Jones, Gators Outlast Bulldogs in Unexpected Shootout

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It wasn't exactly a great day. Samford, a FCS-classified opponent that three weeks ago was pummeled by 42 points at home by Tennessee-Chattanooga, not only had six touchdowns at halftime, but also led the home team Saturday at Spurrier/Florida Field at the break by scoring the most points in a half by an opponent in the 116-year history of Florida football. 

About two hours later, though, the Bulldogs walked off the field with a season-high number of points, 530 yards of total offense, a 400-yard passer, and having both returned a kickoff for a touchdown and recovered an onsides kick on special teams.

And yet it could have been soooooooooo much worse for the Gators. 

They could have lost. 

Instead, quarterback Emory Jones led a rally from a 14-point deficit with career highs of 464 passing yards and six touchdowns, leading a burst of four unanswered scores that bridged the two halves and fashioned a 70-52 come-from-behind victory in the second-highest scoring game in UF football history that snapped the team's three-game losing streak. 

[Note: Get used to a lot of references to history in the below text]

"Been rough," UF coach Dan Mullen said following a game that brought the end to a brutal week that began with last Saturday's blowout loss at South Carolina and lingered into the next day with the firing of defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and offensive line coach John Hevesy. "Good to go in [the locker room] and see them be able to celebrate to go get a win. Things didn't always go our way today; things went the other way for us. But kind of finding that way, finding the way to not let go of the rope, stick together as the game wore on to win it … I'm really proud of our guys."

When the final gun sounded, the two teams had combined for 122 points and 1,247 yards. Jones, the fourth-year junior, completed 28 of his 34 passes (82.4 percent) and not only threw touchdowns of 9, 45, 49, 7, 13 and 18 yards (one off the UF single-game record of seven) but also rushed 10 times for 86 yards and a score on his way to amassing 550 yards of total offense. That number broke the program's single-game mark of 533 set by Tim Tebow's in the 2010 Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati. 

"Well, I didn't even know that. Appreciate it," Jones said after being told (and congratulated) on his rewriting of the UF history books. "The offense came out here, we executed and did everything we were planning on doing most of the game. I mean, a lot of guys went out there and made plays for me."

CHARTING THE GATORS: Most Single-Game Passing Yards in Florida History

Yards Quarterback Opponent (Date) Outcome 482 Tim Tebow Cincinnati (Jan. 1, 2009) W 51-24 474 Kyle Trask Georgia (Nov. 7, 2020) W 44-28 474 Kyle Trask LSU (Dec. 12, 2020) L 37-34 464 Rex Grossman @LSU (Nov. 10, 2001) W 44-15 464 Emory Jones Samford (Nov. 13, 2021) W 70-52 The Gators (5-4) totaled 717 yards of offense, their most in 24 years, and second-highest total in program history behind the 774 rung up on West Texas State in 1982. They hit the 70-point threshold for the first time since the 2008 national-championship season and for just the 11th time in program history. 

The Bulldogs, who began the day tied for sixth in the Division II-A Southern Conference with a 3-4 league mark, piled up 530 yards of offense against interim defensive coordinator Christian Robinson, elevated last week following the firing of Todd Grantham, and his unit. Samford quarterback Liam Welch completed 33 of 52 passes for 400 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, falling short in his team's quest for a first defeat of a Southeastern Conference opponent (or current Power 5 team) since a 7-6 victory over Ole Miss way back in 1934. 

That scenario seemed altogether possible — too much so for the home crowd — several times during the game, most notably when the Bulldogs took a 42-28 lead late in the first half, and again when they scored 10 straight points (thanks to a recovered onsides kick) in the fourth quarter and trailed just 56-52 with 12 minutes to go.

"We were going tick for tack with a team we probably shouldn't be going tick for tack with," tailback Dameon Pierce said. 

It began early, with Samford doing the ticking. 

The Bulldogs took the opening possession and went right at the Gators' defense. They converted a third-and-1 run, then Welch completed passes of 10 yards to running back Montrell Washington (10 catches, 124 yards, 1 TD) and 31 to tight end Michael Vice on third-and-10 reach the Gators' 19. On third-and-5, a double-reverse toss to Demarcus Ware fooled the Gators for a gain of 16 and first down at the UF 3. Washington, who played some tailback, dove across for a 1-yard touchdown and 7-0 Samford lead just 10:26 into the game. The Bulldogs went 75 yards with relative ease.

It would become a theme.

The Gators answered, but needed a fourth-and-1 conversion along the way. A 16-yard completion from Jones to Malik Davis got UF into Samford territory. Jones needed two QB sneak attempts (he was short on third and 1, good by inches on fourth) to keep the drive alive. A 27-yard completion to tight end Kemore Gamble (6 catches, 122 yards, 2 TDs, all career highs) got the ball to the 6 and Davis finished the drive off with a 6-yard run to tie the game at 7-all with 6:56 left in the period. 

Whatever relief the Florida score provided the crowd was quickly reduced back to angst, courtesy of a 58-yard touchdown pass from Welch to Vice, who ran through an open-field tackle attempt by Rashad Torrence and scored easily for a 14-7 Samford lead. 

Jones and the Gators, though, went right back. They needed just two plays to go 55 yards and tie the score. A 46-yard catch-and-run by Gamble was followed a Jones-to-Ja'Markis Weston game-tying touchdown of 9 yards with 4:02 to go in the first period. The TD was the first of Weston's career. 

Time to exhale, Florida fans? 

Nope. 

On the fourth play of the next Samford drive, Welch threw a 40-yard pass to wideout Jay Stanton, who was uncovered in the deep flat, spun and cut back through three UF defenders to give the Bulldogs 21 first-quarter points and three touchdown drives of at least 75 yards. 

"We came out with a little chip on our shoulder," Bulldogs coach Chris Hatcher said. "We really had a good game plan coming in to protect the passer. Sometimes in these games that's where you get beat; up in the trenches. It's hard to protect. We did some things that we hadn't really done a whole lot of as far holding some guys in to protect. I thought Liam was sharp."

He was, as was Jones. On the next series, Jones hit Justin Shorter for 13 yards, Na'Quan Wright gained 22 yards on a third-and-1 run, and Jones took off for a 31-yard touchdown run to tie the game 21 less than a minute into the second period. 

To that point, each team had possessed the ball six times and combined for six touchdowns. That's definitely "tick for tack." 

Then came the first punt of the game, by Samford, at the 13-minute mark. Florida, with a chance for the go ahead score, turned the ball over on downs after a failed option run by Davis on fourth-and-3 from the Samford 44. 

On first down, Welch completed a 39-yard pass up the right sidelined to a diving Washington. Two snaps later, Welch scored from a yard out on a keeper to put the Bulldogs back in front 28-21 with 10 minutes left in the half. 

Runs of 27, 11 and six yards by Pierce were sandwiched around a diving 33-yard competition to Shorter inside the Samford 10. Pierce's 1-yard run tied the game at 28 with 8:10 to go. 

In the bleachers, necks were getting sore from the all the back and forth on the field. That's when Washington went 98 yards with a kickoff return, putting the Bulldogs back on top 35-28. It was the first kickoff return against UF since 2014. 

At that point, the Gators had given up more points in a half than ever before. More than ever against Georgia. More than ever against Florida State. More than ever against Nebraska. And the Bulldogs weren't done. Samford wasn't done, either. 

"Their offense came out just as hard as any other offense we've played," sophomore defensive back Mordecai McDaniel said. "We just had to respond as a defense collectively and make it seem like they're not as good as the other offense because if we're not responding it's going to look like they're just as good as Alabama." 

At times, the small school from Birmingham looked like that bigger one up the road in Tuscaloosa. On offense, at least. 

After a UF three-and-out, Samford turned the Gators' first punt of the day into another long TD drive. Welch, starting from his 13, completed passes of nine yards to Vice and 38 up the left sideline to Jai-Rus Creamer, advancing the ball to the Florida 40. Seven snaps later, Welch scooted up the middle for a 10-yard touchdown and 42-28 lead. 

Jones kept the Gators in the game, rushing 17 yards on a third-and-10, with Wright scoring on a 45-yard run to close Samford's lead to 42-35 with 1:03 to play in the half. 

"We were definitely sweating in the first half," Pierce said. "That was scary." 

When the two teams went to the locker room, the Bulldogs had 358 yards of offense, including 295 through the air, and 16 first downs on a whopping 45 plays. 

"Slow start, but going into halftime we were going to get fired up and come out and finish the game," UF junior linebacker Mohamoud Diabate said. "We are happy that was able to happen." 

They got happier, for sure, when Florida tied the game on the first possession of the second half — the fourth snap — when Jones found Davis all alone in the short-right flat and the tailback turned upfield into open space and went 48 yards to make it 42-all not two and a half minutes into the third period. 

The Gators, plagued by turnovers all season, got their first break of the game on the next possession when a tipped Welch pass was intercepted by McDaniel at the UF 30. Jones took advantage, first hitting Pierce for a 26-yard completion and Shorter for 15 more, with Gamble scoring on a seven-yard reception with 6:12 showing on the third-quarter clock. 

It was Florida's first lead, at 49-42, of the game, courtesy of a third unanswered TD. And when the UF defense held on downs, Jones drove the Gators 52 yards, finishing with a 13-yard scoring toss to Pierce for a fourth straight TD that pushed the home team up 56-42. 

But back came the Bulldogs, with a seven-play, 75-yard drive capped when Washington, blanketed by a UF defender, made a circus catch for a 23-yard touchdown that made it 56-49. 

When Samford recovered the ensuing onsides kick, that hush that was so prominent in the first half fell over the "Swamp" again. 

Good thing for the Gators, on a day when field goals meant very little, the Bulldogs had to settle for three points instead of seven. Zach Williams' 33-yard boot cut the Florida lead to 56-52 with 12 minutes to go.

Jones' second TD to Gamble, for 18 yards, put the Gators up by 11 with nine minutes left. The Florida defense answered that score with a turnover on downs with eight minutes to go. Pierce's 24-yard touchdown run made it 70-52 with 5:37 left. 

"I'm an offensive guy, so I love scoring points," Mullen said. "Obviously, I don't love giving up points, but I love scoring points." 

After a game like this one, one most fans tuned into at noon figured the Gators would pick their score, they settled for just scoring more than the other team. That had not happened of late. On this day, it had to do.