1995 Florida Gators football team
[18] The defense was suspect, surrendering 421 total yards to a Cougar team which won a single game the year before.
Third-team tailback Terry Jackson picked up the load when Elijah Williams and Fred Taylor were injured, rushing for 138 yards and three touchdowns.
On the first play from scrimmage, Volunteer quarterback Peyton Manning connected with receiver Joey Kent for a 72-yard gain.
On the next play, Manning threw a touchdown pass to Marcus Nash, giving the Vols a 7–0 lead only 15 seconds into the game.
[23] After another Manning touchdown pass and two Gator turnovers, the Vols held a 30–14 advantage late in the second quarter in front of a stunned Florida Field crowd.
[24] Wuerffel led the Gators to an answering score, cutting the lead to 30–21 with a touchdown pass in the last minute of the first half.
That would be the beginning of a historic run, as Florida scored 48 straight points despite a torrential second half downpour and won 62–37.
An 8-yard pass to Chris Doering was his 101st career catch and gave Florida a 21–3 cushion early in the second quarter.
[32] Auburn added a field goal, and passes to Jacquez Green set up a Fred Taylor touchdown run to give Florida its first lead of the game, 14–13.
Gators starting quarterback Danny Wuerffel threw for 242 yards and five touchdowns before leaving the game in the third quarter.
[38] After the game, Gators coach Steve Spurrier stated that he had wanted to be the first opponent to hang "half a hundred" on the Bulldogs in their own stadium because "we heard no one had ever done that before.
"[40] At homecoming the following week, backup quarterback Eric Kresser played in place of Wuerffel for the Northern Illinois game, a 58–20 defeat of the Huskies.
In Columbia, Florida clinched the SEC East title with a crushing 63–7 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks.
[45] In the second half, Vanderbilt wide receiver Fred Baker and Florida nickelback Ben Hanks were both ejected for fighting.
The Razorbacks led 3-0 after a long, game-opening drive on which tailback Madre Hill suffered a knee injury.
[48] Following a 36-yard field goal from Arkansas, Florida drove 80 yards in seven plays, with Wuerffel completing a 22-yard touchdown pass to Chris Doering.
[49] The Gators never looked back, scoring 34 unanswered points and securing a spot against Nebraska in the national title game.
Aided by good field position, the Huskers countered on their opening series with a 53-yard scoring drive, capped by a 16-yard cross-field throwback pass from Tommie Frazier to Lawrence Phillips.
In the third period, on second down from the Nebraska 25, Cornhuskers quarterback Frazier ran an option play to the right, and decided to keep the ball rather than pitch.
The Gators would use the Fiesta Bowl rout as a rallying point for the 1996 season, in which they won the first national championship in school history.
