After being embarrassed at home the previous Saturday (Oct 7) in the 27-10 loss to unranked Arkansas, coach Tommy Tuberville challenged his Auburn football team leading up to the game with Second Ranked Florida on Saturday (Oct 14). Tuberville told his team that they didn’t have any playmakers. In Saturday’s 27-17 win against the Gators, the Tigers had playmakers galore. Even if some of the big plays came from unexpected sources.
The biggest came from third-team tailback Tre Smith. Smith recovered a blocked punt and returned the ball 25 yards for a touchdown with 10:51 to play in the third quarter. The big play put AU ahead, 18-17.
Safety Eric Brock had a critical fourth-quarter interception. Backup tailback Brad Lester had a game-high 94 yards rushing.
Though Auburn’s offense didn’t score a touchdown, it played its best game in weeks.
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The Tigers (6-1, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) dominated time of possession holding the ball for almost 37 minutes keeping the explosive Florida offense off the field. "They’re very talented on offense, and you’ve just got to keep them off the field,"
Florida owned the first half but couldn’t translate its dominance into many points. The Gators (6-1, 4-1) got second-quarter touchdowns from both halves of their two-quarterback tandem.
Chris Leak threw a 15-yard touchdown pass, and freshman sensation Tim Tebow rushed for a 16-yard score. Those plays, plus Chris Hetland’s first-quarter field goal, gave UF a 17-11 halftime lead.
But the Gators didn’t score in the second half. And Auburn did.
The blocked punt – Tristan Davis wrapped up punter Eric Wilbur, and Jerraud Powers blocked the kick – swung the momentum to Auburn. It also inspired the capacity crowd of 87,451, which spent most of the second half screaming for the Tigers.
Meanwhile, Auburn’s pass rush started to affect Leak.
With 3:16 to play and Auburn still clinging to an 18-17 lead, Leak dropped back to pass. Auburn defensive end Quentin Groves brought a ferocious pass rush, forcing Leak to lob a ball downfield in the general direction of one of his receivers.
Unfortunately for the Gators, the ball came right to Brock, who snagged the interception and returned the ball 26 yards to the Florida 28.
"When you affect this quarterback, he’ll throw it to you, and that’s what happened," Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said. "We knew if we got pressure with four and five we would have the ball thrown to us and that’s what happened."
After three Lester runs brought the clock down to 36 seconds, John Vaughn drilled his fourth field goal of the night from 39 yards, giving the Tigers a 21-17 lead. But with 32 ticks left, the always-dangerous Gators offense still had a shot however the Auburn defense stepped up with the defensive line pressurizing Leak into three consecutive incompletions. Then on the final play of the game, a fourth-and-ten from their own 20, the Gators tried a Hook and Ladder play resulting in a fumble. Lee snatched up the ball and ran 25 yards into the end zone for the final score as time expired.
