Think The Gators Are Exceptional? You're Not Alone

GAINESVILLE - The carnage had ended just a few minutes before South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier stepped to a microphone outside the visiting locker room at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

You might have thought he would be angry that the Florida Gators had beaten his team 56-6. Or at least a little downcast.

He was neither.

He was in awe.

"This team is a lot better than the one two years ago," Spurrier said, and since that Gator team won the national championship, you get the idea of how well the current bunch is playing.

That's how the Ol' Ball Coach sees it anyway. The New Ball Coach says hold on just a second.

"I wouldn't agree with that," UF coach Urban Meyer said. "That team two years ago was a national championship football team. This team ... we just won our ninth game. I'm not disagreeing with Coach; I just won't make that decision as we keep going."

Man, are the Gators going. And going. And going. It was Florida's sixth consecutive Southeastern Conference victory by at least 28 points - first time that's ever happened in what most would tell you is the best football league in the land.

The Gators have mugged those six opponents by a combined 299-63 and if The Citadel - next week's opponent, for reasons passing understanding - is smart, it will call to say something came up and cancel the trip to Gainesville. That might have been a good call for the Gamecocks, too. This was Spurrier's worst loss ever as a coach.

Harvin Too Much

There was probably a part of Spurrier that could step back a little bit and appreciate what was being inflicted on his team. Maybe. It's the way the Gators did all those years when he owned the sideline here, coming from all angles with diabolical speed, depth and a taste for the jugular.

Good as Spurrier's best teams were back in the day, though, they might have been waist deep in big muddy if they had to play these Gators.

"We got royally beat," he said.

It wasn't a fair fight. It was 21-0 after the first quarter alone.

"I knew they had the capability of doing this," Spurrier said, but knowing it can happen and watching it done are two different things. There are few weapons in college football like tailback Percy Harvin. He's just silly good.

Seriously. Against the SEC's top-ranked defense, Harvin gained 167 yards on, gulp, just eight carries. He had two touchdowns, including an 80-yard romp on Florida's first play of the second half. The image of him pulling away from four Carolina pursuers as he sprinted to the end zone ought to be on a poster somewhere.

"The first time I watched him in practice I said, 'You've got the best first step I've seen,' and I've seen some really good first steps. I've been around some really good players," Meyer said. "If he's not the most dynamic player in college football, he's one of the top two or three."

Harvin blows through a hole about as quickly as it takes a bulb to light when you flip the switch. Once he makes it into the secondary, just rack it up.

"Those running backs they've got, they've got a bunch of them," Spurrier said. "And Percy Harvin, I'll tell you what. If he was a tailback on somebody else's team, he'd be a 200-yard a game guy. He's something. Of course, the other guys are very good, too. They're all very good."

Just Too Good

We haven't even mentioned the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Tebow, who hit Deonte Thompson with about as pretty a 46-yard touchdown pass as can be thrown.

Or the defense, which intercepted two passes and returned one for a score. Or the special teams. Sorry, but I'm running out of room here.

"Add it all up, you get clobbered," Spurrier said.

This wasn't some ramshackle bunch the Gators thrashed. The Gamecocks had won six of their previous seven before this one. People were thinking this could be a trap game.

But Florida is too well-coached, too fast and much too good to fall into something like that - not after that inexplicable 31-30 home loss to Ole Miss.

"They may be the best team in the country right now," Spurrier said, and after a game like this it's hard to argue. Like Spurrier said, add it all up and you get clobbered.

Add it all up and everybody gets clobbered. That's the way they play these days in Gainesville. If you find yourself in a little bit of awe at what you're watching, at least you're in good company.