Florida Gators end 2013 season with a whimper as No. 2 Florida State routs hosts 37-7

By Adam Silverstein
November 30, 2013

The 2013 season ended with a whimper for the Florida Gators (4-8), which lost for the third time in the last four years to the No. 2 Florida State Seminoles (12-0), dropping Saturday’s contest 37-7 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL.

The Seminoles continued on their path toward a national title while the Gators finished a season below .500 for the first time since 1979. UF, which ended the year on a seven-game losing streak, also failed to advance to a bowl game for the first time in 23 tries.

Heisman candidate and Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston looked every bit the part on Saturday, completing 19-of-31 passes for 327 yards and three touchdowns. All three of those touchdown passes went to Seminoles wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin, who tallied 212 yards on eight receptions.

Florida got out of the first quarter trailing just 3-0 thanks to a superb defensive effort.

Junior cornerback Loucheiz Purifoy intercepted Winston on a pass down to UF’s 13-yard line, but the Gators were unable to convert the ensuing possession into points despite moving down to FSU’s 33 on a 50-yard rush by senior WR Trey Burton. Redshirt freshman kicker Austin Hardin missed a 49-yard field goal attempt wide right.

Burton, who head coach Will Muschamp said at halftime would have taken about 35 snaps at quarterback on Saturday, did not return to the game with a shoulder injury.


Taking over from its own 34, the Seminoles drove 35 yards in eight plays but got held up when redshirt junior linebacker Neiron Ball sacked Winston on 3rd-and-5. Florida State got on the board, however, via a 49-yard field goal by Roberto Aguayo.

Starting from their own four-yard line with 10:15 left in the first half, Florida State moved the ball but faced a 3rd-and-26 at its own 15 following an 11-yard sack and delay of game penalty. Winston completed a 27-yard pass to WR Kenny Shaw to pick up the first down. He picked up another big first down two plays later by completing a 23-yard pass to WR Kelvin Benjamin on 2nd-and-20 and found the end zone just one down after that on a 45-yard strike to Benjamin.

FSU got one more chance with 2:07 remaining before the break and made the most of it. Winston completed six of seven pass attempts as part of a seven-play, 74-yard drive that ended with a 29-yard Benjamin touchdown. Benjamin actually committed offensive pass interference on the play – pulling Purifoy down by his jersey before getting open – but the referees did not call the penalty.

The Seminoles tacked on three more points early in the second half, kicking a 40-yard field goal a couple plays after forcing Gators redshirt freshman QB Skyler Mornhiwneg to cough up the ball for a fumble. On its next possession, Florida State moved 84 yards in five plays thanks to a 56-yard pitch-and-catch from Winston to Benjamin. The drive ended with running back Devonta Freeman finding the end zone from 11 yards out.

Florida had a second chance to score spanning the third and fourth quarters and took advantage of the opportunity. Mornhinweg led the Gators down the field on a season-long 14-play drive that lasted 8:29. UF picked up 83 total yards on the trip, which ended with a five-yard pass from Mornhinweg to junior fullback Hunter Joyer for a touchdown.

FSU responded immediately as Winston found Benjamin twice on another touchdown-scoring drive. He first hit Benjamin for 32 yards and then went to him again from four yards out for their third hook-up of the game for a score. The Seminoles also added a field goal late in the fourth quarter.

With the season now in the books, Florida will look to make some major staff changes before the start of the 2014 campaign, which kicks off on Aug. 30 against Idaho.

27 Comments

  1. Matt Burris says:

    Thank God, the season is over! I would’ve rather stick bamboo shoots under my fingernails than had gone through this pathetic season. Injuries was one thing, but losing to a more injured and vastly inferior (talent-wise) Georgia Southern is completely unacceptable. The Gators offense has been utterly terrible since Muschamp arrived, and with the recruiting hotbed within the state, that’s just unacceptable. I’d say next year would be better but we’ll be seeing Muschamp next year, so I don’t know.

  2. Ziggy says:

    I’m sure everyone on here will be blasting the coaches soon enough, but that’s just not fair. The coaches weren’t responsible for high snaps, lining up off the ball, fumbled snaps… all drive killers. Bottom line is that we haven’t had a good quarterback since Tebow and receivers know that, therefor we don’t have great receivers. Anyone who disagrees needs to look no further than the team we just played. There’s no amount of coaching that turns our current guys into that kind of talent.

    • nugent1021 says:

      “The coaches weren’t responsible for high snaps, lining up off the ball, fumbled snaps…”

      That’s coaching dude.

      Also, we’ve got the talent and the players. I completely disagree with your statement that it’s the players not the coaches. The play calling is horrid.

      Meyer turned Ohio State around in 1 single year. Check out Auburn, the Saints, etc etc. It’s coaching.

      • Razzlegator says:

        Urban Meyer? Seriously??Think we could get him???

        • nugent1021 says:

          Not saying I like Liar Meyer, I’m saying the guy is a good coach. He wins championships and he’s become the gold standard for winning. Something we lost touch with via Muschamp. 4-8, with a loss to a FCS.

          • Razzlegator says:

            Urban Meyer?Seriously??Think we could get him???

            • nugent1021 says:

              sorry you’re missing the point. The point is a good coach wins and turns a program around. The point was not that I want Meyer back, only that he’s an example of what a good coach does with a program – along with the other examples. It’s surprising I’ve got to dumb it down for you that much.

              Oh wait, you were just trying to be an ass. Got it.

    • g8ter27 says:

      Ziggy that is practice, drills and recruiting players…and that is the coach’s job.

  3. aziatic41 says:

    Muschamp is going to have to change his offensive philosophy. And he’s going to need to give the full reins of the offense to whoever he hires as the new OC.

    If not he will be fired after 2 bad losses next year. No way around.

    I think we need to look in the juco ranks for a stud offensive playmaker who can produce immediately. Mainly a WR and RB. And probably a QB too. A big strong dual-threat QB that can run and pass. Most college teams with dual-threat QBs usually have a lot of success offensively. Especially out of the spread. Muschamp needs to throw that run-run pro-style crap out the window.

  4. Ziggy says:

    Reply to nugent0121:

    You’re entitled to your opinion even if it’s wrong. First off, you can’t use Auburn because they already have the guys to run their system. You can’t use the Saints bc they’re an NFL team, which is a totally different thing. Urban Mwyer is doing the same thing with Ohio St that he did with UF, take advantage of a new and exotic offensive system that the rest of the conference isn’t used to playing. We need athletes that can beat anyone and any scheme they play against. The only way you get that is to recruit the best of the best. The only way to recruit the best of the best is to run an offense that great receivers and great QBs want to play for. We can’t get there with a spread offense.

    • Uf_84 says:

      Any hot shot offensive recruit would have to be out of their mind to want to come play at UF with this coaching staff. I expect the decommits to come rolling in fast and furious from now until signing day, and honestly I don’t blame them.

    • gatorboi352 says:

      You’re a fool.

    • gatorboi352 says:

      Actually, allow me to expand on your foolishness:

      The only way to recruit the best of the best is to run an offense that great receivers and great QBs want to play for. We can’t get there with a spread offense.”

      If that’s the case, please explain how Urban Meyer won 2 National Championships doing just that?

  5. Daniel M. says:

    So bittersweet Trey Burton’s last play as a gator. A fifty yard run and an injury.

    • Ziggy says:

      All I can say is that if you have watched the Gators for a while, you’ll know that this team is a team of destiny, streaks, irony, foreshadowing, and a lot of other things that makes them so fun to watch (normally).

  6. SW FL Joe says:

    Vince Lombardi said Football is two things, blocking and tackling. We do neither very well and it showed today

    • Ziggy says:

      Tackling and sacking the QB was pretty good until the dline got tired bc the offense went 3 and out every series and we didn’t have a rotation d bc of injuries.

  7. Sroode21 says:

    Ziggy has all the answers, maybe he should become the head coach and AD…. Go Gators

    • Ziggy says:

      Maybe so. It sure doesn’t seem that anybody has a legitimate response. It’s immature to think that we should replace the coaches after an 11-2 season last year. Have the coaches gotten dumber from last year? No, just a healthier season and more Auburn like (luckier).

      • Ken (CA) says:

        yes, injuries had an impact but maybe the 11-2 season was the fluke? We could just has easily have been 6-6 with just a few slight breaks that went our way rather than the other. Even so, it was one of the most painful 11-2 campaigns to possibly watch. I shouldn’t have to take my Xanax to watch a football game!

        Nugent actually had the correct response to you. While I haven’t played it at that level, everyone I have heard talk about it that has says it is a game of repetition, execution happens due to constant repetition in practice so things become “automatic”. That is the essence of the non-game day coaching. Burning into habit the basic fundamentals and execution so that the game day coaching then calls plays based on the situation that have been practiced over and over hundreds of times. If players aren’t executing like “robots” so to speak, then something isn’t being coached well enough in the practice. So yes, player execution does ultimately fall back on the coaching. As does their discipline. The amount and kinds of penalties we were hit with all season long are inconsistent with a disciplined squad. That falls back on coaching instilling discipline on them and enforcing that code when necessary, having consequences when they don’t adhere to it.

      • g8ter27 says:

        No we din’t get dumber, they were just a dumb last year. We won last year like this:

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8C-1qreKJM

  8. CH says:

    Zingy- since you have an answer for every post maybe you could enlighten us to why we haven’t had an offense ranked in the top 100 in FBS under muschamp? Or why our special teams has progressively gotten worse each yr under muschamp?
    Can’t blame players or injuries on that…..

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