Florida rallied from 10 issues down Saturday to overcome South Carolina 41-39 and give a boost to to 5-2 in what used to be simply the Gators’ 2d victory clear of house below trainer Billy Napier. Florida quarterback Graham Mertz attached with large receiver Ricky Pearsall on a 21-yard go-ahead landing with simply 47 seconds left in law, hanging an exclamation level on a career day for each avid gamers.
Mertz, who joined the Gators this offseason after moving from Wisconsin, completed 30 of 48 passing for a career-high 423 yards with 3 landing tosses. That integrated the game-winner to Pearsall, whose 10 catches for 166 yards have been additionally private bests. Mertz additionally transformed 3 immediately fourth-down tries for Florida, which put in combination considered one of its maximum constant offensive performances of the season in spite of tripping up on 3rd down (4 of 15).
Saturday marked the second one consecutive sport during which Mertz completed with 3 touchdowns passing. His prior career-high in yards passing additionally got here this season in Florida’s Week 1 road loss to Utah when Mertz finished 31 of 44 for 333 yards. It used to be Pearsall’s 2d 100-yard receiving efficiency of 2023 after he totaled 123 yards in a Week 2 win in opposition to McNeese.Â
After Pearsall discovered pay grime, the Gators’ Miguel Mitchell intercepted Gamecocks QB Spencer Rattler at the resulting power. Florida then selected to take a security on its ultimate ownership — South Carolina had all 3 of its timeouts — to hold on for the 2-point victory.
The win advanced Florida to 5-2 total and 3-1 in SEC play with the bye week upcoming ahead of it faces No. 1 Georgia within the groups’ annual competition sport. The Gators entered simply 1-7 clear of house below Napier with losses in 13 of 14 such video games relationship again to the prior regime.
Though Rattler additionally had himself a day finishing 23 of 30 yards for 313 yards and 4 touchdowns with 46 yards dashing, it used to be no longer sufficient to get previous Florida. South Carolina (2-4) got here off a bye week forward of the Florida sport and can now hit the road for consecutive contests in opposition to Missouri and Texas A&M.