On November 11, 2006 the Florida Gators took on the South Carolina Gamecocks in The Swamp.
Florida was riding high and came into the game ranked 6th in the country with a 8-1 record. If Florida was going to make a push into the BCS championship game though, it couldn’t afford another loss.
The game had extra attention on it because it was the return of Steven Spurrier to The Swamp. Spurrier had led Florida to the 1996 national title, then left Florida after the 2001 season to become the head coach for the Washington (NFL team now called the Commanders). Spurrier left Washington after two season and became head coach for the University of South Carolina in 2005.
South Carolina gave Florida everything it could handle and almost pulled the upset.
But Florida salvaged the win thanks to multiple blocked field goals.
Welcome to Hail Florida Hail’s game rewind of “The Cock Block Game.”
1st quarter of Florida vs South Carolina 2006
South Carolina gets the ball first and right away Mike Davis runs the ball three straight times to get a first down.
QB Bryce Mitchell attempts a screen and is lucky not have it picked off by DE Jarvis Moss and returned for a TD.
We are reminded by the CBS crew that Marcus Thomas was kicked off the team. Thomas actually went on to a multi-year run with the Denver Broncos.
Back to guys actually playing.
Mitchell misses a wide open guy.
He is then sack, throws another incompletion, and that’s that.
Florida’s turn on its own 10 and Chris Leak avoids getting sacked for a safety to find Dallas Baker.
Gators keep moving the ball and we get our first Tim Tebow sighting.
He gets stuffed but on 3rd-and-5 Leak is able to find an open Andre Caldwell.
So far though Carolina is getting all kinds of pressure on Leak and almost force him into an interception.
No worries though, Florida can kick a 29-yard field goal and at least get on the board on its opening drive.
Except Chris Hetland misses the 29-yard field goal.
We are reminded he is now 2-9 on field goal attempts.
Urban Meyer asks “What happened?” to Hetland.
“Well coach I was supposed to kick the ball through the uprights and instead I didn’t kick the ball through the uprights.”
Good talk.
Carolina strings together a couple first downs but get faced with a 4th-and-1 on Florida’s 45.
Facemask Florida and the drive continues.
Sidney Rice makes another catch and he is already up to four catches for 40 yards.
3rd-and-2 on the 6 and Davis plows ahead again for a first down.
South Carolina is nickeling and diming Florida this drive and Davis fights off multiple tacklers to surge into the endzone.
It’s 7-0 after one and the mood in The Swamp is a little tense.
2nd quarter of Florida vs South Carolina 2006
2nd quarter begins and we are reminded that Rutgers are one of four remaining undefeated teams left in college football after defeating Louisville.
2006 was a much different time for college football.
Florida begins their march to the endzone.
DeShawn Wynn is picking up chunks on the ground and Florida is at the Carolina 35.
Leak finds Caldwell at the 10 and things look great.
Holding.
Nevermind.
Carolina ball again and man Mike Davis is hard to bring down.
A 19-yard run gets the drive going.
To give you an idea of Carolina’s game plan, Mitchell is now 11 for 14 passing with 79 yards.
Dink and dunk all day gets Carolina in range to attempt a 55-yard field goal.
Ryan Succop was the Carolina kicker this fateful day and he drills the kick.
But the Gamecocks are called for delay of game and is forced to punt.
It’s 4:39 left in the 2nd quarter. Florida has yet to score and have only have had the ball twice.
Faced with 3rd-and-three, Percy Harvin makes an appearance with one of the hidden plays from this game that ended up being massive.
Harvin catches the ball four yards short of the first down, makes a man miss, and keeps the drive going.
If Harvin is tackled in this spot to bring up fourth down, Florida probably goes into halftime scoreless.
Another Harvin catch and run, along with a couple Gamecock penalties, sets Florida up at the 21 yard line with 1:33 left in the half.
Leak rolls right, looks back left, throws a duck into the endzone that gets tipped by Carolina, and Dallas Baker comes down with it.
We recently did a Mount Rushmore of Florida wide receivers. Baker didn’t quite make the mountain but shouldn’t be forgotten as one of Florida’s best.
We go into halftime tied at 7
3rd quarter of Florida vs South Carolina
Florida starts with the ball and we are reminded that Harvin really was a cheat code for the Gators.
He catches the ball two yards from the line of scrimmage and runs for 10 more.
He takes a handoff from the backfield and runs for 10.
He turns another four yard catch into 24 yards and Florida is at midfield.
Tebow comes back out to convert a fourth-and-inches and thinks look great for Florida.
Then Leak gets fooled by the coverage and throws a interception.
He’s trying to find Caldwell from the slot to the outside thinking it was man coverage, but Stoney Woodson peeled off his coverage of the outside man (couldn’t tell who it was for sure, might have been Baker) to make the pick.
Carolina ball again. Mitchell scrambles to find a wide open Andy Boyd for almost 50 yards and the Gamecocks are once again poised to take the lead.
Carolina stalls out but Succop is back on the give them the lead with a 47-yard attempt.
And given he hit the 55-yard attempt that was called back there is no reason to believe he won’t hit this.
Florida is about to be trailing in the second half to South Carolina.
Joe Cohen and Ray McDonald burst straight through the middle, get their hands up, and one of them block the field goal to give Florida the ball on the Carolina 48.
But the Gators just never could pull away this game.
After getting down to the 28, Tebow has a snap doink off his hands and Florida is forced to punt after a 16 yard loss.
Gamecocks continue to string together long, slow, time consuming drives.
Davis keeps picking up 1st downs.
Mitchell keeps throwing the ball no more than 10 yards but keeps finding open players.
Carolina eats up the remaining six minutes of the quarter and it’s still 7-7.
South Carolina opens the quarter with a incompletion and a Succop 47-yard field goal.
Florida is losing 10-7 in the 4th quarter.
The Gators finally kick it into gear.
DeShawn Wynn busts up the middle for 21 yards and Cornelius Ingram breaks free for 27 more.
Florida gets down to the 14 before the offensive line gets blown up for a 15 yard loss.
Florida gets it back and has a chance on 3rd-and-two.
Tebow is back in, rolls left, has an open Billy Latsko for a touchdown.
Except he overthrows him and it’s incomplete.
Everyone holds their breath for Hetland to make a 22-yard field goal and we are tied again at 10.
10 minutes left and the script is the same for South Carolina.
Mitchell is now 17 of 24 passing for a whopping 180 yards.
Mitchell actually throws the ball more than 10 yards and Kenny McKinley gets South Carolina down to the 30.
David gets them to the 23.
McKinley to the 11.
Davis up the middle and to the left finishes off the remaining 11.
South Carolina is up 16-10 with the extra point to come.
Snap good, hold good, line holds, kick is up.
Jarvis Moss gets his arm up and blocks the low kick.
No good and it’s still 16-10.
Florida still needs a touchdown and right away with six minutes left it’s 4th-and-one on their own 29.
Credit to Urban Meyer for sending out Tebow rather than punt.
Keep in mind this is still the era where going for it on 4th down was not as common.
Five yards up the guy, first down to keep everything alive.
Leak runs the read-option to perfection and picks up another 17.
With third-and eight, Florida gives a look that looks like the same screen play they ran in the first half and Carolina bites.
Leak instead goes QB draw up the middle for another massive first down.
We are down to 3:15 left and after Leak’s first down Tebow re-enters.
What made Tebow’s freshman year fascinating is that four out of five times when he came in you knew he was going to run the ball.
Tebow goes up the middle and South Carolina has a linebacker there.
He misses.
Two Gamecock defenders try to drag Tebow down.
They don’t.
Touchdown Florida.
It’s 17-16 and they might just survive this game.
Except Carolina starts marching again.
Closer, and closer, and closer.
30 seconds left and they have made it to the 32 yard line, well within Succop’s range.
22 seconds left and Mitchell find Rice up top to 10.
Not like this, not like this.
Play called back due to a false start.
Second chance, ball on the 40.
Incomplete, 18 seconds left.
Short pass, complete, timeout, and South Carolina has a 48-yard field goal to win it.
With the ball in the middle and Succop with the range to hit, everything could end for Florida with this kick.
Once again the snap is good, the hold is good, the line holds up, and the kick is away.
And it is in the moment that Jarvis Moss, a man who had 15 sacks and 81 total tackles in two seasons at Florida, etched his name into Florida lore.
Moss doesn’t breakthrough the line and is in fact still behind the line.
But with a leap for the ages, Moss skies above everyone, gets his arms up, and the kick is blocked.
Time runs out, Florida wins 17-16.
The Gamecocks had three kicks blocked on this day, leaving seven potential points on the field in a one point game.
Moss had two of those blocks to forever immortalize himself as the hero of the “Cock Block Game.”
As we know Florida would go on to win the national title in 2006, but it wouldn’t have happened without a memorable night on special teams.