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<\/p>\nJACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Billy Gonzales was not about to second-guess his fourth-down decision in Florida\u2019s 24-20 loss to Georgia on Saturday.<\/p>\n
After all, Gunner Stockton was standing on the opposite sideline, and the Florida interim head coach made clear he wanted to do everything he could to take the game out of the Georgia quarterback\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs\u2019 defense saw to it the fourth-and-1 gamble at the UGA 18 failed, shifting prior to the snap to allow Elijah Griffin and Raylen Wilson the penetration needed to stop Jadan Baugh for no gain with Florida up 20-17.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to go for it,\u201d Gonzales insisted. \u201cIf you kick a field goal, (and) they go down and score, you\u2019re still down a point, but no second-guessing on the play that was called.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Stockton \u2014 just as Gonzales feared when passing up a 35-yard field goal attempt \u2014 drove No. 5 Georgia (7-1, 5-1 SECO down the field for the game-winning score at EverBank Stadium.<\/p>\n
Stockton took over on his own 18-yard line with 7:54 left and the Bulldogs trailing 20-17 and needed to make a clutch, third-and-8 conversion throw to Zachariah Branch that went for 18 yards to get the initial first down and keep the driving going against the Gators (3-5, 2-3).<\/p>\n
Stockton, 20-of-29 passing for 223 yards with two touchdowns and an interception that glanced off his receiver\u2019s hands, was 3-of-3 passing for 38 yards on the game-winning drive that culminated with Chauncey Bowens\u2019 36-yard touchdown run with 4:36 remaining. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Stockton) is a good football player, and he had a good game today,\u201d Gonzales said of Stockton, who entered the day sixth in the Heisman Trophy odds.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut our defense played really good today. They moved around, they challenged him al little bit, got an interception, I\u2019m excited about the way the guys played.\u201d<\/p>\n
Georgia out-gained Florida 361-281 and had 20 first downs to the Gators\u2019 16.<\/p>\n
Gonzales couldn\u2019t say enough about the Gators\u2019 effort in the wake of Billy Napier\u2019s firing on Oct. 19, as he continuously praised the way the team came together amid the adversity of losing its head coach.<\/p>\n
Georgia won for the fifth-straight time over Florida \u2014 its longest win streak in the series since Vince Dooley\u2019s Bulldogs won six in a row from 1978-1983.<\/p>\n
But this time UGA only won by single digits after beating the Gators by double digits in the four previous meetings (34-20, 2024; 43-20, 2023; 42-20, 2022 and 34-7, 2021).<\/p>\n
Fact is, Georgia would have won by double digits again had Stockton not stopped and kneeled at the 1-yard line rather than run into the end zone after converting a third-and-1 run from the 5-yard line with 1:48 left.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton (14) runs short of the goal line and kneels down during the fourth quarter against Florida in a NCAA game at EverBank Stadium, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. Georgia won 24-20. (Jason Getz \/ AJC) (Jason Getz\/AJC Freelancer)<\/p>\n
Had Stockton scored, the Bulldogs would have had to kick off to the Gators and allow time for Florida to possibly score a touchdown, potentially recover an onside kick, and then potentially score again to win the game.<\/p>\n
Instead, Georgia got a fresh set of downs and was able to kneel twice more and run out the clock as Florida exhausted its timeouts without the opportunity to get possession of the football again.<\/p>\n
Gonzales gave Georgia\u2019s coaches credit for their game plan, which limited DJ Lagway to 15-of-24 passing for 166 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did a pretty good job on defense, they threw some pressures,\u201d Gonzales said of the Georgia defense, which had five quarterbacks hurries and recorded two tackles for loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey played some two-high, they played some one-high, man coverage, zone coverage behind it, they do a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Georgia\u2019s offense game plan also drew praise from the veteran Florida coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at some of the stats, they did a really good job controlling the ball in the first half, keeping the ball,\u201d Gonzales said of Georgia\u2019s advantageous time of possession leading into the 10-10 halftime tie. \u201cBut our defense didn\u2019t break.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps not, but as Gonzales pointed out, even when offensive coordinator Mike Bobo\u2019s offense didn\u2019t score, it was able to flip the field position. Florida had three-straight second quarter possessions that started inside its own 15-yard line, at the 11-, 9- and 11-yard line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got the ball with our backs against the wall,\u201d Gonzales said, \u201cbut our defense did a great job keeping them out of the end zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
True, Georgia\u2019s only first-half touchdown came on its opening drive, when Stockton led the Bulldogs on an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive capped by Dillon Bell\u2019s 8-yard touchdown catch from Stockton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe play like this, we\u2019re going to be OK in the next four games,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cWe have to keep pressing, and we have to keep getting better.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you take a look fro the standpoint of what happened, or what could have happened, it\u2019s great,\u201d Gonzales said of the Gators leading Georgia in the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of the day, we did not win, and that\u2019s all that matters \u2026. there are no moral victories, you either win or lose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Billy Gonzales was not about to second-guess his fourth-down decision in Florida\u2019s 24-20 loss to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11704,28,30,29,1853,116,16035],"class_list":["post-29771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-everbank-stadium","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-georgia","tag-jacksonville","tag-rivalry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}