Let’s see, what was it that Confucius said? A journey of 350 miles (the distance to Atlanta) begins with a thousand high fives? Okay, maybe Confucius didn’t say that but Florida’s journey back to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game is one step closer after The Blowout at the Blue Out, punctuated by a Tim Tebow victory lap in which he slapped hands with at least a thousand of his closest friends at The Swamp.
A few feet from where Tebow ended his victory lap, the Tennessee marching band sat in stunned silence without a song to play. What can you play when you’re on the wrong end of a 59-20 trip to the Southeastern Conference woodshed? “The Way We Were”? A funeral march might have been more appropriate.
This was supposed to be a “Blue Out” and Gator fans responded by giving The Swamp a distinctive blue hue. Nobody anticipated that blue would turn to blew, as in the Gators blew out the Vols. The Vols didn’t look like one of those fast, well coached Tennessee football teams that we’ve gotten used to seeing over the years, but before we pronounce the Vols DOA, let’s take into consideration that maybe the Florida Gators are actually pretty darned good. Maybe, just maybe, Tennessee is a pretty good team that simply met a team that’s really, really good.
And as good as Florida was Saturday afternoon, that’s not nearly as good as the Gators are going to be. Now that’s a scary thought for you.
Consider this: Florida scored 59 points with six offensive touchdowns and a field goal to go with a touchdown from special teams and one from the defense. The offense piled up 554 yards. The defense held Tennessee to just 298 yards — only 37 on the ground — and one offensive touchdown. Special teams contributed a punt return for a touchdown and four kickoff returns that gave the Gators excellent field position.
All that was done with a team top heavy with youth. The Gators played 16 true freshmen, 12 red-shirt freshmen and 13 sophomores Saturday. As good as those young players are, they are only going to get better with more coaching and with more game experience.
Here’s another thought for you, every bit as scary. Better get the Gators soon because it might be too late next year. It might even be too late by midseason. There is unmatched talent and when it comes to speed, you would be hard pressed to find a team with more fast playmakers than the Gators.
The two most visible playmakers Saturday were Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin. Tennessee didn’t have a lot of answers for Florida but in particular, there were no answers for Tebow and Harvin.
Tebow passed for 299 yards, hitting 14 of his 19 passes for a couple of touchdowns. He ran for 61 yards and two touchdowns. When he wasn’t slicing up the Tennessee secondary with his passes, he was running like a bull through the middle of the line.
He threw with touch, like the 30-yard touchdown pass to Riley Cooper in the northwest corner of the end zone in the first quarter or the 20-yarder for a touchdown to Cornelius Ingram. He threw darts like the 15-yarder he completed to Ingram just before the scoring throw to Cooper. He threw bombs, like the 49-yarder he threw from the end zone to Percy Harvin at midfield in the third quarter.
When he wasn’t throwing pretty passes, he was completing ugly ones, like the seven-yarder he completed to Kestahn Moore for a critical first down in the second quarter. Flushed out of the pocket and to his left, Tebow was all but sacked. Falling forward, he muscled a throw to Moore at the Tennessee 20. He completed a 13-yarder to Harvin that was an end-over-end underhanded toss in the third quarter. Later in the quarter, he connected with Moore again, a six-yarder that he shot-putted forward.
Those weren’t exactly the prettiest of passes, but they look like laser-guided smart passes in the scorebook.
He also threw under pressure. On fourth and three on the final play of the third quarter, Tebow rolled to his left and just before he got clobbered, found David Nelson for a 14-yard gain for a first down at the Tennessee 19.
He did have one pass intercepted but even that wasn’t his fault. Cooper turned right when he should have turned left at the Tennessee four. Tebow’s pass into the hands of Tennessee’s Eric Berry was a gift touchdown and the only score the Vols put up in the second half. Other than that one miscommunication, Tebow was more than the Vols could handle.
Tebow’s just a sophomore. He will only get better.
Percy Harvin, a sophomore just like Tebow, ran nine times for 75 yards and one touchdown and he caught four passes for 120 yards. When he wasn’t making moves and making people miss, he was showing that he’s got the hands and instincts of a great down the field receiver.
Harvin spent so much time in the Tennessee secondary Saturday that he should get a letter at the UT football awards banquet at the end of the year. On Florida’s nine-play 99-yard touchdown drive that broke Tennessee’s back, Harvin was both starter and finisher. He dived to catch a 49-yard pass that Tebow threw out of the end zone to get the drive going and he finished things off with an 18-yard touchdown run that left a string of Tennessee defenders in his wake. Harvin took the ball on a reverse and headed toward the east sideline when he cut sharply to the inside, splitting two defenders who just weren’t fast enough to react. Another cut at the 10 was followed by a 360-degree pirouette at the five that just about broke the ankles of a Tennessee defender who wound up face first in the turf. By the time Harvin was in the end zone, the only thing missing from the Tennessee sideline was a white flag of surrender.
But there was more Percy to be had.
After the Gators held the Vols on a fourth and five from the UT 47, Tebow rifled a deep throw to the five. Harvin, running full speed down the sideline curled inside on the defender and snatched the ball away for his second spectacular catch of the game and that set up a five-yard Tebow touchdown run.
Whether running as a tailback or showing once and for all that he’s a true wide receiver, not just a fast guy that catches bubble screens and makes a few nifty moves, Harvin was the perfect complement to Tebow Saturday.
They were hammer and nails, thunder and lightning.
Another sophomore jolted the Vols with a little bit of lightning. You would think that Tennessee learned its lesson last year when James showed his stuff with a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a long punt return. Even though the kickoff return was called back because of a penalty, James showed he’s a game changer, the kind you kick away from every chance you get. The Vols should have known better but what did they do on their first punt of the game? Booted it straight down the middle of the field to James who made one man miss, zigged a little, zagged a little and found himself with one man to beat, Tennessee punter Britton Colquitt. Colquitt had two chances to stop James — no way and no how. James didn’t even have to break stride as he made the end of that 83-yard punt return for a touchdown with 13:02 left in the first quarter look way too easy.
James finished the game with 91 yards on three punt returns and 102 yards on four kickoff returns. On each of the kickoff returns, he gave the Gators starting field position outside the 30. After the Vols scored in the third quarter, they tried a sky kick. James still caught it and the Gators started at the 35, the kind of field position that Urban Meyer loves to have.
When true freshman offensive guard Maurkice Pouncey had to leave the game with a sprained ankle in the first quarter, redshirt freshman Maurice Hurt stepped in and the Florida offensive line never missed a beat. Florida brutalized the Tennessee defensive front. The Gators were men. The Vols looked like a bunch of helpless little boys. The Gators finished the night with 299 passing yards and an impressive 255 on the ground. The rule of thumb has always been nobody runs on Tennessee. Someone tell that to the Gators.
Another true freshman, backup quarterback Cameron Newton, scored Florida’s final touchdown on a four-yard run, a score set up by a 10-yard run by another true freshman, Chris Rainey.
The defense did its part by stuffing the Tennessee running game and turning the Vols into a pedestrian, one-dimensional team. Tennessee managed only 37 yards and the Vols’ longest run from scrimmage was six yards. With no running game, the Vols were reduced to throwing nearly every down. The Gators took away the deep ball with a scheme designed to keep everything in front of the safeties. You don’t beat Florida with with five-yard passes which is what Erik Ainge was reduced to throwing much of the game. Every time he tried to go downfield, the Gators got pressure in his face or had the coverage in the secondary. The only passes he found open were the nickel and dimers that the Gators were all to happy to give him.
Florida’s defensive effort was jump started in the first quarter when sophomore corner Markihe Anderson jumped a route at the UF 11 and wrestled an interception away from Vol receiver Quinton Hancock. Anderson re-injured his right knee a little later in the first quarter but the prognosis is good that he’ll be back quickly.
When Tennessee had closed the gap to 28-20 in the third quarter after the Berry interception return for a touchdown, sophomore linebacker Dustin Doe snatched up Arian Foster’s fumble at the 18 and ran it back for a touchdown with 5:18 remaining in the period.
Sophomore linebacker Brandon Spikes and freshman corner Joe Haden led the Gators with nine tackles and another freshman, safety Major Wright, had six tackles along with Doe. Sophomore corner Wondy Pierre-Louis
On the defensive line, sophomore defensive end Jermaine Cunningham stuffed a Tennessee reverse for a nine yard loss among his four tackles. His backup, Justin Trattou, a true freshman, had a tackle for loss.
True freshman safety Jerimy Finch got into the act with a fourth quarter interception of a Jonathon Crompton pass. Finch injured his ankle on the play and might be out for a long time.
Every time the Gators needed a play, Florida had a playmaker in place to come up big and most of the big plays were made by youngsters. The knock on the Gators coming into the season — and into this game — was that they were too young and way too inexperienced. If what we saw Saturday is what happens when you put youth and inexperience on the field, imagine what it will be like later on. No doubt, the Gators are young and they don’t have much experience but each game they play is another step forward. By midseason, most of these fuzzy faced kids will forget that they are newbies on the SEC scene. By the end of the season, they will be playing like a polished machine.
The SEC East wasn’t won Saturday when the Gators did the Blowout at the Blue Out, but you could say it was a statement to the rest of the league that maybe the Gators don’t have all those big time seniors they had last year, but the kids are just fine. There are seven more SEC games standing in the way of the Gators making a return trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. By the time that game gets here, the Florida Gators could be frightening. Just ask the Vols.