MIAMI GARDENS – The more talented team won this year’s Orange Bowl.
It was evident from the very first offensive drive on how this game would go down at Hard Rock Stadium. In short, there was never any doubt that No. 9 Florida would come away victorious over No. 24 Virginia on the night of Dec. 30.
Though the Gators scored a 36-28 win over the Cavaliers, it didn’t seem like it was close. Nonetheless,
Virginia put up a valiant effort from start to finish.
With that said, the Florida running game was on point for the most part. It proved to be the difference in this one.
Orange Bowl MVP and senior running La’Mical Perine had a game-high 181 all-purpose yards (13 carries, 138 rushing yards; five catches, 43 yards) to go with his three total touchdowns (two rushing, one receiving) to power the Gators. His most impactful play came early in the fourth quarter, when he zoomed past a host of Cavaliers from their 24-yard line to the 1.
Up 27-21, Perine’s big play set up senior quarterback Kyle Trask’s game-winning 1-yard touchdown run, which came at the 9:33 mark in the fourth. It provided the scoring cushion that Florida (11-2 final record) would need to hold off Virginia in the end.
“I think this win is huge for this program, not only for the program but also this team and the seniors that bought in when Coach Mullen first got here from day one,” said Trask, who finished the Orange Bowl game with 348 total yards (24-39, 305 pass yards, one touchdown, one interception; eight carries, 37 yards, one touchdown).
“They worked day in and day out, and as far as my season went, I couldn’t be more happy of the way that my teammates had my back when I won versus Kentucky, and we just continued to grind every single week and get better each and every single week and here we are winning the Orange Bowl,” Trask continued. “That’s pretty incredible.”
Perine had several big plays throughout the game, but his best one can on the very first drive, when he zoomed past a host of Virginia defenders and ran toward the end zone for a 61-yard touchdown run.
With an extra point by kicker Evan McPherson (three total extra points made, three field goals made, 12 total points), Florida took a 7-0 lead with 14:20 left in the first quarter.
Perine’s other scores were a 16-yard touchdown catch from Trask (6:26 left in the first quarter; 14-7 lead) and a 10-yard touchdown run in the second quarter (2:13 left in the second quarter; 24-14 lead).
“If I had to say, probably just
believing in the process two years ago,” Perine said. “Things was kind of hard, just the workouts and things like that, they were very intense and things like that. But I felt like it helped us out in the long run, like today, man, just how to get the standard back.”
Florida senior wide receiver Van Jefferson (six catches, game-high 129 yards) spoke on Perine’s MVP performance.
“Lamical comes back for his
senior year and everyone is like, OK, he’s one of the top running backs in the SEC,” Jefferson said. “He is. I think you saw that tonight. Everyone gets caught – well, his stats say this or just what the stats say. But you know what, you
look at every time we needed a big run during the season, he came up with a lot of big runs during the
season. He also showed he’s probably one of the top
receiving backs in the country coming out of the backfield.”
And guess what else occurred?
We predicted a huge Orange Bowl performance for Florida freshman cornerback and Benjamin alum Ka’iir Elam. It went even better than we thought, as he caught what proved to be a game-sealing interception at the Florida 3-yard line with 5:11 left in the fourth.
Elam finished the Orange Bowl with two tackles (one huge hit), one pass breakup, and the clutch fourth-quarter pick.
“Well, Kaiir was one of the top DBs in the country when we recruited him,” Florida head coach Dan Mullen said. “We thought he was a
special player and a high character, hard-working guy from the day he got here. Obviously as the year goes on, he’s played more and more, he’s gotten more experience in what’s going on out there on the field. I’m sure it was pretty special for him to be back here near
home, playing at home, and obviously a huge play for
him. You know, we’ll have some guys – we have some DB’s that left to go to the NFL and a couple guys graduating, so we’re expecting him to carry on that tradition of being DBU here and having one of the best secondaries in the country.”
Florida survived an awesome performance from Virginia senior quarterback Bryce Perkins, who was 28-40 for 323 yards (game-high 364 total yards) with four touchdown passes and the one interception thrown late to Elam.
The play of the game was a beautifully thrown 9-yard heave to the end zone from Perkins to senior wide receiver Hasise DuBouis, who somehow got both feet in. There were plenty of “oohs” and “aahs” at Hard Rock Stadium on that one, which helped to tie the game at 14-14 with 14:53 left in the second quarter.
“He’s slippery,” said Florida senior linebacker Jonathan Greenard, who had one tackle (TFL), one sack, one forced fumble, and one pass breakup in the Orange Bowl. “He’s playing like a running back. We kind of knew going into the game we just had to make a couple adjustments in the beginning, basically learning how to rush against him and what he wants to do. Hats off to
him. He made our jobs a lot harder, so hats off to him, but hey, we got a W, so ain’t got to worry about him no more.”
Mullen offered commentary on Virginia, which finished the season with a 9-5 record and is truly on an upward trajectory as a program. He also spoke on how the Orange Bowl went for his team.
“I want to congratulate Virginia,” Mullen said. “Obviously a great
program. You look at a program on the rise. Coach [Bronco] Mendenhall took that program over a couple years ago in that short time, and here they are playing the Capital One Orange Bowl. You see how tough, how they compete, how they play hard, play hard for four
quarters in everything that they do, and congratulate them on such a great year.”
Mullen on his own senior-led team:
“I really want to congratulate our team,” Mullen said. “I’m really proud of our players. Just under a year ago, this team was born, and we talked about going from four wins to 10 wins was special, but to go from 10 wins to 11 is going to be a lot harder, and those guys bought into it. They started working last January, and they worked, they grinded all season long in everything that they did. They get to walk out the door knowing they’ve restored the Gator standard to what it is, building that foundation of a team that expects to go win an SEC and a national championship. They’re certainly living up to that Gator standard of being one of the best teams and best programs in the country.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Keith Forde
