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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham compared him to Cam Newton before the game. Whatever the comparison, Florida's Anthony Richardson was a nightmare to handle for the Utes.
The sophomore quarterback, who is already getting first-round NFL draft attention, worked his magic to lead the Gators to its 33rd straight home-opening win Saturday as Florida defeated No. 7 Utah 29-26 in The Swamp.
And though Richardson was electric on the field — he finished throwing for 168 yards on 17-of-24 passing and had three rushing touchdowns and 106 yards — it was a game-sealing interception in the end zone by Utah's Cam Rising that doomed Utah's chances at a potential victory.
Prior to the turnover, Rising orchestrated a drive from its own 25-yard that put Utah 6 yards out from the end zone, with a winding clock that the Utes were trying to get as close to zero as possible before a score. Utah didn't need a touchdown, but continued to pass in an attempt to win the game in regulation and a field goal to tie the game as its backup plan.
But neither worked as Rising threw the ball short and into the hands of Florida's Amari Burney, who had fits containing tight end Brant Kuithe all night but got the last laugh. As the refs confirmed the interception, the sellout crowd of 90,799 erupted in deafening cheers.
All Rising could say in the end, after a significantly long pause before answering how he felt: "Just not very happy about it, that's it."
Ahead of Utah's final possession, Florida trailed by 4 points and needed their own game-saving drive to keep their chances alive. With the drive starting at Utah's 25-yard line, Richardson and the offense worked the ball all the way down to the 1-yard line, while milking the clock along the way, before taking a timeout.
It provided a brief breather in an otherwise electric environment — the sellout crowd was Florida's largest-ever attended home opener and 10th highest attended game all time — before Richardson went untouched into the end zone for the go-ahead score and his third rushing touchdown of the night.
"He's gonna get his; I mean, there's no way — the guy's 6-foot-4, 240 and runs like a 4.3, so there's no way you could keep him bottled up," Whittingham said of Richardson. "But he just did the damage in key points in the game, key times in the game. He's a terrific player."
The Gators opened up the game with a quick-tempo offensive attack that Utah couldn't contain, but Utes defensive end Jonah Elliss forced a fumble and R.J. Hubert scooped it up to return it 37 yards to Florida's 25-yard line.
From there, Rising went to work and connected with receiver Devaughn Vele before a 9-yard touchdown catch to tight end Brant Kuithe for the game's first score. It was a strong statement to the deafening crowd in The Swamp and a sign that Utah wasn't afraid of SEC country.
"Yeah, I wouldn't even call it my play. I think it was a team effort," Hubert said. "That's something that we stress a lot was just getting the ball out whether it be through forced fumbles or interceptions. The ball really just fell in my lap and I just started running."
But after that opening drive, Utah's offense was rushed and struggled to settle in against a Florida defense that crashed the line and made the run game nonexistent for the remainder of the half.
To open the second half, though, Utah utilized a heavy dose of an effective run game between Tavion Thomas and Chris Curry to get into the red zone. But once at the 1-yard line, Utah was held short multiple times, leading to a turnover on downs.
Utah might have had a touchdown on a Rising run on third down that was viewed as short by the refs, but Whittingham never challenged the call. Rising believed he broke the plane but said "it is what it is" on no review. A fourth-down push was reviewed after Thomas dived for the goal, but it did not go in Utah's favor.
Whittingham said they were waiting for the refs to review the third-down play but nothing ever came. At that point, he decided it wasn't worth calling a timeout to review the call.
"They're looking at every play and there was a long period of time before we snapped the next one — not a long period of time but enough time for them to get several looks at it," Whittingham said. "If they think there's any doubt they'll stop and keep looking at it. So it's almost — nine times out of 10 it's a waste of the timeout to try to get that done, because it's happening anyways."
On the ensuing possession, after getting a stop and forcing the Gators to punt, Utah went 89 yards in five minutes to close out the third quarter and take a 19-14 lead over Florida (Utah fumbled a 2-point conversion attempt). But the missed opportunities were hard to overcome and made a difference as the time came to an end.
"Yeah, it's hard," said Kuithe, who was Rising's main target and finished with 105 yards and a touchdown on 13 catches. "It's a lot of missed opportunities. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot, but give them credit because they made stops when needed. They're a good team, but we've just got to bounce back from this one and go on to next week and try to go 1-0."
Utah returns to action Saturday in the program's home opener against Southern Utah (1:30 p.m. MDT, Pac-12 Networks).
