(Photo credit: Florida Gators)
On New Year’s Eve of 2021, Graham Mertz and Ricky Pearsall stood on opposite sidelines in the Las Vegas Bowl. Mertz, of course, was quarterbacking the Wisconsin Badgers, and Pearsall was hauling in passes from Jayden Daniels from Arizona State. It was a defensive slugfest won by Wisconsin 20-13, but it was, generally speaking, an objectively enjoyable game to watch between the two teams with a gritty playmaker on each side.
22 months later, the two former foes teamed up for one of the most memorable last-minute touchdowns in Florida Gators history.
Trailing South Carolina 37-34 with :51 to go in the game, Mertz took the shotgun snap and began scanning the field. Lined up just beneath the base of the Palmetto tree stencil on the Gamecock 24 yard line, Pearsall released off the snap and freed himself up on the post pattern. Slamming his foot into the ground and breaking inward around the ten yard line, Pearsall had a step- and Mertz found him.
Mertz released the ball. Pearsall left his feet and snatched it right on the plane of the goal line, landing cleanly on both feet just shy of the bottom of the second C in the Gamecock word mark. He then raced across the end zone, celebrating in front of Gamecock and Gator fans alike as Florida grabbed a 40-37 lead. The ensuing extra point made it 41-37, and a few formalities later, Billy Napier’s two biggest transfer portal additions had given him one of the biggest wins in his coaching career.
Napier immediately knew the significance of this. He sprinted over to both players after the game and hugged them both tightly. He then turned to the nearby camera and delivered a short, but powerful statement. “This,” Napier declared, “is why you come to Florida.”
It’s funny how time can change things. And that’s a statement that rings true for Pearsall, Mertz, Napier- and the Florida Gators.
Two weeks ago, Florida fans were disgusted after watching the Gators get dismantled by Kentucky, 33-14, in a game that wasn’t even really that close. That performance followed a grotesque showing against Charlotte in which Florida only reached the end zone once, and cued up all the concerns that were promptly verified against Kentucky. Sitting at 3-2 at that point, Vanderbilt was deemed a must-win game- and anything but a sure thing. In the meanwhile, questions began to bubble up about Napier’s long-term future at Florida, with the schedule only getting drastically more difficult as the season progresses.
But the Gators looked markedly different in a 38-14 win over Vandy last week, and then- unlike almost every other time they suited up for a game outside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium- came to play against South Carolina, delivering a win that shut down those questions about Napier’s future and breathing new life into Florida’s season.
The teams traded blows in the first half, giving fans a preview of the fantastic finish that was to come. Both Florida and South Carolina moved the ball at will, with Florida taking a more grind-it-out approach that ate time off the clock and South Carolina utilizing more quick-strike drives to score in just a few plays. When Trey Smack hit a chip-shot field goal with three seconds left in the half, Florida had a 24-21 lead.
The teams traded field goals in the third quarter, but South Carolina ended the third quarter by driving into the Florida red zone and started the fourth quarter by punctuating that drive with a quick touchdown pass from Spencer Rattler to Juju McDowell to make it 31-27 with 14:54 left. The tension mounted when Florida’s ensuing drive stalled and Smack’s field goal attempt was blocked, and then South Carolina went flying right down the field again for another touchdown, this time with Rattler hitting Joshua Simon for a 33 yard catch-and-run (in which he broke two tackles) to the end zone with 9:11 to go. The Gamecocks’ special teams let them down with a bad snap on the ensuing PAT, so the score half at 37-27.
That’s when Mertz- much maligned for being little more than a quarterback who managed the game- took it over.
First came a nine play, 75 yard touchdown drive that stared its demise square in the face twice- and survived.
On a 4th and 11, Mertz threw a quick pass to Arlis Boardingham, who made a man miss, picked up a critical block from teammate Trevor Etienne, and weaved his way through the field for a first down. A few plays later, after Florida had driven down inside the Gamecock 10, they faced a 4th and 1. The play clock bled all the way down to one- the result of a few attempts to lure the Gamecocks into the neutral zone with a hard count and get the first down the free way- before Mertz got the snap and pitched it to Etienne, who found the corner and got the first down. On the subsequent second and goal play, Mertz overcooked a ball to Boardingham, who deflected it to himself, grabbed it, and stayed inbounds en route across the plane. That drew the Gators within 37-34.
For all the bad film Florida’s defense put out in this game, it picked the perfect time to band together and force a punt. South Carolina punter Kai Kroger- generally known as one of the better punters in the country- shanked his second punt of the game, giving Florida the ball on its own 25, rather than inside its own 10 as Kroger often does when punting from near midfield.
Once again, Mertz faced an unfriendly situation right off the bat- a 4th and 10 from the 25 after three straight incompletions. Taking the snap and rolling right, Mertz saw Eugene Wilson covered on a quick crossing route, Arlis Boardingham nowhere near the first down marker on the other side of the field, Kahleil Jackson blanketed between two Gamecocks and an official, and Pearsall with single coverage. To boot, two South Carolina defenders lurked between the 27 and 33, meaning scrambling for the first down was off the table.
Mertz had no choice. He had to take a shot to Pearsall, and hope his receiver could win the battle for him. Try anything else, and the game was over.
So Mertz took his shot, said his prayer- and watched Pearsall answer it, going up and beating corner Nick Emmanwori for the jump ball for a 26 yard catch to keep the game alive.
Yet moments later, the transfer tandem almost handed the game away. Mertz’ ball was thrown behind Pearsall, who got two hands on it but deflected the ball skyward, leaving what happened next to chance. The ball could have very easily bounced to any of three Gamecock defenders in the general area for a game-ending interception. Instead, it bounced right to teammate Eugene (Tre) Wilson, who caught the ball in stride and raced down to the South Carolina 15 before being tracked down.
Having just witnessed the game- and to a degree, the season- flash before their eyes, Mertz and Pearsall didn’t leave anything to chance. Two plays later, the ex-Badger hit the ex-Sun Devil for the game-winning touchdown pass on the post route with :47 showing on the clock. There were a few housekeeping items still left to take care of, such as pressuring Rattler into heaving up an interception, taking a safety to bleed the clock down to just three seconds, and shutting down South Carolina’s last-gasp hook-and-lateral scheme, but that pass from Mertz to Pearsall is nonetheless going down as one of the great game-winning touchdowns in program history.
And now, just take a look at those Florida Gators. Billy Napier’s squad sits 5-2, right on the doorstep of that 5.5 projected win total for the season, and with Kentucky’s loss to Missouri, in complete control of its own destiny to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. The schedule is remarkably harder after the bye game than before it, making Atlanta seem anything but certain even if Florida pulls a shocker against Georgia in its next game, but the Gators now need just one win in its final five games to clinch bowl eligibility, and Florida merely needs to go 2-3 in its last five to surpass last year’s 6-6 record.
There’s still a lot for Florida to work on. The defense missed a bevy of tackles, gave up 465 yards to South Carolina and only sacked Spencer Rattler twice. For perspective, South Carolina had been averaging 399.2 yards per game and had allowed a whopping 22 sacks on Rattler in four games against FBS opponents. Arlis Boardingham also dropped a pass that required him to leave his feet, but probably should have been caught- go help out your quarterback and make a play- and Mertz was sacked four times by an offensive line that looked little better than it did in those frustrating Charlotte and Kentucky games.
But this was a big win for Napier and his Florida Gators. And it just goes to show where his program is at in the big picture.
Last year’s Florida team doesn’t win this game. And the reason we know this is because the 2022 Florida Gators found themselves in the exact same situation in Tallahassee, leading 24-21 at the break. On that day, the defense imploded in the second half and the offense faltered just enough for the garnet-clad home team with the playmaking quarterback to be able to win the game. The loss turned out to be the perfect thumbnail for a bad 6-7 season, which quickly came off the rails after an opening victory against Utah. And indeed, down 10 with 9:11 remaining, Napier’s Gators seemed in dire straits, in serious jeopardy of dropping another game it absolutely had to have.
Not this time.
And thus, the Florida-South Carolina series will go on sabbatical in very much the same fashion it lived most of its existence: with the Gators dining on chicken, and a Gamecock fan base that apparently doesn’t live for anything as much as the opportunity to make believe that they’re Florida Gators by doing the Gator chomp slinking back to their cars in disappointment.
