JACKSONVILLE — Will Hill couldn’t breathe.
He had just intercepted a tipped pass from Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray in overtime and returned it 89 yards to the 4-yard line.
Laying on top of him was a pile of teammates who had cleared out Florida’s sideline thinking Hill had just scored to end the game.
“It fell in my lap,” Hill said. “I had like 400 pounds on me. I thought I was in, I thought the game was over.”
The game wasn’t over yet, but Hill set the offense up, needing just a Chas Henry field goal to win.
The safety subbed himself in and out of the game to stay fresh because he was battling a cold last week and didn’t feel 100 percent.
Whatever level Hill was operating on in Saturday’s 34-31 win over the Bulldogs was more than enough for him to anchor the Gators’ defense.
Murray set a career high for passing yards (313) against UF’s secondary, which allowed 166.6 passing yards per game — good for second in the Southeastern Conference — coming into this week.
UGA also had two receivers rack up more than 100 yards and gained 101 yards on the ground behind Washaun Ealey and Caleb King.
But Hill’s defensive unit made just enough big plays to come away with a win.
Hill’s overtime interception was his second of the game, as the junior also picked off Murray on a tipped pass in the second quarter. He also intercepted a pass on a two-point conversion attempt in the fourth, but it did not count on the stat sheet because it came on an extra-point scenario.
“We’ve been waiting for that all year,” UF coach Urban Meyer said. “We’ve had some fantastic free safeties around here, fantastic. From Reggie Nelson and Major Wright to now Will Hill, he played very well tonight.”
Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who coached the secondary for the Arizona Cardinals before joining the Gators this season, has been openly critical of Hill many times this season, saying the highly touted prospect had yet to blossom into the player he can be.
But Austin had nothing but praise for Hill after Saturday’s effort.
“You saw it today, he played like a Florida safety plays,” Austin said. “He did a great job out there today and I’m very proud of him.”
Austin and the defense got another big play from a UF safety when Ahmad Black, who once again led the team in tackles, forced a fumble while sacking Murray in the first half.
Linebacker Jelani Jenkins recovered the ball at the UGA 39-yard line and returned it 10 yards. The Gators capitalized on the short field with a Jeff Demps touchdown run six plays later to take a 14-7 lead.
“When you start talking about short fields and scoring the way we scored, a lot of that was where the defense gave the ball to the offense,” Meyer said. “We’ve been doing the opposite, we’ve been giving other teams short fields and that’s been awful.”
