Dooley’s Dozen: 12 best catches in Florida football history
Before we get too deep into this, let me acknowledge that I know I’m missing one. Maybe two. Possibly three or more.
But when I started working on this, I reached out to several people and they felt like I had the 12, or at least as close as they could remember.
Because today we are giving you a new Dooley’s Dozen and it is the 12 best catches in Florida football history. This does not mean the best receiving moments. That could be another list this summer.
It’s also why you don’t see “Doering’s got a touchdown” on this list. I told Chris that I could have caught that perfect pass. I may have exaggerated. Same with Carlos Alvarez and the Houston catch.
Instead, these are my 12 favorite actual catches, not catch-and-runs or 12 most important catches. Just 12 catches that were awesome.
James Jones, Miami, 1982
Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Certainly, this is an easy one to start off this list. Wayne Peace floated to the right and Jones, who had amazing hands for a fullback, reached into the sky and pulled it down while falling backward into the end zone.
That was the winning score (17 yards) and Jones used to tell me that Jim Kelly, the Miami quarterback, used to give him a hard time that he would have been ruled short if replay reviews were around. Didn’t matter. Touchdown.
Lee McGriff, Georgia, 1973
Wide receiver Lee McGriff, far right. AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky
That was called “the Catch” for many years. This one was called “The Leap”. Florida drove for what would be the winning score and McGriff started the drive with a diving catch down the sideline. But the best was yet to come.
Don Gaffney let a pass fly that looked like it would leave the Gator Bowl. But somehow, McGriff summoned up his last inch of vertical leap to get to the ball in the end zone, skying higher than everyone thought possible. Florida then won the game on a two-point conversion pass to Hank Foldberg 11-10.
Kyle Pitts, Ole Miss, 2020
Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports
We all knew that [autotag]Kyle Pitts[/autotag] might be a really good tight end. We had no idea how good. But after the first game of the COVID season, we had a pretty good idea.
His fourth touchdown catch of the game on opening day in Oxford clinched the win. How he caught it is a mystery. [autotag]Kyle Trask[/autotag] threw into double coverage in the end zone. But Pitts fought off the two defenders to catch the ball and secure it to the ground. Unreal.
Carlos Alvarez, FSU, 1969
Foster Marshall, Jr./Florida Times-Union
I have this picture on my wall. So does my friend Mike Bianchi. It was a 30-yard touchdown late in the third quarter with Florida up 14-6. John Reaves thought he overthrew it, but Alvarez stretched to the max and caught it by the back end of the ball while diving face-first into the end zone.
It was this good – the reason I have this picture is that it was a nice spread in Sports Illustrated.
Wes Chandler, Georgia, 1977
AP Photo
I know that in his case, you might be thinking about the play against Auburn, but that was more about the run after the catch. This was a one-hander in the back of the end zone. I was working in Jacksonville at the time and I think we overused that negative we ran it so much.
It was a win that Florida needed because the year before was “Fourth and Dumb” and the year before that a 10-7 loss on a tight-end-around pass and the year before that a failed two-point conversion. But the main thing is that it was an amazing catch by an amazing player.
Jack Jackson, FSU, 1993
USA TODAY Sports
Yes, Florida lost this game eventually and yes, Tamarick Vanover blocked in the back on the play that decided it. But this catch is one that made you lose your voice either in the Swamp or on your couch.
Florida was getting handled by the team that would win the title that year before a great drive to cut the lead. [autotag]Terry Dean[/autotag]’s 31-yard pass to Jackson was into double coverage, but he tipped the ball, then tipped it to himself and finally secured it. Then he did his Fred Sanford. It was as loud as I have ever heard it in that stadium.
Ike Hilliard, FSU 1997
Doug Pensinger
Every Gator fan older than 30 remembers this as one of their faves. The reason it is on this list is because of the presence of mind of Hilliard to jump in the air between two defenders to make the catch, then stop so suddenly it was like he threw on the emergency brake.
The defense flew by and Hilliard sauntered into the end zone for a big score on the biggest night ever.
Ja’Quavion Fraziars, Texas A&M, 2022
AP Photo/Gary McCullough
Fraziars only caught five passes last season, but this one was memorable. From the 19-yard line, [autotag]Anthony Richardson[/autotag] threw the fade to the left where Fraziars was tightly covered by A&M’s Smoke Bouie.
In fact, it was probably interference and there was a safety ready to lower the boom as well. But Fraziars made a catch so the announcer called it “a miracle.” He caught it over his outside shoulder with one hand, secured it with another and suffered a shoulder injury when he landed.
Reidel Anthony, Alabama, 1996
Andy Lyons /Allsport
This is a catch I talk about a lot because there was a stretch of a decade or so when no receivers at Florida would “climb the air.” That’s what I call receivers going up and seemingly having an extra gear to elevate a little higher in mid-jump.
Maybe it’s my imagination, but this one in the SEC title game is always the mental example I use. Anthony went high in the end zone, then seemed to go one higher to get the ball in a game where every score mattered.
Trevon Grimes, Georgia, 2020
Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This was at the end of a half that is still difficult to believe when Florida could not be stopped by the mighty Bulldogs. Kyle Trask threw a fade to Grimes, who had a defender all over him.
Grimes is 6-foot-3-inches. It felt like he jumped five feet to go get the ball and land in the end zone. Go watch it and listen to the woman scream after she realizes what happened. She was very happy.
Tyrie Cleveland, Tennessee, 2017
AP Photo/John Raoux
You could make an argument that this was more about the pass and wasn’t that difficult a catch. I disagree. When you have run 63 yards with your eyeballs hopping up and down, locate the ball in the sky and secure it to the ground and you fall, that’s a pretty good catch.
And you all remember it.
Chris Doering, South Carolina, 1995
Bob Self/Florida Times-Union File
I couldn’t leave Chris off this list. I remember that every Friday at the end of practice, he would run along the back of the end zone and Danny Wuerffel would see how high he needed to throw it to make it work.
On a terribly windy night in Columbia, it worked to perfection. Wuerffel slung it and it looked like it was sailing into the cabooses outside the end zone. But Doering went high and snagged it for a touchdown in Florida’s blowout win.
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