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Gators Good Enough To Carve Up Razorbacks

The Associated Press

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow 15 is greeted by fans after Florida defeated Arkansas 38-7 in the NCAA college football game in Fayetteville, Ark., Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008.

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 5, 2008

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - It wasn't as momentous as, say, beating undefeated LSU next week and climbing back into the national spotlight, but the Florida Gators' 38-7 victory Saturday against the Arkansas Razorbacks served a purpose.

The season of championship hopes lives on. The 12th-ranked Gators went on the road after last week's upset loss at home and won a Southeastern Conference game, improving to 4-1 and 2-1 in the conference. And the line score looked promising.

Florida produced a pair of 100-yard rushers - Jeffrey Demps (scoring runs of 36 and 48 yards) and Chris Rainey (75-yard touchdown) - with each finishing with 103. Tim Tebow threw for two touchdowns, a 2-yard shovel pass to Brandon James and a 21-yard strike to Percy Harvin. The defense gave up a single touchdown, thanks in part to an interception by Joe Haden at the goal line. On special teams, the Gators blocked a field goal attempt and Brandon James recovered a fumbled punt and returned a kickoff 89 yards, although it was called back.

So how can such a big day seem so unfulfilling?

"Obviously, we're far from a finished product," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "Collectively, we're not there yet. We better get there real fast with what's coming into town next week."

Meyer's dismay comes not from what the Gators did against Arkansas (2-3, 0-2), but what they still were unable to accomplish. Namely, finding a high level of consistency. It simply is not easy for an offense to appear so dazzling for brief bursts and so mundane the rest of the time.

"Mundane, that's a good word," Meyer said. "I like to use the word awful. Can I explain it? No. We can work real hard as coaches and players collectively and try to figure this thing out and get it working."

Florida scored on its first possession, making it look easy. After stopping Arkansas on fourth-and-4 at the Florida 36, the Gators went 64 yards in 10 plays, finishing with Tebow's toss to James. The drive was a crafty mix of runs and passes, with Harvin going outside for 9 and inside for 13; Carl Moore pulling in a pass for 27; Rainey adding 9 on two carries; and, finally, James getting the scoring pass off what looked like an option pitch.

Next came very little. At the end of three quarters, Florida held an uneasy 17-7 lead and its 268 yards of offense were 29 fewer than Arkansas. In one stretch, although the Gators scored their second TD after James recovered Arkansas punt returner Michael Smith's fumbled fair catch, Florida's offense was whistled for five penalties on six snaps.

"I've never seen anything like that one drive," Meyer said. "What was it, third down and 70? Penalty after penalty. And the only guy who was panicking was the head coach. Everybody else is coaching them and working with them. And we came out of this thing on the right side."

All it took was the big finish.

The same team that had 268 yards after three quarters finished with 514. The Gators scored 21 of their 38 points in the final quarter, going 3-for-3 on their possessions.

Tebow's 21-yard touchdown toss to Harvin came with 14:41 left. With 5:10 to go, Rainey went 75 yards, then Demps took a handoff from backup quarterback John Brantley and busted his 48-yarder with 1:04 remaining.

"Did we execute perfectly the whole day?" Tebow asked. "No. But when we needed to, we did."

For the Razorbacks, who were coming off back-to-back losses to Alabama and Texas by a combined score of 101-24, Florida's rally came just when they were starting to imagine the upset.

"Cutting back the playbook really helped us to execute and move fast," said coach Bobby Petrino, who has lost three in a row for the first time as a college coach. "It's a tough loss, because our players did a good job to get their emotions back after the Texas loss."

Although Smith lost the fumbled punt, he tormented Florida's defense with 133 yards on 20 carries and caught six passes for 43 yards.

"We knew we were in the game," Razorbacks quarterback Casey Dick said.

That's nothing the Gators did not already know.

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534 or melliott@tampatrib.com..

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