Chris Doering was impressed with Florida’s thrilling victory at South Carolina on Saturday.

Doering pointed out that the Gators were down by 10 with less than 5 minutes to go, and it would have been easy to write them off. But they showed fight and resiliency.

“The thing I was most proud of, from the opening kickoff, was the energy on the sideline,” Doering said Saturday night on SEC Network. “And going back to that Kentucky game a couple weeks ago, what frustrated me the most was the lack of the sense of urgency, was the lack of physicality, was the lack of fight in them. But today you saw all of that.”

Most important, though, Doering said, is the Gators showed that they’d follow the lead of Graham Mertz at quarterback.

“They never gave up, he kept making big throw after big throw when they needed him most, he used his legs as well,” Doering said. “I really feel like this could be a seminal moment for this team, getting that monkey off their back of how bad they play on the road, and showing for their own confidence level what they’re capable of.”