Gator Country

Florida senior quarterback Tim Tebow watches the video board during the second quarter of the Gators' 62-3 win against Florida International on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. / photo by Tim Casey

The FIU Panthers had one chance to save themselves from the pain and embarrassment of an eventual 62-3 loss to top-ranked Florida Saturday afternoon at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Unfortunately, when Mother Nature decided to change the initial weather forecast of possible thunderstorms to one of those magnificent autumn afternoons you enjoy in central Florida, the Sun Belt Conference team had to endure the overabundance of muscle, talent and speed for the full 60 minutes.

Oh, well, here’s your $500,000 check, thanks for coming and please get home safely.

“I didn’t see this coming at all,” said Florida coach Urban Meyer afterward. “I told their coach (Mario Cristobal) that they will be in a bowl game within two years. Tuesday and Wednesday was when this game was won. You see it all the time when guys don’t take opponents seriously. I showed the team some of FIU’s tape and how they played well against Rutgers.”

The Gators don’t figure to be taking anyone for granted from here on out considering what is at stake. Now the real fun begins for the Gators, who have tacked on 11 victories to the 10 that ended the 2008 championship season. The Gators are truly breathing rarified air these days – they are 11-0 for the first time in their history and just three more victories away from a third national title during the five-year (and counting) Meyer watch.

If Florida notches those victories – next Saturday afternoon at 3:30 in The Swamp against state-rival Florida State, a week from next Saturday in Atlanta against a possibly unbeaten Alabama team looking to avenge its loss to the Gators in last season’s SEC Championship Game, and finally a victory against possibly another unbeaten team (Texas, Texas Christian, Cincinnati or Boise State, depending how things shake out in the BCS rankings) in the Citi National Championship Game at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl on Jan. 7, 2010 – then Saturday’s dress rehearsal by Tim Tebow, Brandon Spikes and their lunch-pail teammates will have been worth the guarantee FIU (3-8) received from the overflowing Florida athletic coffers.

As expected Tebow, now 33 -5 as a starter, worked just enough time—one touchdown drive into the third quarter—to get enough of a sweat to take a good shower. But like the good teammate he is, Tebow stuck around to watch redshirt sophomore John Brantley, who directed three touchdown drives that ended with well-targeted scoring darts to Omarius Hines, Justin Williams and Frankie Hammond Jr. Brantley completed 9 of 13 passes for 150 yards and also picked up another 23 yards on three carries.

“I’m so happy for him,” Tebow said. “It’s always fun for him to be able to get in the game and show what he’s got.”

Before donning the headsets and coaching up his heir apparent, Tebow, who made his usual post-game tour of the stands to thank many of the 90,473 Gator fans in attendance for coming, finished with his fifth 100-yard rushing effort of his career—102 yards on six carries, including a 55-yard scoring run in the first quarter that made it 14-0. He also completed 17 of 25 passes for 215 yards (his 22nd 200-yard performance) and two touchdowns (giving him 81 in his career, fourth best in the SEC). The first scoring toss was a short shovel pass that speedy Chris Rainey turned into a 27-yard touchdown reception, and the second was an 18-yard missile to roommate Riley Cooper on his final play of the game with 13:38 left in the third quarter.

With his 317 total yards, Tebow moved into third on the all-time SEC total offense list with 11,078 yards, putting Georgia’s Eric Zeier and Tennessee’s Peyton Manning in his rear-view mirror and Georgia’s David Greene (11,270) and his 2006 national championship teammate Chris Leak (11,380) ahead of him. The FSU, SEC and BCS games all will add to Tebow’s totals.

“I’m not ready to run our current guy (Tebow) out of town yet, but I feel very comfortable with the quarterback position,” Meyer noted. “I tell people all the time that I think he is one of the most improved players on our team. I wish he had more opportunities to get into the game, but he will have plenty of opportunities in the near future.”

A bad week for Panthers (one of the endangered variety was found dead by an Orlando-area interstate) got worse in a hurry for coach Mario Cristobal’s team when Florida’s Markihe Anderson ran into punter Carlos Munera, who incurred a painful left ankle injury on the first of six punts by FIU. Placekicker Dustin Rivest, whose 37-yard field goal near the end of the first half was FIU’s only points, took over the punting duties.

On the first play following the delay to help Munera off the field, Spikes stepped in front of FIU quarterback Paul McCall’s pass, intercepted it and ran untouched to the end zone and the expected blowout was on. It was Spikes’ fourth interception return for a touchdown in the last two years (he had one earlier this year against Georgia).

“I read play action and my man was in the flat, so I got a good view of the quarterback’s vision,” said Spikes, who had five tackles, broke up another pass and also pressured the FIU quarterbacks all day. “I just stepped in front of him and made a play on the ball. Coach (Charlie) Strong just puts us in position and we just have to make plays.”

For the game, Florida had a 586-190 edge in total offense, including 365-136 through the air and 221-54 on the ground, and the Gators controlled the clock for 33:08. On defense, the nation’s No. 1 unit held an opponent under 100 yards rushing for the eighth time this season. It also was the sixth time an opponent has completed less than 50 percent of the passes it attempted (FIU’s two quarterbacks were a combined 10 of 26). Plus, Florida forced five three-and-outs in FIU’s 11 drives.

Most important to Meyer—the Gators played their fourth straight game without making a turnover, a good habit to be getting into this late in the season with so much on the table.

Following the Spikes’ touchdown, Tebow took a snap around left end, got a block from Cooper and ignored two FIU attempts to knock him out of bounds, tiptoeing down the sideline for the touchdown and an eventual 14-0 first-quarter lead. It was Tebow’s 54th rushing touchdown (breaking the SEC record for overall touchdowns) and it was the longest run of his career.

In the second quarter, Rainey, who had an outstanding game receiving (3 receptions for 61 yards), took a short shovel pass from Tebow 27 yards for a touchdown and then added a breath-taking, two-cut, full-speed 22-yard scoring run for a 28-0 lead. Jeff Demps followed with a 3-yard scoring run with 1:38 remaining before Rivest’s field goal cut the Gators’ halftime lead to 35-3.

After Cooper’s 18-yard touchdown reception from Tebow, Brantley found Hines along the sidelines and he pulled FIU defenders into the end zone for a 20-yard scoring play with 4:06 remaining in the quarter. Hines would finish with four receptions for 50 yards.

In the fourth quarter, Brantley had scoring passes of 16 yards to Williams and 31 yards to Hammond to complete the scoring.

“You look at football programs, you see what the future looks like and you want to build a place like the University of Florida,” said Cristobal, who played offensive tackle on one of Miami’s national championship teams. We played hard but we’re not at the level of the Florida Gators right now.”

Don’t feel bad, Mario, not too many teams are. You at least have a check to keep you warm.

HOW THEY SCORED
No. 1 FLORIDA 62, FIU 3
At Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field, Gainesville
Scoring by quarters 1 2 3 4—Total
FIU Golden Panthers 0 3 0 0---3
Florida Gators 14 21 14 13---62

FIRST QUARTERS
FLA—Brandon Spikes 41 interception return (Caleb Sturgis kick) at 13:10. Key play: On first play following 15-yard penalty on Markihe Anderson for roughing FIU punter Carlos Munera (who left the field with a left foot-ankle injury), Spikes dropped into coverage and picked off Paul McCall and returned it untouched. It was his fourth career interception return for a touchdown and second this season (he had a 5-yarder against Georgia). Score: Florida 7, FIU 0.