ATLANTA — The last time Florida had a punt and a field goal blocked in the same game was against South Carolina last season, ultimately costing former coach Will Muschamp his job.
Against Alabama in the Southeastern Conference title game, it cost the Gators a chance to win the SEC and to upset the No. 2 team in the country.
Punter Johnny Townsend continued his fantastic season against the Crimson Tide as he averaged 51.8 yards per punt with five of those going for 50 yards or more.
But in the first quarter, Townsend’s punt was blocked when Alabama dialed up an all-out blitz. The ball trickled past the endzone, and the end result was two points on the scoreboard for the Crimson Tide.
"Threw a no-hitter on the first overloaded punt block that we practiced like 10,000 times, it seems like, in practice," UF coach Jim McElwain said. "I think the shock and awe of the size and speed might have got them a little bit, but we settled down, and it didn’t kill us."
And then there’s the curious case of Austin Hardin.
He’s a guy who has been great at kickoffs this season — he has 29 touchbacks on 44 kickoffs — but he’s someone who can’t kick the ball through what McElwain calls "the yellow things." Even worse than that, Hardin can’t kick them high enough to get them over the line to get to the goal posts.
It was the same deal for Hardin against the Crimson Tide in his hometown. After Treon Harris connected with Antonio Callaway on a 46-yard strike, Hardin lined up for a 40-yard field goal, which was blocked by the Crimson Tide.
He’s now five-of-14 on the season with three of those attempts blocked. For his career, Hardin is now 16-of-36, a putrid field goal conversion rate of just 44.4 percent.
"We’ll get worked on this kicking thing, and somebody will get it up over the line far enough that maybe somebody doesn’t block it with their armpit," McElwain said.
After his field goal attempt was blocked, McElwain replaced Hardin with walk-on Neil MacInnes who nailed the lone extra point attempted by the Gators.
Now, back to Callaway.
He also had a scare when he let a first-quarter punt from JK Scott take an extra bounce before he muffed it.
Luckily for Callaway and the Gators, the freshman wide receiver pounced on it.
However, Callaway made up for his mistake in the second quarter. He took a Scott punt 85 yards for a touchdown to give Florida a 7-2 lead.
His return was the longest punt return for a touchdown in the history of the SEC Championship game.
His return also made some UF history, as he became the sixth player to have multiple punt returns for touchdowns in a season. Callaway’s return numbers have been impressive this season: He ranks in the top 10 in the country in returns (second, 28), yards (third, 435), punt return average (sixth, 15.54), touchdowns (t-second, two), returns per game (t-fourth, 2.2) and yards per game (fourth, 33.5 yards).
Callaway’s production on offense and special teams is one of the reasons why McElwain is fond of him.
"He’s one that affects the people around him, including the coaches, in a positive way," McElwain said.
"This guy’s got a couple of really good years left for the Gators."
Callaway’s impact on offense and on special teams has been immense.
But even he’s been surprised at the amount of success he’s had and he’ll have one more game this year to continue to show out for Florida.
"I just work hard everyday," Callaway said.
"Seniors like Valdez Showers, and (Vernon) Hargreaves pushing me everyday to get better. I knew I was coming in to play, but I wasn’t really expecting to have a big one."
Follow Luis Torres on Twitter @LFTorresIII
UF's Antonio Callaway returns a punt 85 yards for a touchdown during Florida's 29-15 loss to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Game on Dec. 5, 2015, in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
