November 28, 2009

Steve Megargee
Rivals.com College Football Staff Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The winningest senior class in SEC history discovered Saturday that beating an overmatched opponent isn't nearly as tough as saying goodbye.

Long after putting the finishing touches on a 37-10 wipeout of Florida State, Florida's seniors - who have won 47 games - continued their postgame revelry. Quarterback Tim Tebow and several classmates took a lap around the field and exchanged high fives with fans before leaving Florida Field for the final time. Linebacker Brandon Spikes and his defensive cohorts headed into the tunnel, thought better of it, then raced back to the 50-yard line for one last farewell.

They soon could enjoy a much longer celebration.

All season long, Florida, Alabama and Texas have served as college football's holy trinity. The inevitability that one of those teams would win the national title has made this a rather uneventful season.

Now, as two of those heavyweights finally get ready to square off in the SEC championship game, one of them has separated itself from the pack. In a week when Texas and Alabama struggled to defeat in-state rivals, the top-ranked Gators pulverized Florida State.

"Everybody saw what was happening to people against their rivals," Florida cornerback Joe Haden said. "We didn't want to slip up."

In the process, the Gators answered just about every question that has surrounded their national title defense.

Are they explosive enough? Florida punted just once all day, at the end of its first series. The Gators proved Saturday they can effectively play keep-away or produce quick strikes. Florida held the ball for 7:44 on its second touchdown drive and also had five gains of at least 37 yards.

"This year, we have been more of a ball-control, move-down-the-field [offense], but we felt coming into this game we'd have some opportunities for big plays based on the way FSU plays defense," Tebow said. "We had a few shots, and we took advantage of them."

How will they replace Percy Harvin? The Gators don't have any Harvin-caliber players on their offense, but they still have enough weapons to win a title. Riley Cooper has caught five touchdown passes in his past five games. Aaron Hernandez, arguably the top tight end in the nation, scored two touchdowns and weaved through a handful of FSU defenders on his second score, a 37-yarder. The only mistake Hernandez made all day came when he hurled the football into the stands after that second touchdown.

"Aaron Hernandez is one of the more talented players in college football," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "That's not a secret."

Is Tebow as good as he was in 2007 and '08? On this day, he sure was. Tebow was 17 of 21 passing for 221 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for 90 yards and two more scores.

"That was one of his best performances," Meyer said. "He threw the ball extremely well."

Tebow hasn't matched his production from his sophomore or junior seasons, but he will end his career as one of the most successful quarterbacks in college football history. Who would you rather have running your offense in a championship game?

Of course, there never were any questions about Florida's defense.

Florida returned the entire two-deep depth chart from its '08 national championship defense, so it should come as no surprise that the Gators headed into the weekend having allowed the fewest points in the nation. No team has scored more than 20 points against the Gators all season.

Still, skeptics might argue that this game didn't reveal Florida's positives as much as it exemplified Florida State's vulnerability.

If the 'Noles lose their bowl, they will end up with their first losing season since 1976, the year coach Bobby Bowden arrived at Florida State. Washington State is the only team from one of the six major conferences that has given up more yards per game than the Seminoles.

A series that carried the nation's biggest title implications for most of the 1990s has deteriorated into a ho-hum matchup between the top program in the nation and the fourth-best team in the state of Florida. Bowden has said he wants to return for at least one more season, but it may not be his decision.

"Yeah, I want to coach next year," Bowden said. "Now let me say I need to go on and do some soul-searching."

The magnitude of this mismatch was underscored by the Seminoles' decision to attempt a field goal when they faced fourth-and-goal from the 2 while trailing 30-0 in the final seconds of the third quarter.

"We went for three points simply because the worst thing that could happen to us was to be shut out," said Bowden, who almost certainly was coaching at the Swamp for the last time. "We wanted to avoid a shutout. The only thing worse than being down 30 points is not having any points up on that scoreboard. We took care of that part."

Florida has won its past six meetings with Florida State by an average margin of 21.8 points, and FSU had no shot at putting up much of a fight Saturday without injured quarterback Christian Ponder and injured guard Rodney Hudson, the Seminoles' two best overall players.

The Gators also had the benefit of playing the Seminoles at home this week, while Texas and Alabama were struggling in hostile environments.

Still, the Longhorns' 49-39 victory over Texas A&M and the Crimson Tide's 26-21 squeaker over Auburn exposed flaws in the Gators' two chief competitors.

Auburn showed that it is indeed possible to slow down Mark Ingram, whose Heisman campaign lost plenty of steam Friday as he rushed for only 30 yards on 16 carries. And while Texas headed into the weekend as the nation's No. 3 team in total defense, the Aggies' performance indicates that lofty ranking might be a bit misleading.

"We saw those games, but at the same time, we feel as though those teams aren't us," Haden said. "They're not doing what we're doing. We feel like no matter what everybody else on the outside is doing, we know we have to go out there and handle our business and get it done."

Florida must play at least equally well next week to make it back to the BCS championship game. The only thing Alabama's defense has in common with Florida State's is that each puts 11 players on the field at a time, though you wouldn't always know it from watching the Seminoles.

Of the three teams that have dominated college football this season, Texas might be the most logical pick to win the title, if only because it will be facing Nebraska's pedestrian offense in the Big 12 championship game while Alabama and Florida are staging their battle royale in Atlanta.

"[This is] probably the biggest week we've ever had here," Meyer said, "and we've had a few big ones."

While Texas certainly has the easiest road to the championship, the way the Gators are playing right now, they just might have the inside track.

Steve Megargee is a national writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at smegargee@rivals.com.