Freshman Byrum kicks Gators where it hurts -- twice


Sep. 30, 2007
By Gary Parrish
CBSSports.com Senior Writer


GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Three seconds left on the clock. Ninety-thousand fans going berserk. Tie score here in the Swamp, and when the ball was snapped and placed on the ground Auburn's freshman kicker swung his black shoe and booted it through the uprights, setting off a celebration that ...

"Florida has called a timeout."

Say what?

Urban Meyer, with an official on his shoulder, had yelled "Now! Now! Now!" to get a timeout before the play started. It was premature upset-ulation, and Wes Byrum's game-winning field was rendered pointless, like a home run hit when an umpire declares a no-pitch. In other words, the 18-year-old would have to trot out there and do it all over again, and now he was officially iced and filled with butterflies.

Or not.

"I was a little bit more comfortable the second time," said Byrum, and how's that for steady nerves under pressure? With such composure laced with confidence, there was little doubt the second attempt would be as pure as the first. So when it left his foot Byrum looked up, turned, ran and did a Gator chomp with his arms, and the reigning national champions had suffered their first loss of the season -- a 20-17 stunner -- thanks to a home-grown product.

Yep, a Floridian beat Florida.

Gator bait, he was not.

"It doesn't get any better than that," said Byrum, a native of Fort Lauderdale, just 315 miles south. "That's a dream situation."

Perhaps for you, kiddo.

But try telling that to the 113th consecutive sellout crowd that packed Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, prepared to watch its 18-point favorites cruise against an Auburn team that had already lost to South Florida and Mississippi State, don't forget. This was supposed to be the tune-up for next weekend's showdown with LSU, and nothing more. But on a Saturday when four top 10 teams fell it wasn't hard to see this upset coming from a mile away, and by a mile I mean the 43 yards the pigskin traveled once leaving Byrum's foot to improve Tommy Tuberville's record to 2-0 against Meyer.

Sure, the outcome was shocking.

Nobody woke up expecting to witness it.

But given how the game unfolded, this was hardly a surprise.

Even Gators fans who had watched 18 consecutive home wins seemed something less than optimistic things would turn out OK once they started so badly. Though Florida did enough to erase a 17-3 third-quarter deficit, when it needed a drive to take the lead late the offense reverted to looking like the same unit that was shut out through the initial 33 minutes. Rather than a game-winning march that would've pushed Tim Tebow to the front of the Heisman Trophy race, the Gators ran three plays, lost 6 yards and punted the ball 25 yards out of bounds.

Yikes.

That gave Auburn possession with 3:38 remaining, first-and-10 at its own 39. And for everybody who had forgotten that Florida lost nine defensive starters off the team that dominated Ohio State in the BCS Championship Game last January, the subsequent 215 seconds provided a painful reminder as Auburn moved right down the field with little resistance.

Ben Tate got a yard. Then Brandon Cox hit Rodgeriqus Smith for 10 yards. Then Tate got another yard. Then Cox found Prechae Rodriguez for 6 yards. Then Tate got 5 yards on one run and 8 yards on another, and now it was just a matter of lining things up perfectly.

Which Auburn did.

With three seconds left and the ball on the Florida 26 yard line, Tuberville called a timeout and Byrum was happy to run onto the field, if only because it meant he'd no longer have to stand on the sideline and get harassed by Gator fans.

"I got called things that I've never been called before," Byrum said with a smile. "It actually helped me get motivated because they were hammering me."

And then, of course, he hammered them.

Hammered them with his foot.

Two times, for emphasis.

"When I lifted my head I saw it going right down the middle," he said. "Then I just started celebrating."