Currently: - Game info: 1:30 pm EST Sat Nov 22, 2008
With a successful SEC regular season concluded and the conference championship game two weeks away, Florida must win a pair of non-conference matchups to maintain its national title hopes.
The No. 3 Gators shouldn’t have too much trouble in their home finale Saturday afternoon against The Citadel - a school to which they’ve never lost.
Florida (9-1) closed out its conference slate with a 56-6 home rout of South Carolina and former coach Steve Spurrier last Saturday. It was the sixth straight victory for the SEC East Division champions, with all six wins coming by at least 28 points.
“Of course I worry about it lasting,” said Florida coach Urban Meyer, whose team went 7-1 in the SEC and undefeated in the East. “You can only control what you can control.”
While a date with in-state rival Florida State in Tallahassee awaits next week, the Gators should have an easy time this weekend while trying to improve to 14-0 versus the Citadel (4-7) of the Football Championship Subdivision.
If Florida can close the regular season with two straight victories, its matchup with No. 1 Alabama in the SEC championship game Dec. 6 could be for a spot in the BCS title game.
“This team is a lot better than the one two years ago (which went 13-1 and won a national title),” said Spurrier. “This team they have now is a lot stronger than that one in my opinion.”
No matter how easy this matchup proves, Florida will be hard-pressed to record an easier victory than it did against South Carolina.
The Gators scored three touchdowns in eight plays in the first quarter, capitalizing on three consecutive Gamecocks turnovers. Tim Tebow was 13-for-20 for 173 yards and two touchdowns, while Percy Harvin ran for a career-high 167 yards and two scores as Florida finished with its most rushing yards (346) since 1989.
Florida has outscored opponents 299-63 during its six-game winning streak, including 101-0 in the first quarter.
“We’ve started off every game real well,” Gators cornerback Joe Haden said. “We come out with so much energy and juice, so much passion to play, that it seems to overwhelm the other teams.”
The versatile Harvin has amassed 995 all-purpose yards and 14 touchdowns.
“If he was a tailback on somebody else’s team, he’d be a 200-yards-a-game guy,” Spurrier said of the junior.
Tebow, meanwhile, has gone three straight games without an interception while throwing seven TDs during that span.
It’s uncertain how much Tebow, Harvin and the rest of the Gators’ starters will play against The Citadel in the schools’ first meeting since a 49-10 Florida victory in 1998.
“We know what we are in for,” Citadel coach Kevin Higgins said. “I think it will be in a great environment for our players and try to prove ourselves to be the best team in the country.”
Freshman running back Terrell Dallas rushed for two touchdowns and junior wideout Andre Roberts caught nine passes for 116 yards last Saturday as the Bulldogs beat Chattanooga 24-21 to snap a six-game losing streak.
Roberts is second among all Football Bowl Subdivision and FCS players with 90 receptions and third with 1,268 receiving yards.
