He’s always taken a back seat to Jeff Driskel on campus.
For Gators punter Kyle Christy, it isn’t easy being the roommate of third-ranked Florida’s starting quarterback.
“Nobody actually comes up and talks to me,” Christy said. “I’m actually roommates with Jeff. A lot of times I’ll be hanging out with him and he’ll get recognized.”
Christy doesn’t seem to mind, but his performance on Saturday could get the sophomore from Brownsburg, In., some attention.
He set a school record by kicking seven punts of 50 yards or more on Saturday against South Carolina.
Christy has a shot to become the second Florida player to receive the Ray Guy Award, which is given to the nation’s top punter. Chas Henry won the award in 2010.
Christy entered Saturday’s game fifth nationally in yards per punt. He has pinned opponents inside their 20-yard line 12 times.
“What a game-changer,” Gators coach Will Muschamp said. “What a field position change to have a guy like that — a weapon like that. Also, our coverage units are outstanding. Loucheiz (Purifoy) and all those guys do an outstanding job.”
The coverage team, led by Purifoy and Trey Burton, forced South Carolina fumbles on a punt and two kickoffs.
Gamecocks receiver Ace Sanders, who entered the game ranked second in the Southeastern Conference in punt return average, managed two returns for just 1 yard.
After Driskel found tight end Jordan Reed for a 3-yard touchdown on Florida’s first drive, Purifoy forced receiver Bruce Ellington to fumble the ensuing kickoff. South Carolina recovered at its own 18.
Burton forced a Sanders fumble after a punt in the second quarter.
Solomon Patton forced another fumble on another second-quarter kickoff. Chris Johnson returned the ball to the South Carolina 1-yard line.
Florida finished with four forced fumbles and a blocked field goal.
Wide receiver Andre Debose added a 19-yard punt return, and the kickoff unit averaged 37 yards per return.
“(Special teams coordinator) D.J. Durkin does a fantastic job,” Muschamp said. “We put a lot of emphasis on it. We meet a lot. We spend in every practice a minimum of 25 minutes on special teams.”
The turnovers wouldn’t have been possible without the hang time on Christy’s punts.
Durkin challenged Christy in practice to work on improving the time his punts stay in the air.
The coach has worked with Christy since he arrived at Florida in January of 2011. Although Christy unseated senior David Lerner in just the sixth game last season, he had trouble adjusting to the pace of college football.
Now after what he called the best game of his life, Christy is starting to garner more attention.
“Everybody on the team knows who I am,” Christy said. “Maybe not last year, but this year I think they do.”
Driskel tosses four scores: Driskel passed for less than 100 yards for the third straight game on Saturday.
Still, the sophomore threw a career-high four touchdowns.
Muschamp didn’t seem to mind the 11-for-16, 93-yard stat line Driskel posted against South Carolina.
“(We) won the game,” Muschamp said when asked about Driskel’s performance. “That’s goal No. 1. That’s what I look at. Jeff, like every other player sitting in that locker room and every coach starting with me, is going to watch the film and say, ‘What can I do better?’ That’s what’s been good about this football team. We’re very hard self-evaluators.”
The Gators won the field-position battle, so there wasn’t much Driskel needed to do.
Six Florida drives started in South Carolina territory. Four of those were inside the Gamecocks’ 30-yard line.
All four passing touchdowns measured than 15 yards.
“I’d rather have 1 yard in front of me rather than 75,” Driskel said. “We just did a good job of scoring touchdowns.”
Contact Adam Pincus at apincus@alligator.org.
Jeff Driskel (6) attempts a pass against South Carolina in UF’s 44-11 win on Saturday in The Swamp. Driskel failed to reach 100 yards passing for the third game in a row.
