Florida pulls off shocking win on the road at Texas with backup QB

By Andrew Hammond | ahammond@al.comHaving lost two straight games in blowout fashion, things were not looking good for the Florida Gators entering Saturday’s game against the Texas Longhorns. Things seemed more dire on Saturday morning when Florida announced that starting quarterback Aaron Philo was going to miss Saturday’s game against Texas. True freshman Tramell Jones was tabbed to make his first-ever collegiate start. And what a start it would be. Tramell Jones tossed two touchdowns and completed 22 passes to help spark a 27-24 upset of No. 7 Texas on the road in Austin on Saturday. “We played about as awful as we could in the first quarter, and we kept fighting,” Florida head coach Jon Sumrall said. “And we didn’t do that the last couple weeks, to be quite honest with you. When things got tough, we flinched the last couple weeks. Our team grew today without the win. Just grew because we fought.” Texas jumped out to a 10-0 lead and appeared that the Horns were going to issue an early knockout blow. However, Florida continued to fight back as Sumrall said and did it with a quarterback who didn’t seem phased by the moment. “I didn’t take it any bigger than what it was,” Jones said. “Just another time [of] me playing football. This is what I’ve been doing all my life. Start out a little small offense. [We] picked it up, and that’s how you finish the football game.”Not only does the win against Texas help ease the pain of two-straight losses, but Florida gets back on track as they look to still impact what could be a wide-open SEC race. “It feels great,” Jones said. “But this is just a starting point. It’s not over. We got the bye. We can prepare for Georgia, and then we’re on to Georgia.”As for Texas, not only have they lost back-to-back games, but they saw arguably their best player, Colin Simmons exits the game with a leg injury. Texas quarterback Arch Manning finished the game with 173 yards on 14 of 20 passing and one touchdown. A journalist of 19 years, Andrew Hammond's career has taken him from Wichita, KS to Birmingham, AL. In that time, he's excelled in producing quality content in radio, television and newspapers in newsrooms...