'96 Gators are the Champions

Danny Weurffel connected with Reidel Anthony on a 48-yard game winning touchdown pass with five seconds left as the ’96 Florida Gators capped an amazing run to win the Scout.com/WhatIfSports.com Tournament of Champions.

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The 48-yard bomb capped off what was an exciting final five minutes. Trailing 24-12 late in the 4th quarter, Vince Young went to work marching the '05 Longhorns down the field. He hit Limas Sweed with a 7-yard touchdown pass with 4:55 remaining to pull the Longhorns within a touchdown. Following a '96 Florida punt, Young once again, methodically Texas down one final time and connected with Billy Pittman on a 46-yard touchdown pass. This put the '05 Longhorns ahead but not for long.

Not to be outdone, Weurffel answered back with vengeance. With great clock management and all three timeouts remaining, Weurffel used a series of plays to set up the Texas defense for the big one. At that time, Weurffel used signature Florida Gators football and hit Anthony for the long strike. The heroics would not have been necessary if kicker Bart Edmiston would not have missed 3 of 4 long field goal attempts. Texas gave Florida all they could handle but came up short.

Young carved up the Gator defense by going 15-29 and 300 yards with two scores. The Gator defense did keep him in check on the ground, where Young managed only 38 yards on 10 carries. Jamaal Charles led the Texas ground game with 107 yards on 20 carries and Limas Sweed was the leading receiver with 5 receptions for 114 yards.

Weurffel finished 19 of 28 for 287 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. Fred Taylor was once again over 100 yards, finishing with 125 yards on 31 carries. Player of the game, Reidel Anthony, led the receiving corps with 11 catches for 179-yards and a pair of scores.

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