Florida has won the SEC East. On Nov. 7, with about a month left in the college football regular season the Florida Gators are SEC East champions. This says a lot about Florida, and this says a lot about the SEC East.
Florida got a game-winning field goal from a kicker it benched for a dental student
Florida benched Austin Hardin for a dental student, then called on Hardin to hit a game-winning field goal. He drilled it.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Florida clinched it with a 9-7 win over Vanderbilt. It was hideous. The Gators turned the ball over four times, three fumbles and a pick. Vandy only completed three passes all game, but had a 74-yard run by Ralph Webb for a touchdown and that was enough with Florida’s absent offense.
And thus, the story of the game became Florida’s kickers, a matter of contention all year.
Austin Hardin came into the year as Florida's starter, but went just 3-for-6. That, plus a leg injury, led to Jorge Powell taking over kicking duties. But Powell himself got hurt against LSU, leading to the Gators holding open kicker tryouts from the student body. 216 people showed up, but senior Neil MacInnes won those tryouts. He hadn't kicked since 2011, when he was a senior in high school, but he was on the roster.
Hardin remained the starter, but performed poorly in his first week back in the job against Georgia. He missed an extra point and the only field goal he attempted. Jim McElwain confirmed Hardin wasn’t injured on those kicks.
And so Saturday against Vandy, Hardin took kickoffs, but MacInnes was the starting placekicker. Just two weeks after joining the team, the Gators were banking on him to make real kicks.
It didn’t go great.
On Florida’s first trip to the red zone, Florida opted to go for it on 4th-and-5 instead of letting MacInnes kick. The Gators were stopped. On Florida’s first and only touchdown, MacInnes shanked the extra point. On a possession where Florida got to the 26-yard-line, Florida lined up for a field goal, but faked it ... and defensive end Cece Jefferson committed a fumble.
Thus, Florida had zero points from their kicker, and in the game’s waning moments, the Gators trailed by a score of 7-6. They would have been tied if MacInnes had hit the extra point, winning if they had a capable field goal kicker.
With the clock winding down and Florida down one, the Gators drove to the 26-yard-line again. McElwain took a timeout to think about it, and after the timeout, Hardin, not MacInnes, came out for a game-winning 43-yarder.
And he drilled it:
McElwain on Hardin's kick: "He just went in and did his job."
— Zach Abolverdi (@ZachAbolverdi) November 7, 2015 After the game, McElwain confirmed that they had expected Hardin to take long kicks all along:
McElwain: "We knew the dentist was gonna kick short field goals," and Hardin would kick long ones. #Gators
— Graham Hack (@graham_hack24) November 7, 2015 (Yes, he apparently calls MacInnes "the dentist.")
Kickers are funny things. They have one job, but it’s an incredibly difficult, incredibly important one. Slight inconsistencies from kick to kick can be the difference between a perfect make and a shank. When those makes happen and when those shanks happen can completely change a fanbase’s perception of a kicker.
Florida will continue to struggle with kicker issues all year. They have an elite defense, an offense that can be good when they don’t commit boatloads of turnovers, and they have nobody who can consistently hit field goals. As they head to the SEC championship game, that could be an issue.
But today, Hardin’s the hero, and that moment will be true forever.
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