Gators’ special teams provide spark
Turning point against ‘Canes courtesy of Townsend, Jefferson
Florida punter Tommy Townsend said the muffed punt by Miami return man Jeff Thomas in the third quarter of the Camping World Kickoff on Saturday night was something he had envisioned all summer.
“The muff, I think it’s been in the works for months. I’ve been working on like a knuckle-ball punt and we were in the perfect territory for the punt to work,” said Townsend, the Orlando Boone product who made his first collegiate return to his hometown against the Hurricanes. “I wanted about 45 yards for the ball to travel where the returner would catch it and … I had a feeling the ball would go down about the 10- or 15-[yard line], so the returner would want to have the opportunity to go catch it and he ended up muffing it.
“We had guys down there to make a huge play at a critical point.”
It was massive turning point for the Gators, who were trailing the rival Hurricanes 13-10 with just inside three minutes left in the third quarter. As Thomas failed to corral the ball, Florida receiver Van Jefferson, playing on special teams as the outside gunner for the first time in his UF career, was right on the spot to recover the muffed ball at the UM 11-yard line.
“I mean it just went through his
arms and I just put my hands [out] and it came to my hands. It wasn’t like a me-catching-the-football type, looking all the way into my hands. I just stuck my hands out and it just came in,” Jefferson said. “When that happened I was like, ‘Wow.’ And I knew Tyrie [Cleveland] told me, ‘… He’s gonna drop a punt; just make sure you’re ready. Either you gonna get it or I’m gonna get it.’ ”
Three plays later, the Gators were in the end zone on a Felipe Franks eight-yard touchdown pass to Lamical Perine and back in front 17-13. UF went on to edge Miami 24-20 in front of a sold-out crowd at Camping World Stadium.
It was just one part of a huge night for the Gators’ special-teams unit — especially Townsend, the redshirt senior punter. During the Gators’ first offensive series, they sputtered, managing just seven yards in three plays and Townsend came on to punt, or so thought most of the 66,543 fans in attendance.
But the Gators had this planned all along. They would fake the first punt of the game and executed the trick play to perfection. Townsend took the snap and then rambled six yards, just enough for the first down, and UF had life. On the next play, Franks hit Kadarius Toney with a short screen pass and he was off to the end zone — thanks to a huge downfield block by right tackle Jean Delance — for a 66-yard touchdown to put UF on top 7-3.
Townsend got the call to make a similar play against Vanderbilt last season and the fiery punter will never turn down an opportunity to run the football.
“When the fake was called, I was super excited. Similar emotions were going through my head when we ran the fake at Vandy,” Townsend said of last year’s fake that went for 18 yards.
UF scored on the next play in that game as well.
“I was a little more composed [Saturday] since I had one under my belt,” Townsend said. “It was something that we had installed all week and we had been practicing it.
“My teammates just went out and did an excellent job of executing and made some blocks and I was able to get the first down.”
Townsend and Jefferson enjoy coach Dan Mullen’s daring play-calling on special teams.
“Coach Mullen is awesome. He puts a lot of emphasis on special teams and does an amazing job of coaching it,” Townsend said. “I think he realizes he has some decent athletes.”
As for the knuckleball punt, Townsend practiced it extensively and understood what he had to do to help force a fumble.
“The key to the knuckleball punt is in how you drop the ball. With a regular spiral punt, I’ll hold the ball a lot more flat,” Townsend said. “On the knuckleball, I have to just tilt the nose up a little bit and try to catch the center of the ball. It just happened to jump off and knuckle [float with no spin].
“It worked out pretty well, absolutely.” The season opener was sloppy for both teams, but Mullen lauded the effort of his special-teams group.
“Well, it is so big, and it’s something that we stress so much within our team,” Mullen said. “You’re looking at a senior punter. You’re looking at a senior starting wide receiver that’s covering a punt, making plays. … And I think that really shows a lot about the team.
“Special teams is something that we take a lot of pride in, we stress a lot, we practice an awful lot. … Really, probably the turning point of the game were some of the special teams [plays] tonight.”