Few teams will ever finish a game the way No. 7 Florida did against Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.
Backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett led a touchdown drive to tie the game with 1:42 left, and the Gators won it on a blocked punt that Jelani Jenkins returned for a touchdown with two seconds remaining for a stunning 27-20 win at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
“That’s what you dream about, no matter who it’s against,” said Brissett, a sophomore from Dwyer High School. “You want the game to come down to you.
“That last drive is probably the best feeling you’ll have in the world.”
The punt block was even more exhilarating. With the score tied at 20, Loucheiz Purifoy raced in from punter Brett Baer’s right side and lunged in front of him at ULL’s 22-yard line, sending the ball sputtering sideways toward the line of scrimmage.
Improbably, the deflection went straight to Jenkins — he barely moved to catch it — and the right sideline was wide open. He raced 36 yards for the game-winning touchdown.
“I was surprised that I happened to be there,” Jenkins said. “It came right to me, and I tried to run as fast as I could.”
Purifoy said he stuck his arm in front of Baer just hoping to get a piece of the ball. When he saw Jenkins catch it, he thought, “Run, please. Just get in the end zone.”
He did, and a few moments later the Florida players rushed out in celebration after avoiding an embarrassing upset against a 27-point underdog.
“Anytime you see the seventh-ranked team storm the field like they’ve won the Super Bowl, you know you’re doing some good things,” ULL coach Mark Hudspeth said.
Florida (9-1) was in serious danger before the heroics. It led just 10-3 at halftime and was losing 17-13 with 4:32 left in the third quarter.
The Gators were down 20-13 with 2:56 remaining when they got the ball for the final time. Brissett, still trying to find his rhythm after jumping into the game in the third quarter, hit tight end Jordan Reed for 39 yards down the middle and on the next play rolled out for a 3-yard touchdown pass to Quinton Dunbar with less than two minutes left.
Starting quarterback Jeff Driskel went down with a sprained right ankle with about five minutes remaining in the third quarter. Coach Will Muschamp said there are no broken bones, but he is unsure of the severity of the sprain.
Driskel, also a sophomore, beat out Brissett for the starting job in September, and Brissett had only played twice in the past eight games. Coaches and teammates praised him for his dedication and preparation each week even while knowing he was unlikely to play. They constantly tell him “one snap away” to remind him how important his job is.
“The hardest thing is to stay on track,” Brissett said. “The motivation part is hard, but the ‘one snap away’ is real. That’s what I had to take with me going to watch film every day and making sure out at practice I’m really locked in.”
Muschamp added, “I’ve got a lot of confidence in him, and we didn’t even blink. … He did a fantastic job.”
Brissett finished 6-of-8 passing for 64 yards and a touchdown. Driskel went 13-for-16 for 98 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown pass to Trey Burton just before halftime.
The remarkable ending overshadowed another poor performance by Florida’s offense, which lasted six plays or fewer on 10 of its 12 possessions. The Gators have scored three offensive touchdowns in their past three games.
Driskel and Brissett scrambled out of the pocket most of the afternoon because their offensive line had trouble holding off ULL’s four-man rush. The Ragin’ Cajuns (5-4) had five sacks and two other tackles for loss.
The Gators overcame those problems, though, signaling to Muschamp his team is far tougher than it was last year.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys that are playing together, playing for each other,” he said. “They have a strong belief in what we’re doing and where we’re headed. The future’s bright.
“I told the guys how proud I was to be their head football coach. I see a football team that certainly has made some positive strides with where we need to be.”
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