College Football Countdown: 98 Days
By Matt Green
It’s the third day of our College Football Countdown, and today’s number had a massive impact on how the SEC East was decided in 2016.
The Florida/LSU game from 2016 was wild. The game was originally scheduled for Oct. 8 in Gainesville, but Hurricane Matthew forced the two teams to postpone the game. This is an interesting read from outkickthecoverage.com about what all went into the decision to postpone and reschedule the game.
Ultimately the two teams played the game in Baton Rouge on Nov. 19, and it was an old school slugfest. And that leads us to day no. 98 of our College Football Countdown.
98
98-yard touchdown pass from Florida’s Austin Appleby to Tyrie Cleveland against LSU in 2016.
LSU led Florida 7-3 at the half, and got the ball going into the third quarter. The Tigers put together a 10-play, 73-yard drive on their opening possession, but that was two yards less than they needed.
After a 1st and goal play got LSU to the 3-yard line, Florida stopped the Tigers on three straight plays for a huge goal line stand.
Then the Gators seized all of the momentum on the next play.
Throwing out of his own end zone, Austin Appleby found Tyrie Cleveland down the sideline at the 35-yard line, then the true freshman broke a tackle and took it all the way for a score.
The touchdown was the only one for the Gators in the game. Florida managed just 270 yards of total offense in the game, and Austin Appleby threw for 144 yards, with 98 of it coming on one play.
The Gators’ defense preserved the win in the final seconds of the game. The LSU offense put together a 13-play, 74-yard drive that lasted the final 3:24 of the game. Unfortunately for the Tigers, once again that wasn’t quite enough.
The Tigers had 4th and goal from the 1-yard line with three seconds remaining, and the Gators stuffed Derrius Guice up the middle to preserve the victory and the SEC East title.
While the defense was the backbone of the 2016 Florida Gators, if it weren’t for this Appleby to Cleveland play, Jim McElwain and the Gators likely wouldn’t have made it to Atlanta for the second consecutive season.