The Florida Gators were coming off two bad losses and quickly found themselves down 10 on the road to No. 7 Texas. They righted the ship to a certain extent, scratching back three points and holding the Longhorns' offense to two straight punts.
Then another special teams gaffe struck, and all of a sudden, it's 17-3, and former Gators wide receiver Chris Doering's pre-game prediction of a "nasty" outcome for Florida was looking prophetic.
But the Gators didn't panic. They didn't abandon the running game. They ran the ball three straight plays to open the following possession, setting up a Tramell Jones Jr. touchdown pass to Lacota Dippre just before halftime.
The Gators had new life.
For the most part, Florida dominated the remainder of the game en route to a 27-24 win in a game that looked like it could have gone very, very badly.
After the game, Jon Sumrall played down the win itself, and played up the process that put his team in position to win.
"Proud of our guys," Sumrall said after the game. "We've had some setbacks as of late. The last couple of weeks did not feel like we fought the way you have to fight when you're in the middle of a game. It's going to be a competitive battle.
"Today, the game didn't start out very good for us. We played really sloppy early. Getting to several situations where we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot.
"What I would tell you is: Our guys fought today."
Last week, Sumrall made it a point after their loss to South Carolina the effort he expects from his team, what it means to be a Florida Gator. In Texas, with a chance to pack up and go hom early, his team got that message.
'We happened to win the game too, which is huge, but the most important thing that happened today is we fought," Sumrall said.
Sumrall's message was that playing the game the right way matters in the long run. Play the game the right way, and the rewards will come after.
"But how you play the game matters as much to me, and today showed a lot of character, a lot of growth, and the fact that we fought when maybe things had not been going our way, and a lot of it was self-inflicted, but just grateful for our guys' response and the mental toughness and resiliency to fight," Sumrall said.
Now, Florida heads into a bye week with the idea of making the College Football Playoff back in play. They'll take on a fully focused Georgia Bulldog team that was on the opposite end of a very similar game on Saturday. They jumped on Auburn early, only to watch the visiting team get the win.
It's never easy in the SEC, but Sumrall now knows he has a team that will fight even in the face of adversity.
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