STARKVILLE, Miss. —
Dan Mullen was really in a win-win situation Saturday night.
If he had taken his new team, the Florida Gators, into Davis Wade Stadium and been beaten by his old team, Mississippi State, it would have been a testament to what he'd built during nine seasons leading the Bulldogs, as well as what he left behind, and a preview of what he could potentially construct at his current spot. If he prevailed … well … that would pretty much be self-explanatory relative to where his new program was headed, while providing a reminder of the good times he left behind.
In hindsight, maybe MSU fans shouldn't have rained so much disdain on Mullen in the run-up to his homecoming. Maybe, they should have just said, "Thank you."
Right about now, they're probably saying, "We miss you."
Trailing for the better part of 38 minutes, the UF offense put together a gutsy 10-point rally that bridged the last two quarters, then turned matters over to a ferocious, fire-eating Florida defense that finished things with a furious fourth-quarter display in 13-6 slugfest win before an ear-splitting, cowbell-ringing, Mullen-cursing crowd of 61,406.
'We came in here and we found a way to win a different style game," said Mullen, whose team blew out Tennessee 47-21 on the road last week, but found itself in an old-fashion slobber-knocker. "This week, we won by grinding it out. That's cool. It was a great win for us. As I've always said, in this league, you win two really tough road games, and one against a rival. Then, you play a top-15 team the next week, and then you head home and play a top-five team the next week."
Indeed, the Gators (4-1, 2-1), with three straight wins and back-to-back Southeastern Conference road victories for the first time since 2012, will be home next week against No. 5 and unbeaten LSU, but that's a subject for Monday.
Florida's fourth win equaled its total for the entire 2017 season and marked just the second victory in five trips here since the SEC expanded in 1992.
"We're going to enjoy this," said UF third-year sophomore quarterback
Feleipe Franks. "It was a fun road environment."
That's underselling it.
"It was kind of like bizarro world," Mullen said.
The crowd was amped, to be sure, with the cowbells clanging and music blaring at a ridiculous pitch to welcome back the coach who from 2009-2017 led Mississippi State to a 69-46 record and seven bowl games, along the way ascending the program in 2014 to its first-ever No. 1 ranking. It was
LOUD.
In time, it wasn't.
All-purpose wide receiver
Kadarius Toney threw the go-ahead touchdown pass to tight end
Moral Stephens midway through the third quarter, true freshman
Evan McPherson kicked an insurance field goal in the fourth quarter, and the Florida defense absolutely overwhelmed quarterback Nick Fitzgerald and his MSU offense, allowing just 202 total yards (a measly 43 in the second half), racking up six sacks (five in the second half) and allowing just two of 12 third-down conversions.
"This game meant a lot to a lot of people; to the seniors and to the people in the community," junior defensive tackle and All-America candidate Jeffery Simmons said. "As bad as we wanted to win this game ... it happened."
Blitzing safety Donovan Stiner flattens Nick Fitzgerald for a game-sealing sack with a minute left.
More happened for the visitors. Franks completed 22 of 31 passes for 219 yards, no touchdowns and an interception, but outplayed his far-more-hyped counterpart, Fitzgerald, considered a top-flight NFL prospect. Fitzgerald, the senior, went just 11-for-26, tallied only 98 yards, and spent the bulk of the night either running with purpose, running for his life, or eating the Magnolia State turf.
Fitzgerald got no help from his ground game, either. The Bulldogs began the day as the No. 3 running team in the league at 247.8 rushing yards per game. MSU rushed 32 times for 104 yards.
"They are not normally real fast, downhill guys," Fitzgerald said of the UF front seven or eight. "But they were filling gaps pretty well."
Devastatingly well.
The Bulldogs (2-2, 0-2) had their chances. They had a three-point lead in the first half when linebacker Willie Gay Jr. dropped what should have been a sure-fire pick six. In the third quarter, Fitzgerald let fly a perfect deep post that hit wideout Osirus Mitchell, who had two steps on the UF secondary, smack in the hands and fell to the ground.
They had one final chance late.
Down by seven points, the Bulldogs mounted their best drive of the second half after forcing a Florida punt that gave them the ball with 2:19 to play, but at the MSU 12. At that point, the Bulldogs had 20 yards of second-half offense; just three yards in the fourth quarter. The series started with a sack, courtesy of
Jachai Polite, putting MSU at its 6, but the UF defense was called for holding and personal-foul penalties on the next two plays to get the Bulldogs out of their hole. Fitzgerald popped a 17-yard completion to Deddrick Thomas that moved the ball into Florida territory, to the 45, for a first down, amid an awakened cacophony of cowbells.
The next three plays were all incompletions, setting up a dramatic fourth-and-10, with 1:06 remaining.
Out of a timeout, the MSU quarterback took the shotgun snap. As he dropped, he only had time to see blitzing sophomore safety
Donovan Stiner rocketing untouched at full speed, up the gut of the Bulldogs offensive line, ending the play with a violent Fitzgerald facial that put the game on ice.
"That boy looked like he was shot out of a cannon or something," Toney said of Stiner.
It was Toney who provided the big-gun play earlier.
All-purpose wideout Kadarius Toney touched the ball four times Saturday, with runs of 4, 16 and 19 yards, plus a 20-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter that gave the Gators the lead for good.
After a first half that yielded just three field goals — a 39-yarder by McPherson in the second quarter, sandwiched between boots of 34 in the first and 39 in the second from Jace Christmann — that had Mississippi State up 6-3 at the half. The Bulldogs had 159 yards (with 94 rushing) and 10 first downs through the first two periods, compared to 131 yards (40 rushing) and eight first downs for Florida.
The Gators appeared to hit its first big offensive play of the game on the second half's opening possession when Franks had time to set up in the pocket and heave a deep post that wideout
Trevon Grimes skied for between two MSU defensive backs and brought down at the Bulldogs' 4. The reason Franks had time, however, was offensive guard
Jawaan Taylor was called for holding. The play came back and two snaps later, Franks was intercepted on a tipped ball by linebacker Cam Dantzler, but the UF defense forced three straight Fitzgerald incompletions and a punt to keep the deficit at three points.
Lamical Perine had a six-yard run on third-and-1, a 22-yard dash up the left sideline and 16-yard reception to the Mississippi State 20. From there, on first down, Franks flared a lateral pass to his left. Toney caught it, then planted his feet. The play looked similar to others the Gators tried in the first half.
"We knew they were going to bite hard after we called a few smoke screens," Franks said.
This time, though, Toney squared his shoulders and feathered a perfect pass to Stephens, who beat a pair of MSU defenders into the left corner of the end zone. The Gators had their first lead of the game, 10-6, at the 8:28 mark of the third period.
"With deceptive and trick plays like that, it's not really the play design, but more when you call it and how you execute it," Mullen said. "It's a play that we've had in the game plan every week this season. We just never got around to calling it, so we finally made the call."
The teams proceeded to swap three possessions each before the Gators, starting at the 10:35 point of the fourth quarter, drove 36 yards in 10 plays to the Bulldogs' 4. Along the way, Mullen gambled and converted a fourth-and-1 at the MSU 13, knowing a touchdown would all but seal things, but the drive stalled and McPherson's 21-yard field goal made it a seven-point game with 5:22 to go.
That's where things stood when Fitzgerald had his last shot and got dumped on his back side.
UF coach Dan Mullen gets a post-game hug from wife Megan.
A few moments later, a Gator cooler of ice water was dumped on the Florida head coach, setting off a much-deserved celebration.
"Like Coach Mullen says, it's only going to get harder from here," Franks said.
Here's betting Mullen likely believes it only gets
better from here.
Ask Mississippi State fans what they think.
