The Florida Gator football team can no longer go to a bowl game or end up with a .500 record as it loses at home to Georgia Southern 26-20 Saturday afternoon in Gainesville.
Florida has now lost six straight games to fall to 4-7 on the year while the Eagles improve to 7-4. The Gators had gone to a bowl game each year since 1990 and they will now have their first losing record since 1979.
Georgia Southern, a team transitioning into Division I next year from the FCS division, had been 0-20 against Division I-A or FBS teams until beating Florida Saturday.
And the Eagles did it without completing a pass; they were 0 for 3 passing but they gashed a depleted and injured Gator defense for 429 yards. The Gators could muster only 279 yards of total offense in the game.
Florida actually led in this game 10-0 but the Eagles came back with a score to trail 10-7 at the half. The Eagles scored 13 points in the third quarter to seize the lead but the Gators tied the game at 20-20 on a 46 yard touchdown grab by wide receiver Solomon Patton in the fourth quarter.
However, Georgia Southern scored with 2:44 left on a 14 yard run and then they held off a furious Florida drive that got down to the Eagle 17 before running out of time.
Florida will end its season by hosting second ranked FSU next week.