Chauncey Gardner and Lamical Perine were two of 12 Florida commits in attendance for the Tennessee game this past weekend.
Both liked seeing the Gators show the ability to come back from a two-score deficit, and the crowd reaction to it.
“It was exciting,” Gardner said. “The atmosphere was awesome, players did great. They stepped up in the fourth quarter and this game lived up to the hype.”
Said Perine: “I enjoyed myself. The Swamp was crazy, and I liked the way they fought through adversity. It good to see they’re able to do that.”
While the Gators gave up a lot of rushing yards, they held Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs to 83 yards passing. That impressed Garnder, a consensus four-star cornerback and Rivals100 member.
“The secondary played ball,” he said. “They had some miscues on the trick plays, but they didn’t let that affect them. They continued to play and didn’t give up anything else in the passing game. That’s two weeks in a row.”
Offensively, UF running back Kelvin Taylor scored two touchdowns against the Vols and eclipsed 100 yards rushing for the first time since the Georgia game last year.
“I think he’s one of the best running backs in the SEC and he shows it when he gets the chance,” Perine said of Taylor. ” I like watching him play and get hot. They usually rotate three backs and I like that, too.”
Perine could find himself in the rotation next season. One of two running backs committed to Florida, Perine has rushed for more than 200 yards in each of his last three games (757 yards total).
“I went for 292 last Friday,” he said. “I’ve never had 200-yard games like this. Honestly, I think I’m getting better. I’ve been going hard in practice and it’s carrying over to the games.”
Garner, the most recent commit of the week after Perine, has attended every UF home game this season.
“I love being here,” he said. “Just being around the people. I really enjoy spending time with them. It’s my second home.”
