crowd,'' Terry recalled this week. "Talk about no pressure."

The Tilghmans didn't have to wait long until everyone at Camping World Stadium was in on their little secret. On the Gators' first offensive series in their 24-20 win over the Hurricanes, they faced fourth-and-3 from their 28.

In came the punting unit.

After four seasons of playing behind starter Ryan Farr, Tilghman beat out Brett DioGuardi and Marco Ortiz for the starting long snapper's job in a tight competition.
 
"We had a scholarship open for a long snapper. Now, I wasn't going to just by default give it to somebody,'' Mullen said Wednesday. "He had to go out there and earn it. In the complete combination of everything – not just timing, accuracy, cover ability and blocking ability within the scheme – [he] just edged out the other guys."

In for his first play as a starter, Tilghman made a perfect snap to punter Tommy Townsend, who according to script, took off toward the right sideline. Townsend outraced a Miami defender around the corner and picked up six yards before running out of bounds.

First down, Gators.

"We got the look we wanted and ran with it,'' Tilghman said. "The snap is not any different for me. I just got to block down on the backside and pick up a linebacker."

Added Mullen: "And did a nice job blocking on the play too."

Tilghman's role on the play went unnoticed in the moment. Long snappers prefer it that way since if they are mentioned during a game, it's usually when something goes wrong. But in the Tilghmans' row of the stadium, the snap on that fake punt was one of the biggest plays of the game.

On the very next play, quarterback Feleipe Franks tossed a screen pass to Kadarius Toney that went for a 66-yard touchdown to give the Gators the early lead.

Terry and Jacob's mom Jennifer were at the game with their daughter Jordan and oldest son, Terry II and his wife. It happened to be Terry II's 28th birthday.

"It was really a special moment for us,'' said Jacob, who is currently in graduate school studying sports management. "It was a lot of fun."

Growing up, Tilghman often spent time around practice when Terry was a coach and would practice snapping the football to pass time. The family moved to Florida after Jacob's freshman year of high school in Ohio when Terry took a job at Stetson as the school restarted its football program.

Always a good athlete, Tilghman drifted into becoming a long snapper by chance. During his sophomore baseball season at Mainland, one of the coaches was also a football coach. He mentioned to Tilghman that the team needed a tight end and long snapper in the upcoming season. Tilghman joined the team and helped the Buccaneers advance deep into the playoffs his junior and senior seasons.

As a senior, he snapped to a punter who is familiar to Gators fans: Jachai Polite. The two used to spend Sundays working together with assistant coach Dan Lundy, a special-teams guru who played at Miami and is known for his expertise in developing kickers.

Tilghman arrived at UF in the summer of 2015 and walked onto the football team only a few months after Farr. He was recruited by former Gators assistant coach Greg Nord, who recognized the surname on a recruiting visit because Nord was running backs coach at East Carolina for two seasons when Terry Tilghman played for the Pirates.

"That opened the door,'' Terry said. "Jacob has never been one to shy away from competition."

Four years later on a hot summer night in Orlando, Tilghman finally got an opportunity much more important than the few snaps he got last season in blowout wins.

"I love the game,'' Jacob said. "I was always going to stick it out. I was going to play my fifth year and hopefully earn a scholarship and get the spot and go out there and show them what I could do."