Gators Keep Finding A Way
Sunday, September 19, 2010 | Football, Scott Carter
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – If Florida's 31-17 win over Tennessee on Saturday afternoon seemed a little familiar, there's a perfectly good reason.
The script Saturday played out nearly the same as the Gators' wins over Miami (Ohio) and USF the prior two weeks. The Gators sputtered some at the start, failing to score in the first quarter for the third consecutive game.
However, reminiscent of a cranky car on a cold winter morning, the Gators warmed up a little with each play, eventually putting the Volunteers away in the second half to defeat Tennessee for the sixth consecutive time – and a school-record third consecutive time at Neyland Stadium.
Along the way, there were some bumps in the road – Florida didn't take the lead for good until quarterback John Brantley hit Frankie Hammond for a 7-yard touchdown pass midway through the third quarter – but in the end, the Gators boarded the buses to the airport with smiles on their faces and a win in the SEC opener.
Once again, it was the defense and running game that did most of the heavy lifting.
“That was kind of who we are right now,'' Gators coach Urban Meyer said.
Making his first career road start, efficient remains the best word to describe Brantley's performance so far this season. He still hasn't passed for 200 yards, but he keeps leading the Gators to victories thanks to mistake-free football and not throwing an interception in his three starts.
Behind Brantley, running back Jeff Demps did most of the dirty work on Saturday, rushing for 73 yards on a career-high 26 carries. Demps didn't break the big one like he did in the first two wins, but he helped get the Gators in scoring position. Once there, running back Mike Gillislee twice finished off scoring drives on a 2-yard run in the second quarter and a 5-yard run late in the third quarter.
It was Gator football circa 2010.
“You gotta be tough to play at Florida,'' Gillislee said. “We just find a way to win.''
“Finding a way to win'' seems as good a motto as any for this year's version of the Gators.
Leading the way much of the time has been a defense that forced three more turnovers on Saturday, including a pair of interceptions.
Besides a pair of coverage mistakes that led to both Tennessee touchdowns – cornerback Jeremy Brown got turned around on Matt Simms' 49-yard scoring pass to Denarius Moore in the third quarter, and cornerback Janoris Jenkins, thinking he had safety help from Will Hill, allowed Justin Hunter to run past him for a 35-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter – the Gators played the kind of defense that first-year coordinator Teryl Austin expects.
“I thought we played pretty sound defense,'' Austin said. “We had a couple of coverage mistakes … that were mostly coverage errors and one was a bad call on me. We'll get those things cleaned up.
“Our guys played hard all day.''
Thanks to another dominating second-half performance, the Gators have now outscored their opponents 68-27 in the second half. They stretched their winning streak to 23 consecutive regular-season games, and 15 regular-season SEC games.
That was enough to send Meyer on a high-five parade with fans seated near the field.
“I'm very proud of our guys, coming on the road and winning in the SEC,'' Meyer said. “That's something that we will never take for granted. I'm pretty happy winning at this stadium.''
