Nocturnal 
An 18-year-old college freshman has watched her social media following quadruple in a matter of days, all because an ESPN camera happened to land on her during a college football game.
Peyton Blomquist was in the stands at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday night watching her University of Florida Gators take on the Ole Miss Rebels, when broadcast cameras panned across the crowd and zoomed in on her cheering section.
The clip quickly did the rounds online, and it wasn’t long before internet sleuths tracked her down after she posted the same footage to her own Instagram page with the caption “Go Gators!”
From 10,000 to 45,000 followers in days
According to Yahoo Sports, Blomquist had fewer than 10,000 Instagram followers before the game. Within 24 hours that had jumped to more than 16,500.
By Saturday night she’d shot past 30,000, and by Monday she was sitting at 39,600. As of the time of writing, she’s passed 45,000 followers on Instagram, with her TikTok following also climbing to more than 33,000.
Some of her TikTok videos have racked up over a million views each, with one clip reportedly reaching 3.2 million.
Blomquist, who studies nutritional science and is on the pre-med track at the University of Florida according to her LinkedIn, is also a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. She was reportedly her high school’s salutatorian in Lake Mary, north of Orlando, before heading off to college.
She’s leaning into the fame
Rather than shy away from the attention, Blomquist has embraced it. She’s posted just once on Instagram since going viral, sharing a mix of photos from the game, her sorority and the moment itself, captioned “find the cut” – a nod to the Gators’ rallying cry this season, “Work the Cut”, introduced by head coach Jon Sumrall.
On the pitch, Florida made the most of the occasion too, beating the then-No. 4 ranked Ole Miss Rebels 52-28, a result that saw the Gators climb the AP Top 25 rankings.
Blomquist is far from the first person to have their life briefly turned upside down by a stray camera shot at a big sporting event. Similar moments have gone viral before, including the now-infamous “kiss cam” clip at a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where a couple’s reaction to being caught on the jumbotron prompted frontman Chris Martin to joke: “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.”
Where things stand now
For now, Blomquist’s following continues to grow by the day, and she appears to be enjoying her unexpected moment in the spotlight. There’s no suggestion she’s seeking anything beyond the fun of the viral attention, and she remains focused on her studies at the University of Florida.
