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Gators Bury Rival Dawgs In Jacksonville

Tribune photo by COLIN HACKLEY

Florida's Percy Harvin celebrates as he trots into the end zone for a Gator touchdown.

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 2, 2008

JACKSONVILLE - On the official Gators' 10 Most Enjoyable, Pride-Restoring, Celebrate-This, Vindication List, you'd have to rank Saturday's 49-10 victory over Georgia one through at least seven.

A year after Georgia danced in the end zone on its way to an upset victory, Florida returned to Jacksonville Municipal Stadium to boogie-woogie on the Bulldogs' self-esteem.

It was complete, thorough, impressive, and, most definitely, a statement.

"Everybody was dedicated toward working toward it, and when you have everybody on all cylinders it's a good thing," Gators offensive tackle Jason Watkins said. "It has been in our heads for so long, it feels good just to let it go."

And go, and go and go.

With almost half the crowd of 84,649 already on its way out - take a guess which half - Florida called timeouts with 44 and 30 seconds to play, breaks that quarterback Tim Tebow, resting merrily on the bench, used to race up and down the sideline waving a towel and bringing Gators fans to a standing roar.

"No, I was just trying to win the game," Florida coach Urban Meyer answered when asked if the timeouts might have been rubbing salt in Georgia's wounds. "You know, we tackled well on defense today."

There were other opinions.

"Enjoy the moment, enjoy the game," Tebow said. "We didn't do anything wrong. We were just playing the game."

"We looked at the sideline, and all their fans had gone," Gators wideout Percy Harvin said. "Then we saw our fans still there, and we just wanted to rub it in a little bit. Not too much. But it was great for us."

The promise is that even better days could be ahead.

The victory improved fifth-ranked Florida to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the Southeastern Conference, giving the Gators the inside track to the conference championship game in Atlanta. No. 8 Georgia dropped to 7-2 and 4-2 and almost certainly was eliminated from the national championship picture.

"I've made a comment about how I admire this team," Meyer said. "The admiration is starting to get real strong now. You've got to be careful; you can make a team soft that way. But I told them I love them. I appreciate them. All a coach ever wants is for a team to be real professional. With all the nonsense going on this week, it was awesome."

By the time it was over, Tebow had run for three touchdowns - 2, 1 and 8 yards - and threw for two more. He was 10 of 13 passing for 154 yards and ran 12 times for 39 yards. Harvin scored twice, providing the Gators' first TD on a 13-yard run in the first quarter and grabbing a 25-yard pass from Tebow early in the fourth to make it 42-3.

Meanwhile, the Gators defense that Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno victimized for 188 yards and three touchdowns last year responded by holding the SEC's second-leading rusher to 65 yards on 17 carries without a score. It also intercepted three of Bulldogs quarterback Matthew Stafford's passes, with cornerback Joe Haden returning the first one 88 yards to the Georgia 1.

That came with Florida leading 14-3 and halted a Georgia drive that started at its 2 and had moved to the Gators' 30.

After Tebow ran it in from the 1 for a 21-3 lead, the rout was under way.

"I want to give credit where credit is due," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "Florida did a good job today, no doubt. We really played better than the score indicates, I think. I don't think there is as much difference in the two teams as the score. We did a lot of shooting ourselves in the foot and did not take advantage of the opportunities that we needed to."

In the first half, the Bulldogs missed two field goals, had an interception nullified by penalty and saw Stafford miss an open receiver in the end zone.

Georgia also gambled on an onside kick after kicking a field goal to answer Florida's opening touchdown, only to see the Gators quickly score after Butch Rowley grabbed the ball on a short hop at the 41.

So what did the payback - with interest - mean to the Gators?

"It means we are in first place in the SEC East right now by ourselves," Meyer said. "It means a lot because it's a rivalry game. Because it's over a top-10 team.

"Somebody asked was this motivation for the summer? Yes it was. It was. It was a rivalry game we lost a year ago, and losing does not set well among our players. That's a good thing. They don't like to lose. And we lost."

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534.

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