Gators run wild, stun No. 9 Georgia
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor combined for 389 yards rushing and four touchdowns and Florida upset ninth-ranked Georgia 38-20 Saturday, ending a threegame losing streak in the series and quite possibly saving coach Will Muschamp’s job.
Jones ran 25 times for 197 yards and two touchdowns. Taylor, whose NFL father, Fred, has his name emblazoned on a wall inside EverBank Field, carried 25 times for 192 yards and two scores.
The dynamic duo became the first Florida teammates to top the century mark on the ground since Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey against Kentucky in 2011.
Jones and Taylor carried Florida ( 4- 3, 3- 3 SEC) to a much- needed victory in the series against the Bulldogs (62, 4-2) and in the Southeastern Conference.
Muschamp may have been the big winner. The fourth-year coach’s future was clearly in jeopardy with Florida having lost 10 of its previous 13 games. Muschamp also had been 0-7 in this series, going 0-4 as a Georgia defensive back in the 1990s and losing his first three games as Florida’s coach.
“I don’t think they’re going to vote me into the Florida- Georgia Hall of Fame or anything,” Muschamp told CBS after the game.
The Gators talked all week about winning for Muschamp and for themselves. They also predicted they were going to run the ball “until the wheels come off.”
They delivered with their best overall performance since the season opener.
Florida finished with 418 yards rushing, the program’s most since gaining 466 against New Mexico in 1989 when NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith was the team’s star. The total Saturday included a 21-yard scoring run by former walkon Michael McNeely on a fake field goal that kicked off a dominant second quarter.
McNeely, who went to his job as a grocery bagger after he got his scholarship this fall, took the fourth-and-9 snap and went untouched around the right side to tie the game at 7. The call was reminiscent of Georgia coach Mark Richt’s fourth-down gambles in 2011, when he seemingly saved his job by beating Florida 24-20 in Jacksonville.
The difference in this was Florida’s decision to bench turnover- prone quarterback Jeff Driskel and commit to the ground game, even against the league’s second-ranked run defense.
Freshman quarterback Treon Harris didn’t do anything special aside from playing with better ball security than Driskel. He completed 3 of 6 passes for 27 yards. He also ran 37 yards. He fumbled once and had a shotgun snap sail over his head.
Missouri 20, Kentucky 10
COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Tigers’ Maty Mauk completed 18 of 33 passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns, both to Bud Sasser.
Mauk added another 75 yards on the ground, picking up four first downs, and completed 10 consecutive passes in the first half, including a 26yard toss to a streaking Sasser in the end zone over defender J.D. Harmon.
Sasser also hauled in a 3-yard toss for a TD and finished with six catches for 67 yards. Andrew Baggett kicked 41- and 21-yard field goals.
Missouri’s offensive struggles reappeared at times as the Tigers ( 7-2, 4-1 SEC) gained 320 yards, but the defense limited Kentucky to 258 yards and 2-for-16 on third-down conversions.
Patrick Towles passed for 158 yards for Kentucky ( 5- 4, 2-4), a week after throwing for a career-high 390 against Mississippi State.
Towles threw for 1 yard and an interception in the first half before leading an 80-yard touchdown drive to narrow the Wildcats’ deficit to 20-10 with 3: 26 remaining. Kentucly recovered the ensuring onside kick, but Missouri’s Matt Hoch and Michael Scherer stopped Towles for a 2-yard loss on 4thand-1 at the Tigers’ 21-yard line.
Texas A&M 21 Louisiana-Monroe 16
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Freshman Kyle Allen threw for 106 yards and a touchdown in his first career start and Texas A&M held on agaisnt Louisiana-Monroe.
Allen, who had two turnovers, started in place of Kenny Hill, who was suspended for two games for violating team rules and athletic-department polices. The suspension was announced about an hour before the game.
The Aggies (6-3) led 21-10 at halftime but couldn’t get anything going offensively in the second half. The Warhawks scored the only points of the second half on a pair of field goals.
Texas A&M bounced back from an embarrassing 59- 0 loss to Alabama and snapped a three- game skid with the victory. The win also makes the Aggies bowl-eligible for a school-record sixth straight year.
Pete Thomas threw for 246 yards and Justin Manton made three field goals for Louisiana-Monroe (4-4).
Texas A&M freshman Myles Garrett led the defense on Saturday with 3 ½ sacks to give him 11 this season and break Jadeveon Clowney’s SEC freshman sack record of eight set in 2011 at South Carolina.
Freshman Speedy Noil made a highlight- reel play when he knocked a pass out of the hands of a defender who had deflected it and grabbed the ball in the end zone for a 39-yard touchdown reception about a minute before halftime to give A&M a 21-7 lead.