RECAP | BOX SCORE
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- It was the kind of game where nothing made sense, except the final score.
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| | Florida lineman Thomas Moody caught a deflected pass and dove into the end zone for a TD in one of the Gators' bizarre plays Saturday. | |
The left guard caught a touchdown pass. A punter glided his way to the longest run of the day. A running back scored off a blocked punt. So did a wide receiver.
Somewhere in all the madness Saturday, Florida (No. 4 ESPN/USA Today, No. 5 AP) earned its seventh trip to the Southeastern Conference title game with a 41-21 victory over No. 21 South Carolina.
"It was," Gators coach Steve Spurrier said, "a different-type game."
So different, that long after Florida (9-1, 7-1) gets done celebrating its SEC East title -- a ritual that has become almost routine -- the Gators will surely remember this as one of the weirdest, wackiest displays of football they've ever played.
"It was the wildest game I've ever been a part of," said Gators quarterback Jesse Palmer, who came off the bench to lead the Florida rally.
It left South Carolina (7-3, 5-3) bemoaning a 21-3 lead squandered and a lost chance to continue Lou Holtz's impossible journey, from 0-11 last season to SEC champions in 2000.
"We aren't good enough fundamentally," Holtz said. "They were just too strong for us. Defensively, we played like we were in the glare of the headlights. Offensively, they just dominated us up front."
Still, the Gamecocks had their chance thanks to a pair of blocked punts, one returned for a score by receiver Carlos Spikes, the other by running back Derek Watson. It gave them a 21-3 lead in the first quarter and left The Swamp in shock.
Of course, nobody has more big-play comeback potential than the Gators.
"It kind of set us up to pitch it around a little bit," Spurrier said. "We get behind, and here, we're either going to get way behind, or we're going to catch up."
The risk-taking began early when punter Alan Rhine, still smarting from the two blocked kicks, ran around left end for 26 yards on fourth-and-2.
On the next play, Palmer boinked a pass off the back of cornerback Sheldon Brown's helmet and into the hands of Jabar Gaffney for a 40-yard gain to set up the first touchdown and trim the deficit to 11.
On the next drive, Palmer hit Gaffney for a 70-yard score -- relatively routine for this day.
Then came the play that not even Spurrier could draw up.
On third-and-goal from the 6, Palmer came under heavy pressure and unloaded a pass that deflected off a South Carolina defender and bounded into the hands of left guard Thomas Moody.
Seeing the play unfold in front of him, Palmer nudged Moody toward the end zone and Moody lumbered in, mobbed by teammates after scoring the go-ahead points, and one of the strangest touchdowns in memory.
"I got an early Christmas present," Moody said. "Offensive linemen aren't supposed to do that. It happened today. It's one of those dreams you have."
Holtz, a study in fist-pumping enthusiasm earlier, stood on the sideline expressionless after that one, wondering how it could all go so bad, so quickly.
The lead gone, Holtz seemingly lost his head for a moment, too, electing to punt to Florida's explosive Lito Sheppard with 19 seconds remaining in the half.
Sheppard juked and slashed his way for a 57-yard touchdown return, his second career score on a punt return, and the Gators led 31-21 after a remarkable first half.
"That was critical," Holtz said. "That was what put the nail in our players' hearts."
Lost in the commotion was another turn of Spurrier's quarterback merry-go-round. He benched redshirt freshman Rex Grossman after a few empty drives during the first quarter.
Palmer finished 15-for-27 for 250 yards and three touchdowns, one more than the Gamecocks had surrendered all season.
Once again, the Gators have a quarterback issue to settle heading into next week's huge game at No. 3 Florida State, although Spurrier spoke as if the job is Palmer's to lose.
"It's a struggle for Rex," Spurrier said. "He's going to be fine, I think. But he's a freshman, and it was time to put a senior in the game."
South Carolina will prepare for its game next week against Clemson, then a likely bowl berth in the Citrus, Outback or Peach -- not bad considering where the program was just a season ago.
But this one will sit hard for a while, especially considering the Gamecocks briefly looked like they could do what no SEC East team has done since the conference was split into divisions: Beat Florida at the Swamp.
"You can't do what we did at the end of the first half," linebacker Marco Hutchinson said. "I think that's when the reality set in. We saw we were up for a fight, a long fight. I don't think we responded to the pressure as well as we usually do."
The Gators clinched the win with a pair of goal-line stands, stopping South Carolina twice inside the 2 as the Gamecocks tried to trim the 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
With his score, Gaffney has 13 touchdowns this season, the most in major college history for a freshman wide receiver. He finished with 168 yards, tying a Florida record with his sixth straight 100-yard game. |
