Kevin Ellison ran for two touchdowns, Jerick McKinnon had a huge score late and Georgia Southern stunned Florida 26-20 Saturday in what will go down as the worst loss in school history.
No lower-division team had ever beaten the Gators, who won their previous seven games against Football Championship Subdivision teams by an average of 45 points.
So this was a shocker, even though Florida (4-7) has lost seven in a row and secured its first losing season since 1979.
Georgia Southern (7-4) ran for 429 yards and didn’t complete a pass all afternoon.
McKinnon finished with 125 yards rushing, including a 14-yard touchdown with 2:57 remaining. Ellison added 118 yards on the ground, scoring on runs of 45 and 1. FullbackWilliam Banks also gashed the Gators, getting 94 yards up the middle. His 53-yarder on a third-and-2 play set up the winning score.
Florida had a chance to win it, thanks partly to two missed extra points.
Skyler Mornhinweg, making his second consecutive start in place of Tyler Murphy (shoulder), got the Gators in scoring territory, but his final two throws fell incomplete. He had Quinton Dunbar open in the corner of the end zone on third down from the 17, but his pass floated high. He tried to force one to Solomon Patton on the final play, but two defenders broke it up.
Georgia Southern’s players rushed the field and celebrated wildly. They stopped long enough to pose for a team picture on the field, and then the party really started.
Florida, which paid Georgia Southern $550,000 for this game, was left to ponder the fate of coach Will Muschamp.
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