MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The University of Florida has self-proclaimed themselves as the best college football team in the state of Florida and have now earned the title as the 2019 Capital One Orange Bowl champions. After defeating the University of Virginia Cavaliers 36-28, the Gators won their second New Year’s Six bowl for the second consecutive year and close out their 2019 season 11-2.
In an electric show in front of 65,157 fans, the SEC and ACC talents left it all on the field at Hard Rock Stadium. Offensive MVP Lamical Perine began the night rushing for 61 yards straight to the back of the endzone within 40 seconds making it the earliest score in an Orange Bowl Classic since 2003. Bryce Perkins had a short first series but returned to the field within minutes after the Cav’s defense intercepted Trask’s pass to put his team in UF territory. One play in and senior Bryce Perkins found Terrell Jana deep for a 34-yard touchdown to tie the game 7-7.
Trask was not backing down in front of the Gator crowd and returned to the field for 13 plays and 75 yards to find Perine again for a 16-yard touchdown.
Going tit-for-tat, Perkins started the 2nd quarter in the red zone by throwing up a hail mary to Hasise Dubois who went airborne surrounded by a Gator defense to secure the Cavalier’s second touchdown of the game.
Dubois received praise from his coaches and teammates for his abilities.
“His ability to catch the ball in traffic is unmatched and by far the greatest I’ve ever seen.” Said Perkins, “I saw the defender’s back to me and saw Has, so I knew we had a great chance, and if I just put the ball in a location where Has could get a hand on it, just one, I knew more than likely he was going to come down with it.”
After the thrilling offense, both defenses began to activate, and the attack stalled out. The Florida offense was halted in UVA territory and settled for a 23-yard field goal. UVA, however, could not catch a break and Perine and the Gators continued to chomp at the Cavaliers and increase their lead with another Perine touchdown.
Perine closed out the game with 138 rushing yards, 43 receiving yards, and 3 touchdowns. The MVP was grateful to end his career on a high note.
“My sophomore year we were 4-7, not making a bowl game, having a month off, so that kind of hurt me. Bust just these past two years, man, have just been an amazing feeling, just having a guy who knows how to win at Florida and has already won championships. Me being able to believe in that and just trusting the process that he had for us, it was just an amazing feeling.”
The Florida Gators continued to go on and press with the help of Trask and kicker, Evan McPherson to seal the deal and close out a solid year that will have more promise to come for the Gators in the future.
Dan Mullen has the confidence in his staff and players that they have brought the Gator standard back to the University of Florida.
“This is why those guys came to Florida, to play in big games, play in big games, play on the biggest stage to be on one of the of the best programs in the country, and do that in back-to-back years—if you want to be a championship program, you’ve got to win consistently.”
The Florida Gators improve to 5-3 against ranked opponents under Dan Mullen and is assuredly headed for its second consecutive season top-10 finish in the Associated Press Top 25, which would be its first consecutive top-10 finishes since 2008.
Written by Merrissa Vault
