Holy shit! What kind of foresight did the gods of college football have to offer up a rematch of last season's national championship in week one? Seems a bit fishy, no? The #2 ranked Crows of Henry Morton travel to the Swamp to take on the #1 Gators of Florida. The first drive of the game saw the Gators drive toward midfield, only to have the heat from an Edgarian Mukezamfura rush induce an interception. The Crows used a nice mix of runs from Delmar Coffee and new starting QB, fifth year senior Clarence Oveur, to get on the board first with a Jerome Sherman field goal. After a Mukezamfura interception, yes, that's right, HMU drove the 18 yards with three Coffee rushes and a 10-0 lead. UF came back, avoided disaster a couple times and got on the board with a field goal. After one, the Crows led 10-3. Early in the second, Sherman added another field goal. The teams traded punts before a third and 11 pass from Florida resulted in a 52-yard bomb and first and goal from the four. The Gators hit pay dirt and dropped the lead to 13-10. With time running out in the half, Oveur went to the air, connecting five times with his tight ends, four of them to senior Tomas Rosen, including an 11-yard score right before the break. At the half, HMU is up 20-10.
Facing third and 2 from their own 19, the Crows sent a dagger to the heart of the Gator fans, an 81-yard catch and run from Oveur to senior speedster Lance Day. Florida missed a field goal but forced a punt after Coffee was injured (enough to miss the rest of the game). On third and 14, the Gators burned senior corner Joe Allen for a 40-yard bomb to the Crow 1. Two plays later, Florida was in the end zone, squashing the lead back to 10 at 27-17. That's how it stood going into the fourth. The Crows then embarked on a 15-play 54-yard drive, taking up 4:22 of game time, before Sherman booted a 31-yard field goal to up it to 30-17, HMU. It took only one play to make this a one-score game. Allen was burned once again, yielding a 63-yard touchdown and trimming the Crow advantage to 30-24 with 5:23 to play. Wanting to spare no last effort, Coach Fielding Blue calls for a long one on first down at the Crow 20. Oveur obliges, hooking up with Day for a 42-yard gain into Gator territory. The offense hunkers down, running the ball consistently, using the backups to Coffee, Marvelious Young and Tommy Guidry. Young gets the final carry, a 1-yard TD and a 37-24 lead with just 2:41 to go. Florida reaches the red zone quickly...but FS Booker Greene makes the pick. HMU runs three times and punts before Greene makes another interception to ice the game. Big, big win.
