Florida Gators
Georgia
Gators Inch Closer to Atlanta With 27-3 Bulldozing of Bulldogs
Saturday, October 31, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Atlanta is 331 miles from Gainesville, but it's looking awfully close right about now.
Kelvin Taylor rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns, Antonio Callaway caught a 66-yard scoring pass and the Florida defense swarmed all over Georgia and its first-time starting quarterback, forcing five turnovers in a 27-3 smashing Saturday at EverBank Field that placed the 11th-ranked Gators in total command of the Southeastern Conference East Division.
In winning a second straight in the storied 95-game rivalry for the first time in five years, Florida (7-1, 5-1) needs only to defeat Vanderbilt next week or South Carolina a week later to clinch its first SEC Championship Game berth since 2009.
With the victory, the Gators matched their win total of last season on Halloween night -- with at least four games remaining -- and has been eliminated from nothing relative to the big picture of the 2015 college football season.
"It'll be interesting to me if we have become mature enough to handle the position we're in," said UF coach Jim McElwain, who took over a program that went a combined 11-13 the last two seasons. "I don't have the answer to that, but to me, that's going to be the key to what kind of ball squad we have."
If it continues to resemble the one that showed up against Georgia (5-3, 3-3) -- with a downhill running game and ferocious defense -- McElwain figures to be pleased.
"There's a good vibe on this team," said junior cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III, whose second-quarter interception and return set up UF's third touchdown of the half. "We still know we have more to accomplish, but we're going to enjoy this win, then see how the rest plays out."
Florida opened a 20-0 first-half lead and staved off any hope of a Dogs comeback by intercepting quarterback Faton Bauta three times in the second half. UF rolled to 413 yards of total offense, compared to Georgia's 223. As is so often the case in this series, the team that ran the ball ruled. Florida, which came into the game ranked 12 in the SEC at just 99.4 yards per game in league play, cranked out 258 yards on the ground. UGA was held to just 69.
"It's nice to have an offense that can score the ball and have a tremendous defense like we do. It's one of the things we've been missing the past few years -- offense," senior guard Trip Thurman said. "With any team, if one side of the ball is not doing their job correctly, it puts a burden on the other side of the ball and you end up pointing fingers. Obviously, we weren't able to score last year at times and we ended up losing a couple games the way we did."
But this team bears virtually no resemblance to last year's team. Or any in recent years, actually. This UF team does not beat itself. Case in point: In forcing five turnovers, the Gators pushed their giveaway-takeaway ratio to plus-13 this season, with just one turnover the last five games. It came Saturday and helped give Georgia its lone points of the game -- the Bulldogs' three points were their fewest in the series since 1984 -- and proved to be merely a footnote versus the ball-hawking UF defense.
Bauta, the fourth-year senior, had not attempted a pass this season yet found himself dodging Gators all day. He finished just 15 of 33 for 154 yards, no touchdowns, the four interceptions and was sacked twice.
"They whipped us up front," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "After a while, the dam is going to break when you have to keep going back out there after a three-and-out or a turnover."
The Gators got on the board first when Bulldogs return man Reggie Davis muffed a Johnny Townsend punt inside the UGA 5-yard line in the first quarter. The ball bounced into the end zone, where UF's Nick Washington recovered it for a touchdown on the final play of the quarter.
UF kicker Austin Hardin, who missed a 45-yard field on the game's opening possession, had his point-after blocked to keep the score 6-0.
The Gators punted on three straight possessions before quarterback Treon Harris struck for the big play to Callaway, the spectacular true freshman from Miami whose play woke up his team -- and the orange-and-blue side of the stadium -- from a listless first quarter and a half. It came after Harris opened with incompletions on nine of his first 11 pass attempts.
"At times it looked like they were right in the middle of our playbook," McElwain said. "But Treon made some plays when we had to."
Harris was under pressure when he rolled to his left and -- against his body -- lofted a perfectly thrown ball down the sideline. Callaway left Wednesday's practice with a foot injury, but seemed to moving just fine. He took the ball in stride, shook a Georgia defensive back, tight-roped the chalk and zipped into the end zone. Hardin's PAT made it 13-0.
Callaway finished with three catches for 110 yards, making him UF's first true freshman wideout with three 100-yard games in a season since Reidel Anthony in 1994.
"Guess he was faking it," Thurman joked of Callaway's injury earlier in the week. "No, he's a great player. For a freshman to come in and be as productive as he's been, it's just incredible."
On the Bulldogs' ensuing possession, junior defensive end Alex McCalister hit Bauta as he was attempting to throw. The ball popped high in the air downfield and UF cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III caught it and returned the ball to the Georgia 5.
Taylor scored two plays later to make the score 20-0, giving UF two touchdowns just two minutes and 27 seconds apart.
Georgia kicker Marshall Morgan got his team on the board in the third quarter with a 27-yard field goal that followed a Harris fumble, but that would be it for the Bulldogs. They had a chance to make it a 10-point game early in the fourth quarter, driving from their own 11 to the Florida 3. But Bauta, under pressure, had a tipped pass intercepted in the end zone by safety Keanu Neal.
The Gators took over and true freshman tailback Jordan Scarlett took off for a 60-yard run that set up Taylor's second touchdown of the game, a 16-yard run with 7:10 left that gave Taylor his third career 100-yard game -- his second against UGA -- to slam the door.
And move the Gators that much closer to the Georgia Dome.
"I just think we did our job today," senior defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard said. "Everyone understood how important the game was to our season. We just locked in and executed."
