A pair of Ponte Vedra alums patrolled the sidelines as the college football season got underway and Florida hosted Florida Atlantic in Gainesville on Sept. 4.
Chris Howard was named one of two starters at kicker for the Gators to begin his redshirt senior season, along with Mississippi State graduate transfer Jace Christmann.
However, redshirt junior Nick Tronti was unable to earn the starting quarterback job for the Owls entering the season after battling Miami graduate transfer N’Kosi Perry throughout fall practice.
Howard handled the place-kicking duties for the Gators during much of the game, while Christmann was listed as a starter as well but focused on kickoffs.
Although there were no field goals attempted during the contest by either team, he kicked the extra point after four of the five Gators’ touchdowns.
It looked for a moment as if he was going to get the opportunity to cap the night with a fifth extra point as he lined up on the field following a 73-yard touchdown run by Anthony Richardson with 3:43 left in the game.
There wound up being a delay-of-game penalty called on the play, as the Gators dealt with some confusion on which players should be out there on special teams.
The penalty gave Florida head coach Dan Mullen some time to think about it, and he switched out Howard for Christmann, who ended up converting the extra point.
Just as Christmann was given his shot at place-kicking, Howard attempted two kickoffs that averaged 64 yards, one of which resulted in a touchback.
Unfortunately, for the Ponte Vedra faithful watching the game Tronti did not see action on the field other than taking snaps in warmups.
Perry finished the game completing 19 of 33 passes for 261 yards and a touchdown. He also gained 18 yards on 10 carries and was sacked six times by a relentless Gators defense that looked much improved from a year ago.
Tronti will look to show patience and wait for his opportunity to shine behind Perry, while Howard will look to build upon his excellent start to the 2021 season.
The Gators travel to Tampa to take on South Florida at 1 p.m. on Sept. 11, while the Owls will host Georgia Southern in their home opener down in Boca Raton at 3:30 p.m.
