Jeff Driskel delivered a perfect strike to Tevin Westbrook.
Hard, fast, low.
"Driskel throws it on the money," Westbrook said. "You can tell he played baseball in the past."
But a pitch is only as good as the catch.
Driskel came through on his end, dodging and faking out defenders until he spotted a wide-open receiver in the corner of the end zone, tossed a spiral and hoped for the best.
The Swamp let out a collective groan, the sound of 88,014 people being punched in the gut at the same time.
Westbrook dropped the ball. Two minutes later, Florida dropped the game.
"Mistakes happen," Driskel said.
But unfortunately for the Gators’ receiving corps, mistakes are happening far too often.
In a position where catching the ball ranks first among the list of necessary skills, Florida’s wide receivers are coming up short.
However, Will Muschamp doesn’t want you to point the finger at receivers coach Chris Leak, who has no prior experience coaching pass catchers.
"Nobody can catch it for them," Muschamp said. "They’ve got to catch the ball. We work on JUGS (machines), we work on any hand-eye, lot of that. (Leak) can’t catch it for them."
So if it’s not technical, it’s mental, right?
"Absolutely," offensive coordinator Kurt Roper said. "I think right now, they’re like anybody else. They don’t wanna let anybody down. They don’t wanna let down the guys on the team. I don’t see it as a lack of concentration for the most part. I see it as trying not to make a mistake. And it maybe leads to that."
For Westbrook, the catch would have meant an almost guaranteed win. It would have meant a 4-1 overall record and a 3-1 Southeastern Conference mark.
For Westbrook, all that came to mind in the two seconds before the ball came his way.
"I just didn’t focus hard enough on the ball, had too much emotions in it," Westbrook said Tuesday. "If I would’ve went back I’d just focus more on the ball and not too much on the emotions of the game."
Just three days after the drop, the senior tight end said he had already watched the play on film multiple times.
It was one he wishes he had back — not only for the impact it would have made on the team, but also because of the fact it was such an easy catch to make.
"I’ve watched it over and over again," he said. "I didn’t look the ball in. As soon as I saw it the first time and when it happened, I knew I didn’t look it in. Every pass you catch you’re supposed to look it in.
"I took it for granted thinking that it was such an easy pass. And then when it hit my hands I was too excited to go celebrate with the team that I forgot that I had to secure the ball."
On 15 separate occasions before the LSU game, Florida’s receivers experienced the same feeling when they let the ball slip through their hands.
With the margin of error becoming slimmer by the game for UF, Roper and Leak now have the task of making every practice, every drill and every pass as close to game-like realism as possible in order to take the edge off the receivers.
If the Gators can imitate the stress of a game during training, Westbrook and the rest of Florida’s pass catchers will think less and react more when the lights are on and the "bullets are live."
"The JUGS and all that stuff is good, but I learned from coach (David) Cutcliffe a long time ago practice doesn’t make perfect," Roper said. "Practice makes permanent. So what you have to do is practice at the speed of the game, make it a game rep. And the more we do that, hopefully it transitions to being more successful. But really it gets down to those guys having confidence in themselves."
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @JCzupryn
Tevin Westbrook reacts after dropping the ball in the end zone during Florida's 30-27 loss to LSU on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
