Football Downed By Florida 33-8 in the Gasparilla Bowl

Friday, December 20

Tampa, FL

2:30 PM CT

Tulane University

9-5 , 7-1

Florida

8-5 , 4-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Tulane

Florida

Football Downed By Florida 33-8 in the Gasparilla Bowl

Dec 20, 2024 | Football

Box Score

FINAL STATS
ESPN HIGHLIGHTS
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
PHOTO GALLERY (BY BEAU BRUNE)

TAMPA, FL - The Tulane football team (9-5) lost the program's third straight game in falling 33-8 to Florida (8-5) at the Gasparilla Bowl on Friday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

The Tulane offense was limited to 194 yards in the game with 125 through the air and 69 on the ground. The team also went 3-for-13 on third downs. The Florida offense put up 529 total yards with 305 passing and 224 on the ground.

Ty Thompson went 11-for-29 for 125 yards and a passing touchdown. He also ran for 17 yards. Makhi Hughes led the team with his eight carries for 29 yards on the ground. Mario Williams led the receiving efforts with six catches for 91 yards. He also went over 1000 yards on the season with his fourth quarter reception. Alex Bauman totaled two catches for 17 yards. Dontae Fleming had a catch for 13 yards.

Tyler Grubbs led the defense with eight tackles. Dickson Agu picked up seven tackles, a stop for loss and an interception. Jalen Geiger and Sam Howard both totaled six tackles. Adin Huntington registered the team's sack. Kevin Adam III also had an interception for the Tulane defense.

Tulane scored its only touchdown of the game as Williams hauled in a 16-yard pass from Thompson with 29 seconds remaining in the game to make the final score 33-8 after the two-point conversion to Zycarl Lewis Jr.

The Gators scored first on the 34-yard field goal from Trey Smack to complete a nine play, 61-yard drive to put Florida up 3-0 with 7:48 remaining in the opening quarter.

The Tulane defense picked off the Florida quarterback on the ensuing drive as Kevin Adams III put the offense in a prime position, but the 35-yard field goal was missed to keep the score at 3-0 early in the second quarter.

Florida made it a 6-0 as Smack knocked in his second field goal attempt of the game, this one from 44-yards out, with 9:12 remaining in the opening half.

The Tulane defense continued to step up and forced their second turnover of the half as Dickson Agu intercepted a pass at the goal line with just over eight minutes left in the first half.

Florida's Smack knocked in his third field goal of the game, this one from 24-yards out, to put the Gators up 9-0 with 9:11 left in the third quarter.

The Gators scored the game's first touchdown as DJ Lagway connected with Tony Livingston on a seven-yard score to go up 16-0 with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter.

Florida's Smack made it four field goals as he knocked in a 30-yard field goal to put the Gators up 19-0 with 13:03 left in the game.

The Gators scored their second touchdown of the game as KD Daniels recovered an offensive fumble and ran 27-yards for a score to put Florida up 26-0 with 6:29 remaining.

Florida added a late rushing touchdown to put the score at 33-0 with less than two minutes remaining in the contest.

Next, the football team starts the off-season. The team's full spring schedule will be released at a later date.

NOTES:

- Since the start of the 2022 season, Tulane is now 32-10 (.761).

Wins Since 2023
▪️ Georgia: 39
▪️ Michigan 35
▪️ Oregon 35
▪️ Tulane 32
▪️ Ohio State 32
▪️ Washington 32
▪️ Alabama 32
▪️ Penn State 32
▪️ Texas 30

- The bowl appearance for Tulane is the third consecutive, the sixth time in the last seven years and the 17th bowl appearance (1932 – Rose, 1935 – Sugar, 1970 – Liberty, 1973 – Astro Blue Bonnet, 1979 – Liberty, 1980 – Hall of Fame, 1987 – Independence, 1998 – Liberty, 2002 – Hawaii, 2013 – New Orleans, 2018 – Cure, 2019 – Armed Forces, 2020 – Famous Idaho, 2023 – Cotton Bowl, 2023 – Military Bowl) in school history…Prior to the last seven season, Tulane had never even made consecutive bowl appearances

- Tulane has now lost 11 straight to SEC competition with the last win being over Mississippi State in 2006.

- The program is 7-10 all-time in bowl games and have lost the team's last two.

- The three straight losses to end the season is the longest for the program since losing eight in row from Sept. 18 – Nov. 13, 2021.

- The loss dropped Tulane to 6-14-2 all-time against Florida. The program hasn't beaten the Gators since 1947. This was the first time that teams have played against each other since 1984.

- The loss made Tulane to 1-2 all-time against the Gators in Tampa.

- This was the first game that Jon Sumrall has ever coached against the University of Florida in his head coaching career.

- Coach Sumrall saw his all-time record fall to 32-9 (.780). He entered the week with the fourth-highest winning percentage among current FBS head coaches behind Oregon's Dan Lanning (.875 – 35-5), Ohio State's Ryan Day (.868 - 66-10) and Georgia's Kirby Smart (.852 – 104-18).

- Makhi Hughes ran for 29 in the game to finish the season ranked fourth on Tulane's single season rushing list.

Tulane Single Season Rushing Leaders
1. Matt Forte – 2007 - 2127 yds
2. Tyjae Spears – 2022 – 1581 yds.
3. Melwelde Moore – 2001 – 1421 yds
4. Makhi Hughes – 2024 – 1401 yds

- Mario Williams with 91 yards receiving tonight topped 1000 on the campaign…It is the 12th time in school history that a Tulane receiver had topped 1000 yards receiving and he is the eighth different Tulane receiver to accomplish the feat

Tulane Single Season Receiving Leaders
1. Marc Zeno – 1987 – 1206 yds.
2. PJ Franklin – 1998 – 1174 yds.
3. Ryan Grant – 2012 – 1149 yds.
4. Marc Zeno – 1985 – 1137 yds.
5. Jeremy Williams – 2009 – 1113 yds.
6. Adrian Burnette – 1999 – 1095 yds.
7. Adrian Burnette – 2000 – 1075 yds.
8. JaJuan Dawson – 1999 – 1051 yds.
9. Ryan Grant – 2013 – 1039 yds.
10. Marc Zeno – 1986 – 1033 yds.
11. Mario Williams – 2024 – 1031 yds.
12. Roydell Williams – 2003 – 1006 yds.

- The only year that Tulane has had both a 1000+ rusher and 1000+ receiver in the same season was 2009 when Jeremy Williams (1113 receiving yards) and Andre Anderson (1016 rushing yards) accomplished the feat.

- The start by Ty Thompson at quarterback was the first of his career.

- Tulane's 194 total yards in the game was the program's lowest offensive output on the year and lowest since totaling 142 against Houston during the 2016 campaign.

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