Murray Only Needs One Leg To Win In Orlando

The last time Aaron Murray left the Florida Citrus Bowl, he walked out of it as a champion. In 2008, Murray led Tampa Plant High School to a 34-14 over Tallahassee Lincoln in the 2008 4A Florida state championship game. Oh, and he did it on one leg.

“I had broken my leg seven weeks or eight weeks before that ,” Murray said. “I actually came back the week before and played in the semifinal game, we won that.”

“I was hobbling like crazy ,” Murray said. “I couldn’t move at all. I wasn’t supposed to play football for about four months because I had severely dislocated my ankle in the incident so I was pretty messed up.”

“I had like five different kinds of tape on and I really couldn’t move at all, but I really don’t think I got hit too much. I just stood there and tried to throw the ball as best I could.”

Murray went through surgery and an expedited rehab process just to be able to stand up and throw the ball and ended up returning to play just two months after severely injuring his leg.

“No one thought he (Murray) would be back,” Plant head coach Robert Weiner said. “He worked as hard as he possibly could to put himself in that situation in the small hope that he might be able to come back.”

During the game, Murray not only threw the ball, he threw it well. Murray completed 18 of 30 passes for 344 passing yards.

“It was fun,” Murray said reminiscing about the game. “Anytime you win a championship it’s exciting.”

“It was definitely an exciting game back in my younger times. I’m looking forward to get back.”

Murray’s return to Citrus Bowl may break his streak of bad luck in the postseason. Murray is 0-2 in bowl games as the starting quarterback, losing to UCF in the 2010 Liberty Bowl and to Michigan State in last year’s Outback Bowl. The two losses came by a combined seven points. Orlando and the Capital One Bowl might be the perfect place to recapture the old magic.