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On Oct. 22, 2016, Jordan Scarlett had a 2-yard touchdown run for the Florida Gators in a 24-10 win over Georgia.
That was the last time a Gators running back had a touchdown run until Lamical Perine had a hat trick Saturday against Vanderbilt.
Perine had three touchdown runs and Malik Davis added two to help the Gators rally past the Commodores 38-24. Davis’ final touchdown, a 39-yard burst, came on 4th-and-1 in the final minutes.
Davis, a freshman, was part of a Florida running game that sparked 17 unanswered points from the Gators to pull away in the second half.
With quarterback Feleipe Franks in relief of injured starter Luke Del Rio, the Gators played big-man football against the Commodores to shorten the game and eliminate possibilities of an upset. After the game, coach Jim McElwain said Del Rio will have surgery Monday and miss the rest of the season.
On their second possession of the second half, Florida took a 24-17 lead on Davis’ short touchdown run. The scoring play was set up by a 29-yard pass to Moral Stephens on a 3rd-and-5 to get the Gators near the goal line.
After a second three-and-out possession by Vanderbilt, the Gators basically put the game on ice with a six-minute drive that went 65 yards and had nine running plays. The big play was a pass as Franks connected with Freddie Swain on a 33-yard play. The ball was deflected by a Vanderbilt defender but landed in the arms of Swain, who laid out to catch the ball.
Perine capped the drive with his third touchdown run, a 1-yarder on third down.
Florida improved to 3-1 and 3-0 in the SEC East. Vanderbilt (3-2, 0-2) has lost two straight.
The Commodores could not get much going in the second half as the Gators defense tightened up until late in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Kyle Shurmur, who spent much of the game running for his life from the Gators pass rush, completed a 28-yard pass to Trent Sherfield on a 4th-and-5 and capped off the 14-play, 77-yard drive with a 7-yard strike to Nathan Marcus – his third touchdown pass – to put the Commodores within a score at 31-24.
Vanderbilt’s onside kick was unsuccessful and Florida was able to salt the game away with their running backs as Davis scored for the second time with a 39-yard run on 4th-and-1 with 1:42 remaining in the game.
Given the recent low-scoring, defensive battles these two teams have had it was a bit of a surprise to see so much offense in the first half.
Perine, now the B-side of a running back rotation with Davis, had a 17-yard reception on a 3rd-and-8 to set up a 1st-and-goal at the Vanderbilt 6. Two plays later Perine finished what he started with a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Gators a 7-0 lead.
The Commodores were quick to answer and let Shurmur do his thing, going 4-for-4 on the 75-yard scoring drive and zipping a 13-yard touchdown pass to Kalija Lipscomb in between two defenders to tie the game.
Perine did the deed for the Gators again to give them a 14-7 lead by scoring from 13 yards out to cap off a drive that started at the Vanderbilt 45.
Shurmur rallied the Commodores again, hitting big pass play including a 21-yarder to Khari Blasingame on a 3rd-and-8 and a 28-yarder to Lipscomb to get Vanderbilt in the red zone and set up a 12-yard scoring pass to Caleb Scott to tie the game.
On the next drive Del Rio was sacked and later put of the game on a hit where he landed hard on his left, non-throwing shoulder. Del Rio had surgery on his left shoulder during the offseason.
After Vanderbilt got a field goal to take a 17-14 lead, Franks came off the bench and hit a deep post to Tyrie Cleveland for 49 yards to set up a short field goal for Eddy Pineiro to tie the game at the half.
Corey Long is a freelance writer for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow Corey on Twitter @CoreyLong.
