GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The blitz that saddled Florida safety Donovan Stiner with a new nickname—possibly for life—wasn’t as extreme on the page as it wound up being on the field. “It wasn’t supposed to be eight,” Gators defensive coordinator Todd Grantham says with a chuckle.
But eight Gators did rush Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald on fourth-and-10 in Saturday’s fourth quarter as Florida tried to protect a 13–6 lead. Do some simple math. The Bulldogs had six players protecting Fitzgerald, who was the seventh Mississippi State player behind the line of scrimmage. That means four Bulldogs ran routes against three Florida defenders.