Florida didn’t play very well. At all. But they somehow escaped Vanderbilt’s upset bid on homecoming and secured their first SEC East Championship, and thus, their first trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship since 2009.
Here’s how it all went down.
It was over when… Johnny McCrary’s desperation heave on fourth and 25 was caught well short of the first down marker.
Play of the game… Austin Hardin’s game winning 43 yard field goal with two minutes to go. I mean, it wasn’t like there were a whole lot of other big plays to choose from in a game that was mostly devoid of them.
Game ball goes to… Hardin, who shrugged off the fact that he was benched in favor of Neil MacInnes, came off the bench and nailed the game winner.
Stat of the game… 11. Florida has punched its ticket to its 11th appearance in the SEC Championship Game. Only Alabama, with nine, is even close to matching that.
What to be proud of… Florida’s defense could not possibly have played any better with the exception of Ralph Webb splitting the entire unit like Moses split the sea on a 74 yard touchdown run. Time and again they were thrown on the field with short rest, and time and again they came up with big plays to keep Florida in a game that closely resembled that of a Will Muschamp coached team. Major kudos to Geoff Collins and his squad. Without them, Florida loses this game. 100% sure of that.
What to work on… Treon Harris better remember the things he did at Booker T. Washington that got him to be so highly regarded to begin with, and start doing them, or else. There’s just no other way to say it. He was horrendous today, constantly misfiring on all cylinders and turning the ball over twice. He had to complete five of his last six passes just to finish with a 50% completion percentage. All of them were short comeback routes that Vanderbilt was giving him, but at least he hit them, which is more than you can say about him for the first three quarters of the game. It’s only because of the lack of depth behind him that he hasn’t been replaced yet. But since Florida’s stuck with him, all we can do is hope that McElwain can miraculously wring some production out of him.
Bottom line: Florida was downright horrible on offense today, due in large part to Treon Harris’s severe struggles. But the Gators are 2-1 with Harris as the starting QB and SEC East Champs for the first time since Tim Tebow’s days. Now we move ahead, and hope and pray that Harris improves at least to the point where we don’t cringe and turn away every time he does anything other than hand the ball off. But. SEC East Champs.
Scoring recap:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| VANDERBILT | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| FLORIDA | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
Scoring plays:
| Team | Time | Play | VAN | FLA |
| FLORIDA | 1st 6:16 | K. Taylor 3 yd run (PAT failed) | 0 | 6 |
| VANDERBILT | 2nd :48 | R. Webb 74 yd run (PAT good) | 7 | 6 |
| FLORIDA | 4th 2:22 | A. Hardin 43 yd FG GOOD | 7 | 9 |
