Gator Country

Florida sophomore quarterback Jeff Driskel broke Tim Tebow's single-game school record for most rushing yards by a signal caller with 177 yards on 11 carries last Saturday against Vanderbilt. / Gator Country photo by Saj Guevara

In one of the biggest games this season within the Southeastern Conference, the No. 7 South Carolina Gamecocks will come to The Swamp on Saturday to try and wrest Eastern Division superiority from the No. 2 Gators.

How big is the game? Well, for one ESPN GameDay will be bringing its show to town, and in spite of all the critics, fans love when it comes to their school. This will be the Gators’ third appearance this season on the show and their 35th overall.

However, it is the first time in The Swamp since Nov. 28, 2009, which was former UF quarterback Tim Tebow’s final game with the then-undefeated Gators.

Overall, Florida is 23-11 in games where they have been featured on GameDay and 7-4 at home.

Speaking of television, this is the Gators’ second appearance on CBS this season and the 94th overall. Florida is 64-29 in those games. The Gators will return to the CBS game next week Georgia.

Florida has now played 1,100 games dating back to the 1906.

The record-setting performance by Jeff Driskel in last week’s game was a feat that will not soon be forgotten as a part of UF lore. Driskel carried the ball 11 times for 177 yards and three touchdowns on an
average of 16.1 yards per carry.

The performance was a Florida record for single-game rushing by a quarterback, breaking Tebow’s 2007 mark in which he gained 166 yards on 27 carries against Ole Miss. In the 1,100 games played by the
Gators only five quarterbacks have rushed for 100 yards.  The others were Trey Burton, Larry Rentz, Terry LeCount and Jimmy Fisher.

Now for Saturday’s game.
• The Gators’s all-time record is 675-385-40.

• On games played on Oct. 20 the Gators are 8-3-0. The last Oct. 20 game was in 2007 against Kentucky, a 45-37 Florida win. The last loss on Oct. 20 was in 1973 against Ole Miss.

• There have been no signature wins by Florida on Oct. 20.

• In SEC play, the Gators are 5-0 in 2012 and 292-205-15 overall.

• In the SEC Eastern Division, Florida is now 91-12-0 overall.

• The Gators have never lost to an SEC East opponent in three consecutive games.

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