No. 1 Florida Named Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week
Monday, October 12, 2009 | Football
With their 13-3 win at No. 4 LSU, the Florida Gators (5-0) are the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week, as chosen by the board of the Football Writers Association of America.
The Florida defense held LSU to 162 total yards as the Gators extended their winning streak to 15 games. The win also ended LSU's 32-game home Saturday night winning streak in front of a record crowd of 93,129 at Tiger Stadium. LSU was held to three points or less at home for only the third time since 1996. Saturday's UF win was also the first time UF held an SEC opponent to three points or less on the road since 1994 (31-0 win vs. Tennessee).
Gator senior linebacker Brandon Spikes (Shelby, N.C.) had a team and season-high 11 tackles, including a career-high three quarterback sacks for a loss of 14 yards in the Gators' road win over the Tigers. His three sacks were the most by a Gator since Derrick Harvey tallied as many versus Ohio State in the 2006 Tostitos BCS National Championship Game.
Florida senior quarterback Tim Tebow (Jacksonville, Fla.) threw for 134 yards and a touchdown and provided another 41 yards on the ground as the Gators retained their No. 1 national ranking.
"I am very proud of our team and our offense," Tebow said after the game. "We played hard, and we played for four quarters. We just had so much confidence at the end that we knew we were going to get a shot and put this thing
away."
The FWAA has named a National Team of the Week since the 2002 season. This is the sixth season that the award has been sponsored by the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Members of the FWAA board of directors and All-America committee decide the weekly honor. Each Monday during the 2009 college football season, the FWAA will name the Tostitos Bowl National Team of the Week through Dec. 7.
Since 1971, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl has hosted six games that have decided the college football national championship, including three Bowl Championship Series title games. This season the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl game will be played on Jan. 4, 2010, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., and the Insight Bowl will be played on Dec. 31, 2009, at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
For more information on the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week, go to footballwriters.com or fiestabowl.org.
