Florida holds off Auburn in OT

Posted 8:32AM on Sunday 20th October 2002 ( 22 years ago )

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - With a meltdown in progress and the program in peril, Rex Grossman threw one of the best passes of his life Saturday night to save the season for Florida. Throwing off his back foot just as he was hit, Grossman hit Taylor Jacobs for a 25-yard touchdown in overtime to lift Florida to a 30-23 victory over Auburn after the Gators had blown a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter. Clint Mitchell stopped quarterback Jason Campbell on fourth down on Auburn's OT possession, and Ron Zook's huge sigh of relief was drowned out by a roar at The Swamp usually saved for big wins over Tennessee and Florida State. The Gators (5-3, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) snapped their two-game losing streak and kept their slim hopes for the SEC title alive. This win will go down as one of the most exciting in Florida history, although it probably shouldn't have been that way. Auburn (4-3, 2-2) scored two touchdowns and two 2-point conversions to erase a 23-7 fourth-quarter deficit. After Florida missed on fourth-and-1 from its own 42 with 3:39 left, Damon Duval had a chance to win it with a 23-yard field goal with 30 seconds left in regulation. But Bobby McCray leaped and blocked the kick to send the game into overtime, and Florida had another chance. The first two plays netted nothing, and things looked bleak, but that's when Grossman stepped up. The junior quarterback, his Heisman hopes all but gone, slipped a tackle by Dexter Murphy, shuffled in the pocket and, with all his weight on his hurting right knee, found Jacobs splitting the coverage in the back of the end zone for the go-ahead score. Then it came time to stop Campbell, who entered in the fourth quarter and led the two touchdown drives to get an awful Auburn offense back in the game. Mitchell did it on fourth-and-5, knocking the ball from Campbell as he wrapped him up. Ian Scott recovered, and the Gators avoided a huge embarrassment heading into their bye week Instead, they'll celebrate, and the Tigers will worry. They lost the SEC's leading rusher, Carnell Williams, to a severe ankle sprain in the second quarter. His backup, Ronnie Brown, ran for 163 yards and scored all three of Auburn's touchdowns, slipping through the porous Gators defense in the fourth quarter. Grossman's winning throw to Jacobs was one of the few he tossed downfield all night. Grossman finished 27-for-35 for 242 yards, and he didn't throw an interception after throwing eight in the last two games. He was hardly flawless, though. Three times, the Gators moved inside Auburn's 10, and they came out with field goals all three turning what could have been a blowout into the 23-7 lead that Florida blew in the final quarter.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/10/188712