Week 10 of the SEC football season went almost exactly the way it was expected to go with one slight adjustment.
Georgia was expected to beat Florida badly and that’s exactly what was happening until the Bulldogs pulled a boneheaded play and revived the Gators, who made a game of it.
With Georgia leading 23-3 in the third quarter, quarterback Andy Murray tried to hit tight end Arthur Lynch with a screen pass but the ball was low and Lynch didn’t make the play. So while he knelt on the grass with his hands on his helmet thinking it was an incomplete pass, Florida thinking it was a lateral, pounced on the football and it started the comeback that produced 17 straight Florida points to cut it to 23-20. In the end, Georgia held on to win for its third consecutive win in the rivalry.
“When it happened, I thought it was a lateral quite frankly,” said Mark Richt. “That’s why I was screaming for them to get on the ball and then to tackle the guy. We just cut it too close. … We really were controlling the game until that play. Then everything changed. The momentum changed and they got adrenaline, they got juice. To their credit, they almost pulled it out.”
Murray found a way to put his feelings into words.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “You always say ‘Every game is the same. Every game is the same.’ But this one is different. There’s a different feel to it. The atmosphere is different. To go out and beat these guys three years in a row, which hasn’t happened in 24 years, is just an awesome feeling.”
Georgia got a lift from the return of Todd Gurley, who rushed for 100 yards on 17 carries. He had a 5-yard touchdown run and a 73-yard touchdown reception.
“He helped a little bit, didn’t he, said Richt. “He played so well those first couple of series. It was so good to have him back. … After his long touchdown, his stomach got to him a little bit. He was queasy. But we settled him down and he was fine after that.”
In the other conference games, South Carolina, Missouri and Auburn had big wins to stay in contention for division leads and a trip to Atlanta for the conference championship game.
Missouri bounced back from last week’s loss to South Carolina and had little trouble with the fading Tennessee Vols. Missouri coach Gary Pinkel was not surprised that his team put the loss behind them and took care of business against the Vols
“We did and I would have been very surprised if we didn’t. We closed that door quick,” Pinkel said. “We talked about it Sunday that we were going to move on. There is so much out there and I think they understood that. You can’t do anything about the week before except learn a lesson. We applied it today and we will apply it next week.”
Tennessee coach Butch Jones was not happy with the way his team played against Missouri but he says his goals and the team’s goals haven’t changed.
“Moving forward the goal is still in place of a bowl game and the only thing you can do is get better,” said Jones. “But this was unacceptable with the line of scrimmage game. It was unacceptable with the pre-snap penalties, and that’s on me with the penalties. We need to get that corrected. I expect more.”
South Carolina’s win over Mississippi State is the Gamecocks’ seventh straight win in the series. This one came courtesy of four touchdown passes from Connor Shaw and 128 yards rushing from Mike Davis, but Gamecock coach Steve Spurrier wasn’t happy with the effort.
“Obviously our offense sputtered, it wasn’t a really good day for our offense,” Spurrier said. “I think we need to go back and get a little more physical in practice. It seemed like we were a little too soft and we didn’t do too much. Fortunately our defense was there and got some turnovers and we were able to capitalize and score some touchdowns and only have to kick a couple of field goals.”
“I think our offensive line has played well throughout the season,” said Shaw.” I didn’t have my best game today. We were 1-for-11 on third down conversions. The only way you win with that is if the defense has five turnovers. But, I thought our offensive line played solid today.”
Saturday was a special day for Auburn coach Gus Malzahn. He took his Tigers to Fayetteville to play the Arkansas Razorbacks in front of a lot of family and friends. Malzahn previously served as offensive coordinator for the Razorbacks and head coach at Arkansas State and was a high school coaching legend at Shiloh Christian and Springdale high schools, both located in Arkansas. He is a member of the Arkansas High School Sports Hall of Fame. That his Tigers improved to 8-1 at the expense of the Razorbacks must have been enormously satisfying, although the Tigers’ head man exhibited too much class than to say it.
Arkansas dominated time of possession by eight-and-a-half minutes but had no answer for an Auburn ground game that produced 233 yards rushing and four touchdowns by Tre Mason. But it was Auburn’s defense that had Malzahn smiling.
“It felt like a big play in the game was that fourth down stop by our defense,” he said. “They definitely controlled the ball. They kept it away from our offense. That was tough. We were a little impatient there, but we were able to run the football. Our mindset coming into this thing was we felt like we had to run the football. I think we only threw it nine times, and for the most part we were very successful running it.”
But winning at Arkansas meant a lot to the Auburn defense according to linebacker Cassanova McKinzy.
“I feel like it meant a lot,” McKinzy said. “Our defensive coordinator (Ellis Johnson) was saying he hasn’t been so lucky against Arkansas the last couple of years, so to our defense it meant a lot to give that to him.”