Well, at least the Charleston Southern Buccaneers didn’t leave Ben Hill Griffin Stadium without some booty. For $450,000, the Buccaneers allowed the defending national champion and top-ranked Gators to get their first-game jitters out of the way before walking the plank Saturday night in Florida’s dominating 62-3 victory.
The Bucs, who play in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA), certainly didn’t have the players, the muscle and the talent to stay with the Football Bowls Subdivision (i.e. Bad Boys Division) Gators, who gave Urban Meyer his fifth straight opening-game victory at Florida and his ninth straight as a head coach. Give Bucs coach Jay Mills’ Bucs credit for not playing like the 73-point underdog they were despite trailing 42-3 at halftime.
Florida, the consensus pick of the preseason prognosticators to successfully defend their national title and earn the program its third in four seasons under Meyer, had too much of everything on offense, defense and special teams, all of which certainly won’t make their future opponents feel any more confident. The Gators finished with 624 yards in total offense – 369 on the ground and 255 through the air but surrendered 323 yards (228 through the air) to the Buccaneers, who had the football a full quarter more (15:08 to be exact).
The rushing yardage came on just 33 carries—an average of 11.2 yards per rush. Jeff Demps led the Gators with 89 yards on five carries (a 17.8 average) with Emmanuel Moody next on 86 yards in nine carries (9.6). Demps’ fellow sophomore, Lakeland’s Chris Rainey, averaged 76 yards a carry—his 76-yard touchdown run in the first quarter being his only carry of the night.
Defending Sun Belt Conference champion Troy, which lost to Bowling Green (Meyer’s first head coaching stop in 2000 and ’01 season) 31-14 last Thursday night, is the next sacrifice for the Gators, who will have to make sure they aren’t looking ahead to their Sept. 19 SEC opener against Tennessee and first-year head coach Lane Kiffin, who is certainly at the top of Florida’s Most Wanted List for his jabs at Meyer and the Gators.
“I liked our preparation for the game. Very impressive,” Meyer said afterward. “Even more so that the game was the preparation and organization. I was very pleased with the team’s preparation this week. We had a great Thursday practice, followed by what we call the ‘Best Fridays in Football.’ It was good to see some of the young receivers making plays.”
Senior quarterback Tim Tebow played just long enough to direct five touchdown drives (of the six Florida had with him at the helm), the longest of which, an 8-play, 74-yard possession that took 2:17, ended with Tebow completing a pin-point pass over the middle between two CSU defenders to tight end Aaron Hernandez who rambled 28 yards to the end zone to put Florida up 35-0 with 7:55 remaining in the first half. It was the 29th straight game in which Tebow has thrown a touchdown pass, the longest current streak in the nation.
The Buccaneers, however, answered with a 38-yard field goal by junior placekicker John Paglia, one of 41 CSU players from the state of Florida and a former teammate of quarterback John Brantley at Ocala’s Trinity Catholic to make it 35-3 with 5:37 remaining in the first half.
Florida wasted no time answering that score, however, as senior Brandon James, who started as Percy Harvin’s replacement at wide receiver and dropped a sure touchdown pass from Tebow earlier in the quarter, got behind wide receiver Riley Cooper after fielding a high kickoff from Paglia at the 15. James then followed Cooper into the middle of the field and sped to the outside where Cooper caught up with him and, together with fellow wideout David Nelson, escorted James into the end zone to complete an 85-yard kickoff return. Cooper, a senior from Clearwater who opted to postpone his baseball career with the Texas Rangers to come back for one final fall of football, led the Gators with 105 yards on five receptions.
“Riley played like he’s practiced,” Meyer added. “The way he’s been practice you can tell he’ll come out playing.”
When Florida got the ball back on offense with 3:06 remaining, Tebow was through for the evening. He completed 10 of 15 passes for 188 yards, including a 68-yard strike to Cooper on Florida’s first drive of the game that ended with Jeff Demps following blocks from center Maurkice Pouncey and guards Mike Pouncey and James Wilson into the end zone from 8 yards out. Besides James’ drop in the end zone, Tebow also was victimized by his own receiver, redshirt sophomore Deonte Thompson. Thompson got behind the CSU secondary on Florida’s second drive of the evening and dropped what should have been a 67-yard touchdown pass. That turned out to be the only possession of the first half on which Florida did not score.
“The team played well, everyone played hard and we executed pretty well,” Tebow said. “It wasn’t perfect and we need to improve, but we’re always going to be looking to improve. Guys stepped up and made plays so it was a good day.”
With the Pounceys, Wilson and junior behemoth Carl Johnson opening huge holes in the middle of the CSU defense, Florida rushed for 199 yards on 11 first-half carries. Johnson, who started the evenig at left tackle, limped off the field in the second quarter with what appears to be a ankle sprain and was replaced by Matt Patchan. All of Demps’ yardage came in the first half as did his two touchdowns of 8 and 23 yards (behind blocks by Cooper and Nelson) and Rainey followed a similar up-the-middle rush for 76 yards and a touchdown that gave Florida a 14-0 first-quarter lead.
“Steve (Addazio, the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach) started James Wilson tonight,” Meyer said. “We have three guys who will rotate for those three spots. When Carl left the game, it forced us to play Matt Patchan and I think he did well. I thought they all did well. I liked their preparation.”
In the second half, Brantley threw for a pair of third-quarter touchdowns – 7 yards to redshirt junior Justin Williams and 9 yards to redshirt senior Cade Holliday (the son of former UF assistant Doc Holliday, the head coach-in-waiting at West Virginia) – and the running load was shouldered first by Moody. Brantley completed 8 of 12 passes for 67 yards and also finished with six carries for 40 yards, 39 more than Tebow, who managed a 1-yard scoring run in the second quarter for his 44th career rushing touchdown at Florida.
Florida’s final touchdown of the night came on a 7-yard fourth-quarter run by true freshman Mike Gillislee of DeLand, who finished with 41 yards on six carries in his debut in “The Swamp.”
No. 1 FLORIDA 62, CHARLESTON SOUTHERN 3
At Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field, Gainesville
SCORING BY QUARTERS 1 2 3 4—TOTAL
Charleston Southern 0 3 0 0—3
Florida 14 28 13 7—62
FIRST QUARTER
UF – Jeff Demps 8 run (Jonathan Phillips kick good) at 11:05. Drive: 4 plays, 89 yards, 2 first downs, 1:26 time elapsed following 34-yard punt and 4-yard return by Brandon James. Key plays: On first-and-10 from his own 24, Tim Tebow found Riley Cooper behind the CSU secondary and he was finally forced out of bounds at the CSU 8. Score: Florida 7, Charleston Southern 0.
UF – Chris Rainey 76 run (Phillips kick good) at 4:34. Drive: 1 play, 76 yards, 1 first down, 0:13 time elapsed following 35-yard CSU punt and 6-yard return by James. Key play: Rainey took a handoff from Tebow up the middle behind center Maurkice Pouncey and guards Mike Pouncey and James Wilson with a downfield block by David Nelson went outside and then cut back inside before outrunning the CSU secondary and diving into the end zone. Score: Florida 14, Charleston Southern 0.
SECOND QUARTER
UF – Tim Tebow 1 run (Phillips kick good) at 14:22. Drive: 5 plays, 67 yards, 3 first downs, 1:15 time elapsed after CSU punt, 3-yard return by James and 15-yard penalty on CSU for grabbing the face mask. Key plays: After Tebow hit Cooper on first down for a gain of 14 yards, Demps took a handoff up the middle and burst outside for 41 yards to the CSU 12. Two plays later, Demps ran 11 yards to set up Tebow’s 44th career rushing touchdown. Score: Florida 21, Charleston Southern 0.
UF – Demps 23 run (Phillips kick good) at 11:39. Drive: 4 plays, 69 yards, 3 first downs, 1:38 time elapsed following CSU punt. Key plays: On second-and-15, Tebow faked an inside handoff, spun around and fired a lateral to James, who got a block from Cooper (who lost his helmet) and gained 21 yards; Tebow followed that with a 25-yard reception to Aaron Hernandez; Demps’ TD run was helped by downfield blocks from both Cooper and Nelson. Score: Florida 28, Charleston Southern 0.
UF – Aaron Hernandez 28 pass from Tebow (Phillips kick good) at 7:55. Drive: 8 plays, 74 yards, 4 first downs, 2:17 time elapsed following Major Wright interception. Key plays: Tebow started the drive with four straight completions, the first three to Cooper and then ended it with two completions to Hernandez of 19 and 28 yards. Tebow was 6-of-8 passing on the drive for all 74 yards. Score: Florida 35, Charleston Southern 0.
CSU – FG John Paglia 38 at 5:37. Drive: 7 plays, 48 yards, 2 first downs, 2:18 time elapsed following Florida kickoff. Key plays: After starting with two completions from quarterback A.J. Toscano to wideout Gerald Stevenson, CSU tried some trickery, wideout Tim Jones taking a handoff from Toscano, who was not picked up as he ran down the sideline and got a pass from Jones, taking it 26 yards to a first down at the Florida 22. But the drive stalled and Paglia, a former teammate of Florida’s John Brantley at Ocala Trinity Catholic, kicked the field goal. Score: Florida 35, Charleston Southern 3.
UF – Brandon James 85 kickoff return (Phillips kick good) at 5:24. Key play: James fielded Paglia’s high kick at the 15, followed Cooper into the middle of the field and burst outside where he had Cooper and Nelson as escorts for his touchdown return. Score: Florida 42, Charleston Southern 3.
THIRD QUARTER
UF – Justin Williams 7 pass from John Brantley (Phillips kick misses wide left) at 12:39. Drive: 6 plays, 49 yards, 2 first downs in 2:21. Key plays: After T.J. Lawrence gave Florida a short field with his 46-yard return of the second-half kickoff, Emmanuel Moody bulled his way to 23 yards on the first play of the drive. Brantley had an 11-yard run around right end for another first down and his touchdown pass to Williams came on third-and-goal from the CSU 7. Score: Florida 48, Charleston Southern 3.
UF – Cade Holliday 9 pass from Brantley (Phillips kick good) at 0:24. Drive: 6 plays, 53 yards, 3 first downs, 2:44 time elapsed following CSU punt and Frankie Hammond Jr. return of 16 yards to the UF 47. Key plays: Brantley completed a 13-yard pass to Hammond for a first down and followed it with a 23-yard run of his own for another first. Score: Florida 55, Charleston Southern 3.
FOURTH QUARTER
UF – Mike Gillislee 7 run (Phillips kick good) at 9:33. Drive: 8 plays, 61 yards, X first downs, 2:20 time elapsed following CSU punt. Key plays: Brantley started the drive with two straight completions to wide receiver Omarius Hines totaling 22 yards and Gillislee, a freshman from DeLand, finished it with five straight carries totaling 39 yards. Score: Florida 62, Charleston Southern 3.
GAME SUMMARY
Weather at kickoff: Partly cloudy with a 15 percent chance of showers or thundershowers. Temperature: 81 degrees. Humidity: 80 percent. Winds: ENE at 10 miles per hour.
Officials: Referee, Matt Moore; Umpire, Johnny Hibbett; Head Linesman, Lane Thomas; Line Judge, Kirk Lewis; Field Judge, Jeff Batts; Side Judge, Chris Conley; Back Judge, George Ranager; Replay Official: James Allison.
Attendance: 90,621.
Records: Charleston Southern 0-1; Florida 1-0. Up next: Next Saturday, Charleston Southern visits Wofford at 7 p.m. and Florida entertains Troy at 12:15 p.m.