How The Gators Sealed And Secured A 52-28 Rout Of No. 4 Ole Miss With a Pick, Again
By Eddie Gilley
It was a Chamber of Commerce Saturday in the Swamp, and for the second time in two years, it was déjà vu all over again.
When DJ Coleman stepped in front of Trinidad Chambliss's pass at the 5-yard line, longtime Gator fans flashed back to another interception in the Swamp two years ago that saved a struggling Florida team.
This one was different. It didn't save anything. It just finished off a 52-28 beatdown that Florida controlled from the opening snap.
Jon Sumrall likes to say the margin in the SEC is razor-thin, and that a handful of plays usually decide the outcome. Florida made enough of them to hand No. 4 Ole Miss its first loss of the season. The Rebels are now 0-3 when they visit Gainesville as a Top 5 team. Maybe they should stop coming in so highly ranked.
Sumrall didn't list his difference-makers. I will.
Play One: The Gamble That Backfired
Before kickoff, I wrote a note to myself: the first team to get a stop wins this game.
Ole Miss got the first chance to test that theory and blew it. On fourth-and-1 from his own 35 on the Rebels' first possession, Pete Golding kept his offense on the field. Maybe he forgot his best running back, Kewan Lacy, was out. Maybe he looked across the field, saw a Florida offense that had just scored on its opening drive, and decided his defense couldn't hold up.
Either way, Aaron Chiles blew up the play in the backfield and forced a fumble. Ole Miss recovered, but that didn't matter. It was still a turnover on downs.
The Florida offense went nowhere with the short field, but Patrick Durkin didn't care. He drilled a long field goal, and it was 10-0 Gators. First stop, first real advantage, and the tone was set for the day.
Play Two: The Opening Statement
Everyone in the stadium knew who was getting the ball on Florida's first snap: Jadan Baugh. The Gators handed it to him anyway, and he ran for 12 yards.
After an Aaron Philo-to-Luke Harpring completion, Baugh broke off another 23-yarder. Then he finished the drive himself with a 4-yard touchdown run. The message to the Ole Miss defense was clear: we're going to run it, you know it, and you can't stop it.
They couldn't. By the end of the day, Florida had run it 53 times for 302 yards. That wasn't a game plan so much as a hostile takeover.
Play Three: Hanks Holds the Line
Not every big play makes the highlight reel. This one should.
Ole Miss had third-and-4 at the Florida 28. Chambliss looked left for Horatio Fields, who had Ben Hanks III on him in man coverage. Hanks pushed Fields toward the sideline, threw off his route, and the ball fell incomplete. The Rebels had to settle for a field goal, and Florida led 17-6 at the half.
Now think about what came next. Ole Miss scored a touchdown on the first drive of the second half to cut it to 17-14. If Hanks doesn't make that play, the Gators could have been trailing 21-17. That's a completely different afternoon.
DJ Coleman helped set it up with a hard hit that broke up a pass on second down. The secondary didn't make every play, but it made the ones that counted.
Play Four: Duke Clark Breaks Ankles
Just before this, Gator fans got a look at what Eric Singleton Jr. can do. Philo threw deep to him in the end zone, and it looked like pass interference to everyone except the officials. Sumrall was so angry that he broke his headset.
While he was still hunting for a replacement, Philo handed off to Duke Clark on a run off left tackle. Clark made two defenders miss, leaving one of them with a couple of broken ankles, and outran everybody else for a 45-yard touchdown.
That put Florida back up by 10. It was the pattern all day: every time Ole Miss tried to grab momentum, the Gators took it right back. This time they did it with their No. 2 running back, and Clark looked anything but secondary.
Here's the part that should get Gator fans' attention. In recent years, a momentum swing like that would have caused panic. This team never flinched.
Play Five: The Corner Route
On his two earlier deep shots, Singleton ran a streak and a post. On second-and-9 in the fourth quarter, offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner had him break to the corner instead.
It was a smart call, and Philo and Singleton executed it. Philo put the ball right on the money for a 38-yard gain to the Ole Miss 2-yard line with 4:47 left.
One play later, Baugh scored his third rushing touchdown, and that put the game away.
Philo didn't have his best day, and he didn't need to. His job wasn't to beat Ole Miss. His job was to avoid beating Florida with turnovers, and he did that perfectly.
The Icing
That brings us back to Coleman and the interception on Ole Miss's final drive.
For the first three weeks of the season, the national media hammered this Florida secondary. On Saturday, that same unit put the finishing touch on a statement win over the No. 4 team in the country.
It was a pick to seal it in the Swamp, just like two years ago. Déjà vu all over again.
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