FINAL: Florida 41, South Carolina 39

Saturday, October 14

Columbia, S.C.

3:30 p.m.

Florida Gators

5-2 , 3-1

South Carolina

2-4 , 1-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Florida

South Carolina

Chris Harry's Quick Slant powered by Ticketmaster

FINAL: Florida 41, South Carolina 39

Saturday, October 14, 2023 | Football, Chris Harry

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

THE QUICK SLANT
FLORIDA 41, SOUTH CAROLINA 39

WHAT HAPPENED: Quarterback Graham Mertz passed for a career-high 423 yards and three touchdowns, including a go-ahead 22-yard scoring strike to Ricky Pearsall with 47 seconds to go, as Florida rallied from 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter Saturday night to defeat host South Carolina 41-39 at Williams-Brice Stadium at Columbia, S.C. The Gators trailed 37-27 with just over nine minutes to go, but Mertz, the transfer from Wisconsin, led the offense on a pair of 75-yard scoring drives to take the lead. UF's first march was capped by a 4-yard pass to redshirt freshman tight end Arlis Boardingham. The second, which came after a rare stop by the Florida defense, was aided by a crucial fourth-and-10 completion of 26 yards to Pearsall, who five plays later split the South Carolina secondary for the game winner. Mertz finished 30 of 48, with 10 of those completions going to Pearsall for 166 yards. Together, the pair ignited the UF offense for 494 yards of total offense. Maybe of more significance, the Gators took a step giant toward solving their road issues, winning for just the second time in nine road games under Coach Billy Napier and for just the third time in 18 games away from Gainesville, dating to the 2020 Southeastern Conference Championship Game. South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler had a sensational night, hitting 23 of his 30 attempts for 313 yards and four touchdowns against the No. 1-ranked pass defense in the league. Rattler, however, was responsible for the game's first turnover when on the drive that followed UF's go-ahead score he badly underthrew a deep ball that was intercepted by Gators sophomore safety Miguel Mitchell with just 20 seconds remaining. USC had all three timeouts left and Florida opted to take a fourth-down safety with eight seconds to go. The Gamecocks' last-ditch attempt at lateral trickery on the free kick turned into a fumble that was recovered by UF. The first half was an up-and-down, back-and-forth affair with scores on eight of 11 possessions and four lead changes, with the Gators taking a 24-21 advantage to the locker room following sophomore Trey Smack's third field goal of the half. The two teams swapped field goals to start the second half, but the Gamecocks surged ahead with a 3-yard scoring toss from Rattler to Juju McDowell and a 33-yard screen play to tight end Joshua Simon that put the home team ahead by 10 with 9:11 left and set the stage for UF's emotional comeback. The Gators, with Montrell Johnson Jr. getting 50 yards and Trevor Etienne 49, managed to rush for just 71 yards on 33 carriers against a Gamecocks defense giving 141.7 per game. Boardingham caught five passes for 55 yards and his score. True freshman wideout Eugene Wilson III had six receptions for 83 yards, including a tipped ball off the hands of Pearsall during the final drive that was good for 22. Redshirt sophomore wideout Kahleil Jackson had two receptions for 52 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown in the first half. USC worked UF for 152 yards on the ground, including 98 yards from Division II transfer tailback Mario Anderson, while wideout Xavier Legette caught five passes for 110 yards. The Gators converted just four of 15 third downs (0-for-7 in the second half), but went 3-for-4 on fourth down in the fourth quarter (the lone miss being the give-up safety late), with all three conversions on TD-scoring drives. Smack hit field goals of 48, 44, 28 and career high-tying 54, but also had one blocked, which was Smack's first career miss in 11 attempts.

**Graham Mertz** in action during his career day.

WHAT IT MEANS: Could this be the catapult game for Napier and the Gators? Winning on the road is difficult in the SEC and has been nearly impossible the last several seasons for this program. Be truthful. How many of you out there in Gator Nation saw a win coming after falling back by 10? This one deserves to be celebrated.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Mertz came into the game completing a sterling 80 percent of his passes on the season. He hit just 62.5 against the Gamecocks. I'm sure he'll take the tradeoff. Mertz's 423 yards were the 14th single-game highest in UF history and most since Kyle Trask threw for 433 against Tennessee in 2020.

STAGGERING STATISTIC: The double-digit, fourth-quarter road comeback was the first for the Gators since rallying from 11 down in the fourth at Kentucky en route to a 29-21 win on Sept. 14, 2019. The team had lost 17 consecutive games when trailing by at least 10 points. That streak is over.

UP NEXT: Florida (5-2, 3-1) has its bye week Oct. 21 then returns to SEC action Oct. 28 with the annual rivalry showdown against Georgia in Jacksonville. The two-time reigning national-champion Bulldogs (7-0, 4-0), who rolled Vanderbilt 37-20 on the road earlier Saturday, have won five of the previous six in the series (UF's lone win was during the 2020 pandemic-altered season), with those victories coming by an average margin of 22 points.