Hangin 50 on the Old Ball Coach

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

COLUMBIA, SC --- No Percy? No problem. The Florida Gators probably could have used Percy Harvin Saturday night, but if he had been part of the offense, it would have seemed like the Florida Gators were running the score up on the Old Ball Coach. With Percy, the Gators might have lit up South Carolina with some Star Wars-like numbers. Instead, it was your basic, pedestrian blowout led by that other guy in the backfield and a few friends who stepped up their games.

Percy Harvin had the flu and didn’t even make the trip to Columbia. Coming off the first 100-yard receiving, 100-yard rushing game in school history, you would think Harvin was a necessity for the Gators against Steve Spurrier and the Gamecocks. But just because you’re down one superstar doesn’t always mean you’re down and out on your luck, especially when you’ve got that Tebow guy to lean on and carry you to a 51-31 Southeastern Conference win on the road.

After spending a couple of fairly one-dimensional weeks nursing a sore shoulder, the dual-threat Tebow of old returned and he delivered a record-setting performance. He ran like a runaway freight train, gaining 120 yards on 26 carries for five touchdowns, which is a Florida school record. The five touchdowns brings his total for the season to 19 and that ties a few notables like Herschel Walker and Garrison Hearst for the all-time Southeastern Conference record.

“Five touchdowns?” Spurrier asked after the game. “I lost count. He rushed for five?”

Tebow might not have approached those numbers if Harvin had been well. The game plan for South Carolina was set up around Harvin, but when he became unavailable, Meyer shifted the load to his sophomore quarterback.

“Offensively, with Percy being sick and not being here, we kind of made the decision to ride that horse with Tim,” said Meyer.

Although Tebow had some problems connecting on a few deep throws, he threw enough short and mid-range darts to slice and dice up the number one pass defense in the nation for 304 yards and two touchdowns. He hit on 22 of 32 passes but he also had two touchdown passes and a couple of balls in the middle of the field dropped. If those balls are caught, Tebow would have approached 400 passing yards.

The combined seven touchdowns (five rushing, two passing) allowed Tebow break Danny Wuerffel’s Florida and SEC record for touchdowns responsible in a single season. Weurffel accounted for 41 touchdowns in Florida’s 1996 national championship season. Tebow set the new standard at 42 with a fourth quarter touchdown pass to Caldwell.

More important than all the records, the Gators did what they have to do to stay alive in the SEC East Division race. The Gators are 7-3 overall and finished their SEC slate with a 5-3 mark. To repeat as division champs, Florida needs Tennessee and Georgia to both lose one SEC game. The common denominator for both Tennessee and Georgia is Kentucky. Georgia plays Kentucky next week and Tennessee plays Kentucky Thanksgiving weekend.

“I’m gonna call Rich (Kentucky coach Rich Brooks) tonight,” said Meyer. “We’re big Wildcat fans.”

Tebow, who played himself back into the Heisman Trophy race with his performance, said he would gladly sacrifice a Heisman if Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson can torch both the Vols and the Bulldogs in the next couple of weeks.

“I hope Andre Woodson wins the Heisman for us,” said Tebow.

Tebow’s Heisman-like numbers were made possible by a little help from his friends. His offensive line didn’t allow a sack even when Maurkice Pouncey went down with a high ankle sprain on Florida’s third offensive play of the game. Mo Hurt stepped in and the Florida offensive line didn’t miss a beat.

In Harvin’s absence Bubba Caldwell became the go-to guy in the passing game, delivering his second straight 100-yard plus performance. Caldwell caught a career-high 11 passes for 148 yards and a touchdowns. The 11 catches gives Caldwell 164 for his career and puts him within easy striking distance of the all-time Florida mark of 172 which Carlos Alvarez has held since 1971. Caldwell also ran twice for nine yards.

Helping Tebow shoulder Harvin’s share of the rushing load were Brandon James (10 carries, 54 yards; he also added three catches for 37 yards) and Jarred Fayson (four carries for 17 yards; he also added three catches for 28 yards and a touchdown). Kestahn Moore ran six times for 38 yards.

As impressive as that sounds, it could have been much, much worse. There were two dropped touchdown passes. There were two lost fumbles, one which set up South Carolina for its second touchdown of the game, and one that cost the Gators a first half touchdown. Plus, Tebow threw an interception when he slightly underthrew Fayson on a deep pass.

If not for stopping themselves, the Gators could have put up some numbers that might have paled the 537 total yards (233 rushing, 304 yards passing) and 51 points. Spurrier admitted that his team needed all the help they could get because they didn’t do a very good job of stopping the Gators.

“I think our guys tried,” said Spurrier. “I think they tried as hard as they can. We’re just not too good. It’s as simple as that.”

It didn’t help the Gamecocks that they gave the Gators a couple of gift touchdowns in the first five minutes of the game. A botched snap on the first play of the game was recovered at the South Carolina 21 by Brandon Spikes. Five plays later Tebow was in the end zone with the first of his five touchdowns.

The Florida defense did a three-and-out after the kickoff and then the special teams got in the act. The Gamecocks tried a rugby-style kick with Ryan Succop running to his right but he hesitated and that was the advantage that Florida’s John Curtis needed to block the kick and give the Gators the ball on the South Carolina 22. This drive took all of 12 seconds. On second down, Tebow found Fayson in the end zone for a touchdown pass that spotted Florida to a 13-0 lead.

“I thought our defense did a nice job starting the game the way they did, creating some turnovers and keeping the ball in front of them,” said Meyer.

South Carolina actually came back to take the lead, driving 65 yards in five plays for their first touchdown and getting the second in two plays after a Fayson fumble at the Florida 23. Blake Mitchell found Ocala’s Dion Lecorn for a 21-yard gain and Cory Boyd finished off the drive to make it 14-13, which brought out the best in the capacity crowd of 81,245. They raised the decibel level in the stadium quite a few notches, but Tebow silenced them by leading the Gators on an 11-play, 66-yard drive that he finished off with a one-yard run with 12:32 remaining in the half.

Tebow got his third touchdown of the half a couple of minutes later, a 44-yard scoring drive that was set up by a Tony Joiner interception. A 22-yard Tebow to Caldwell pass got the drive jump-started and it was completed when Tebow ran it in from the three with 10:13 left in the half.

Rushing touchdown number four came at the end of Florida’s first possession of the second half, a four-play, 80-yard drive that began with a Tebow to Aaron Hernandez pass that covered 55 yards. A 26-yard shovel pass to Brandon James got the ball to the four and Tebow closed things out with a couple of two-yard runs, the second one for the score with 12:42 left in the third quarter that gave the Gators a 34-14 lead.

South Carolina would add 17 more points and the Gators would match it on a 34-yard Joey Ijjas field goal, a five-yard Tebow touchdown run and a 21-yard pass from Tebow to Caldwell that allowed the Gators to hang 50 on the Old Ball Coach with 1:37 left in the game. That pass also put Tebow over the 300-yard passing mark, making him the first Florida quarterback ever to pass for more than 300 yards and rush for more than 100 in the same game.

Spurrier, who used to love hanging 50 points on opponents back in the day when he was the Florida football coach, didn’t have any answers for Tebow and the Gators nor did he have answers for his defense. Once ranked among the top 20 in the nation, the Gamecocks have given up 1187 yards and 99 points in the last two games.

“We got a problem stopping the run but we’ve got a problem stopping a bunch of stuff,” said Spurrier.

He couldn’t stop the Gators Saturday night. With Percy or without him, Florida was too much. And now, all the Gators can do is get ready for two non-conference games to end the season and hope that they’ll get a little help to win the SEC East.

“We’re huge Kentucky fans,” said Tebow. “Now we’ll start praying for them to win.”

[a1bion]

You gotta give Spurs this--not a word of whining or excuses out of him when we hung 50 on him.

Remember how other coaches used to bitch when Spurrier would run it up on them when he was here? None of that crap from Spurrier when he's on the other end of it.

That's one reason I always liked Lou Holtz. Holtz always said that your defense shouldn't have allowed the other team to run it up and the blame was on you for letting the other team score so much.

[radbag]

after the first turnover, spurriers demeanor looked different...then after the second turnover and subsequent TD, he looked dejected and basically looked like a man with no hope.

i think a head coach is more of a figure head...the figure head sets the tone for the team...seeing the OBC dejected made me feel sorry for his team...the team looked scared to make a mistake and the team looked tentative on the field because of it imho.

i dunno - if i'm spurrier and i wanna teach the kids, i teach with a firm fist but i'd also be cognizant of my body language...especially with a young team...maybe i'm wrong but i'd be sensitive to it.

[G8rMom7]

Rad, I know what you're saying, but I really don't think his demeanor is much different when he's winning. It's not like he's all smiles and rah rah (like Zook was). But I agree to the fact that he knows he has a not-so-good team and the team in turn believes him. But to be honest, I think he's happy with that. He wants to win and all, but he said his players tried as hard ast they could. I know my FIL who is a lot like SOS when it comes to coaching...just doesn't get too emotional about it anymore. I mean, they've seen it all and have experienced it all, the highs the lows and I know in the case of my FIL, he really just doesn't get upset anymore about a game. Just my .02.

[annarborgator]

i think spurs knows how much of the game is uncontrollable. the first 2 minutes of that game were just f'ed random mistakes. he never would have predicted. but he said his guys fought hard. and he's right, they fought back like a motherfucker. i'm not sure what more that team could have been capable of. mitchell isn't all that great. they have 1 WR. a solid but not consistently gamechanging RB. and a banged up D. playing against the best player in the nation, with a solid to good cast around him.

i think sc played to their potential, outside the early random stupid mistakes.