http://college-football.si.com/2013/11/23/florida-gators-georgia-southern-will-muschamp/
Georgia Southern stuns Florida in game that could spell the end for Will Muschamp
November 23, 2013 @ 6:36 pm › Zac Ellis
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Tray Butler (26) and Georgia Southern racked up 429 rushing yards at Florida. (Michael Chang/Getty Images)
One year ago, Florida went 11-2 and played in the Sugar Bowl. In August, it entered the 2013 season ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll. Now, the Gators’ storied football program has hit a new rock bottom.
FCS Georgia Southern shocked Florida 26-20 in the Swamp on Saturday. There are numbers to consider — the triple-option Eagles (7-4, 4-4 Southern) completed zero passes and racked up a staggering 429 rushing yards — but the box score doesn’t capture just how epically the Gators (4-7, 3-5 SEC) have collapsed. They’ve dropped six straight games since opening the season 4-1, a skid that now includes their first defeat to an FCS foe in school history.
Perhaps no team has been hit with as many injuries as Florida, which has lost 10 players to season-ending ailments. Redshirt freshman quarterback Skyler Mornhinweg started the last two games as a result of injuries to Jeff Driskel (leg) and Tyler Murphy (shoulder). Yet none of that excuses this result, which seems both stunning and, in a way, inevitable.
Mornhinweg found senior wide receiver Solomon Patton for a 46-yard touchdown with 5:41 remaining in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 20, but Georgia Southern quarterback Jerick McKinnon — who carried nine times for 125 yards — ran for a 14-yard score on the ensuing possession to regain the lead. (The Eagles missed the PAT.) On Florida’s final drive, Mornhinweg completed six passes to move the Gators to the Georgia State 17-yard line. But his two heaves toward the end zone fell incomplete, the last one as time expired.
This loss may well signal the end for third-year head coach Will Muschamp, who received the “1,000 percent” backing of athletic director Jeremy Foley earlier this month. As the Twitterverse was quick to point out, there are bad seasons … and then there’s this.
Now the Gators face the near-impossible task of rebounding in time to face second-ranked Florida State next Saturday. That clash will bring the end of Florida’s season, as it can no longer reach a bowl game. Can the players turn around and hang with an in-state rival that seems bound for the BCS title game? Or will the Gators fall even further into historically bad territory?
Earlier this week, Florida redshirt sophomore linebacker Michael Taylor told the Miami Herald that Georgia Southern was an opponent to be taken seriously.
“If you don’t come out prepared and ready to play, you can lose to anybody. We lost to Vanderbilt. We hadn’t lost to Vanderbilt in 20-something years,” junior linebacker Michael Taylor said. “Any team is capable of losing on any day. I know this team put up 352 yards on [Georgia] last year, so this is no team to push aside. This is a team to be prepared for.”
In retrospect, those words ring truer than perhaps any of Florida’s coaches, players or fans could have previously imagined.
Georgia Southern stuns Florida in game that could spell the end for Will Muschamp
November 23, 2013 @ 6:36 pm › Zac Ellis
↓ Leave a comment
Tray Butler (26) and Georgia Southern racked up 429 rushing yards at Florida. (Michael Chang/Getty Images)
One year ago, Florida went 11-2 and played in the Sugar Bowl. In August, it entered the 2013 season ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll. Now, the Gators’ storied football program has hit a new rock bottom.
FCS Georgia Southern shocked Florida 26-20 in the Swamp on Saturday. There are numbers to consider — the triple-option Eagles (7-4, 4-4 Southern) completed zero passes and racked up a staggering 429 rushing yards — but the box score doesn’t capture just how epically the Gators (4-7, 3-5 SEC) have collapsed. They’ve dropped six straight games since opening the season 4-1, a skid that now includes their first defeat to an FCS foe in school history.
Perhaps no team has been hit with as many injuries as Florida, which has lost 10 players to season-ending ailments. Redshirt freshman quarterback Skyler Mornhinweg started the last two games as a result of injuries to Jeff Driskel (leg) and Tyler Murphy (shoulder). Yet none of that excuses this result, which seems both stunning and, in a way, inevitable.
Mornhinweg found senior wide receiver Solomon Patton for a 46-yard touchdown with 5:41 remaining in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 20, but Georgia Southern quarterback Jerick McKinnon — who carried nine times for 125 yards — ran for a 14-yard score on the ensuing possession to regain the lead. (The Eagles missed the PAT.) On Florida’s final drive, Mornhinweg completed six passes to move the Gators to the Georgia State 17-yard line. But his two heaves toward the end zone fell incomplete, the last one as time expired.
This loss may well signal the end for third-year head coach Will Muschamp, who received the “1,000 percent” backing of athletic director Jeremy Foley earlier this month. As the Twitterverse was quick to point out, there are bad seasons … and then there’s this.
Now the Gators face the near-impossible task of rebounding in time to face second-ranked Florida State next Saturday. That clash will bring the end of Florida’s season, as it can no longer reach a bowl game. Can the players turn around and hang with an in-state rival that seems bound for the BCS title game? Or will the Gators fall even further into historically bad territory?
Earlier this week, Florida redshirt sophomore linebacker Michael Taylor told the Miami Herald that Georgia Southern was an opponent to be taken seriously.
“If you don’t come out prepared and ready to play, you can lose to anybody. We lost to Vanderbilt. We hadn’t lost to Vanderbilt in 20-something years,” junior linebacker Michael Taylor said. “Any team is capable of losing on any day. I know this team put up 352 yards on [Georgia] last year, so this is no team to push aside. This is a team to be prepared for.”
In retrospect, those words ring truer than perhaps any of Florida’s coaches, players or fans could have previously imagined.
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