Did J. Michael Sturdivant Actually Catch the Deep Ball in the Gators' Loss?

Florida fell to Georgia, 24-20, in controversial fashion.

J. Michael Sturdivant came up short while chasing down an under thrown ball from DJ Lagway. | Kyle Lander / Florida Gators on SI

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.-- It isn't a rivalry game without some controversy, and there was plenty in the Florida Gators' 24-20 loss to Georgia on Saturday.

None was more evident than DJ Lagway's incomplete pass to J. Michael Sturdivant in the fourth quarter.

On 3rd-and-4 from Florida's 31-yard line and trailing 24-20 with 3:50 left, Lagway rolled left and saw a streaking Sturdivant near Georgia's 20-yard line with no defender near him. Lagway ran forward and launched the pass, which fell short of Sturdivant.

The UCLA transfer gave his best effort on a dive, but the field at EverBank Stadium forced a slip, and the pass was ruled incomplete, but, unsurprisingly, went into a review.

Watching the replay, the 76,000 fans inside EverBank Stadium were seemingly in conjunction with the Bulldogs' side silent and the Gators' side raucous: Sturdivant had caught the ball.

Catch or no catch?👀

It was ruled incomplete and upheld after review.

(via ABC) pic.twitter.com/mY2IZN6jO7

— On3 (@On3sports) November 1, 2025

Social media was seemingly in agreement as it looked like Sturdivant had gotten just enough of his forearms underneath the ball to overturn the call.

Yet, when the officials announced the ruling, the call of incomplete pass was upheld.

Lagway threw an incomplete pass on the next play to turn the ball over on downs, and Georgia ran out the clock to win its fifth-straight in the series.

Lagway says Sturdivant was the 4th progression on the play ... "I should have put more on it." https://t.co/hbU9tECsRb

— Nick de la Torre (@delatorre) November 1, 2025

Lagway broke the play down after the game.

"(Sturdivant) kind of came open late. He was like the fourth progression on that," Lagway said. "I was still going through my progression. I was out of the pocket. Then right when I kind of popped up and looked up I seen him. I was already on my left foot. I just tried to get it out to him; should have put a little more on it."

Interim head coach Billy Gonzales, meanwhile said he did not believe it was a catch.

"It's hard," he explained. "We're going to go back and watch film. Probably going to be more than one of those type of plays. But, yeah, it's one of those things. Just didn't work the way we wanted it to work today."

The loss was the latest heart-breaker in the series for Florida, following after close games that got out of hand in 2022 and 2023 and a tough loss in 2024 in which the Gators led until Lagway exited the game with a hamstring injury.

This view should have got way more scrutiny than it did. pic.twitter.com/3qqlSvmT0E

— Luke Stampini (@LukeStampini) November 1, 2025

It was also the latest controversial call involving Georgia, which came on the winning end of a game against Auburn in which Tigers quarterback Jackson Arnold fumbled the ball near the end zone, eventually leading to a Georgia field goal near the end of the first half.

Georgia went on to win, 20-10, in that game.

There were also controversial calls on a penalty on Georgia for simulating the snap and a fumble forced and recovered by Florida that was ruled incomplete, leading to a Bulldogs' field goal.

Florida (3-5, 2-4 SEC) will look for much more consistency and maybe a little more luck next week on the road at Kentucky.

"It stings. It hurts bad," edge rusher Tyreak Sapp said. "It hurts bad knowing this is my last time I'll ever get to play in this game in this stadium with my brothers. It hurts bad. It hurts a lot.

"... We came up short tonight. You know, we going to chalk it up and talk about it and then we going to put it behind us."